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Scct:f- 


•u. 


LECTURES 


EPISTLE    OF   PAUL    THE    APOSTLE 


ROMANS. 


THOMAS  ikALMERS,  D.D.  &  LL.D., 

PROFESSOR   OP   THEOLOGY    IN   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    EDINBURGH, 

AND  CORRESPONDING   MEMBER  OF   THE  ROTAI.   INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE. 


FOURTH     'THOUSAND. 


NEW  YORK : 

PUBLISHED  BY  ROBERT  CARTER,  58  CANAL  STREET. 

PITTSBURG:— THOMAS  CARTER. 

1843. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


A  SERIES  of  pulpit  discourses  on  the  obvious  subject-matter 
of  Scripture,  is  of  a  different  character  from  those  critical  and 
expository  works,  the  object  of  which  is  to  fix  and  ascertain 
the  meaning — even  of  the  more  obscure  and  controverted,  as 
well  as  of  the  clearest  passages.  The  following  is  a  record  of 
the  Sabbath  preparations  of  many  years  back — now  given  with- 
out change  or  improvement  to  the  world  5  and  the  appearance 
of  which  in  their  present  state  is  very  much  owing  to  the  fre- 
quently expressed  desire  of  my  old  hearers,  to  have  the  Lec- 
tures which  I  delivered  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  set 
before  them  in  a  more  permanent  form. 

But  it  may  be  right  to  mention  that  the  pulpit  lectures  which 
were  delivered  during  my  incumbency  in  the  parish  of  St. 
John's,  Glasgow,  from  September,  1819,  to  November,  1823, 
extend  only  a  little  way  into  the  tenth  chapter,  and  that  the 
remaining  lectures,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  on  xiv.  17, 
have  been  only  prepared  now  for  the  completion  of  this  work. 

Edinburgh^  January^  1842. 


LECTURES  ON  THE  ROMANS. 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 


It  is  possible  to  conceive  the  face  of  our 
world  overspread  with  a  thick  and  mid- 
night darkness,  and  without  so  much  as  a 
particle  of  light  to  alleviate  it,  from  any 
one  quarter  of  the  firmament  around  us. 
In  this  case,  it  were  of  no  avail  to  the 
people  who  live  in  it,  that  all  of  them  were 
in  possession  of  sound  and  perfect  eyes. 
The  organ  of  sight  may  be  entire,  and  yet 
nothing  be  seen  from  the  total  absence  of 
external  light  among  the  objects  on  every 
side  of  us.  Or  in  other  words,  to  bring 
about  the  perception  of  that  which  is  with- 
out, it  is  not  enough  that  we  have  the 
power  of  vision  among  men ;  but,  in  ad- 
dition to  this,  thei'e  must  be  a  visibility  in 
the  trees,  and  the  houses,  and  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  living  creatures,  which  are 
now  in  the  ordinary  discernment  of  men. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  reverse 
the  supposition.  We  may  conceive  an 
entire  luminousness  to  be  extended  over 
the  face  of  nature — v/hile  the  faculty  of 
sight  was  wanting  among  all  the  indivi- 
duals of  our  species.  In  this  case,  the 
external  light  would  be  of  as  little  avail 
towards  our  pei'ception  of  any  object  at  a 
distance  from  us,  as  the  mere  possession 
of  the  sense  of  seeing  was  in  the  former 
instance.  Both  must  conspire  to  the  effect 
of  our  being  rendered  conversant  witli  the 
external  world  through  the  medium  of  the 
eye.  And  if  the  power  of  vision  was  not 
enough,  without  a  visibility  on  the  part  of 
the  things  which  are  around  us,  by  God 
saying  let  there  be  light — as  little  is  their 
visibility  enough,  without  the  power  of 
vision  stamped  as  an  endowment  by  the 
hand  of  God,  on  the  creatures  whom  He 
has  formed. 

Now  we  can  conceiye  that  both  these 
defects  or  disabilities,  in  the  way  of  vi- 
sion, may  exist  at  the  same  time-r-or  that 
all  the  world  was  dark,'' and  that  all  the 
people  in  the  world  were  blind.  To 
emerge  out  of  this  condition — there  must 


be  a  twofold  process  begun  and  carried 
forward,  and  at  length  brought  to  its  full 
and  perfect  termination.  Light  must  be 
poured  upon  the  earth,  and  the  faculty  of 
seeing  must  be  conferred  upon  its  inhabi- 
tants. One  can  imagine,  that,  instead  of 
the  light  being  made  instantaneously  to 
burst  upon  us  in  ils  highest  splendour, 
and,  instead  of  the  faculty  being  immedi- 
ately bestowed  upon  us  in  full  vigour  to 
meet  and  to  encounter  so  strong  a  tide  of 
effulgency — that  both  these  processes  were 
conducted  in  a  way  that  was  altogether 
gradual— that  the  light,  for  example,  had 
its  first  weak  glimmei-ing ;  and  that  the 
eye,  in  the  feebleness  of  its  infancy,  was 
not  overcome  by  it — that  the  light  ad- 
vanced with  morning  step  to  a  clearer 
brilliancy ;  and  that  the  eye,  rendered 
able  to  bear  it,  multiplied  the  objects  of 
its  sight,  and  took  in  a  wider  range  of 
perception — that  the  light  shone  at  length 
unto  the  perfect  day ;  and  that  the  eye, 
with  the  last  finish  upon  its  properties  and 
its  powers,  embraced  the  whole  of  that 
variety  which  lies  within  the  present  com- 
pass of  human  contemplation.  We  must 
see  that  if  one  of  these  processes  be  gra- 
dual, the  other  should  be  gradual  also 
By  shedding  too  strong  a  light  upon  weak 
eyes,  we  may  overpower  and  extinguish 
them.  By  granting  too  weak  a  light  to 
him  who  has  strong  eyes,  we  make  the  fa- 
culty outstrip  the  object  of  its  exercise, 
and  thus  incur  a  waste  of  endowment. 
By  attempering  the  one  process  to  the 
other,  we  maintain,  throughout  all  the 
stages,  that  harmony  which  is  so  abund- 
antly manifested  in  the  works  of  Nature 
and  Providence,  between  man  as  he  ac- 
tually is,  and  the  circumstances  by  which 
man  is  actually  surrounded. 

These  preliminary  statements  will  we 
trust  be  of  some  use  for  illustrating  the 
progress,  not  of  natural,  but  of  spiritual 
light,  along  that  nath  which  forms  the  sue 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


cessive  history  of  our  world.    Whatever 
discernment  Adum  had  of  the  things  of 
God  in  Paradise,  the  fall  which  he  expe- 
rienced was  a  fall  into  the  very  depth.s  of 
the  obscurity  of  midnight.    The  faculties 
he  had  in  a  state  of  innocence,  made  him 
able  to  perceive,  that  the  Creator,  who 
formed  him,  took  pleasure  in  all  that  lie 
had  formed ;  and  rejoiced  over  thern  so 
long  as  he  saw  that  they  were  good.    But 
when  they  ceased  to  be  good,  and  became 
evil — when  sin  had  crept  into  our  world 
in  the  shape  ot  a  novelty  as  yet  unheard, 
and  as  yet  unprovided  for — when  the  re- 
lation of  man  to  his  Maker  was  not  merely 
altered,  but  utterly  and  diametrically  re- 
versed— when,  from  a  loyal  and  aifcction- 
ate  friend,  he  had  become  at  first  a  daring, 
and  then  a  distrustful  and  affrighted  rebel 
— Adam  may,  when  a  sense  of  integrity 
made  all  look  bright  and  smiling  aiid  se- 
rene around  him,  have  been  visited  from 
Heaven  with  the  light  of  many  high  com- 
munications; nor  could  he  feel  at  a  loss 
to   comprehend,  how   He,  who   was  the 
Fountain    of   moral    excellence,    should 
cherish,  with  a  Father's  best  and  kindest 
regards,  all  those  whom  He  had  filled  and 
beautified  and   blest    with   its  unsullied 
emanations  :  But,  after  the  gold  had  be- 
come dim,  how  He  whose  eye  was  an  eye 
of  unspotted  holiness  could  look  upon  it 
with  complacency — after  the  sentence  had 
been  incurred,  how,  while  truth  and  un- 
changeableness    were  the    attributes    of 
God,  it  ever  could  be  reversed  by  the  lips 
of  Him  who   pronounced  it — after   guilt 
with  all  its  associated  terrors  had  changed 
to  the  view  of  our  first  parents  the  aspect 
of  the  Divinity,  how  the  light  of  His  coun- 
tenance  should  ever   beam   upon    them 
again  with  an  expression  of  love  or  ten- 
derness— these  were  the  mysteries  which 
beset  and  closed  and  shrouded  in  thickest 
darkness,   the    understandings    of   those 
who  had  just  passed  out  of  innocence  into 
sin.     Till  God  made  this  first  communi- 
cation,  there   was   no  external  light,  to 
alleviate    that    despair    and    dreariness 
which  followed  the  first  visitation  of  a 
feeling  so  painful  and  so  new  as  the  con- 
sciousness of  evil.     And,  if  the  agitations 
of  the  heart  have  any  power  to  confuse 
and  to  unsettle  the  perceptions  of  the  un- 
derstanding— if  remorse  and  perplexity 
and  fear,  go  to  disturb  the  exercise  of  all 
our  judging  and  all  our  discerning  facul- 
ties— if,   under  the  engrossment  of  one 
great  and    overwhelming   apprehension, 
we  can  neither  see  with   precision   nor 
contemplate  with  steadiness — above   all, 
if,  under  the  administration  of  a  righteous 
God,  there  be  a  constant  alliance  between 
spiritual  darkness  and  a  sense  of  sin  un- 
pardoned or  sin  unexpiated — then  may 
we  be  sure  that  an  obscurity  of  the  deep- 


est character  lay  upon  the  first  moments 
in  the  history  of  sinful  man ;  and  which 
required  both  light  from  Heaven  upon  his 
soul,  and  a  renovation  of  its  vitiated  and 
disordered  faculties,  ere  it  could  be  eflFec- 
tually  dissipated. 

From  this  point  then,  the  restoration  of 
spiritual  light  to   our    benighted    world 
takes    its    commencement — when    Adam 
was  utterly  blind  ;  and  the  canopy  over 
his  head,  was  palled  in  impenetrable  dark- 
ness.   To  remove  the  one  disability,  was 
in   itself   to  do   nothing — to  remove   the 
other  disability  was  in  itself  to  do  nothing. 
Both  must  be  removed,  ere  Adam  could 
again  see.     Both  may  have  been  removed 
instantaneousl)'^ ;  and  by  one  fiat  of  Om- 
nipotence, such  a  perfection  of  spiritual 
discernment  may  have  been  conferred  on 
our  first  parents,  and  such  a  number  of 
spiritual  truths   have   been   made    by   a 
direct  communication    from    heaven    to 
stand  around  him,  as  in  a  single  moment 
would  have  ushered  him  into  all  the  splen- 
dours of  a  full  and   finished  revelation. 
But  this  has  not  been  God's  method  in 
His  dealing.s  with  a  sinful  world.  Spiritual 
light  and  spiritual  discernment,  were  not 
called  foi'th  to  meet  each  otlier,  in  all  the 
plenitude  of  an  unclouded  brilliancy,  at 
the  bidding  of  His  immediate  voice.     The 
outward  truth  has  been  dealt  out  by  a 
gradual  process   of  revelation — and   the 
inward  perception  of  it  has  been  made  to 
maintain  a  corri;.sponding  pace  through  a 
process  equally  gradual.     A  greater  num- 
ber of  spiritual  objects   has  been  intro- 
duced, from  one  tinie  to  another,  into  the 
field    of   visibility — and     the    power    of 
spiritual  vision  has  from  one  age  to  ano- 
ther been  made  to  vary  and  to  increase 
along  with  them. 

Those  truths,  which  make  up  the  body 
of  our  written  revelation,  may  be  regarded 
as  so  many  objects,  on  which  visibility 
has  been  conferred  by  so  many  succes- 
sive communications  of  light  from  Heaven. 
They  were  at  first  few  in  number  ;  and 
these  few  were  offered  to  mankind,  under 
the  disguise  of  a  rather  vague  and  ex- 
tended generality.  The  dawn  of  this  ex- 
ternal revelation,  was  marked  by  the 
solitary  announcement,  given  to  our  out- 
cast progenitors,  that  the  seed  of  the  wo- 
man should  bruise  the  head  of  the  ser- 
pent. To  this,  other  announcements  were 
added  in  the  progress  of  ages — and  even 
the  great  truth,  which  lay  enveloped  in 
the  very  first  of  them,  had  a  growing  illu- 
mination cast  upon  it  in  the  lapse  of  gene- 
rations. The  promise  given  to  Adam, 
brightened  into  a  more  cheering  and  in- 
telligible hope,  when  renewed  to  Abra- 
ham, in  the  shape  of  an  assurance,  that, 
through  one  of  his  descendants,  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blest ;  and 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


to  Jacob,  that  Shiloh  was  to  be  born,  and 
that  to  Him  the  gathering  of  the  people 
should  be  ;  and  to  Moses,  that  a  great 
Prophet  was  to  arise  like  unto  himself; 
and  to  David,  that  one  of  his  house  was  to 
sit  upon  his  throne  for  ever  ;  and  to  Isaiah, 
that  one  was  to  appear,  who  should  be  a 
light  unto  the  Gentiles,  and  the  salvation 
of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  to 
Daniel,  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  cut 
off,  but  not  for  himself,  and  that  through 
Him  reconciliation  was  to  be  made  for 
iniquity,  and  an  everlasting  righteousness 
was  to  be  brought  in  ;  and  to  John  the 
Baptist,  that  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  was 
at  hand,  and  the  Prince  of  that  kingdom 
was  immediately  to  follow  in  the  train  of 
his  own  ministrations  ;  and  to  the  apos- 
tles in  the  days  of  our  Saviour  upon  earth, 
that  He  with  whom  they  companied  was 
soon  to  be  lifted  up  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  and  that  all  who  looked  to  Him 
should  live  ;  and  finally,  to  the  apostles 
after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when,  fraught 
with  the  full  and  explicit  tidings  of  a 
world's  atonement  and  a  world's  regene- 
ration, they  went  forth  with  the  doctrine 
of  Christianity  in  its  entire  copiousness, 
and  have  transmitted  it  to  future  ages  in 
a  book,  of  which  it  has  been  said,  that  no 
man  shall  add  thereto,  and  that  no  man 
shall  take  away  from  it. 

This  forms  but  a  faint  and  a  feeble  out- 
line of  that  march,  by  which  God's  exter- 
nal revelation  hath  passed  magnificently 
onwards,  from  the  first  days  of  our  world, 
through  the  twilight  of  the  patriarchal 
ages — and  the  brightening  of  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  aided  as  it  was  by  the  secon- 
dary lustre  of  types  and  of  ceremonies — 
and  the  constant  accumulation  of  Prophe- 
cy, with  its  visions  every  century  becom- 
ing more  distinct,  and  its  veil  becoming 
more  transparent — and  the  personal  com- 
munications of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
who  opened  His  mouth  amongst  us,  but 
still  opened  it  in  parables — insomuch  that 
when  He  ascended  from  His  disciples.  He 
still  left  them  in  wonder  and  dimness  and 
mystery — till,  by  the  pouring  forth  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  the  place  which  He  had 
gone  to  occupy,  the  evidence  of  inspira- 
tion received  its  last  and  its  mightiest  en- 
largement, which  is  now  open  to  all  for 
the  purpose  of  perusal,  but  so  shut  against 
every  purpose  of  augmentation,  that  in 
this  respect  it  may  be  said,  its  words  are 
closed  up  and  sealed  to  the  time  of  the 
end. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  forms  one 
of  the  most  complete  and  substantial  pro- 
ducts of  this  last  and  greatest  illumination. 
In  this  document,  the  visibility  of  external 
revelation  is  poui'ed  forth  not  merely  on 
the  greatest  variety  of  Christian  doctrine, 
but  on    that    doctrine  so  harmoniously 


blended  with  the  truths  of  human  experi- 
ence— so  solidly  reared  from  the  founda- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  Him  crucified, 
into  a  superstructure  at  once  firm  and 
graceful  and  stately — so  branching  forth 
into  all  the  utilities  of  moral  and  practi- 
cal application — and,  at  length,  from  an 
argument  bearing  upon  one  great  conclu- 
sion, so  richly  efflorescing  into  all  the 
virtues  and  accomplishments  which  serve 
both  to  mark  and  to  adorn  the  person  of 
regenerated  man — Such  is  the  worth  and 
the  density  and  the  copiousness  of  this 
epistle — that,  did  our  power  of  vision  keep 
pace  at  all  with  the  number  and  the  value 
of  those  spiritual  lessons  which  abound 
in  it,  then  indeed  should  we  become  the 
children  of  light,  be  rich  in  a  wisdom  that 
the  world  knoweth  not,  in  a  wisdom  which 
is  unto  salvation. 

But  the  outward  light  by  which  an  ob- 
ject is  rendered  visible  is  one  thing — and 
the  power  of  vision  is  another.  That 
these  two  are  not  only  distinct  in  respect 
of  theoretical  conception,  but  were  also 
experimentally  distinct  from  each  other  in 
the  actual  history  of  God's  communica- 
tions to  the  world,  will,  we  trust,  be  made 
to  appear  from  several  passages  of  that 
revealed  history  in  the  Bible ;  and  from 
one  single  appeal  which  we  shall  make  to 
the  experience  of  our  hearers. 

The  first  passage  is  in  1  Peter  i.  10 — 12. 
"Of  which  salvation  the  prophets  have 
enquired  and  searched  diligently,  who 
prophesied  of  tlie  grace  that  should  come 
unto  you.  Searching  what,  or  what 
manner  of  time,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which 
was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  testified 
beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and 
the  glory  that  should  follow.  Unto  whom 
it  was  revealed,  that  not  unto  themselves, 
but  unto  us,  they  did  minister  the  things 
which  are  now  reported  unto  you,  by 
them  that  have  preached  the  gospel  unto 
you,  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
heaven  ;  which  things  the  angels  desire  to 
look  into."  This  passage  sets  the  old  pro- 
phets before  us  in  a  very  striking  attitude. 
They  positively  did  not  know  the  mean- 
ing of  their  own  prophecies.  They  were 
like  men  of  dim  and  imperfect  sight,  whose 
hand  was  guided  by  some  foreign  power 
to  the  execution  of  a  picture — and  who, 
after  it  was  finished,  vainly  attempted,  by 
straining  their  eyes,  to  explain  and  to  as- 
certain the  subject  of  it.  They  were  the 
transmitters  of  a  light,  wliich,  at  the  same 
time,  did  not  illuminate  themselves.  They 
uttered  the  word,  or  they  put  it  down  in 
writing,  as  it  was  given  to  them — and  then 
they  searched  by  their  own  power,  but 
searched  in  vain  for  the  signification  of  it 
They  enquired  diligently  what  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Spirit  could  be,  when  it  testified 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  glory 


8 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 


of  Christ.  But  till  that  Spirit  gave  the 
power  of  discernment,  as  well  as  set  be- 
fore them  the  objects  of  discernment — 
their  attempts  were  nugatory.  And  in- 
deed they  were  sensible  of  this,  and  ac- 
quiesced in  it.  It  was  told  them  by  reve- 
lation, that  the  subject  matter  of  their  pro- 
phecy was  not  for  themselves,  but  for 
others — even  for  those  to  whom  the  gospel 
should  be  preached  in  future  days,  and 
who,  along  with  the  ministration  of  the 
external  word,  were  to  receive  the  minis- 
tration of  the  Holy  Ghost — whose  office 
it  is  to  put  into  tiie  mouths  of  prophets 
the  things  which  are  to  be  looked  to  and 
believed,  and  whose  office  also  it  is  to  put 
into  the  hearts  of  others  the  power  of 
seeing  and  believing  these  things.  And 
it  serves  clearly  to  mark  the  distinction 
between  these  two  offices,  that  the  pro- 
phets, alluded  to  in  this  passage,  present- 
ed to  the  world  a  set  of  truths  which  they 
themselves  did  not  understand — and  that 
again  the  private  disciples  of  Peter,  who 
were  not  so  learned  as  to  be  made  the 
original  and  inspired  authors  of  such  a 
communication,  were  honoured  with  the 
far  more  valuable  privilege  of  being  made 
to  understand  it. 

This  we  think  will  appear  still  more 
clearly  from  another  passage  of  tlie  same 
apostle  in  2  Peter  i.  19 — 21.  "  We  have 
also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy ; 
whereunto  ye  do  well  that  ye  take  heed  as 
unto  a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place, 
until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day-star  arise 
m  your  hearts.  Knowing  this  first,  that 
no  prophecy  of  the  Scripture  is  of  any 
private  interpretation.  For  the  prophecy 
came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man  ; 
but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  No  prophecy 
is  of  private  interpretation.  It  was  not 
suggested  by  the  natural  sense  of  him 
who  uttered  it — and  as  little  is  it  under- 
stood, or  can  it  be  explained,  by  the  na- 
tural powers  of  the  same  person.  lie 
was  the  mere  recipient  of  a  higher  influ- 
ence ;  and  he  conveyed  what  he  had  thus 
received  to  the  world — speaking  not  of  his 
own  will  but  just  as  he  was  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost — and  enabled  to  discern  or  to 
expound  the  meaning  of  what  he  had  tlius 
spoken,  not  of  his  own  power,  but  just  as 
the  same  Holy  Ghost  who  gave  him  the 
materials  of  contemplation,  gave  him  also 
the  faculty  of  a  just  and  true  contempla- 
tion. The  light  of  which  he  was  barely 
the  organ  of  transmission,  shone  in  a  dark 
place,  so  long  as  it  shone  upon  the  blind ; 
and,  not  till  the  blind  was  made  to  see — 
not  till  the  eyes  of  those,  who  were  taking 
heed  to  the  letter  of  the  prophecy,  were 
opened  to  perceive  the  life  and  meaning 
and  spirit  of  the  prophecy — not  till  that 
day  which  has  dawned,  and  that  day-star 


which  had  arisen  on  tlie  outward  page  of 
revelation,  had  also  dawned  and  arisen 
upon  their  own  hearts — not,  in  short,  till 
the  great  agent  of  all  revelation,  even  the 
Holy  Spirit  who  had  already  furnished  the 
object  of  perception  in  the  word,  had  also 
furnished  the  organ  of  perception  in  the 
understanding — not  till  then,  were  the  in- 
quirers after  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
etfoctually  introduced,  to  a  full  acquaint- 
ance with  all  its  parts, — or  to  the  full  be- 
nefit of  all  its  influence. 

We  cannot  take  leave  of  this  passage, 
without  adverting  to  the  importance  of 
that  practical  injunction  which  is  contain- 
ed in  it.  They  who  are  still  in  darkness 
are  called  upon  to  look,  and  with  earnest- 
ness too,  to  a  particular  quarter  ;  and  that 
is  the  word  of  God — and  to  do  so  until  the 
power  of  vision  was  granted  to  them.  If 
a  blind  man  were  desirous  of  beholding  a 
landscape,  and  had  the  hope  at  the  same 
time  of  having  his  sight  miraculously  re- 
stored to  him,  he  might,  even  when  blind, 
go  to  the  right  post  of  observation,  and 
turn  his  face  to  the  right  direction,  and 
thus  wait  for  the  recovery  of  that  power 
which  was  extinguished.  And,  in  like 
manner,  we  are  all  at  the  right  post,  when 
we  are  giving  heed  to  our  Bibles.  We 
are  all  going  through  a  right  exercise, 
when,  with  the  strenuous  application  of 
our  natural  powers,  we  are  reading  and 
pondering  and  comparing  and  remember- 
ing the  words  of  the  testimony — and  if 
asked,  how  long  we  should  persevere  in 
this  employment,  let  us  persevere  in  it 
with  patience  and  prayer  until,  as  Peter 
says,  the  day  dawn  and  the  day-star  arise 
in  our  hearts. 

That  John  the  Baptist  should  not  know 
himself  to  have  been  he  who  was  to  come 
in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah ;  and 
hence,  in  reply  to  the  question  Art  thou 
Elias  1  should  say  that  I  am  not — whereas 
our  Saviour  affirmed  of  him,  that  he  was 
the  Elias  who  should  come— this  ignor- 
ance of  his  may  be  as  much  due  to  the 
want  of  outward  information  about  the 
point,  as  to  any  lack  in  the  faculty  of 
discernment.  The  same  thing  however 
can  scarcely  be  said  of  his  ignorance  of 
the  true  character  of  the  very  Messiah 
whom  he  himself  foretold — insomuch,  that, 
though  he  had  baptized  him  and  attested 
him  to  be  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  had  seen 
the  Spirit  descending  upon  him  like  a 
dove— yet  he  seems  afterwards  to  have 
been  so  much  startled  by  the  obscurity  of 
his  circumstances,  and  by  the  style  of  his 
companionship  which  looked  unsuitable 
to  the  character  of  a  great  Prince  and 
Deliverer,  that,  in  perplexity  about  the 
matter,  he  sent  his  disciples  to  Jesus  to 
ask  whether  he  was  the  person  who  should 
come  or  they  had  to  look  for  another' 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


He  laboured  under  such  a  disadvantage, 
whether  of  darkness  or  of  blindness  about 
the  whole  nature  of  the  new  dispensation, 
that  though,  in  respect  of  light,  he  was 
greater  than  the  greatest  of  the  prophets, 
who  haci  gone  before  him — yet,  in  the 
very  same  respect,  he  was  less  than  the 
least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  or  less 
than  the  least  enlightened  of  the  Christian 
disciples  who  should  come  after  him. 

The  constant  misapprehension  of  our 
Saviour's  own  immediate  disciples,  of 
which  we  read  so  much  in  the  Gospels, 
was  certainly  due  as  much  to  their  being 
blind  as  to  their  being  in  the  dark — to 
their  defect  in  the  power  of  seeing,  as  to 
any  defect  in  the  visibility  of  what  was 
actually  set  before  them. 

We  read  of  our  Saviour's  sayings  being 
hid  from  them,  that  they  perceived  not — 
and  of  His  dealing  out  the  light  of  exter- 
nal truth  to  them,  as  their  eyes  were  able 
to  bear  it — and  of  His  averring,  in  spite 
of  all  he  had  dealt  out  in  the  course  of  his 
personal  ministrations  upon  earth,  of  His 
averring,  at  the  close  of  these  ministra- 
tions, that  as  yet  they  knew  nothing, 
though  if  they  had  had  the  power  of  dis- 
cernment, they  might  surely  have  learned 
much  from  what  is  now  before  us  in  the 
Gospels,  and  of  which  they  were  both  the 
eye  and  the  ear  witnesses.  We  further 
read,  that  after  the  resurrection,  when  He 
met  two  of  his  disciples,  and  the  eyes  of 
their  body  were  holden  that  they  should 
not  know  Him,  just  as  the  eyes  of  their 
mind  were  holden  that  they  should  not 
know  the  things  which  were  said  in  Moses 
and  the  prophets  and  all  the  Scriptures 
concerning  Himself,  they  at  length  came 
to  recognize  His  person — not  by  any  ad- 
ditional light  thrown  upon  the  external 
object,  but  simply  by  their  eyes  being 
opened  ;  and  they  also  came  to  recognize 
Him  in  the  Scriptures — not  by  any  change 
or  any  addition  to  the  word  of  their  testi- 
mony, but  simply  by  their  understandings 
being  opened  to  understand  them.  We 
also  read  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  day  of  Pentecost — that  event  on 
which  our  Saviour  set  such  an  import- 
ance, as  to  make  it  more  than  an  equiva- 
lent for  His  own  presence  in  the  way  of 
teaching  and  enlightening  the  minds  of 
his  apostles.  "If  I  go  not  away,  He  will 
not  come  unto  you-^but  if  I  depart,  then 
Him  who  is  not  yet  given,  because  I  am 
not  yet  glorified,  I  will  send  unto  you. 
And  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth,  and 
take  of  my  things,  and  show  them  unto 
you."  There  is  no  doubt  that  He  showed 
them  new  things,  which  we  have  in  the 
Epistles ;  and  so  made  the  light  of  exter- 
nal revelation  shine  more  fully  and 
brightly  upon  them.  But  there  is  as  little 
doubt,  that,  in  His  office  as  a  Rcvealcr, 
2 


He  made  them  see  old  things  more  clearly 
than  before ;  and  that,  by  a  direct  work 
on  the  power  of  rnental  perception,  He 
brought  them  to  their  remembrance ;  and 
He  made  them  skilful  in  the  discernment 
of  Scripture — a  term  applied  exclusively 
at  that  time  to  the  writings  of  the  Old 
Testament ;  and  He,  not  only  cleared 
away  the  external  darkness  which  rested 
on  that  part  of  Christian  doctrine  that 
was  still  unpromulgated,  but  He  strength- 
ened and  purified  that  organ  of  discern- 
ment through  which  the  light  both  of 
things  new  and  old  finds  its  way  into  the 
heart — insomuch  that  we  know  not  two 
states  of  understanding  which  stand  more 
decidedly  contrasted  with  each  other,  than 
that  of  the  apostles  before,  and  of  the 
same  apostles  after  the  resurrection — so 
that  from  being  timid,  irresolute,  confused, 
and  altogether  doubting  and  unsatisfied 
inquirers,  they  became  the  brave  un- 
shrinking and  consistent  ministers  of  a 
spiritual  faith — looking  back  both  on  the 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  on  our 
Saviour's  conversations  with  other  eyes 
than  they  had  formerly,  and  enabled  so  to 
harmonize  them  all  with  their  subsequent 
revelations,  as  to  make  them  perceive  an 
evangelical  spirit  and  an  evangelical 
meaning  even  in  those  earlier  communi- 
cations, which,  of  themselves,  shed  so  dim 
and  so  feeble  a  lustre  over  the  patriarchal 
and  the  prophetic  ages. 

So  that  the  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
with  the  apostles,  was,  not  merely  to  show 
them  things  new  respecting  Christ,  but  to 
make  them  see  things  both  new  and  old. 
The  former  of  His  functions,  as  we  said 
before,  has  now  ceased — nor  have  we 
-reason  to  believe,  that,  during  the  whole 
currency  of  our  present  world,  there  will 
another  article  of  doctrine  or  information 
be  given  to  us,  than  what  is  already 
treasured  up  in  the  written  and  unalter- 
able word  of  God's  communications.  But 
the  latter  function  is  still  in  full  exercise. 
It  did  not  cease  with  the  apostolic  age. 
The  external  revelation  is  completed. 
But,  for  the  power  of  beholding  aright  the 
truths  which  it  sets  before  us,  we  are  just 
as  dependent  on  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the 
apostles  of  old  were.  His  miraculous 
gifts  and  His  conveyances  of  additional 
doctrine  ai-e  now  over.  But  His  whole 
work  in  the  church  of  Christ  is  not  nearly 
over.  He  has  shed  all  the  light  that  He 
ever  will  do  over  the  field  of  revelation. 
But  He  has  still  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
blind  ;  and,  with  every  individual  of  the 
human  race,  has  He  to  turn  him  from  a 
natural  man  who  cannot  receive  the 
things  of  the  Spirit,  to  a  spiritual  man  by 
whom  alone  these  things  can  be  spiritu- 
ally discerned. 

There  is  with  many  amongst  us,  an  un- 


10 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


dervaluing  of  this  part  of  the  Christian 
dispensation.  The  office  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  a  rcvealer  is  little  adverted  to, 
and  therefore  little  proceeded  upon  in  any 
of  our  practical  movements.  We  set  our- 
selves forth  to  the  work  of  reading  and 
understanding  the  Bible,  just  as  we  would 
any  human  composition — and  this  is  so 
far  right — for  it  is  only  when  thus  em- 
ployed that  we  have  any  reason  to  look 
for  the  Spirit's  agency  in  our  behalf 
But  surely  the  fact  of  His  agency  being 
essential,  is  one,  not  of  speculative  but  of 
practical  importance — and  ought  to  ad- 
monish us,  tliat  there  is  one  peculiarity, 
by  which  the  book  of  God  stands  distin- 
guished from  the  book  of  a  human  author, 
and  that  is  that  it  is  not  enough  it  should 
be  read  with  the  spirit  of  attention,  but  with 
the  spirit  of  dependence  and  of  prayer. 

We  should  like  if  this  important  part  in 
the  process  of  man's  recovery  to  God,  held 
a  more  conspicuous  place  in  your  estima- 
tion. We  should  like  you  to  view  it  as  a 
standing  provision  for  the  church  of  Christ 
in  all  ages.  It  was  not  set  up  for  a  mere 
temporary  purpose,  to  shed  a  fleeting 
brilliancy  over  an  age  of  gifted  and  illu- 
minated men  that  has  now  rolled  by. 
Such  is  the  value,  and  such  the  perma- 
nency of  this  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that 
it  almost  looks  to  be  the  great  and  ulti- 
mate design  of  Christ's  undertaking,  to 
obtain  the  dispensation  of  it,  as  the  ac- 
complishment of  a  promise  by  His  Father. 
And  when  Peter  explained  to  the  multi- 
tude its  first  and  most  wondrous  exhibition 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  he  did  not  restrict 
it  to  one  period  or  to  one  country  of  the 
world.  But  the  gift  of  the  Holy' Ghost  is 
"unto  you,"  he  says,  "and  to  your  chil- 
dren, and  to  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call."  We  think  that  if  we  saw 
Christ  in  person,  and  had  the  explanation 
of  our  Bibles  from  His  own  mouth,  this 
■would  infallibly  conduct  us  to  the  highest 
eminences  of  spiritual  wisdom.  But  bless- 
ed be  they  who  have  not  seen,  but  yet 
have  believed — and  Christ  hath  expressly 
told  us,  that  it  is  better  He  should  go  away 
from  the  world,  for  "  if  He  did  not  go 
away  the  Spirit  would  not  come — but  that 
if  He  went  away  He  would  send  Him." 
What  the  mysterious  connection  is  be- 
tween Christ's  entrance  into  heaven,  and 
the  free  egress  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon 
earth,  it  is  not  for  us  to  enquire.  But  such 
is  the  revealed  fact,  that  we  are  in  better 
circumstances  for  being  guided  unto  all 
truth  by  having  a  part  and  an  interest  in 
this  promise,  than  if  we  had  personal  ac- 
cess to  the  Saviour  still  sojourning  and 
still  ministering  amongst  us.  Let  us  not 
despise  that  which  has  so  mighty  a  place 
assigned  to  it  in  the  counsels  of  God — and 
if  heretofore,  a  darkness  has  hung  over 


the  pages  of  the  word  of  His  testimony — 
let  us  feel  assured  that  in  Him  or  in  His 
communications  there  is  no  darkness  at 
all.  It  is  not  because  He  is  dark,  but  be- 
cause we  ai'c  blind  that  we  do  not  under- 
stand Him  ;  and  we  give  you,  not  a  piece 
of  inert  orthodoxy,  but  a  piece  of  infor- 
mation which  may  be  turned  to  use  and 
to  account  on  your  very  next  perusal  of 
any  part  of  the  Bible— rwhen  we  say  that 
it  is  the  office  of  the  Spirit  to  open  the  eye 
of  your  mind  to  the  meaning  of  its  inti- 
mations, and  that  God  will  not  refuse  His 
holy  Spirit  to  those  who  ask  Him. 

This  brings  us  by  a  very  summary  pro- 
cess to  the  resolution  of  the  question 
How  is  it  that  the  Spirit  acts  as  a  revealer 
of  truth  to  the  human  understanding! 
To  deny  Ilim  this  office,  on  the  one  hand, 
is,  in  fact,  to  set  aside  what  by  the  fullest 
testimony  of  the  Bible  is  held  forth  as  the 
process,  in  every  distinct  and  individual 
case,  whereby  each  man  at  his  conversion 
is  called  out  of  darkness  into  marvellous 
light.  On  the  other  hand,  to  deny  such  a 
fulness  and  such  a  sufficiency  of  doctrine 
in  the  Bible,  as  if  beheld  and  believed  is 
enough  for  salvation,  is  to  count  it  neces- 
sary that  something  should  be  added  to 
the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book, 
which  if  any  man  do,  God  will  add  unto 
him  all  the  plagues  that  are  written  there- 
in. There  is  no  difficulty  in  effecting  a 
reconciliation  between  these  two  parties. 
The  Spirit  guides  unto  all  truth,  and  all 
truth  is  to  be  found  in  the  Bible — The 
Spirit  therefore  guides  us  unto  the  Bible. 
He  gives  us  that  power  of  discernment, 
by  which  we  are  wisely  and  intelligently 
conducted  through  all  its  passages.  His 
office  is  not  to  brighten  into  additional 
splendour  the  sun  of  revelation,  or  even 
to  clear  away  any  clouds  that  may  have 
gathered  over  the  face  of  it.  His  office  is 
to  clarify  our  organs  of  perception,  and 
to  move  away  that  film  from  the  spiritual 
eye,  which,  till  He  begins  to  operate,  ad- 
heres with  the  utmost  obstinacy  in  the 
case  of  every  individual  of  our  species. 
The  ebbs  and  the  alternations  of  spiritual 
light  in  our  world,  are  not  due  to  any 
fluctuating  movements,  in  the  flame, 
which  issues  from  that  luminary  that  has 
been  hung  out  as  a  lamp  unto  our  feet 
and  a  light  unto  our  paths.  It  is  due  to 
the  variations  which  take  place,  of  sound- 
ness or  disease,  in  the  organs  of  the  be- 
holders. That  veil  which  was  at  one  time 
on  the  face  of  Moses,  is  now  upon  the 
heart  of  the  unconverted  Israelites.  The 
blindness  is  in  their  minds,  and  they  are 
in  darkness,  just  because  of  this  veil  be- 
ing yet  untaken  away  in  the  reading  of 
the  Old  Testament.  When  they  turn  to 
the  Lord,  there  will  be  no  change  made 
either  in  the   Old  Testament  or  in  the 


INTRODUCTORY    LECTURE. 


11 


New — but  this  veil  which  is  now  upon 
their  faculties  of  spiritual  discernment, 
will  simply  be  taken  away.  The  uncon- 
verted of  our  own  country,  to  whom  the 
gospel  is  hid,  do  not  perceive  it,  not  be- 
cause there  is  a  want  of  light  in  the  gos- 
pel which  would  need  to  be  augmented, 
but  because  the  God  of  this  world  hath 
blinded  their  own  minds,  lest  the  light  of 
the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ  who  is  the 
image  of  God  should  shine  unto  them. 
God  hath  already  commended  all  the  ex- 
ternal light  of  revelation,  which  he  ever 
purposes  to  do,  in  behalf  of  our  world — 
and  that  light  shines  upon  all  to  whom 
the  word  of  salvation  is  sent.  But  though 
it  shines  upon  all,  it  does  not  shine  into 
all.  He  hath  already  commanded  the 
light  to  shine  out  of  darkness — and  we 
now  wait  for  that  opening  and  purifying 
of  the  organ  of  conveyance  which  is  upon 
•our  person,  that  it  may  shine  into  our 
hearts  and  thence  give  us  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face 
of  Christ  Jesus.  The  period  of  the  new 
dispensation  has  been  a  period  of  light, 
as  much  from  the  increase  of  vision  as 
from  the  increase  of  visibility.  The  va- 
cillation of  this  light  from  one  age  to 
another,  is  not  from  any  periodical 
changes  in  the  decay  or  the  brightening 
of  the  outward  luminary.  It  is  from  the 
partial  shuttings  and  openings  of  a  screen 
of  interception.  And,  in  those  millennial 
days,  when  the  gospel,  in  full  and  un- 
clouded brilliancy,  shall  shine  upon  the 
world — it  will  not  be  because  light  came 
down  to  it  from  heaven  in  a  tide  of  more 
copious  supply — but  because  God  will 
destroy  the  face  of  the  covering  that  is 
cast  over  all  people  ;  and  the  veil  that  is 
spread  over  all  nations. 

The  light  is  exceedingly  near  to  every 
one  of  us,  and  we  might  even  now  be  in 
the  full  and  satisfactory  enjoyment  of  it — 
were  it  not  for  a  something  in  ourselves. 
All  that  is  necessary  is,  that  the  veil, 
which  hangs  over  our  own  senses,  be  de- 
stroyed. The  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
spiritual  manifestation,  does  not  lie  in  the 
dimness  of  that  which  is  without  us — but 
in  the  state  of  our  own  personal  faculties. 
Let  the  organ  of  discernment  be  only  set 
right ;  and  the  thing  to  be  discerned  will 
then  appear  in  its  native  brightness,  and 
just  in  the  very  features  and  complexion 
which  it  has  worn  from  the  beginning,  and 
in  which  it  has  offered  itself  to  the  view 
of  all  whose  eyes  have  been  opened  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  to  behold  the  wondrous 
things  contained  in  the  book  of  God's  law. 
His  office  is  not  to  deal  invariable  revela- 
tions to  a  people  sitting  in  darkness.  It  is 
to  lift  up  the  hieavy  eyelids  of  a  people 
who  are  blind,  that  they  may  see  the  cha- 
racters of  a    steady   unchangeable  and 


ever-during  record.  The  light  is  near  us, 
and  round  about  us  ;  and  all  that  remains 
to  be  done  for  its  being  poured  into  the 
innermost  recesses  of  every  soul,  is  the 
destruction  of  that  little  tegument  which 
lies  in  the  channel  of  communication,  be- 
tween the  objects  which  are  visible  and 
him  for  whose  use  and  Vv^hose  perception 
they  are  intended.  To  come  in  contact 
with  spiritual  ligh^  we  have  .not  to  ascend 
into  heaven,  and  fetch  an  illuminated 
torch  from  its  upper  sanctuaries — we  have 
not  to  descend  into  the  deep,  and,  out  of 
the  darkness  of  its  hidden  mysteries,  bring 
to  the  openness  of  day  some  seQret  thing 
that  before  was  inaccessible.  All  that  we 
shall  ever  find  is  in  that  word  which  is 
nigh  unto  us,  even  in  our  mouth ;  and 
v/hich,  by  the  penetrating  energies  of  Him 
in  whose  hand  it  becometh  a  sword,  can 
find  its  way  through  all  the  dark  and  ob- 
structed avenues  of  nature,  and  reach  its 
convictions  and  its  influences  and  its  les- 
sons to  the  very  thoughts  and  intents  of 
the  heart.  If  you  be  longing  for  a  light 
which  you  have  not  yet  gotten — it  is 
worth  your  knowing,  that  the  firmament 
of  a  man's  spiritual  vision  is  already  set 
round  with  all  its  splendours — that  not 
one  additional  lamp  will  for  your  behoof 
be  hung  out  from  the  canopy  of  heaven — 
that  the  larger  and  the  lesser  lights  of 
revelation  are  already  ordained,  and  not 
so  much  as  one  twinkling  luminary  will 
either  be  added  or  expunged  from  this 
hemisphere  of  the  soul,  till  this  material 
earth  and  these  material  heavens  be  made 
to  pass  away — and  therefore,  if  still  sitting 
in  the  region  and  under  the  shadow  of 
death,  there  be  any  of  you  who  long  to  be 
ushered  into  the  manifestations  of  the  gos- 
pel, know  that  this  is  done,  not  by  any 
change  in  that  which  is  without,  but  by  a 
change  in  that  which  is  within — by  a 
medicating  process  upon  your  own  facul- 
ties— by  the  si  mplicity  of  a  personal  ope- 
ration. 

This  is  something  more  than  the  mere 
didactic  affirmation  of  a  speculative  or 
scholastic  Theology.  It  contains  within 
its  bosom  the  rudiments  of  a  most  impor- 
tant practical  direction,  to  every  reader 
and  every  inquirer.  If  I  do  not  see,  not 
because  there  is  a  darkness  around  me, 
but  because  there  is  a  blindness  upon  me 
adhering  in  the  shape  of  a  personal  attri- 
bute— it  were  a  matter  of  great  practical 
account  to  ascertain,  if  this  defect  do  not 
stand  associated  with  other  defects  in  my 
character  and  mind  which  are  also  per- 
sonal. And  when  we  read  of  the  way  in 
which  the  moral  and  the  intellectual  are 
blended  together  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
New  Testament— how  one  apostle  affirms, 
that  he  who  hateth  his  brother  is  in  blind- 
ness; and  another,  that  he  who  lacketh 


12 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


certain  virtues  is  blind  and  cannot  see 
afar  off;  and  another,  that  men  who  did 
not,  up  to  what  they  knew,  award  the 
glory  and  the  gratitude  to  God,  had  their 
foolish  hearts  darkened,  so  as  to  have  that 
which  they  at  one  tinne  possessed  taken 
away  from  them  ;  and  our  Saviour  resolv- 
ing the  condemnation  of  men's  unbelief 
into  the  principle  that  they  loved  the 
darkness,  and  therefore  wilfully  shut  their 
eyes  to  the  truth  that  was  offered — all  this 
goes  to  demonstrate,  that  presumptuous 
sin  stands  in  the  way  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment ;  that  evil  deeds,  and  the  indulgence 
of  evil  affections,  serve  to  thicken  that 
film  which  has  settled  upon  the  mental 
eye,  and  obscures  its  every  perception  of 
the  truths  of  revelntion.  And  this  much 
at  least  may  be  turned  into  a  matter  of 
sure  and  practical  inference  from  all  these 
elucidations — that  the  man  who  is  not  yet 
awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  iniquities,  and 
not  evincing  it  by  putting  forth  upon  them 
the  hand  of  a  strenuous  and  determined 
reform  ;  that  the  man  who  stifles  the  voice 
of  conscience  within  him,  and,  the  slave 
of  his  inveterate  habits,  never,  either  in 
practice  or  in  prayer,  makes  an  honest 
struggle  for  his  own  emancipation;  that 
he  who  makes  not  a  single  effort  against 
the  conformities  or  the  associations  of 
worldliness ;  and,  far  more,  he  who  still 
persists  in  its  dishonesties  or  its  grosser 
dissipations — he  may  stand  all  his  days 
on  the  immediate  margin  of  a  brightness 
that  is  altogether  celestial,  and  yet,  in 
virtue  of  an  interposed  barrier  which  he 
is  doing  all  he  can  to  make  more  opake 
and  impenetrable,  may  he,  with  the  Bible 
before  his  eyes,  be  groping  in  all  the 
darkness  and  in  more  than  all  the  guilt  of 
heathenism.  These  sins  infuse  a  sore  and 
a  deadly  distemper  into  his  organs  of  per- 
ception, and  by  every  wilful  repetition  of 
them  is  the  distemper  more  fixed  and  per- 
petuated— and  therefore  it  is  that  we  call 
upon  those  who  desire  for  light,  tochori.sli 
no  hope  whatever  of  its  attainment,  while 
they  persist  in  any  doings  which  they 
know  to  be  wrong.  We  call  upon  them 
to  frame  their  doings  in  turning  to  the 
Lord  if  they  wish  the  veil  to  be  taken 
away — and,  instead  of  hesitating  about 
the  order  of  precedency  between  faith 
and  practice,  or  about  the  way  in  which 
they  each  reciprocate  upon  the  other,  we 
call  upon  them  simply  and  honestly  to 
betake  themselves  to  the  apostolical  order 
of  "Awake,  O  sinner,  and  Christ  shall 
give  thee  light." 

There  is  Tinother  set  of  passages  which 
may  be  quoted  as  a  counterpart  to  the 
former,  and  which  go  to  demonstrate  the 
connection  between  obedience  and  spiri- 
tual light — even  as  the  others  prove  a 
connection    between    sin    and    spiritual 


darkness.  '  He  who  is  desirous  of  doing 
God's  will  shall  know  of  Christ's  doctrine 
that  it  is  of  God.'  '  He  whose  eye  is  sin- 
gle shall  have  the  whole  body  full  of 
light.'  '  Light  is  sown  unto  the  upright, 
and  breaketh  forth  as  the  morning  to 
those  who  judge  the  widow  and  the  father- 
less.' '  To  him  who  hath,  more  shall  be 
given' — and  'he  who  keepeth  my  sayings, 
to  him  will  1  manifest  myself  These  are 
testimonies  which  clearly  bespeak,  what 
ought  to  be  the  conduct  of  him  who  is  in 
quest  of  spiritual  manifestation.  They 
will  serve  to  guide  the  seeker  in  his  way 
to  that  rest,  which  all  attain  who  have  at- 
tained an  acquaintance  with  the  unseen 
Creator.  It  is  a  rest  which  he  labours 
to  enter  into — and,  in  despite  of  freezing 
speculation,  does  he  turn  the  call  of  re- 
pentance to  the  immediate  account  of  urg- 
ing himself  on  to  all  deeds  of  conformity 
with  the  divine  will,  to  all  good  and  holy 
services. 

But  more  than  this.  It  is  the  Spirit  who 
opens  the  understanding ;  and  He  is  af- 
fected by  the  treatment  which  He  receives 
from  the  subject  on  which  He  operates. 
It  is  true  that  He  has  been  known  at 
times  to  magnify  the  freeness  of  the  grace 
of  God,  by  arresting  the  sinner  in  the  full 
speed  and  determination  of  his  impetuous 
career ;  and  turning  him,  in  despite  of 
himself,  to  the  refuge  and  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  gospel.  But,  speaking  gener- 
ally, He  is  grieved  by  resistance,  He  is 
quenched  by  carelessness.  He  is  provoked 
by  the  constant  baffling  of  His  endeavours, 
to  check  and  to  convince  and  to  admon- 
ish. On  the  other  hand  He  is  courted  by 
compliance  ;  He  is  encouraged  by  the  fa- 
vourable reception  of  His  influences  ;  He 
is  given  in  larger  measure  to  those  who 
obey  Him ;  and  He  follows  up  your  do- 
cility under  one  dictate  and  one  sugges- 
tion, by  freer  and  fuller  manile-stations. 
In  other  words,  if  to  thwart  your  con- 
science be  to  thwart  Him,  and  if  to  act 
with  your  conscience  be  to  act  with  Him 
— what  is  this  to  say,  but  that  every  in- 
quirer after  the  way  of  salvation,  has 
something  to  do  at  the  very  outset  in  the 
furtherance  of  his  object?  What  is  this 
to  .say,  but  that  a  nascent  concern  about 
the  soul  should  instantly  be  associated 
with  a  nascent  activity  in  the  prosecution 
of  its  interests]  What  is  this  to  say,  but 
that  the  man  should,  plainly  and  in  good 
earnest,  forthwith  turn  himself  to  all  that 
is  right?  If  he  have  been  hitherto  a 
drunkard,  let  him  abandon  his  profliga- 
cies. If  he  have  been  hitherto  a  profaner 
of  the  Sabbath,  let  him  abandon  the  habit 
of  taking  his  own  pleasure  uyjfin  that  day. 
If  he  have  been  hitherto  a  dcfrauder,  let 
him  abandon  his  deceits  and  his  depreda- 
tions.   And  though  in  that  region  of  spir- 


INTK.ODUCTOE.Y   LECTURE. 


13 


itual  light  upon  which  he  is  entering,  he 
will  learn  that  he  never  can  be  at  peace 
with  God  till  he  lean  on  a  better  righte- 
ousness than  his  own — yet  such  is  the  in- 
fluence of  the  doctrines  of  grace  on  every 
genuine  inquirer,  that,  from  the  first 
dawning  of  his  obscure  perception  of 
them,  to  the  splendour  of  their  full  and 
finished  manifestation,  is  there  the  break- 
ing and  the  stir  and  the  assiduous  effort 
of  a  busy  and  ever-doing  reformation — 
carrying  him  onwards  from  the  more  pal- 
pable rectitudes  of  ordinary  and  every- 
day conduct,  to  the  high  and  sacred  and 
spiritual  elevation  of  a  soul  ripening  for 
heaven,  and  following  hard  after  God. 

We  know  that  we  are  now  standing  on 
the  borders  of  controversy.  But  we  are 
far  more  solicitous  for  such  an  impression 
as  will  lead  you  to  act,  than  for  any  spe- 
culative adjustment.  And  yet  how  true  it 
is,  that,  for  the  purpose  of  a  practical  ef- 
fect, there  is  not  one  instrument  so  power- 
ful and  so  prevailing  as  the  peculiar  doc- 
trine of  the  gospel.  It  is  the  belief  that  a 
debt  unextinguishable  by  us  has  been  ex- 
tinguished by  another — it  is  the  know- 
ledge that  that  God,  who  can  never  lay 
aside  either  His  truth  or  His  righteousness, 
has  found  out  such  a  way  for  the  dispen- 
sation of  mercy  as  serves  to  exalt  and  to 
illustrate  them  both — it  is  the  view  of  that 
great  transaction  by  which  He  laid  on  His 
own  Son  the  iniquities  of  us  all,  and  has 
thus  done  away  an  otherwise  invincible 
barrier  which  lay  across  the  path  of  ac- 
ceptance— it  is  the  precious  conviction 
that  Christ  has  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  and  thus  has  turned 
aside  the  penalties  of  a  law,  and  by  the 
very  act  wherewith  He  has  magnified  that 
law  and  made  it  honourable — it  is  this, 
which  seen,  however  faintly  by  the  eye 
of  faith,  first  looses  the  bond  of  despair, 
and  gives  a  hope  and  an  outlet  for  obedi- 
ence. The  subtile  metaphysics  of  the 
question,  about  the  order  of  succession 
with  the  two  graces  of  faith  and  of  repent- 
ance, may  entertain  or  they  may  perplex 
you.  But  of  this  you  may  be  very  cer- 
tain, that,  where  there  is  no  repentance, 
all  the  dogmas  of  a  contentious  orthodoxy 
put  together  will  never  make  out  the  re- 
ality of  faith — and,  where  there  is  no 
faith,  all  the  drudgeries  of  a  most  literal 
and  laborious  adherence  to  the  outward 
matter  of  the  law  will  never  make  out  the 
reality  of  repentance. 

Life  is  too  short  for  controversy.  Charg- 
ed with  all  the  urgency  of  a  matter  on 
hand,  we  tell  you  to  turn  and  flee  and 
make  fast  work  of  your  preparation  for  a 
coming  eternity.  The  sum  and  substance 
of  the  preparation  is,  that  you  believe 
what  the  Bible  tells  you,  and  do  what  the 
Bible  bids  you.    Bestir  yourselves,  for  the 


last  messenger  is  at  the  door.  There  is 
not  time  for  cold  criticisms,  or  laborious 
investigations,  or  splendid  oratory,  or  pro- 
found argument — when  death  has  broke 
loose  amongst  us,  and  is  spreading  his 
havoc  amongst  our  earthly  tabernacles — 
when  he  is  wresting  away  from  us  the  de- 
lights and  the  ornaments  of  our  society 
upon  earth — when  he  is  letting  us  see,  by 
examples  the  most  aff'ecting,  of  what  frail 
and  perishable  materials  human  life  is 
made  up — and  is  dealing  out  another  and 
another  reproof  to  that  accursed  delay, 
which  leads  man  to  trifle  on  the  brink  of 
the  grave,  and  to  smile  and  be  secure, 
while  the  weapons  of  mortality  are  flying 
thick  around  him.  When  will  we  be 
brought  to  the  beginning  of  wisdom — to 
the  fear  of  God — to  the  desire  of  doing 
His  will — to  the  accomplishment  of  that 
desire,  by  our  believing  in  the  name  of 
His  only- begotten  Son,  and  loving  one 
another  even  as  He  has  given  us  com- 
mandment? Let  us  work  while  it  is  day 
— and,  set  in  motion  by  the  encourage- 
ments of  the  gospel,  let  us  instantly  bo- 
come  the  followers  of  them  who  through 
faith  and  patience  are  now  inheriting  the 
promises. 

You  occasionally  meet  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, with  an  express  reference  to  a 
certain  body  of  writings,  which  are  desig- 
nated by  the  term  of  Scriptures.  We 
now  apply  this  term  to  the  whole  Bible, 
But,,  in  those  days,  it  was  restricted  to  that 
collection  of  pieces  which  makes  up  the 
Old  Testament.  For  the  new  was  only  in 
the  process  of  its  formation,  and  was  not 
yet  completed  ;  and  it  was  not  till  some 
time  after  the  evangelists  wrote  their  nar- 
ratives, and  the  apostles  their  communi- 
cations, that  they  were  gathered  into  one 
volume,  or  made  to  stand  in  equal  and  co- 
ordinate rank  with  the  inspired  books  of 
the  former  dispensation. 

So  that  all  which  is  said  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  the  New  Testament,  must  be  re- 
garded as  the  testimony  of  its  authors  to 
the  value  and  importance  of  those  writings 
which  compose  the  Old  Testament.  And 
it  would  therefore  appear  from  Paul's 
epistle  to  Timothy,  that  they  are  able  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that 
one  ingredient  of  this  ability  is,  that  they 
refer  us  in  a  way  so  distinct  and  so  autho- 
ritative to  the  events  of  the  New  Dispen- 
sation. They  give  evidence  to  the  com- 
mission of  our  Saviour,  and  through  Him 
to  the  commission  of  all  His  apostles. 
The  wisdom  which  they  teach,  is  a  wis- 
dom which  would  guide  us  forward  to  the 
posterior  revelations  of  Christianity.  The 
Old  Testament  is  a  region  of  comparative 
dimness.  But  still  there  is  light  enough 
there,  for  making  visible  the  many  in- 


14 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


dices  which  abound  in  it,  to  the  more  illu- 
minated region  of  the  New  Testament — 
and,  by  sending  us  forward  to  that  region, 
by  pointing  our  way  to  Christ  and  to  the 
apostles,  by  barely  informing  us  where 
we  are  to  get  the  wisdom  that  we  are  in 
quest  of — even  though  it  should  not  con- 
vey it  to  us  by  its  own  direct  announce- 
ments, it  may  be  said  to  be  able  to  make 
wise  unto  salvation. 

The  quotation  taken  in  all  its  complete- 
ness is  in  full  harmony,  with  the  statement 
which  we  have  now  given.  'From  a  child 
thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto 
salvation, .  through  the  faith  that  is  in 
Christ  Jesus.' 

But  there  is  more  in  it  than  this.  The 
same  light  from  heaven  by  which  the 
doctrine  of  the  New  Testament  has 
been  made  visible,  has  also  made  more 
visible  the  same  doctrine,  which  in  the 
Old  lay  disguised  under  the  veil  of  a 
still  unfinished  revelation.  In  the  first 
blush  of  morning,  there  is  much  of  the 
landscape  that  we  cannot  see  at  all — and 
much  that  we  do  see,  but  see  imperfectly. 
The  same  ascending  luminary  which  re- 
veals to  us  those  more  distant  tracts  that 
were  utterly  unobserved,  causes  to  start 
out  into  greater  beauty  and  distinctness, 
the  fields  and  the  paths  and  the  varied 
forms  of  nature  or  of  art  that  are  imme- 
diately around  us — till  we  come  to  per- 
ceive an  extended  impress  of  the  charac- 
ter and  the  goodness  of  the  Divinity,  over 
the  whole  range  of  our  mid-day  contem- 
plation. It  is  thus  with  the  Bible.  That 
light,  in  virtue  of  which  the  pages  of  the 
New  Testament  have  been  disclosed  to 
observation,  has  shed  both  a  direct  and  a 
reflected  splendour  on  the  pages  of  the 
Old — insomuch  that  from  certain  chapters 
of  Isaiah,  which  lay  shrouded  in  mystery 
both  from  the  prophet  himself  and  from 
all  his  countrymen — as  in  reading  of  Him 
who  bore  the  chastisement  of  our  peace, 
and  by  whose  stripes  we  are  healed,  and 
who  poured  out  His  soul  unto  the  death, 
and  made  intercession  for  transgressors-^ 
we  now  draw  all  the  refreshing  comfort 
that  beams  upon  the  heart,  from  an  intelli- 
gent view  of  our  Redeemer's  work  of  me- 
diation ;  and  behold  plainly  standing  out, 
that  which  lay  wrapt,  in  a  kind  of  hiero- 
glyphic mantle,  from  the  discernment  of 
the  wisest  and  most  righteous  of  men 
under  a  former  dispensation  This  power 
of  illumination  reaches  upward,  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  letter  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament ;  and  throws  an  evangelical  light 
upon  the  remotest  parts  of  an  economy 
which  has  now  passed  away.  The  rays 
of  our  brightest  sun  have  fallen  in  a  flood 
of  glory  over  the  oldest  and  most  distant 
of    our    recorded    intimations;    and   a 


Christian  can  now  read  the  very  first  pro- 
mise in  the  book  of  Genesis,  that  the 
seed  of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  head 
of  the  serpent,'  which  only  served  to  light 
up  a  vague  and  general  expectation  in  the 
minds  of  our  first  parents — he  can  now 
read  it  with  the  same;  full  intelligence  and 
comfort,  wherewith  he  reads  in  the  book 
of  the  Romans  that  '  the  God  of  peace 
shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  fuet  shortly.' 
But  there  is  still  more  in  it  than  this. 
If  there  be  any  truth  in  the  process 
whereby  the  Holy  Spirit  adds  to  the 
power  of  discernment,  as  well  as  to  the 
truths  which  are  to  be  discerned — then 
this  increased  power  will  enable  us  to  see 
more — not  merely  in  the  later,  but  also  in 
the  earlier  truths  of  revelation,  than  we 
would  otherwise  have  done.  It  is  like  a 
blind  man,  in  full  and  open  day,  gradually 
recovering  his  sight  as  he  stands  by  the 
margin  of  a  variegated  parterre.  With- 
out any  augmentation  whatever  of  the  ex- 
ternal light,  is  there  a  progress  of  revela- 
tion to  his  senses,  as  to  all  the  beauty  and 
richness  and  multiplicity  of  the  objects 
which  are  before  him.  What  he  sees  at 
first,  may  be  no  more  than  a  kind  of  daz- 
zling uniformity,  over  the  whole  length 
and  breadth  of  that  space  which  is  in- 
scribed with  so  many  visible  glories ; 
and,  afterwards,  may  plants  and  flowers 
stand  out  in  their  individuality  to  his  no- 
tice :  and  then  may  the  distinctive  colours 
of  each  come  to  be  recognized  ;  and  then 
may  the  tints  of  minuter  delicacy  call 
forth  his  admiration — till  all  which  it  is 
competent  for  man  to  perceive,  of  what 
has  been  so  profusely  lavished  by  the 
hand  of  the  great  Artist,  either  in  one 
general  blush  of  loveliness,  or  in  those 
nicer  and  more  exquisite  .streaks  of  beauty 
which  He  hath  pencilled  in  more  hidden 
characters,  on  the  specimens  of  flowers 
and  foliage  taken  singly,  shall  all  be  per- 
ceived and  all  be  rapturously  enjoyed  by 
the  man,  whose  eyes  have  just  bt!en  open- 
ed into  a  full  capacity  for  beholding  the 
wondrous  things,  whicli  lie  a  spread  and 
a  finished  spectacle  before  him.  And  it  is 
the  same  with  the  Bible.  That  book  which 
stands  before  the  eye  of  many  an  accom- 
plished disciple  in  this  world's  literature, 
as  transfused  throughout  ail  its  extent  with 
one  pervading  and  indiscriminate  charac- 
ter of  mysticism,  gradually  opens  up  to 
the  eye  of  him  who  is  rescued  from  the 
power  of  the  god  of  this  world,  and  whose 
office  it  is  to  blind  the  minds  of  tliem  who 
believe  not ;  and  he  beholds  one  general 
impress  both  of  wisdom  and  of  moral 
beauty  upon  the  whole ;  and  he  forms  a 
growing  and  more  special  intimacy  with 
its  individual  passages;  and  feels  a  weight 
of  significancy  in  many  of  them,  which 
he  never  felt  before;  and  he  is  touched 


INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


15 


with  the  discernment  of  a  precious  adap- 
tation in  this  one  and  that  other  verse  to 
his  own  wants  and  his  own  circumstances ; 
and  this  more  minute  and  microscopic 
acquaintance  with  tiie  truths,  and  percep- 
tion of  the  excellencies  of  revelation,  ap- 
ply as  much  to  the  verses  of  the  Old  as  it 
does  to  the  verses  of  the  New  Testament 
— so  that  if  he  just  grow  in  spiritual  clear- 
sightedness, he  will  have  as  growing  a 
relish  and  observation  for  the  one  part  of 
Scripture  as  he  has  for  the  other :  And 
thus  it  is,  that,  unlike  to  any  human  com- 
position, an  advancing  Christian  ever 
reads  the  Bible  and  the  whole  Bible,  with 
a  new  light  upon  his  understanding,  and 
a  new  impression  upon  the  affections  and 
the  principles  of  his  nature.  The  books 
of  the  former  dispensation  never  stand  to 
him  in  place  of  the  rudiments  of  a  school- 
boy, which  he  may  now  abandon.  But 
written  as  they  are  for  our  admonition  on 
whom  the  latter  ends  of  the  world  have 
come  ;  and  maintaining  to  this  very  hour 
the  high  functions  and  authority  of  a 
teacher,  all  whose  sayings  ai-e  given  by 
inspiration  from  God,  and  all  are  profita- 
ble; and  still  instrumental,  in  the  hands 
of  the  Spirit  for  conveying  the  whole 
light  and  power  of  His  demonstrations 
into  the  understanding — let  us  rest  assur- 
ed that  the  Old  Testament  is  one  of  the 
two  olive  trees  planted  in  the  house  of 
God,  and  which  is  never  to  be  removed; 
one  of  the  two  golden  candlesticks  lighted 
up  for  the  church  of  Christ  upon  earth, 
and  which  while  that  church  has  being, 
will  never  be  taken  away. 

It  may  illustrate  this  whole  matter,  if 
we  look  to  the  book  of  Psalms,  and  just 
think  of  the  various  degrees  of  spirituality 
and  enlargement  with  which  the  same 
composition  may  be  regarded  by  Jewish 
and  by  Christian  eyes — how  in  the  praise 
which  waiteth  for  God  in  Zion — and  in 
the  pleasure  which  His  servants  took  in 
her  stones,  so  that  her  very  dust  to  them 
was  dear — and  in  the  preference  which 
they  made  of  one  day  in  His  courts  to  a 
thousand  elsewhere — and  in  the  thirsting 
of  their  souls  to  appear  before  God — and 
in  their  remembrance  of  that  time  when 
they  went  to  His  house  with  the  voice  of 
joy  and  praise,  and  with  the  multitude 
that  kept  holiday — and  when  exiles  from 
the  holy  city,  they  were  cast  down  in  spi- 
rit, and  cried  from  the  depths  of  their 
banishment  in  the  land  of  Jordan — and 
when  longing  for  God,  in  a  dry  and  thirsty 
land  where  no  water  was,  they  followed 
hard  after  the  privilege  of  again  seeing 
His  power  and  His  glory  in  the  sanctuary 
— and  in  the  songs  of  deliverance  with 
which  they  celebrated  their  own  restora- 
tion, when  their  bands  were  loosed,  and 
their  feet  were  set  in  a  sure  place,  and 


they  could  offer  their  vows  and  their 
thanksgivings  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord's 
house,  and  'in  the  midst  of  thee,  oh  Jeru- 
salem'— in  all  this,  a  Jew  might  express 
the  desires  of  a  fainting  and  an  affection- 
ate heart,  after  that  ceremonial  in  which 
he  had  been  trained,  and  that  service  of 
the  temple  which  he  loved  ;  and  yet  in 
all  this,  there  is  enough  to  sustain  the 
loftiest  flights  of  devotion  in  the  mind  of 
a  Christian.  There  is  a  weight  of  expres- 
sion, altogether  commensurate  to  the  feel- 
ings and  ^he  ardours  and  the  extacies  of  a 
soul  exercised  unto  godliness.  There  is  a 
something  to  meet  the  whole  varied  expe- 
rience of  the  spiritual  life,  in  these  ages 
of  a  later  and  more  refined  dispensation. 
And  such  is  the  divine  skilfulness  of  these 
compositions,  that,  while  so  framed  as  to 
suit  and  to  satisfy  the  disciples  of  a  ritual 
and  less  enlightened  worship,  there  is  not 
a  holy  and  heavenly  disciple  of  Jesus  in 
our  day,  who  will  not  perceive  in  the  effu- 
sions of  the  Psalmist,  a  counterpart  to  all 
the  alternations  of  his  own  religious  his- 
tory— who  will  not  find  in  his  very  words, 
the  fittest  vehicles  for  all  the  wishes  and 
sorrows  and  agitations  to  which  his  own 
heart  is  liable — and  thus  be  taught  by  a 
wrher  far  less  advanced  in  spirituality 
than  himself,  the  best  utterance  of  desire 
for  the  manifestation  of  God's  counte- 
nance, the  best  utterance  of  gratitude  for 
the  visitations  of  spiritual  joy,  the  best  and 
most  expressive  prayers  under  the  dis- 
tress and  darkness  of  spiritual  abandon- 
ment. 

Let  us  read  over  without  any  comment 
the  whole  of  the  84th  Psalm — and  just 
simply  ask  you  to  consider  how  those  very 
materials  which  form  a  most  congenial 
piece  of  devotion  for  a  Jew,  admit  of  be- 
ing so  impregnated  with  the  life  and  spirit 
of"a  higher  economy,  that  they  are  able 
to  sustain  all  the  views,  and  to  express  all 
the  aspirations  of  the  most  spiritual  and 
exercised  Christian. 

"How  amiable  are  thy  tabernacles,  O 
Lord  of  Hosts  i  My  soul  longeth,  yea, 
even  fainleth  for  the  courts  of  the  Lord  ; 
my  heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the 
living  God.  Yea,  the  sparrow  hath  found 
an  house,  and  the  swallow  a  nest  for  her- 
.self,  where  she  may  lay  her  young,  even 
thine  altars,  O  Lord  of  Hosts,  my  King, 
and  my  God.  Blessed  are  they  that  dwell 
in  thy  house:  they  will  be  still  praising 
thee.  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  strength 
is  in  thee;  in  whose  heart  are  the  ways 
of  them,  who  passing  through  the  valley 
of  Baca  make  it  a  well;  the  rain  also  fill- 
eth  the  pools.  They  go  from  strength  to 
strength  ;  every  one  of  them  in  Zion  ap- 
peareth  before  God.  O  Lord  God  of 
Hosts,  hear  my  prayer :  give  ear,  O  God 
of  Jacob.    Behold,  O  God  our  shield,  and 


16 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE, 


look  upon  the  face  of  thine  anointed.  For 
a  day  in  thy  courts  is  better  than  a  thou- 
sand. I  had  rather  be  a  doorkeeper  in 
the  house  of  my  God,  than  to  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  wickedness.  For  the  Lord  God 
is  a  sun  and  shield;  the  Lord  will  give 
grace  and  glory :  no  good  thing  will  IIo 
withhold  from  them  that  walk  uprightly. 
O  Lord  of  Hosts,  blessed  is  the  man  that 
trusteth  in  thee." 

We  think  it  necessary  to  say  thus  much 
— lest  the  Old  Testament  should  ever  be 
degraded  below  its  rightful  place  in  your 
estimation — lest  any  of  you  should  turn 
away  from  it,  as  not  fitted  to  augment  the 
faith  and  the  holiness  of  those,  who  lie 
imder  a  better  and  a  brighter  dispensation 
— lest  you  should  abstain  from  the  habit 
of  reading  that  letter  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, which  is  abundantly  capable  of 
being  infused  with  the  same  evangelical 
spirit,  that  gives  all  its  power  to  the  letter 
of  the  New  Testament.  And  be  assured, 
that,  if  you  want  to  catch  in  all  its  height 
and  in  all  its  celestial  purity  the  raptures 
of  a  sustained  and  spiritual  intercourse 
with  Him  who  sitleth  upon  the  throne,  we 
know  nothing  fitter  to  guide  your  ascend- 
ing way,  than  those  psalms  and  those 
prophecies,  which  shone  at  one  time  in  a 
dark  place ;  but  may  now,  upon  the 
earnest  heed  of  him  who  attentively 
regards  them,  cause  the  day  to  dawn  and 
the  day-star  to  arise  in  his  heart. 

In  turning  now  to  one  of  the  fullest 
expositions  of  Christian  doctrine  which  is 
to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament ;  and 
which  was  drawn  up  for  the  edification 
of  the  most  interesting  of  the  early 
churches ;  and  where,  in  the  conduct  of 
his  argument,  Paul  seems  to  have  been 
fully  aware  of  all  those  elements  both  of 
intolerance  and  philosophy  which  were 
in  array  against  him;  and  where,  as  his 
manner  was,  he  suits  and  manages  his 
reasoning,  with  the  full  consciousness  of 
the  kind  and  metal  of  resistance  that  were 
opposed  to  him  ;  and  where  he  had  to 
steer  his  dexterous  way  through  a  hetero- 
geneous assemblage  of  Gentiles  on  the 
one  hand,  enlightened  up  to  the  whole 
literature  and  theology  of  the  times,  and 
of  Jews  on  the  other,  most  fiercely  and 
proudly  tenacious  of  that  sectarianism 


which  they  regarded  as  their  national 
glory — in  such  an  epistle,  written  in  such 
circumstances  by  the  accomplished  Paul, 
when  we  may  be  sure  he  would  bring  up 
his  efforts  to  the  greatness  of  the  occasion, 
it  is  natural  to  look  for  all  the  conviction 
and  all  the  light  that  such  an  able  and 
intellectual  champion  is  fitted  to  throw 
over  the  cause  which  he  has  undertaken. 
And  yet  what  would  be  the  result  in  a 
discussion  of  science  or  politics  or  law,  we 
will  not  find  to  be  the  result  in  a  discus- 
sion of  Christianity,  without  such  a  pre- 
paration and  such  an  accompaniment  as 
are  not  essential  to  our  progress  in  this 
world's  scholarship.  To  be  a  disciple  in 
the  school  of  Christ,  there  must  be  an 
affectionate  embracing  of  truth  with  the 
heart ;  and  there  must  be  a  knowledge 
which  putfeth  not  up,  but  humbles  and 
edifies ;  and  there  must  be  a  teaching  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  distinct  from  all  those 
unsanctified  acquirements,  which  we  la- 
bour to  win  and  to  defend,  in  the  strife  it 
may  be  of  logical  contention.  For,  let  it 
be  observed,  that  the  wisdom  of  the  New 
Testament  is  characterized  by  moral 
attributes.  It  is  pure  and  peaceable  and 
gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  and  full 
of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  and  without 
partiality  and  without  hypocrisy.  Let  us 
not  confound  the  illumination  of  natural 
argument,  with  that  which  warms  the 
heart  as  well  as  informs  the  understand- 
ing— for  it  is  a  very  truth,  that  the  whole 
demonstration  of  orthodoxy  may  be  as- 
sented to  by  him,  who  is  not  spiritual  but 
carnal.  And  while  we  arc  yet  on  the 
threshold  of  by  far  the  mightiest  and 
closest  of  those  demonstrations,  that  ever 
were  offered  to  the  world,  let  us  "  bow  the 
knee  to  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  He  would  grant  us  according 
to  the  riches  of  His  glory,  to  be  strength- 
ened  with  might  by  His  Spirit  in  tho 
inner  man,  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  our 
hearts  by  faith ;  that,  being  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  we  may  be  able  to 
comprehend  with  all  saints,  what  is  tho 
breadth  and  length  and  depth  and  height, 
and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  all  knowledge,  that  we  may  be 
filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God." 


17 


LECTURE  II. 


Romans  i,  1 — 7. 

"  Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  to  be  an  apostle,  separated  unto  the  gospel  of  God,  (which  he  had  promised 
afore  by  his  prophets  in  the  holy  scriptures,)  concerning  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed 
of  David  according  to  the  flesh;  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holi- 
ness, by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead  :  by  whom  we  have  received  grace  and  apostleship  for  obedience  to  the  faith 
among  all  nations  for  his  name  :  among  whom  are  ye  also  the  called  of  Jesus  Christ  :  To  all  that  be  in  Rome  be- 
loved of  God  :  Grace  to  you  and  peace  fronx  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


We  now  enter  upon  the  work  of  expo- 
sition. 

People,  in  reading  the  Bible,  are  often 
not  conscious  of  the  extreme  listiessness 
with  which  they  pa.ss  along  the  familiar 
'and  oft  repeated  words  of  Scripture,  with- 
out the  impression  of  their  meaning  being 
at  all  present  with  the  thoughts — and  how, 
during  the  mechanical  currency  of  the 
verses  through  their  lips,  the  thinking 
power  is  often  asleep  for  whole  passages 
together.  And  you  will  therefore  allow 
me,  at  least  at  the  commencement  of  this 
lectureship,  first  to  read  over  a  paragraph  ; 
and  then  to  fasten  the  import  of  certain 
of  its  particular  phrases  upon  your  atten- 
tion, even  though  these  phrases  may 
heretofore  have  been  regarded  as  so  in- 
telligible, that  you  never  thought  of  bes- 
towing an  effort  or  dwelling  one  moment 
upon  their  signification ;  and  then  of 
i^eading  the  passage  over  again,  in  such 
Extended  or  such  substituted  language,  as 
may  give  us  another  chance  of  the  sense 
/of  it  at  least  being  rivetted  on  your  under- 
/ standings.  We  shall  generally  endeavour 
to  press  home  upon  you,  in  the  way  of 
application,  some  leading  truth  or  argu- 
ment which  may  occur  in  any  such  por- 
tion of  the  epistle  as  we  may  have  been 
enabled  to  overtake. 

V.  1,  "  Paul  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ 
called  to  be  an  apostle  separated  unto  the 
gospel  of  God." 

An  apostle — one  who  is  sent,  one  who 
obtains,  not  a  commision  to  do,  but  a  com- 
mission to  go — 'Go  and  preach  the  gospel 
unto  every  creature.'  Jesus  Christ  is  an 
apostle — because  sent — and  is  therefore 
called  not  merely  the  High  Priest,  but  the 
Apostle  of  our  profession.  God  sent  his 
Son  unto  the  world.  The  call  of  Paul  you 
read  of  several  times  in  the  Acts,  both  in 
the  direct  narrative  of  that  book,  and  in  his 
own  account  of  it.  And  it  is  to  be  remark- 
ed that  as  he  got  his  commission  in  a  pe- 
culiar way,  so  he  evidently  feels  himself 
more  calleti  upon  than  the  other  apostles, 
to  assert  and  to  vindicate  its  authenticity. 
_  'Separated  unto' — set  apart  to  a  par- 
ticular work.  You  know  that  holiness,  in 
its  original  meaning,  just  signifies  separa- 
tion from  the  mass.  It  is  thus  that  the 
vessels  of  the  temple  are  holy — it  is  thus 
that  the  terms,  common  and  unclean,  are 
3 


held,  in  the  language  of  the  ceremonial 
law,  to  be  synonymous.  And  it  is  thus  that 
the  devoting,  or  setting  apart  of  an  apos- 
tle to  his  office,  is  expressed  by  the  con- 
secration of  him  to  it ;  and  even,  in  one 
part  of  the  New  Testament,  by  the  sancti- 
fying of  him  to  it.  This  explains  a  pas- 
sage that  might  be  otherwise  difficult, 
John  xvii,  17 — 20.  "  Sanctify  them  through 
thy  truth  :  thy  word  is  truth."  To  sanctify 
here  is  not  applied  to  the  personal,  but 
the  official  character.  It  is  not  to  moral- 
ize the  heart,  but  merely  to  set  apart  to 
an  employment ;  and  thus  bears  applica- 
tion to  the  apostle  Christ,  as  to  the  apos- 
tles whom  he  was  addressing. 

'  Gospel,'  a  message  of  good  news. 

V.  2.  "Which  He  had  promised  afore 
by  His  prophets  in  the  holy  scriptures." 

'  Which'  refers  to  gospel — which  gospel 
he  had  promised. 

V.  3.  "  Concerning  his  Son  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed  of 
David  according  to  the  flesh." 

This  verse  gives  us  the  subject  of  the 
message,  or  what  the  message  is  about — 
or,  omitting  the  second  verse  as  a  paren- 
thesis, '  separated  unto  the  work  of  pro- 
mulgating God's  message  of  good  news, 
about  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.' 
The  phrase  '  which  was  made'  might  have 
been  rendered  '  which  became'  of  the  seed 
of  David  in  respect  of  His  flesh,  or  His 
human  nature.  He  took  it  upon  Him.  He 
received  from  this  descent  all  that  other 
men  receive  of  natural  faculty — or,  in 
other  words,  the  term  flesh  comprehends 
the  human  soul  as  well  as  the  human  body 
of  our  Redeemer.  '  According  to/  is,  '  in 
respect  of,' 

V.  4.  "  And  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  with  power  according  the  spirit  of 
holiness  by  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead." 

'  Declared,'  or  dcterminately  marked 
out  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  with  power. 
The  thing  was  demonstrated  by  an  evi- 
dence, the  exhibition  of  which  required  a 
putting  forth  of  power,  which  Paul  in 
another  place  represents  as  a  very  great 
and  strenuous  exertion.  "  According  to 
the  working  of  His  mighty  power  when 
He  raised  Him  from  the  dead."  'The 
spirit  of  holiness' — or  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
was  through  the  operation  of  the  Holy 


18 


LECTURE    II. CHAPTER   I,    1 7. 


Spirit,  that  the  divine  nature  was  infused 
into  the  human  at  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  and  tlie  very  same  agent,  it  is  re- 
markable, was  employed  in  the  work  of 
the  resurrection.  'Put  to  death  in  the 
flesh,'  says  Peter,  'and  quickened  by  the 
Spirit.'  We  have  only  to  do  with  the  facts 
of  the  .case.  lie  was  demonstrated  to  be 
the  Son  of  God,  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit 
having  been  put  forth  in  raising  Him  from 
the  dead. 

V.  5.  "  By  whom  we  have  received 
grace  and  apostleship,  for  obedience  to 
the  faith  among  all  nations  for  his  name." 

'Grace,'  sometimes  signifies  the  kind- 
ness which  prompts  a  gift,  and  sometimes 
the  gift  itself.  We  say  that  we  receive 
kindness  from  a  man,  when,  in  fact,  all 
that  we  can  personally  and  bodily  lay 
hold  of,  is  the  fruit  of  his  kindness.  Here, 
it  signifies  the  fruit — a  spiritual  gift — ' 
ability,  in  fact,  to  discharge  the  office  of 
an  apostleship,  or  other  duties  attached  to 
an  apostle's  commission.  He  laboured 
with  success  at  this  vocation,  because  he 
could  strive  mightily  according  to  His 
working  that  wrought  in  him  mightily. 
This  commission  was  granted  to  him  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  an  obedience 
unto  the  faith  among  all  nations,  for  the 
purpose  of  rendering  all  nations  obedient 
unto  the  faith — and  all  this  for  the  further 
purpose  of  magnifying  His  name. 

V.  6.  "Among  whom  are  ye  also  the 
called  of  Jesus  Christ." 

'  Called'  externally — if  addressing  the 
whole  church,  of  whom  it  is  very  possible 
that  some  may  not  have  been  called  effec- 
tually. Or  if  restricted  as  in  the  follow- 
ing verse,  only  the  latter — though  he 
might  presume  to  address  all  in  visible 
communion  with  the  church  as  beloved  of 
God  and  as  called  to  be  saints. 

V.  7.  "To  all  that  be  in  Rome,  beloved 
of  God,  called  to  be  saints  :  Grace  to  you, 
and  peace,  from  God  our  Father,  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Loving  kindness  to 
you  is  manifested  in  those  peculiar  influ- 
ences which  the  Spirit  confers  on  believ- 
ers ;  and  either  real  peace,  or  a  sense  of 
it  in  your  hearts,  from  God  our  Father 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

So  minute  an  exposition  may  not  be 
called  for  afterwards :  we  may  not  there- 
fore persevere  in  it  long.  Vve  have  now 
gone  in  detail  over  the  words  that  seemed 
to  require  it,  to  prepare  the .  way  for 
repeating  the  whole  passage  to  you,  either 
in  extended  or  in  substituted  language. 
But  before  we  do  so,  we  would  bid  you 
remark  a  peculiarity,  which  we  often 
meet  with  in  the  compositions  of  this 
apostle.  He  deals  very  much  in  what 
might  be  called  the  excursive  style.  One 
word  often  suggests  to  him   a  train  of 


digression  from  the  main  current  of  his 
argument;  and  a  single  word  of  that  train 
often  suggests  to  him  another ;  and  thus 
does  he  accumulate  one  subsequent  clause 
of  an  episode  upon  a  foregoing ;  and 
branches  out  in  so  many  successive  de- 
partures, till,  after  a  period  of  indulgence 
in  this  way  of  it,  he  recalls  himself  and 
falls  in  again  to  the  capital  stream  of  his 
observations.  The  interval  between  the 
first  and  seventh  verses  may  be  looked  to, 
as  filled  up  with  a  set  of  parentheses ; 
and  they  will  read  therefore  very  well  in 
succession.  'Paul  a  servant  of  Jesus 
Christ,  called  to  be  an  apostle,  separated 
unto  the  gospel  of  God,  to  all  that  be  in 
Rome  beloved  of  God  called  to  be  saints  : 
grace  to  you  and  peace  from  God  our 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In 
like  manner,  several  of  the  intermediate 
verses  are  capable  of  being  omitted,  with- 
out breaking  the  line  of  continuity.  But 
the  occurrence  of  the  term  Gospel  at  the 
end  of  the  first  verse,  is  followed  up  in 
the  second  by  his  mention  of  the  antiquity 
of  it,  and  in  the  third  by  his  mention  of 
the  subject  of  it;  and  in  this  verse  the 
single  introduction  of  our  Saviour's  name, 
leads  him  to  assert  in  this  and  the  follow- 
ing verse  His  divine  and  human  natures, 
and  to  state  in  the  fifth  verse  that  from 
Him  he  had  received  a  commission  to 
preach  unto  all  nations,  and  to  instance 
in  the  sixth  verse  the  people  whom  he 
was  addressing  as  one  of  these  nations. 
And  it  is  not  till  after  he  has  completed 
this  circle  of  deviations,  but  at  the  same 
time  enriched  the  whole  of  its  course  with 
the  effusions  of  a  mind  stored  in  the  truths 
of  revelation,  that  he  resumes  in  the 
seventh  that  rectilineal  track,  by  which 
the  writer  who  announced  himself  in  the 
first  verse,  sends  in  the  seventh  his  Chris- 
tian salutations  to  the  correspondents 
whom  he  is  addressing. 

We  conclude  with  the  following  para- 
phrase. 

'  Paul  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called 
to  be  an  apostle,  and  set  apart  to  the 
work  of  conveying  God's  message  of  good 
tidings — which  message  He  had  promised 
before  in  His  holy  scriptures,  and  which 
message  relates  to  His  Son  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  who  in  respect  of  His  human 
nature,  was  descended  of  David — but  was 
evinced  to  be  descended  of  God  in  respect 
of  that  divine  nature  with  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  impregnated  His  humanity  at  the 
first ;  and  which  He  afterwards,  by  His 
power,  still  associated  with  His  humanity, 
in  raising  Him  from  the  dead.  By  this 
Jesus  Christ  have  I  received  the  favour  to 
be  an  apostle,  and  ability  for  the  office 
of  spreading  obedience  unto  the  faith 
among  all  nations  for  the  glory  of  His 


LECTrRE    in. CHAPTER    I,    8 17. 


19 


name.  Among  these  nations  are  ye  Ro-  and  called  to  be  saints,  do  I  wish  grace 
mans  also  the  called  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  ,and  peace  from  God  our  Father  and  the 
to  all  of  you  in  Rome,  beloved  of  God,  j  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


LECTURE  III. 


Romans  i,  8 — 17. 

"First,  I  thank  my  God  througli  Jesns  Christ  for  you  all,  that  your  faith  is  spoken  of  throughout  the  whole  world. 
For  God  ii  my  witness,  whom  I  serve  with  my  Spirit  in  the  gospel  of  his  Son,  that  without  ceasing  I  make  men- 
tion of  you  always  in  my  prayers  ;  making  request  (,f  by  any  means  now  at  length  I  might  have  a  prosperous 
journey  by  tlie  will  of  God)  to  come  unto  you.     For  I  long  to  see  you,  that  I  may  impart  unto  you  some  spiritual 

fift,  to  the  end  ye  may  be  established  ;  that  is,  that  I  may  be  comforted  together  with  you,  by  the  mutual  faith 
oth  of  you  a.id  me.  Now  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren,  that  oftentimes  I  purposed  to  come  unto 
you,  (but  was  let  hitherto.)  that  I  might  have  some  fruit  among  you  also,  even  as  among  other  Gentiles.  I  am  a 
debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  tlje  Barbarians,  both  to  the  viise  and  to  the  unwise.  !So,  as  much  as  in  me  is,  I 
am  ready  to  preach  the  gospel  to  you  that  are  at  Rome  also.  For  I  am  not  a.'hamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ :  for 
it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth  ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Greek,  For 
therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed  from  faith  to  faith  :  as  it  is  written,  The  just  shall  live  by  faith." 


It  does  not  require  much  in  the  way  of 
exposition  to  set  forth  the  meaning  of 
these  verses.  The  spiritual  gift,  men- 
tioned in  the  11th  verse,  is  one  of  those 
gifts  by  the  Holy  Gho.st,  which  the  apos- 
tles had  it  in  their  power  to  transmit  to 
their  di.sciples — a  power  which  seems  to 
have  signalized  them  above  all  the  Chris- 
tians of  that  period.  Many  could  speak 
tongues  and  work  miracles ;  but  they 
could  not  make  others  either  speak  tongues 
or  work  niiracles.  The  gifts  themselves 
it  was  competent  for  them  to  have,  6^ut  not 
the  faculty  of  communicating  them.  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  peculiar  preroga- 
tive of  apostles — which  Simon  Magus  de- 
sired to  have,  but  could  not  purchase.  It 
was  thus,  perhaps,  that  an  apostolical  visit 
was  necessary  for  the  introduction  of 
these  powers  into  any  church  or  congre- 
gation of  Christians  ;  and,  if  so,  we  would 
infer  that  the  season  of  miracles  must 
have  passed  away  with  those  Christians, 
who  had  been  in  personal  contact  with, 
and  were  the  immediate  descendants  of  the 
apostles  of  our  Lord.  They  left  the  gift 
of  miracles  behind  them — but  if  they  did 
not  leave  the  power  of  transmitting  this 
gift  behind  them,  it  might  have  disappear- 
ed with  the  dying  away  of  all  those  men 
on  whom  they  had  actually  laid  their 
hands. 

In  the  14th  verse,  the  phrase  *I  am 
debtor,'  may  be  turned  into  the  phrase — 
'I  am  bound'  or  'I  am  under  obligation,' 
laid  upon  me  by  the  duties  of  my  office, 
to  preach  both  to  Greeks  and  Barbarians, 
both  to  the  wise  and  the  unwise.  '  Woe 
unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel' — a 
necessity  is  laid  upon  me. 

The  only  other  phrase  that  requires  ex- 
planation, and  about  which  indeed  there 
is  a  difference  of  interpretation,  is  in  the 
17th  verse- -' from  faith  to  faith.'    There 


is  one  sense  assigned  to  this  expression, 
very  consistent  certainly  with  the  general 
truth  of  the  gospel — but  which  can  scarcely 
be  admitted  in  this  place,  save  by  that  kind 
of  hurried    acquiescence,    which    is   too 
often  rendered  on  the  part  of  those,  who 
like  no  better  way  of  disposing  of  a  pas- 
sage than  to  get  over  it  easily.    The  right- 
eousness of  God  is  certainly  that,  in  which 
He  hath  appointed  us  sinners  to  appear 
before  Him  ;  and  which  is  the  only  right- 
eousness that  He   will   accept  of  at  our 
hands,  as  our  meritorious  title  to  His  fa- 
vour and  friendship.     Now  it  is  very  true, 
that    this     righteousness     becomes    ours 
wholly  by  faith,  that  by  faith  it  is  receiv- 
ed on  our  pari,  and  by  faith  it  is  retained 
on  our  part ;  and  that  neither  works  be- 
fore faith,  nor   works  after  it,  have  any 
part  in  our  justification — and  that,  there- 
fore,  it  is  not  by  passing  onwards  from 
fiiith  to  works  that  we  further  the  concern 
of   our    justifying    righteousness   before 
God;  but  only  by  holding  fast  the  begin- 
ning of  our  confidence  even  unto  the  end, 
and  not  casting  it  away  ;  and  if  there  be 
any   lack   in   our  faith,   perfecting   that 
Avhich  is  lacking  therein — so  that  it  may 
hold  true  of  us,  as  it  did  of  the  primitive 
Christians,  of  whom  it  was  recorded  that 
their    faith    grovveth   exceedingly.      And 
with  these   views  in  tlieir  mind,  do  some 
hold,  that  the  righteousness  of  God  being 
revealed  from  faith  to  faith,  signifies  that 
as  it  is  made  known  and  discerned  at  first 
in  the  act  of  our  believing,  so  the  revela- 
tion of  it  becomes  more  distinct  and  ma- 
nifest, just  as  the  faith  becomes  stronger 
— the  things  to  be  discerned  being  seen  in 
greater  brightness  and   evidence,  as  the 
organ  of  discernment  grows  in  clearness 
and  power — not,  say  they,  from  faith  unto 
works,  but  from  faith  to  faith — marking 
what  is  very  true,  that  our  righteousness 


20 


LECTURE   III. — CHAPTER   I,    8 — 17. 


before  God,  regarded  as  the  giver  of  a 
perfect  and  incommutable  law,  is  wholly 
by  faith. 

2.  Nothwithstanding  however  of  all  the 
undoubted  truth  and  principle  which  stand 
associated  with  this  interpretation,  we 
think  that  there  are  others  more  simple 
and  obvious.  Paul  had  already  spoken 
of  a  transmission  of  faith  from  himself  to 
those  whom  he  was  addressing,  and  of  a 
constant  mutual  faith  between  himself 
and  them  :  and  he  tells  us  elsewhere  of 
faith  coming  by  hearing,  and  asks  how 
can  people  believe  unless  preachers  be 
sent ;  and  he  announces  his  determination 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  those  who  are  in 
Rome  also;  and  professes  his  own  faitli 
in  the  gospel,  under  the  affirmation  that 
he  is  not  ashamed  of  it ;  and  declares  its 
great  subject  to  be  the  righteousness  of 
God,  revealed,  as  some  are  disposed  to 
understand  it,  from  the  faith  of  the  preach- 
er to  the  faith  of  the  hearers.  Others 
would  have  it  to  mean  that  this  righteous- 
ness is  revealed  by  the  faithfulness  of  God, 
to  the  faith  of  men. 

3.  But  to  our  mind  the  best  interpreta- 
tion is  obtained  by  conjoining  the  term 
righteousness  with  the  phrase  in  question. 
For  therein  is  revealed,  the  righteousness 
of  God  from  faith,  to  faith.  We  shall  thus 
have  revealed  in  the  gospel,  6iKaotavvri  ck 
Tov  TTtTTsoji,  whlch  is  thc  righteousness 
from  of  or  by  faith ;  and  the  gift  of  which 
is  £ij  Tnarriv  ov  to  faith.  This  is  quite  at 
one  with  the  affirmation  of  a  subsequent 
passage,  that  "the  righteousness  which  is 
by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  unto  all  and 
upon  all  that  believe,"  or  the  righteous- 
ness which  is  by  f.iith  is  unto  those  who 
have  the  faith.  As  it  is  written,  the  righte- 
ous live,  or  hold  that  life  which  was  for- 
feited under  the  law  and  is  restored  to 
them  under  the  gospel,  by  faith. 

We  now  offer  the  following  paraphrase. 

'First  I  thank  my  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  for  you  all,  that  your  faith  is  in  the 
mouths  of  all.  For  God  whom  I  serve 
with  ray  whole  heart,  in  the  business  that 
He  has  committed  to  mc  of  forwarding 
His  Son's  gospel,  can  testify  that  I  never 
cease  to  make  mention  of  you  in  all  my 
prayers — making  request,  if  it  now  be 
possible  in  any  way,  that  I  may  at  length, 
after  unlocked  for  delay,  have  with  ilis 
will  a  prosperous  journey  to  you  at  Rome. 
For  I  long  to  see  you,  that  I  may  in  per- 
son and  as  a  sign  of  my  apostloship,  im- 
part to  you  some  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
in  order  to  confirm  your  minds  in  the 
faith  of  this  gospel.  Or  rather,  that  I 
may  be  comforted,  as  well  as  you  be  con- 
firmed, by  the  exercises  and  the  sympa- 
thies of  our  mutual  faith.  Now  you  must 
know,  brethren,  that  it  has  been  long  my 
purpose  to  come  to  you,  but  I  have  hitherto 


been  prevented,  that  I  might  have  some 
effects  of  my  ministry  among  you  also, 
even  as  among  the  other  nations  where  I 
have  laboured.  1  have  not  yet  visited  the 
seat  of  philosophy,  nor  come  into  contact 
with  its  refined  and  literary  people.  But 
I  count  myself  as  much  bound  to  declare 
the  gospel  to  Greeks,  or  to  men  of  Attic 
cultivation  and  acquirement,  as  to  rude 
and  ignorant  barbarians — as  much  to  the 
learned  in  this  world's  wisdom,  as  to  the 
unlearned.  So  that,  as  far  as  it  lies  with 
me,  I  am  quite  in  readiness  to  preach  the 
gospel  even  to  you  who  are  at  Rome.  For 
I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ 
— and,  in  the  work  of  declaring  it,  am  as 
ready  to  face  the  contempt  and  the  self- 
sufliciency  of  science,  as  to  go  round  with 
it  among  those  more  docile  and  acqui- 
escing tribes  of  our  species,  who  have  less 
of  fancied  wisdom  in  themselves  with 
which  to  confront  it.  For  it  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  the  salvation  of  all  who  be- 
lieve. It  is  that,  which,  however  judged 
and  despised  as  a  weak  instrument  by  the 
men  of  this  world,  it  is  that  to  which  He, 
by  His  power,  gives  effect  for  the  recovery 
of  that  life  which  all  men  had  forfeited 
and  lost  by  sin — and  which  can  only  be 
restored  by  a  righteousness  which  will  do 
away  the  whole'"  effect  of  this  sin.  Who- 
soever believeth  in  the  gospel  shall  be 
saved,  by  having  this  life  rendered  back 
to  him,  whether  he  be  Jew  or  Greek.  For 
the  gospel  makes  known  tlie  righteousness 
appointed  by  God — a  righteousness  by 
faith,  and  which  is  unto  all  who  have 
faith — as  it  is  written  that  the  righteous, 
and  those  only  are  so  who  have  that 
righteousness  which  God  will  accept, 
have  it  unto  spiritual  life  here  and  unto 
eternal  life  hereafter  by  faith.' 

It  will  not  be  our  general  practice  to 
embarrass  you  with  many  interpretations 
of  the  same  passage  ;  and  we  do  it  at 
present,  only  for  the  purpose  of  ushering 
in  the  following  observation.  There  do 
occur  a  few  ambiguous  phrases  in  Scrip- 
ture;  and  this  is  quite  consistent  with 
such  a  state  of  revelation  there,  as  that 
the  great  and  essential  truths  which  are 
unto  salvation  shall  stand  as  clearly  and 
as  legibly  on  the  face  of  the  evangelical 
record,  as  if  written  with  a  sun- beam. 
And  whereas  there  may  enter  into  your 
minds  a  feeling  of  insecurity,  when  you 
behold  men  of  scholarship  at  variance 
about  the  meaning  of  one  of  those  doubt- 
ful expressions,  we  call  you  to  remark 
how  much  the  controversy  betweep  them 
is,  in  man)'^  instances,  restricted  merely  to 
what  the  subject  of  the  expression  is,  and 
not  to  what  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  is 
upon  that  subject.  Thus  controversialists 
may  all  be  at  one  about  the  scriptural 
doctrine  on  every  given  topic,  though  they 


LECTURE   III. — CHAPTER    I,    8 17. 


21 


may  not  be  at  one  as  to  the  question — 
what  is  the  topic  which  in  this  particular 
clause  is  here  adverted  to.  The  first  class 
of  interpreters,  about  the  meaning  of  the 
ambiguous  phrase  in  the  17th  verse  of 
this  chapter,  may  think  that  it  relates  to 
the  doctrine  of  our  justification  being 
wholly  of  faith  ;  and  that  it  retains  this 
as  its  alone  footing,  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  an  advanced  Christian,  as  he 
makes  progress  both  in  faith  and  in  the 
works  of  righteousness ;  and  they  may 
not  think  that  it  relates  to  the  topic  as- 
signed, either  by  the  second  or  third  class 
of  interpreters  ;  and  yet  they  may  be  en- 
tirely at  one  with  both,  in  the  judgment 
and  understanding  they  have  on  each  of 
the  topics — concurring  with  the  second  in 
the  general  truth  that  a  frequent  and  es- 
tablished way  for  the  propagation  of  faith 
in  the  world,  is  by  its  passing  from  him 
who  speaks  to  him  who  listens,  and  who 
in  the  act  of  listening  becomes  a  believer 
— and  concurring  also  with  the  third  in 
their  general  prmciple,  that  the  righteous- 
ness appointed  by  God  for  a  sinner  to 
appear  in  His  presence,  is  constituted,  not 
by  working  but  by  believing,  and  that  it 
is  transferred  as  a  possession  unto  all  who 
believe.  They,  one  and  all  of  them,  may 
have  tlie  same  mind  upon  the  same  topics 
— because  shone  upon  in  the  same  way, 
by  the  light  of  many  other  express  and 
undoubted  testimonies  about  these  topics, 
which  lie  up  and  down  in  the  Bible ;  and 
the  only  question  of  disputation  between 
them  may  be,  which  of  these  particular 
topics  happens  to  be  the  theme  of  the 
apostle  in  the  passage  before  us — a  very 
Subordinate  question,  you  will  observe,  to 
that  more  vital  and  essential  one,  which 
relates  to  the  meaning  of  an  article  of 
faith — a  question  about  which  there  may 
be  varieties  of  sentiment  among  men,  who 
are  substantially  at  one  in  all  that  relates 
to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  And  we 
think  that  it  ought  to  quell  your  appre- 
hensions, and  to  reduce  the  estimate  you 
may  have  previously  made  of  those  con- 
troversies among  good  men,  which  some 
would  represent  as  quite  endless  and  in- 
extricable, when  you  are  thus  made  to 
understand,  that,  in  a  very  great  number 
of  cases  they  refer,  not  to  what  the  whole 
amount  of  the  Bible  testimony  is  about 
this  one  or  that  other  portion  of  the  theo- 
logical creed — but  to  what  the  position  is 
which  is  specially  taken  up  or  adverted 
to  in  some  of  the  incidental  or  subordi- 
nate passages.  There  is  nothing  to  alarm 
or  to  unsettle  in  those  lesser  diversities 
which  we  are  now  alluding  to.  Nay  it 
ought  rather  to  establish  your  confidence, 
when  you  see  that  these  diversities  are 
held  by  the  very  men  who  hold  the  great 
priaciples  of  Christianity  in  common — 


by  men  who,  in  thus  dissenting  from  each 
other  on  particular  passages,  evince  that 
to  each  of  them  there  belongs  the  habit 
of  independent  thinking — and  who  thus 
stamp  the  value  of  so  many  distinct  and 
independent  testimonies,  on  those  great 
doctrines  which  they  have  received  from 
the  light  of  many  passages,  and  by  which 
they  are  united  in  the  profession  of  one 
Faith  and  one  Lord  and  one  Baptism. 

A  controversy  about  the  doctrine  of  a 
particular  passage  is  one  thing.  A  con- 
troversy about  the  truth  of  a  particular 
doctrine  is  another.  The  one  implies  a 
difference  of  understanding,  about  the 
sense  of  one  passage.  The  other  may 
imply  a  difference  of  understanding,  about 
the  general  voice  and  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture as  made  up  of  many  passages. 

Let  us  now  pass  on  from  our  exposition 
of  the  meaning  of  words,  to  our  applica- 
tion of  the  matter  that  is  conveyed  by 
them.  And  here  we  have  only  time  to 
advert  to  the  aflection  and  the  strenuous- 
ness  with  which  the  apostolic  mind  of 
Paul  gave  itself  up  to  apostolic  business — 
how  he  rebukes  by  his  example  those 
who  make  the  work  of  winning  souls  to 
Christ  a  light  and  superficial  concern — 
how  his  whole  man  seems  to  have  been 
engrossed  by  it — making  it  a  matter  of 
gratitude  when  he  heard  of  its  prosperity 
— making  it  a  matter  of  prayer  when  he 
desired  its  furtherance — making  it  a  mat- 
ter of  active  personal  exertion  when  it 
required  his  presence  or  his  labour.  To 
this  work  he  gave  himself  wholly ;  and, 
by  adding  prayer  to  the  ministry  of  the 
word,  teaches  us  how  much  the  effect  of 
this  ministry  is  due  to  those  special 
influences,  which  are  called  down  from 
Heaven  by  the  urgency  of  special  appli- 
cations sent  up  from  believers  in  the 
world.  There  is  one  trait  of  his  mind, 
which  frequently  breaks  out  in  his  com- 
munications with  his  own  converts.  He 
is  sometimes  obliged  to  affirm  his  apostolic 
superiority  over  them,  or  to  say  some- 
thing which  implies  it.  But  it  is  evident 
how  much  he  recoils  from  such  an  as- 
sumption ;  and  how  it  .sets  him  to  the 
expressions  and  the  expedients  of  deli- 
cacy, with  a  view  to  soften  the  disparity 
between  himself  and  his  di.sciples ;  and 
how  he  likes  to  address  them  in  the  terms 
of  equal  and  friendly  companionship — 
dropping  upon  all  ppssible  occasions  the 
character  of  the  teacher  in  that  of  the 
fellow  Christian  ;  and  never  feeling  so 
comfortably  in  his  intercourse  with  them, 
as  when  he  places  himself  on  the  level  of 
their  common  hopes  and  common  sympa- 
thies and  common  infirmities.  It  is  alto- 
gether, we  apprehend,  such  a  movement 
of  humility  on  the  part  of  Paul,  that  lies 
at  the  transition  from  the  eleventh  verse 


22 


LECTURE  in. — CHAPTER   I,    8 — 17. 


which  signalizes  him  above  the  whole 
church,  to  the  twelfth  which  brings  him 
down  to  a  participation  of  the  same  faith 
and  the  same  comfort  with  them  all. 

We  shall  not  at  present,  bring  forth  any 
remark  on    a    phrase,  which  occurs  fre- 
quently in  this  epistle,  'the  righteousness 
of  God' — for  we  shall  have  a  freer  and  a 
fuller  opportunity  of  doing  so  afterwards. 
But  let  us  not  pass  over  the  intrepidity  of 
Paul,  in  the  open  and  public  avowal  of 
his  Christianity.     We  call  it  intrepidity, 
though  he  speaks  not  here  of  having  to 
encounter  violence,  but  only  of  having  to 
encounter  shame.  (For,  in  truth,  it  is  often 
a  higher  effort  and  evidence  of  intrepidity, 
to  front  disgrace,  than  it  is  to  front  danger. 
There  is  many  a  man  who  would  march 
up  to  the  cannon's  mouth  for  the  honour 
of  his  country — yet  would  not  face   the 
laugh  of  his   companions  for  the  honour 
of  his  Saviour.  3  We  doubt  not  that  there 
are  individuals  here  present,  who  if  the 
Turkish    armada   were    wafted    on    the 
wings  of  conquest  to  our  shores,  and  the 
ensigns  of  Mahomet  were  proudly  to  wave 
over  the  fallen  faith  of  our  ancestors,  and 
they  were  plied  with  all  the  devices  of 
eastern   cryelty  to  abjure   the  name  of 
Christian,   and   do   homage   to   the  false 
prophet — there  are  individuals  here,  whose 
courage   would   bear   them    in    triumph 
through  such  a  scene  of  persecuting  vio- 
lence ;  and  yet  whose  courage  fails  them 
every  day,  in  the  softer  scenes  of  their 
social    and   domestic  history.     The  man 
who  under  the  excitements  of  a  formal 
and  furious  persecution,  was  brave  enough 
to  be  a  dying  witness  to  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus,  crouches  into  all  the  timidity  of 
silence  under  the  omnipotency  of  fashion  ; 
and    ashamed    of    the   Saviour   and    His 
words,  recoils  in  daily  and  familiar  con- 
versation from  the  avowals  of  a  living 
witness  for  His  name.)  There  is  as  much 
of  the  truly  heroic  in  not  being  ashamed 
of  the   profession    of    the   gospel,  as   in 
not  being  afraid  of  it.     Paul  was  neither: 
and  yet  when  we  think  of  what  he  once 
was   in   literature ;    and   how   aware   he 
must  have  been  of  the  loftiness  of  its  con- 
tempt  for   the   doctrine    of   a    crucified 
Saviour ;   and   that   in  Rome  the  whole 
power  and  bitterness  of  its  derisions  were 
awaiting  him  ;  and  that  the  main  weapon 
with  which   he   had   to   confront   it  was 
such  an  argument  as  looked  to  be  foolish- 
ness  to   the   wisdom   pf  this    world — we 
doubt    not  that    the   disdain  inllicted    by 
philosophy,  was  naturally  as  formidable  to 
the  mind  of  this  apostle,  as  the  death  in- 
flicted by  the  arm  of  bloody  violence.     So 
that  even  now,  and  in  the  age  when  Chris- 
tianity has  no  penalties  and  no   proscrip- 
tions  to   keep  her  down,  still,  if  all   that 
deserves  the  name  of  Christianity  be  explo- 


ded from  conversat)on — if  a  visible  embar- 
rassment run  through  a  company,  when  its 
piety  or  its  doctrine  is  introduced  among 
them — if,  among  beings  rapidly  moving 
towards  immortality,  any  serious  allusion 
to  the  concerns  of  immortality  stamps  an 
oddity  on  tiie  character  of  him  who  brings 
it  forward — if,  through  a  tacit  but  firm 
compact  which  regulates  the  intercourse  of 
this  world,  the  gospel  is  as  eflectually 
banished  from  the  ordinary  converse  of 
society,  as  by  the  edicts  of  tyranny  the 
profession  of  it  was  banished  in  the  days 
of  Claudius  from  Rome : — then  he  who 
would  walk  in  his  Christian  integrity 
among  tiie  men  of  this  lukewarm  and 
degenerate  age — he  who  would  do  all  and 
say  all  in  the  name  of  Jesus — he  who,  in 
obedience  to  his  Bible,  would  season  with 
grace  and  with  that  which  is  to  the  use  of 
edifying  the  whole  tenor  of  his  communi- 
cations— he,  in  short,  who,  rising  above 
that  meagre  and  mitigated  Christianit)^, 
which  is  as  remote  as  Paganism  from  the 
real  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament, 
would,  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  heart, 
without  shrinking  and  without  shame, 
speak  of  the  things  which  pertain  to  the 
kingdom  of  God — he  will  find  that  there 
are  trials  still,  which,  to  some  tempera- 
ments, are  as  fierce  and  as  fiery  as  any  in 
the  days  of  martyrdom  :  and  that,  however 
in  some  select  and  peculiar  walk  he  may 
find  a  few  to  sympathize  with  him,  yet 
many  are  the  families  and  many  are  the 
circles  of  companionship,  where  the  per- 
secution of  contempt  calls  for  determina- 
tion as  strenuous,  and  for  firmness  as 
manly,  as  ever  in  the  most  intolerant  agc^s 
of  our  church  did  the  persecution  of  direct 
and  personal  violence.^ 

And  let  it  be  remarked  too,  that,  in 
becoming  a  Christian  now,  the  same  tran- 
sition is  to  be  made  from  one  style  of  sen- 
timent to  another,  wliich  was  made  by  the 
apostle.  It  is  as  much  the  cllbrt  of  nature, 
as  it  ever  was  of  a  corrupt  and  ignorant 
Judaism,  to  seek  to  establish  a  righteous- 
ness of  its  own;  and,  in  passing  from  a 
state  of  nature  to  that  of  grace,  tlierc  must 
still  be  a  renouncing  of  that  rigJiteousness, 
and  a  transference  of  our  trust  and  of 
our  entire  dependence  to  another.  Now, 
in  the  act  of  making  that  passage,  there 
is  also  the  very  same  encounter  with  this 
world's  ridicule  and  observation,  which 
the  apostle  had  to  brave ;  and  which,  on 
the  strength  of  right  and  resolute  princi- 
ple, the  apostle  overcame.  The  man  who 
hopes  to  get  to  heaven  by  a  good  li.fe,  and 
who  professes  himself  to  be  secure  on  the 
strength  of  his  many  virtues  and  his  many 
decencies,  and  who  dislikes  both  the  mys- 
tery and  the  seri(5usncss  which  stand  as- 
sociated with  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith  alone — such  a  man  has  no  more 


LECTURE    III. CHAPTER   I,    8 17. 


23 


Christianity,  than  what  he  may  easily  and 
familiarly  show — and  in  sporting  such 
sentiments,  even  among  the  most  giddy 
and  unthinitingof  this  world's  generations 
he  will  neither  disgrace  himself  by  singu- 
larity nor  be  resisted  as  the  author  of  any 
invasion  whatever  on  the  general  style 
and  spirit  of  this  world's  companies.  But 
should  he  pass  from  this  condition,  which 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  that  of  a 
Pharisee  in  disguise;  and,  struck  by  a 
sense  of  spiritual  nakedness,  flee  for  refuge 
to  another  righteousness  than  his  own  ; 
and  seek  for  justification  by  foith.a  privi- 
lege which  is  rendered  to  faith ;  and 
profess  now,  that  he  hopes  to  get  to  heaven 
by  the  obedience  unto  death  which  has 
been  rendered  for  him  by  their  great 
Mediator — such  a  style  of  utterance  as 
this,  would  serve  greatly  more  to  pecu- 
liarize  a  man  among  the  conversations  of 
society — these  are  the  words  of  Christ  of 
which  he  is  greatly  apt  to  be  more 
ashamed.  A  temptation  meets  him  here, 
which  no  doubt  met  the  apostle,  when  his 
Christianity  first  came  to  be  known  among 
those  fellow-students  who  had  been  trained 
along  with  him  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel ; 
and  it  is  at  that  point  when,  for  the  Jewish 
principle  of  self-righteousness  he  adopts 
the  evangelical  principle  of  justification 
by  faith — it  is  then  that  he  becomes  more 
an  outcast  than  before,  from  the  toleration 
and  sympathy  of  unconverted  men.\ 

Let  the  same  consideration  uphold  such 
that  upheld  the  mind  of  the  apostle.  All 
that  you  possibly  can  do,  for  the  purpose 
of  substantiating  a  claim  upon  Heaven,  is 
but  the  weakness  of  man,  idly  straining 
after  a  salvation  which  he  will  miss. 
Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and, 
however'' simple  the  expedient,  the  power 
and  the  promise  of  God  are  on  the  side  of 
your  obtaining  salvation  which  will  cer- 
tainly be  accomplished.  The  Syrian  was 
affronted  when  told  to  dip  himself  in 
Jordan  for  the  cure  of  his  leprosy ;  and 
to  ruany  in  like  manner  is  it  a  subject  of 
offence,  when  told  to  wash  out  their  sins 
in  the  blood  of  the  atonement — calling  on 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  But  the  same 
power  which  gave  efficacy  to  the  one 
expedient,  gives  efficacy  to  the  other ;  and 
in  such  a  way  too,  as  to  invest  that 
method  of  salvation  which  looks  mean- 
ness and  foolishness  to  the  natural  eye — 
to  invest  it  with  the  solemn  venerable 
imposing  character  of  God's  asserted 
majesty,  of  God's  proclaimed  and  vindi- 
cated righteousness. 


And  here  let  us  remark  the  whole  im- 
port of  the  term  salvation.  The  power 
of  God  in  the  achievement  of  it  was  put 
forth  in  something  more  than  in  bowing 
down  the  Divinity  upon  our  world,  and 
there  causing  it  to  sustain  the  burden  of 
the  world's  atonement — in  something  more 
than  the  conflicts  of  the  garden  or  the 
agonies  of  the  cross — in  something  more 
than  the  resurrection  of  the  crucified 
Saviour  from  His  tomb — in  something 
more  than  the  consequent  expunging  of 
every  believer's  name  from  the  book  of 
condemnation,  and  the  inscribing  of  it  in 
the  book  of  life.  There  is  a  power  put 
forth  on  the  person  of  believers.  There 
is  the  working  of  a  mighty  power  to 
usward  who  believe.  There  is  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  spiritual  resurrection  upon  every 
one  of  them.  By  the  sprinkling  of  the 
blood  of  Christ,  the  power  of  which  is  ap- 
plied to  every  soul  that  has  faith,  there  is 
a  cleansing  of  that  soul  from  its  moral 
and  spiritual  leprosy.  And  hence  a  con- 
nection between  two  things,  which  to  the 
world's  eye  looks  incomprehensible — a 
connection  between  faith,  which  it  might 
be  feared  would  have  led  to  indolent 
security  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  most 
thorough  substantial  pervading  reforma- 
tion of  heart  and  conduct  on  the  other. 
The  expedient  does  not  appear  a  likely 
one  to  the  eye  of  nature.  But  the  power 
of  God  stamps  an  efficacy  upon  it ;  and 
He  has  multiplied  in  all  ages  of  the  church 
the  living  examples  of  marked  and  illus- 
trious virtue  in  the  person  of  believers  ; 
and  has  held  them  forth  to  the  world  as 
trophies  of  the  power  of  the  gospel ;  and 
has  put  to  silence  the  gainsayers  ;  and 
afforded  matter  of  glory  to  the  friends  of 
the  truth;  and  upheld  them  in  the  princi- 
ple and  purpose  not  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 

We  conclude  with  that  awful  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Saviour.  "He  who  is  ashamed 
of  me  befoi'e  this  evil  and  adulterous 
generation — of  him  will  I  be  ashamed 
before  my  holy  angels." 

In  the  last  clause  "the  just  shall  live 
by  faith" — we  are  apt  to  conceive  of  jus- 
tice as  a  personal  and  inherent  attribute. 
In  the  original,  the  term  for  just  has  the 
same  root  with  the  term  for  righteousness 
— and  this  strengthens  our  impression  of 
the  true  meaning  here,  which  is,  that  they 
who  are  r^hteous  with  the  righteousness 
of  God,  mentioned  in  the  same  verse,  and 
who  in  virtue  of  being  so  have  a  title 
and  a  security  for  life,  hold  that  life  by 
faith. 


24 


LECTURE   rV. CHAPTER   I,    18 — 24. 


LECTURE  IV. 

Romans  i,  18—24. 

"For  (he  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  Heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men,  who  hold  the 
truth  in  unriehtcousncss  ;  because  tliat  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them  :  for  God  hath  showed  it 
unto  tlicm.  l^or  the  invisible  things  of  him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eti'rnal  power  and  Godhead ;  so  that  they  are  without  excuse ;  because  that, 
when  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  him  not  as  God,  neitlierwere  thankful;  but  became  vain  in  their  imagina- 
tions, and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened.  I'rofe.-ising  themselves  to  1  e  wise,  they  became  fools,  and  changed  the 
glory  of  the  uncorruptible  God  into  an  image  made  like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds,  and  four-footed  l)easts, 
and  creeping  things.  Wherefore  God  also  gave  them  up  to  unclianness,  through  the  lusts  of  their  own  hearts,  to 
dishonour  their  own  bodies  between  themselves." 


The  word  translated  here  'to  hold,' 
signifies  not  merely  to  hold,  but  to  hold 
fast.  .Now  this  may  be  done  for  the  pur- 
pose of  keeping  in  secure  possession  that 
which  you  wish  to  retain.  -  And  so  this  is 
the  word  in  that  place  where  they  who 
receive  the  word  are  said  to  ^'■'keej)  it,  and 
bring  forth  fruit  with  patience  ;"''=  and 
where  the  Corinthians  are  praised  by 
Paul  because  they  observed  "  to  remember 
him  in  all  things,  and  to  keep  the  ordi- 
nances which  he  had  delivered  them  ;"f 
and  where  he  tells  them,  that  they  are 
saved  if  they  ^'keej)  in  memory,  that  which 
he  had  preached  unto  them  ;"t  and  where 
he  bids  the  Thessalonians  "/loZfZ  fast  that 
which  is  good  ;"5  and  where  he  informs 
the  Hebrews,  that  Christ  dvvelleth  in  them, 
if  they  '■'■hold  fast  the  conlidence  and  the 
rejoicing  of  the  hope  firm  unto  the  end  ;"|| 
and  also  that  we  are  made  partakers  of 
Christ,  if  "we  hold  the  beginning  of  our 
confidence  steadfast  unto  the  end  ;"ir  and 
finally,  where  he  encourages  them  to 
"hold  fast  the  profession  of  their  faith 
without  wavering."**  It  is  not  in  the 
sense  of  tlie  word  in  any  of  these  passages 
that  we  are  to  understand  it  liere.  They 
who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness,  do 
not  hold  it  for  the  sake  of  keeping  it  in 
possession,  as  an  article  wiiich  they 
valued ;  and  therefore  were  desirous  of 
retaining  in  safe  and  cherfshed  custody. 

Or  one  may  hold  fast  for  the  pupose  of 
confining  or  keeping  down,  so  as  to  im- 
pede and  repress  that  which  is  thus  con- 
fined, from  the  putting  forth  of  its  ener- 
gies. And  accordingly  this  is  the  very 
word  which  Paul  uses,  when  he  says  to 
the  Tliessalonians,  "And  now  ye  k<iow 
what  wilhholdelh  that  he  might  be  revealed 
in  his  time.  For  the  mystery  of  iniquity 
doth  already  work ;  only  he  who  now 
letlelh  will  let  until  he  be  taken  out  of  the 
way. "ft  He  alludes  to  something  that  so 
confined  Antichrist,  as  to  keep  him  back — 
so  that  he  came  not  out  into  full  and  irn- 
rnediate  manifestation.  It  is  in  this  second 
sense  that  men  hold  the  truth  in  unright- 


•  Luke  viii,  1.5.  t  1  Cor.  xi,  2.  J  1  Cor.  xv.  2. 

§  1  Thes.  V,  21.  11  Heb.  iii,  6.  V  Hob,  iii,  14. 

**  Heb.  X,  23.  tt  1  Thess.  ii,  6,  7. 


eousness.  They  have  the  truth — they  are 
in  possession  of  it.  But  they  keep  it  down. 
They  chain  it,  as  it  were,  in  the  prison- 
hold  of  their  own  corruption.s.  They 
throw  the  troublesome  adviser  into  a  dun- 
geon— just  like  a  man  who  has  a  con- 
science to  inform  him  of  what  is  right,  but 
who  stifles  its  voice,  and  brings  it  under 
bondage  to  the  domineering  ascendancy 
of  passion  and  selfishness  and  all  the  law- 
less appetites  of  his  nature.  Thus  it  is 
with  men  who  i-estrain  the  truth,  or  sup- 
press the  truth  in  unrighteousness. 

V.  19.  "That  which  is  knowable  of 
God,  is  manifest  among  them." 

V.  20.  "  For  ever  since  the  creation  of 
the  world,  that  great  manifestation  of 
God's  power  and  Godhead,  these  invisible 
things  of  Him  are  clearly  seen." 

V.  21.  "In  their  reasoning.s." 

The  following  then  is  the  paraphrase 
of  this  passage.  '  For  the  wrath  of  God 
is  revealed  from  Heaven  against  .all  un- 
godliness and  unrighteousness  of  men, 
who  stifle  the  truth  in  unrighteousness. 
Because  that  which  might  be  known  of 
God  is  manifest  among  them — for  God 
hath  shown  it  to  them.  For  the  invisible 
things  respecting  Him,  even  His  eternal 
power  and  Godhead,  are  clearly  seen — 
being  discernible  from  the  things  that  are 
made,  so  as  to  render  them  inexcusable. 
Because  when  they  did  know  God,  they 
did  not  do  Him  glory  as  to  God,  neither 
were  they  thankful  to  Him  ;  but  depart- 
ing from  the  grave  and  solemn  and  sim- 
ple reliance  that  was  due  to  the  Creator, 
they  went  into  vain  reasonings  about 
Him,  and  so  changed  the  truth  into  a  de- 
ceitful imagination,  and  their  foolish  heart 
was  darkened.  In  the  profession,  and  in 
the  prosecution  of  wisdom,  they  became 
fools  :  And  changed  the  glory  of  the  in- 
corruptible God  into  an  image  made  like 
to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds,  and  four- 
footed  beasts  and  creeping  thing.s.' 
'  Our  first  remark  on  the  subject  matter 
of  this  passage,  is  founded  on  the  way,  in 
which  the  revelation  of  the  righteousness 
of  God  unto  faiui,  stands  as  a  counterpart 
to  the  revelation  of  the  wrath  of  God  unto 
all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of 


LECTURE   IV. CHAPTER    I,    18 — 24. 


2S 


men.  The  wrath  is  not  an  element  framed 
or  fermented  upon  earth.  It  is  conceived 
in  Heaven ;  and  thence  it  cometh  down 
on  the  unrighteousness  of  men,  as  the  sub- 
ject of  it.  And  as  with  the  wrath  of  God, 
so  it  is  with  the  righteousness  of  God.  It 
too  Cometh  down  from  Heaven  in  the 
shape  of  a  descending  ministration.  It  is 
no  more  the  righteousness  of  man  in  the 
one  case,  than  it  is  the  wrath  of  man  in 
the  other.  It  is  affirmed  here,  and  most 
prominently  referred  to  in  other  parts  of 
the  epistle,  as  the  righteousness  of  God. 
The  wrath  has  its  origin  in  the  breast  of 
the  Divinity ;  and  it  goeth  forth  from  an 
upper  store-house,  from  a  quarter  above 
our  world  and  foreign  to  our  world  ;  and 
all  that  the  world  furnishes  is  the  reser- 
voir into  Avhich  it  is  poured — the  unright- 
eousness and'  the  ungodliness  of  men, 
which  form  the  fit  subjects  for  its  appli- 
cation. And  there  is  not  an  individual 
man  who  is  not  a  fit  subject  of  it.  The 
wrath  is  unto  all  unrighteousness ;  and 
there  is  none  who  has  not  fallen  into  some 
unrighteousness.  All  who  do  these  things 
are  worthy  of  death  ;  and  there  is  not  a 
human  creature  who  has  not  done  one  or 
more  of  these  things. 

But  there  is  a  way,  it  would  appear,  in 
which  they  who  are  thought  worthy  of 
death  and  are  under  the  wralh  of  God, 
may  nevertheless  be  made  to  live.  They 
die  by  the  wrath  of  God  being  inflicted  on 
them.  They  live  by  the  righteousness  of 
God  being  administered  to  them.  The 
one  is  just  as  much  the  rendering  of  a 
foreign  application  as  the  other.  In  the 
one  case  there  is  a  displacency  at  sin  on 
the  part  of  the  Godhead;  and  this  bodies 
itself  into  a  purpose  of  vengeance  against 
the  sinner;  and  the  infliction  of  it  is  sent 
forth  from  God's  remote  and  lofty  sanctu- 
ary, originating  there,  and  coming  down 
from  thence  upon  the  unrighteousness  of 
man.  And  as  with  the  wrath  of  God  min- 
istered unto  the  world,  so  it  is  with  the 
righteousness  of  God  which  is  ministered 
unto  the  world.  It  has  all  a  separate  ex- 
istence in  the  upper  courts  of  Heaven.  It 
is  no  more  man's  righteousness  in  the  one 
case,  than  it  is  man's  wrath  in  the  other. 
There  was  a  ransom  found  out  by  God. 
There  was  a  surety  accepted  by  God. 
There  was  a  satisfaction  which  that  surety 
rendered.  There  was  an  obedience  un- 
dertaken for  us  by  one  who  inhabited 
eternity  ;  and  with  this  obedience  God  was 
well  pleased.  There  was  a  righteousness 
which  He  could  acknowledge.  There  was 
a  duteous  and  devoted  offering,  which  to 
Him  was  the  incense  of  a  sweet-smelling 
savour.  There  was  a  virtue  which  shone 
in  spotless  lustre  even  to  His  pure  and 
penetrating  eye ;  and  a  merit  which  not 
only  met  the  demand  of  His  holy  law,  but 


magnified  that  law  and  made  it  honoura- 
ble. And  all  this  apart  from  any  obedi- 
ence of  ours.  All  this  the  produce  of  a 
transaction  in  which  we  had  no  share. 
All  this  a  treasure  existing  in  the  reposi- 
tories of  that  place,  where  the  Father  and 
the  Son  hold  their  ineffable  communion — 
a  righteousness  not  rendered  by  us,  but 
rendered  to  us ;  and  which  is  the  only 
one  that  God  can  look  unto  with  compla- 
cency. This  is  the  righteousness  of  God, 
standing  altogether  aloof  and  separable 
from  the  righteousness  of  man ;  and  which 
He  offers  to  administer  to  us  all,  in  place 
of  that  wrath  which,  upon  our  refusal  of 
His  better  offer,  He  will  administer.  And 
the  way  in  which  both  the  wrath  and  the 
righteousness  are  set  before  us  in  this 
passage,  as  being  each  of  them  a  descend- 
ing ministration — the  one  of  them  being 
as  purely  a  dispensation  from  Heaven  as 
the  other — should  prepare  us  for  the  still 
more  pointed  asseverations  of  the  apostle, 
when  he  tells  us  that  the  righteousness 
upon  Avhich  we  are  accepted  is  altogether 
of  God,  and  borrows  not  one  particle  of 
its  worth  from  the  obedience  of  man ; 
that  it  comes  upon  us  in  the  shape  of  a 
previous  and  a  prepared  grant,  which  we 
are  simply  to  lay  hold  of;  that  we  are  not 
the  authors  of  it,  but  simply  the  subjects 
of  it :  And  much  is  to  be  gathered  from 
the  information,  that,  like  as  the  wrath  of 
God  is  unto  man's  unrighteousness,  so  the 
righteousness  of  God  is  unto  man's  faith. 

The  question  is,  Whether  tbat  thing  on 
which  we  are  justified  is  the  righteousness 
of  Christ  alone  accepted  by  God,  and 
therefore  called  the  righteousness  of  God, 
and  rendered  ours  upon  our  receiving  it 
by  faith — or,  Whether  it  be  the  righteous- 
ness of  man  as  alone  or  in  part  the  plea 
of  man's  justification.  It  will  be  found  in 
the  sequel,  how  strenuously  and  how  un- 
reservedly the  apostle  cleaves  to  the  form- 
er term  of  this  alternative  ;  and  in  this 
opening  passage  of  his  Epistle,  does  he 
afford  us  no  obscure  or  unsatisfying 
glimpse  of  that  doctrine,  on  which  lie  sus- 
pended the  firmest  securities  of  our  peace 
in  this  world,  and  the  dearest  hopes  of  our 
eternity. 

The  next  thing  to  which  we  direct  your 
attention,  is  the  precise  reason  that  is  in- 
timated to  us  here,  of  God's  provocation 
with  man.  There  is  something  in  the 
principle  of  His  anger,  which  accords 
with  what  we  experience  of  the  movement 
of  anger  in  our  own  bosoms.  An  infant 
or  an  animal  may  do  an  action  which  is 
materially  wTong.  without  calling  forth 
our  resentment.  It  is  the  knowing  it  to  be 
wrong,  on  the  part  of  the  doer,  which  is 
indispensable  to  our  anger  against  him 
being  a  rightful  emotion  ;  and  it  is  neither 
the  acting  nor  the  thinking  erroneously, 


26 


LECTURE   IV. CHAPTER    I,    18 24. 


on  the  part  of  man,  which  in  itself  brings 
down  upon  them  the  wroth  of  God.  It  is 
their  doing  so  intelligently.  It  is  tjieir 
stifling  the  remonstrances  of  truth  in  the 
work  of  unrighteousness.  It  is  that  they 
voluntarily  bid  it  into  silence  ;  and,  bent 
on  the  iniquity  that  they  love,  do,  in  the 
wilful  prosecution  of  it,  drown  its  mward 
voice — ^just  as  they  would  deafen  the 
friendly  warning  of  any  monitor  who  is 
standing  beside  them ;  and  whose  advice 
they  guess  would  be  on  the  side  of  what 
is  right,  and  against  the  side  of  their  own 
inclinations.  Were  there  no  light  present 
to  their  minds,  there  would  be  no  culpa- 
bility. On  the  other  hand,  should  it  shine 
clearly  upon  them,  this  makes  them  re- 
sponsible for  every  act  of  disobedience  to 
its  lessons.  But  more,  should  it  shine  but 
dimly,  and  it  be  a  dimness  of  their  own 
bringing  on — should  they  land  in  a  state 
of  darkness,  and  that  not  because  any 
outward  luminary  has  been  extinguished  ; 
but  because,  in  hatred  of  its  beams  and 
loving  the  darkness,  they  have  shut  their 
eyes — or  should  it  be  a  candle  within 
which  has  waned  and  withered  to  the  very 
border  of  extinction,  under  their  own  de- 
sirous endeavours  to  mar  the  brilliancy 
of  its  flame — should  there  be  a  law  of  our 
nature,  in  virtue  of  which  every  deed  of 
opposition  to  the  conscience  causes  it  to 
speak  more  faintly  than  before,  and  to 
shine  more  feebly  than  before,  and  should 
this  be  the  law  which  has  conducted  every 
human  being  on  the  face  of  our  earth  to 
the  uttermost  depths,  both  of  moral  blind- 
ness and  moral  apathy — Still  he  is  wliat 
he  is  because  he  willed  against  the  light, 
and  wrought  agamst  the  light.  It  is  this 
which  brings  a  direct  criminality  upon 
his  person.  It  is  this  which  constitutes  a 
clear  principle  for  his  condemnation  to 
rest  upon ;  and  it  is  enough  to  fasten 
blame- worthiness  upon  his  doings,  that 
they  were  either  done  in  despite  of  the 
convictions  which  he  had,  or  done  in  de- 
spite of  the  convictions  which  but  for 
his  own  wilful  depravity  he  might  have 
had. 

The  Bible,  in  charging  any  individual 
with  actual  sin,  always  presupposes  a 
knowledge,  either  presently  possessed  or 
unworthily  lost  or  still  attainable  on  his 
part,  of  some  rightful  authority,  against 
which  he  hath  done  some  act  of  wilful 
defiance.  The  contact  of  light  with  the 
mind  of  the  transgressor,  and  that  too  in 
such  sufficiency  as,  if  he  had  followed 
it,  would  have  guided  him  to  an  action 
different  from  the  one  he  has  performed, 
is  essential  to  the  sinfulness  of  that  action 
— insomuch  that  on  the  day  of  reckoning, 
when  the  men  of  all  nations  and  all  ages 
shall  stand  around  the  judgment-seat, 
here  is  not  one  who  will  be  pronounced 


an  outcast  of  condemnation  there,  who 
will  not  feel  an  echo  in  his  own  con- 
science to  the  righteousness  of  the  sentence 
under  which  he  has  fallen;  and  who, 
though  living  in  the  midst  of  thickest  hea- 
thenism, will  not  remember  the  visitations 
of  a  light  which  he  ought  to  have  follow- 
ed, and  by  resisting  which  he  has  person- 
ally deserved  the  displeasure  of  God  that 
shall  then  be  over  him,  the  doom  of  the 
eternity  that  shall  then  be  before  him. 

In  the  19th  and  following  verses,  the 
apostle,  aware  that  to  establish  the  guilt 
of  the  world's  unrighteousness  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  prove  that  it  was  unrighteous- 
ness committed  in  the  face  of  knowledge, 
affirms  what  it  was  that  man  knew  origi- 
nally, and  how  it  was  that  the  light  which 
was  at  one  time  in  them  became  darkness. 
That  which  it  was  competent  to  know 
about  God,  was  manifest  among  men. 
God  himself  had  showed  it  unto  men. 
He  had  either  done  so  by  the  wisdom  that 
shone  in  creation,  making  it  plain  to 
man's  natural  discernment  that  it  was  the 
product  of  a  supreme  and  eternal  intelli- 
gence ;  and  this  is  one  way  in  which  we, 
may  understand  how  the  invisible  proper- 
ties of  the  Godhead  are  clearly  seen,  even 
from  the  injpress  of  them,  stamped  and 
evident  to  the  reflecting  eye  on  the  face 
of  creation  itself.  Or  He  had  expressly 
revealed  the  fact  to  man  that  the  world 
was  created,  and  that  He  was  the  Author 
of  it.  Instead  of  leaving  them  to  find  this 
out,  He  had  made  it  known  to  them  by 
actual  communication.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  conceive  from  these  verses,  that  the 
doctrines  of  the  existence  and  perfections 
of  God  are  the  achievements  of  man's 
unaided  discovery  at  first.  In  that  age  of 
extraordinary  manifestations,  when  God 
put  forth  the  arm  of  a  creator,  He  may 
also  have  put  forth  the  voice  of  a  revealer ; 
and  simply  announced  to  men  that  the 
world  they  lived  in  was  a  piece  of  work- 
manship, and  that  He  Himself  was  the 
builder  and  the  maker  of  it.  With  the 
simple  information  that  the  world  made 
not  itself,  but  had  a  beginning,  they  could 
rise  to  the  perception  of  Him  who  had  no 
beginning.  They  could  infer  the  eternity 
of  that  Being  who  Himself  was  uncreated. 
They  could  infer  the  magnitude  of  His 
power,  seeing  it  to  be  commensurate  to 
the  production  of  that  stupendous  me- 
chanism which  lay  visibly  ai'ound  them. 
They  could  infer  his  Godhead,  or  in  other 
words  His  supremacy — the  subordination 
of  all  that  existed  to  His  purpose  and  will 
— His  right  of  property  in  this  universe, 
and  in  all  those  manifold  riches  which  fill 
and  which  adorn  it — and  more  particularly 
that  He  originated  all  their  faculties  ;  that 
He  provided  them  with  all  their  enjoy- 
ments ;  that  every  secondary  source  and 


LECTURE   IV. — CHAPTER    I,     18 — 24. 


27 


agent  of  gratification  to  them,  was  a  mere 
channel  of  conveyance  for  His  liberality; 
that,  behind  all  which  was  visible,  there 
were  a  power  and  a  Godhead  invisible 
which  had  been  from  eternity,  and  were 
now  put  forth  in  bright  and  beautiful  de- 
velopment on  a  created  expanse,  where 
everything  was  that  could  regale  the 
senses,  and  be  exuberant  of  delight  and 
blessedness  to  the  living  creatures  by 
whom  it  was  occupied. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  a  con- 
test about  the  powers  or  the  limits  of  the 
human  faculties — though  we  shall  after- 
wards attempt  to  make  it  evident,  that, 
debased  and  darkened  as  we  are  by  sin, 
there  is  enough  of  light  in  the  human  con- 
science to  render  inexcusable  human  un- 
godliness. But  let  us  at  present  confine 
ourselves  to  the  circumstances  adverted 
to  by  the  apostle,  according  to  the  histori- 
cal truth  of  them.  He  is  evidently  des- 
cribing the  historical  progress  of  human, 
degeneracy  ;  and  begins  with  the  state  of 
matters  at  the  commencement  of  a  dark- 
ening and  deteriorating  process,  which 
took  place  on  the  character  of  man.  And, 
without  resolving  the  metaphysical  ques- 
tion How  far  man  without  a  direct  com- 
munication from  Heaven  could  have  found 
his  way  to  the  Being  and  attributes  of  the 
Divinity,  let  us  just  take  up  with  the  com- 
mencement of  matters  as  it  actually  stood. 
It  was  a  period  of  extraordinary  manifes- 
tations ;  and  God  made  Himself  directly 
and  personally  known,  as  the  one  Creator 
of  all  things;  and  men  had  only  to  look 
with  the  eye  of  their  senses  to  these  things, 
and  to  conclude  how  much  of  power,  how 
much  of  wisdom,  how  much  of  rightful 
sovereignty  and  ownership,  belonged  to 
Him  that  framed  all  and  upholds  all.  We 
may  not  be  sure,  in  how  far  man  could, 
on  the  strength  of  his  own  unborrowed 
resources,  have  steered  his  ascending  way 
to  the  knowledge  of  a  God.  But  the  com- 
municated fact  that  God  did  exist,  and 
that  He  was  the  framer  and  the  architect 
of  all,  put  him  on  high  vantage  ground — 
from  which  might  be  clearly  seen  the 
eternal  power  of  the  Supreme,  and  His 
eternal  Godhead. 

We  have  only  time  to  advert,  shortly,  to 
the  way  in  which  the  truth  respecting  God 
was  changed  into  a  lie.  The  creature  be- 
came more  loved  and  more  depended  on, 
than  the  Creator.  He  was  not  glorified  as 
the  giver,  and  the  maker  of  all  created 
good.    But  what  was  sensibly  and  imme- 


diately good,  was  sought  after  for  itself, 
was  valued  on  its  own  account,  was  en- 
joyed without  any  thankful  reference  to 
Him  who  granted  all  and  originated  all ; 
and  this  too  in  the  face  of  a  distinct  know- 
ledge,  that  every  thing  was  held  of  God — 
in  the  face  of  an  authoritative  voice, 
claiming  what  was  due  to  God — in  the 
face  of  a  conscience  powerful  at  the  out- 
set of  man's  history,  however  much  it 
may  have  been  darkened  and  overborne 
in  the  subsequent  process  of  his  alienation. 
And  thus  the  tenure  of  his  earthly  enjoy- 
ments was  gradually  lost  sight  of  alto- 
gether ;  and  the  urgencies  of  sense  and 
of  the  world  got  the  better  of  all  impres- 
sions of  the  Deity  ;  and  man  at  length 
fell  his  portion  and  his  security  and  his 
all  to  be,  not  in  the  Author  of  creation, 
but  in  the  creation  itself  with  all  its  gay 
and  goodly  and  fascinating  varieties.  His 
mind  lost  its  hold  of  a  great  and  subordi- 
nating principle,  by  which  he  could  have 
assigned  its  right  place,  and  viewed  ac- 
cording to  its  just  relationship,  all  that 
was  around  him.  The  world  in  fact,  by 
a  mighty  deed  of  usurpation,  dethroned 
the  Deity  from  the  ascendancy  which  be- 
longed to  him ;  and  thus  the  rule  of  esti- 
mation was  subverted  within  him,  and  his 
foolish  heart  was  darkened.  This  disorder 
in  the  state  of  his  affections,  while  it 
clouded  and  subverted  his  discerning  fa- 
culties, did  not  at  the  same  time  restrain 
the  exercise  of  them.  'I'he  first  ages  of 
the  world,  as  is  evident  from  the  history 
of  Babel,  were  ages  of  ambitious  specu- 
lation ;  and  man,  with  his  love  strongly 
devoted  to  the  things  of  sense,  still  dream- 
ed and  imagined  and  theorized  about  hid- 
den principles  ;  and,  with  his  sense  of  the 
one  presiding  Divinity  nearly  as  good  as 
obliterated,  he  began  to  fancy  a  distinct 
agency  in  each  distinct  element  and  de- 
partment of  nature  ;  and,  to  make  use  of 
the  strong  phrases  of  God  giving  them  up 
and  giving  them  over,  we  may  infer  a  law 
of  connection  between  a  distempered  state 
of  the  heart,  and  a  distempered  state  of 
the  understanding;  and  thus  their  very 
wisdom  was  turned  into  folly;  and  to 
their  perverted  eye,  the  world  was  turned 
into  one  vast  theatre'  of  idolatry ;  and 
they  personified  all  that  they  loved  and 
all  that  they  feared — till  by  the  affections 
and  the  judgment  acting  and  reacting,  the 
one  upon  the  other,  they  sank  down  into 
the  degrading  fooleries  of  Paganism. 


LECTURE   V. CHAPTER   I,   28. 


LECTURE  V. 


Romans  i,  28. 

"And  even  as  they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  G9d  gave  them  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  to  do 
those  things  which  are  not  convenient." 


Before  proceeding  to  enforce  the  lesson 
that  may  be  educed  from  this  text,  let  us 
shortly  remark,  that  the  not  liking  to  re- 
tain God  in  our  knowledge,  might  have 
been  rendered  by  the  not  trying  to  do  so, 
not  exercising  our  minds  on  the  proof  and 
information  that  were  before  them — so  as 
to  fix  the  right  belief  about  God,  and  to 
perpetuate  the  right  view  and  perception 
of  Him.  At  the  same  time  it  is  very  true 
that  not  to  try  the  evidence,  and  not  to 
prosecute  the  guidance  of  the  light  which 
we  have  about  any  doctrine,  argues  either 


a  dislike  to  that  doctrine,  or  an  indiffer-   outset  of  their  ov/n  progress  through  the 


in  a  state  of  progressive  corruption.  But 
he  rather  sketches  out  to  us  in  this  chapter 
the  progress  of  the  world's  degeneracy 
from  one  age  to  another;  and  we  would 
infer  from  his  account  that  men,  in  the 
first  instance,  had  a  fur  more  clear  and 
convinced  sense  of  God;  but,  not  liking 
to  I'etain  it,  committed  the  sin  of  a  per- 
verse disposition  against  the  light  which 
they  had,  and  in  part  extinguished  it — 
that  they  of  course  left  their  own  imme- 
diate posterit)%  in  a  light  more  shaded  and 
reduced  than  that  which  shone  around  the 


ence  about  it — so  that  any  slight  amend 
ment  which  may  be  made  of  the  English 
translation  upon  this  score  does  not  atfect 
the  truth  which  it  here  sets  before  us,  that 
God  gives  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  those 
who  do  not  like  to  retain  Him  in  their 
knowledge. 

But  the  term  '  reprobate  '  too,  admits  of 
some  little  remark  in  the  way  of  explana- 
tion. In  its  prevailing  acceptation,  it  sug- 
gests to  our  minds  a  hopeless  and  aban- 
doned wickedness  of  character  ;  and  so  is 
expressive  of  a  diseased  state  of  the  moral 
principles.  In  its  primary  sense  it  was 
equivalent  to  the  term  undiscerning,  or 
undistinguishing  ;  and  so  is  expressive  of 
a  darkened  state  of  the  understanding. 
In  your  larger  Bibles,  you  will  find  a  re- 
probate mind  rendered  on  the  margin  into 
a  mind  void  of  judgment.  But  still  it  is 
judgment,  not  exercised  on  any  secular  or 
philosophical  question,  but  the  judgment 
of  what  is  moral  and  spiritual — that  kind 
of  judgment  where  error  leads  necessarily 
and  immediately  to  practical  unrighteous- 
ness ;  and  where  therefore  the  love  of  the 
unrighteousness  disposes  us  to  prefer  the 
darkness  rather  than  the  light.  It  is  thus 
that  the  understanding  and  the  affections 
act  and  react  upon  each  other ;  and  that 
we  read  of  men  of  corrupt  minds  having 
no  judgment,  or  being  reprobate  concern- 
ing the  faith ;  and  of  those  who  are  abomi- 
nable and  disobedient,  being  also  void  of 
judgment  about  every  good  work,  or  unto 
every  good  work  beiiig  reprobate. 

In  the  sad  narrati*  of  the  apostle  in 
this  chapter,  he  appears  to  refer  not  to  the 
history  of  one  individual  mind,  or  of  one 
individuai  conscience — the  defilement  of 
which  two  provinces  in  our  moral  and 
intellectual  nature,  goes  on  contempora- 
neously, with  every  human  being  who  is 


world — that  these  still  disliked  the  re- 
mainder of  truth  which  they  enjoyed ; 
and,  by  their  wilful  resistance  to  its  les- 
sons inflicted  upon  it  a  further  mutilation, 
and  transmitted  it  to  their  descendants 
with  a  still  deeper  hue  of  obscurity 
thrown  over  it — that  thus,  by  every  suc- 
cessive step  from  one  generation  to  ano- 
ther, the  light  of  divine  truth  went  down 
in  this  world's  history  more  tarnished  and 
impaired  than  ever ;  but  still  with  such 
glimpses  as,  however  feeble  and  however 
faded,  were  enough  at  least  to  try  the 
affection  of  man  towards  it,  were  enough 
to  stir  up  a  distinct  resistance  on  the  part 
of  those  who  disliked  it,  were  enough  to 
keep  up  the  responsibility  of  the  world, 
and  to  retain  it  in  rightful  dependence  on 
the  judgment  of  Him  who  made  the  world 
— so  as  to  make  it  clear  on  the  day  of 
reckoning,  that  men,  even  in  their  state 
of  most  sunken  alienation  from  the  true 
God,  were  never,  like  the  beasts  that 
perish,  so  helplessly  blind,  and  so  desti- 
tute of  all  capacity  for  discerning  between 
the  good  and  the  evil,  as  to  render  them 
the  unfit  subjects  of  a  moral  sentence  and 
a  moral  examination.  With  every  hu- 
man creature  who  shall  be  pronounced 
worthy  of  death  on  that  day,  will  it  be 
seen  that  there  was  either  a  light  which 
he  actually  had  and  liked  not  to  retain,  or 
a  light  which  he  might  have  had  and 
liked  not  to  recover.  To  whom  much  is 
given  of  him  much  shall  be  required; 
and  there  will  be  gradations  of  punish- 
ment in  hell ;  and  in  that  place  where  the 
retributions  of  vengeance  are  administered, 
will  there  be  the  infliction  of  many  stripes 
upon  some,  and  of  few  stripes  upon  others ; 
and  it  will  be  more  tolerable  for  those 
who  lived  in  a  darkness  that  was  not  wil- 
fully of  their  own  bringing  on,  than  for 


LECTURE   V. — CHAPTER.   I,    28. 


those  who  stood  on  the  ground  of  rebel- 
lion amid  the  full  blaze  and  effulgency  of 
light  from  Heaven.  Yet  still,  there  shall 
nut  be  one  unhappy  outcast  in  that  abode 
of  eternal  condemnation,  who  will  not  be 
convicted  of  sin  knowing  it  to  be  so ; 
who,  whatever  be  the  age  or  country  of 
the  world  which  he  occupied,  has  not 
been  plied  whh  admonitions  which  he 
resisted,  and  urged  by  such  an  authorita- 
tive sense  of  duty  as  he  trampled  upon — 
and  that  too,  in  the  spirit  of  a  daring  and 
presumptuous  defiance.  In  short,  be. his 
ignorance  what  it  may,  there  was  a  wjLlful 
depravity  which  went  beyond  the  limits 
of  his  ignorance — Be  that  region  of  human 
afiairs  over  which  he  roamed  in  utter 
darkness  as  extended  as  it  may,  still  there 
was  a  region  of  light  upon  which  he  made 
his  intrusions  with  the  intelligent  purpose, 
and  in  the  determined  spirit  of  a  rebel — 
Let  the  moral  geography  of  the  place  he 
occupied  be  as  remote  as  it  may,  still 
there  was  a  Law  the  voice  of  which  at 
times  did  reach  him,  and  the  sanctions 
of  which  must  when  time  is  no  more  at 
length  overtake  him — Let  the  darkening 
of  his  foolish  heart  be  as  due  as  it  may  to 
the  sin  of  his  ancestors,  they  still  left  a 
tribunal  there  from  which  went  forth  upon 
him  the'whisper  of  many  an  intimation — 
In  the  darkest  period  of  this  world's  aban- 
donment, were  there  still  the  vestiges  of 
truth  before  every  eye,  and  a  conscience 
awake  in  every  bosom, — insomuch  that 
not  one  trembling  culprit  will  be  seen 
before  the  judgment-seat,  who  will  not 
stand  self-convicted  under  the  voice  of  a 
challenging  and  inspecting  Deity — His 
own  heart  vv'ill  bear  witness  to  the  sen- 
tence that  fee'has  gone  forth  against  him  ; 
and  the  echoing  voice  of  his  own  memory, 
will  be  to  him  the  knell  of  his  righteous 
and  everlasting  condemnation. 

But  we  should  like  to  bring  the  princi- 
ple of  our  text  more  distinctly  and  indi- 
vidualljr  to  bear  upon  you.  That  process 
in  general  history  by  which  the  decline 
of  this  world's  light  respecting  God,  and 
the  decline  of  its  practical  allegiance  to 
His  authority,  have  kept  pace,  the  one 
with  the  other,  is  often  realized  in  the 
personal  history  of  a  single  individual. 
There  is  a  connection  by  the  law  of  our 
nature,  between  his  wilful  disobedience 
and  his  spiritual  darkness.  You  have 
read  perhaps  in  our  old  theologians,  of 
Avhat  they  called  a  judicial  blindness.  It 
is  a  visitation  consequent  upon  sin.  It  is 
a  withdrawment  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
when  grieved  and  discouraged  and  provo- 
ked by  our  resistance  to  His  warnings. 
It  is  that  Spirit  ceasing  to  strive  with  the 
children  of  men  ;  and  coming  to  this  as 
the  final  result  of  the  contest  he  has  so 
long  maintained  with   their  obstinacy — 


He  shall  let  them  alone  since  they  will 
have  it  so.  It  is  an  extinction  of  the  light 
which  they  once  had,  but  refused  to  be 
led  by  ;  and  now  perhaps  that  they  have 
it  not,  may  they  do  many  an  evil  thing  to 
the  evil  of  which  they  are  profoundly 
asleep,  and  against  which  their  conscience, 
now  lulled  and  stifled  into  spiritual  death, 
lifts  no  voice  of  remonstrance  whatever. 
The  guilt  of  sins  committed  in  this  state 
of  dormancy,  which  is  of  their  own  bring- 
ing on,  is  no  more  done  away  by  their 
insensibility  to  the  foulness  of  them,  than 
is  the  guilt  of  murder  committed  in  the 
fury  of  wilful  intoxication.  And  ye  de- 
praved and  hackneyed  old,  at  the  doors 
of  whose  hearts  we  have  so  often  knocked 
and  knocked  in  vain,  we  bid  you  remem- 
ber a  season  of  alarm  and  tenderness 
which  has  now  passed  away — we  ask  of 
you  to  look  back  on  the  prayers  and  the 
precautions  of  boyhood,  when,  the  con- 
science awake  and  at  her  post,  you  at  one 
time  trembled  to  think  of  that  which  you 
can  now  do  without  remorse  and  without 
fearfulness.  Ye  men  who  have  become 
stout-hearted  sinners,  and  just  because 
the  moral  light  which  shone  upon  you  once 
has  been  extinguished  by  yourselves,  and 
by  yourselves  your  fooli.sh  hearts  have 
been  darkened — the  scruples  and  the  sen- 
sibilities of  your  earlier  days  may  all 
have  taken  their  departure,  and  such  may 
be  the  lethargy  of  your  souls  that  neither 
the  thunders  of  the  law  nor  the  entreaties 
of  the  gospel  can  move  them.  You  may 
now  be  able  to  stand  your  ground  against 
all  the  spiritual  artillery  of  the  pulpit — 
and,  even  though  death  has  stalked  at 
large  over  the  entire  field  of  your  former 
companionship  and  left  you  a  solitary 
and  surviving  memorial  of  friends  and 
of  families  that  have  all  been  swept  away, 
still  may  you  persist  in  the  spirit  of  an 
unbroken  worldliness,  and  act  the  secure 
and  the  stout-heai'ted  sinner,  who  rivets 
ail  his  desires  and  all  his  hopes  on  a  slip- 
pery foundation.  It  is  true  indeed,  that, 
with  a  conscience  obliterated,  and  an 
inner  man  deaf  to  every  awakening  call, 
and  a  system  of  moral  feelings  like  a 
piece  of  worn  and  rusty  mechanism  that 
cannot  be  set  agoing,  and  an  overhanging 
torpor  upon  all  the  spiritual  faculties,  so 
that  every  denunciation  of  an  angry  God 
and  a  coming' vengeance  is  only  heard 
like  a  sound  that  whistles  by — it  is  indeed 
true  that  he  whose  soul  is  in  a  condition 
such  as  this,  sits  in  the  region  and  in  the 
shadow  of  grossest  darkness.  But  it  is 
not  like  the  transmitted  darkness  of  Pa- 
ganism, which  he  can  offer  to  plead  in 
mitigation — or  which  will  make  his  last 
sentence  more  tolerable  for  him  even  as 
it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  or 
Gomorrah.    It   is  a  darkness  which  he 


30 


LECTURE   V. CHAPTER   I,    28. 


loved,  and  into  which  he  voluntarily 
entered.  He  made  his  escape  to  it  from 
the  light  which  he  hated ;  and  by  his 
own  act  did  he  so  outrun  his  pursuing 
conscience,  as  now  to  be  at  a  distance 
from  her  warnings.  If  the  call  of  '  repent 
or  perish'  do  not  bring  him  back — it  is 
because  he  is  sealed  unto  the  day  of  con- 
demnation ;  it  is  because  God  hath  given 
him  over  to  a  reprobate  mind  ;  it  is  be- 
cause he  is  judicially  in  a  state  of  blind- 
ness ;  it  is  because  his  soul  is  compassed 
with  a  thick  and  heavy  atmosphere  of  his 
own  gathering.  The  Heathen  sinner  will 
be  tried  by  the  light  which  he  had.  The 
Christian  sinner  will  be  tried  by  the  light 
which  he  Hed  from.  This  is  his  condem- 
nation, that  light  has  come  into  his  part 
of  the  world — and  he  would  not  come  to 
meet  and  be  enlightened  by  it.  He  is  on 
a  footing  altogether  different  from  that  of 
the  idolater — though  thedarkness  in  which 
he  is  enveloped  be  irrecoverable.  Enough 
that  a  light  was  offered  which  he  refused 
— or  enough  that  a  light  was  once  pos- 
sessed, and  he  did  not  like  to  retain  it. 

We  have  already  remarked,  that,  in  the 
gradual  darkening  and  deterioration  of 
our  world  from  one  age  to  another,  each 
age  became  successively  more  ignorant 
of  God  than  the  preceeding;  and  yet  with 
each  we  believe,  even  in  the  veriest  wilds 
of  savage  and  unwrought  humanity,  is 
there  enough  of  light  and  enough  of  con- 
science, and  enough  of  God's  law  in  dim 
but  remaining  vestiges,  to  make  every 
individual  of  our  species  a  fit  subject  for 
moral  examination,  and  for  a  righteous 
sentence  consequent  upon  a  fair  and  im- 
partial trial.  Now  we  have  not  practically 
to  do  with  the  destinies  of  the  unconvert- 
ed Heathen — nor  shall  we  just  now  enter 
upon  this  region  of  speculation  at  all. 
But  we  have  immediately  to  do  with  a 
question  which  respects  the  immortality 
of  our  own  countrymen.  What  is  their 
light,  and  what  is  the  degree  of  their  con- 
demnation if  they  resist  it]  What  is  the 
precise  addition  which  our  possession  of 
the  Bible  has  conferred  upon  our  respon- 
sibility 1  What  is  the  knowledge  of  God 
to  which  a  conscientious  and  diligent  pe- 
rusal of  this  book  might  conduct  us — 
unless  we  like  not  to  receive  that  know- 
ledge which  we  might  obtain  ]  What  is 
the  knowledge  of  God  which  we  throw 
away  from  us  by  throwing  this  book  away 
from  us — and  that  because  w'e  like  not  to 
retain  the  knowledge  which  we  might 
possess]  Only  grant,  that  we  are  as  mo- 
rally and  as  rightfully  to  blame  for  not 
acquiring  the  light  which  we  might  re- 
ceive if  we  had  so  willed  it,  as  for  not 
preserving  the  light  which  we  might  attain 
if  we  had  so  willed  it;  and  the  question 
before  us  is  brought  within  a  manageable 


compass.  Is  there  at  the  very  outset 
enough  of  likelihood  that  God  might  be 
the  author  of  this  book,  as  should  resolve 
us  upon  a  serious  examination — then  jf 
God  actually  be  the  author,  we  have  not 
acquired  the  knowledge  of  Him  we  might 
have  done ;  and  we  shall  be  condemned 
accordingly,  if  we  withhold  the  examina- 
tion which  ought  to  have  been  given.  Is 
there  enough  of  the  character  of  the  Di- 
vinity stamped  upon  its  pages,  that,  had 
we  only  read  with  earnestness  and  pon- 
dered with  earnestness,  we  would  have 
beheld  the  traces  of  Him  distinctly  there 
and  have  been  satisfied — then  if,  instead 
of  so  reading,  we  have  wantonly  and 
ignorantly  reviled  it,  God  may  rigliteous- 
ly  step  forth,  and  vindicate  upon  our  per- 
sons, the  ti^ith  of  His  insulted  message 
and  the  honesty  of  His  insulted  messen- 
gers. If  the  suspicion  has  ever  come  into 
any  of  your  hearts,  that  this  ridicule  of 
Scripture  may  after  all  be  a  ridicule  of 
the  Almighty  ;  and  you,  instead  of  being 
arrested  by  the  impulse  of  such  a  visita- 
tion, have,  in  the  mad  outcry  of  a  great 
and  growing  infatuation,  made  your 
strenuous  effort  to  keep  down  this  com- 
punctious feeling,  and  have  prevailed — 
then  have  you  committed  yourselves,  and 
that  wilfully,  to  the  hazards  of  this  alter- 
native— that  either  the  Scripture  is  a  fable, 
or  you  by  the  choice  of  your  own  hearts 
and  the  deed  of  your  own  hands  have 
come  under  all  the  curses  that  are  written 
in  it.  Certain  it  is,  that,  to  whatever  term 
of  whatever  alternative  the  world  may 
commit  itself  in  reference  to  Christianity, 
Christianity  commits  itself  to  a  very  dis- 
tinct alternative  in  reference  to  the  world 
— and  if  this  religion  indeed  be  true  ;  and 
such  be  the  ai;tual  influence  of  the  human 
will  upon  the  human  understanding,  that 
he  who  is  willing  to  do  God's  will  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  that  it  is 
from  God ;  and  if  faith  in  the  gospel  be 
at  all  times  the  fruit  of  moral  honesty, 
duly  exercised  and  sincerely  in  quest  of 
what  is  right;  and  if  the  spirit  of  direc- 
tion be  given  to  him  who  has  an  upright 
feeling  of  desire  to  do  as  he  ought,  and  to 
believe  as  he  ought ;  and  if  every  man 
who  faithfully  follows  the  light  of  his 
conscience,  is  thereby  conducted  to  a  re- 
verence for  his  Bible  and  a  reliance  upon 
his  Bible  ;  and  if  infidelity  be  at  all  times 
the  issuing  product  of  a  heart  careless 
about  God,  and  utterly  unconcerned  cither 
to  retain  such  knowledge  of  Him  as  it  has, 
or  to  acquire  such  knowledge  of  Him  as 
it  has  not — then,  it  may  not  be  in  the 
power  of  a  fellow-man,  under  all  those 
guises  of  candour  and  frankness  and 
liberality  which  the  unbeliever  can  put 
on,  so  to  feel  his  way  through  the  intrica- 
cies of  another's  spirit,  as  to  catch  the 


LECTURE   V. CHAPTER    I,    28. 


31 


lurking  criminality  and  bring  it  out  in 
satisfying  exposure  to  the  general  eye. 
But  let  Christianity  be  true,  and  mark  the 
fearful  alternative  to  him  who  spurns  it 
away.  The  unseen  author  of  it  ponders 
every  heart ;  and,  mysterious  as  its  work- 
ings are  to  us,  there  is  nothing  in  them 
nil  that  can  baffle  the  scrutiny  of  Him 
who  formed  it ;  and  if  there  be,  as  the 
Bible  says  there  is,  an  alliance  between 
infidelity  and  moral  evil,  He  can  detect  it, 
and  bring  it  out  on  the  day  of  reckoning 
to  open  manifestation — He  can  unveil  the 
whole  process  of  this  miserable  delusion  ; 
and  at  every  step  of  it  where  pride  or  un- 
godliness or  seltishness  or  profligacy  did 
operate  its  bias  upon  the  understanding. 
He  can  make  it  good,  and  that^to  the  con- 
viction of  the  unhappy  man,  that  his 
judgment  was  in  error  just  because  his 
affections  were  in  error — that  there  was 
a  want  of  belief  in  his  mind,  just  because 
there  was  a  want  of  worth  in  his  charac- 
ter— that  he  was  not  a  Christian  man,  just 
because  he  was  not  an  upright  man — and 
that  the  light  which  was  in  him  was  turn- 
ed into  darkness,  just  because  he  did  not 
care  to  retain  it ;  and  after  it  was  lost  he 
did  not  care  and  did  not  choose  to  re- 
cover it. 

To  satisfy  you  of  a  real  connection  be- 
tween the  state  of  rmn's  moral  principles 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  state  of  his  in- 
tellectual principles  on  the  other,  let  us 
have  recourse  to  one  simple  illustration. 
For  it  does  require  to  be  explained.  There 
is  many  an  error  in  judgment  which  im- 
plies no  worldliness  of  character  what- 
ever. A  man  may  have  a  wrong  opinion 
in  matters  of  trade  or  philosophy  or  law  ; 
and  this  altogether  unconnected  with  any 
wrong  habit  of  the  life,  or  any  wrong  and 
depraved  habit  of  the  affections.  And 
might  not  he,  in  like  manner,  have  a 
wrong  opinion  on  a  question  of  theology, 
and  be  so  very  far  in  the  wrong  as  to 
think  Christianity  a  fable,  and  all  this 
without  any  moral  perversity  being  the 
cause  of  his  error  1  Might  it  not  be  a 
mere  mistake  of  the  understanding  for 
which  he  lies  under  no  responsibility  at 
all,  at  that  bar  where  nothing  is  con- 
demned that  is  not  criminal  1  Where  lies 
the  greater  fault  of  an  error  m  a  matter 
of  speculation,  and  that  because  a  man 
has  a  bad  understanding^  thatipf  an  error 
in  a  matter  of  sight,  and  that  because  a 
man  has  bad  eyes  1  How  is  it  that  there 
is  any  connection  between  sentiment  and 
sin  ■?  And  let  our  belief  be  as  mistaken 
as  it  may — explain  to  us  how  it  comes 
to  be  an  affair  of  moral  turpitude,  and 
with  what  justice  or  upon  what  principles 
it  can  have  the  retribution  of  any  moral 
vengeance  awarded  to  it  ? 

If  any  of  you,  the  victim  of  helpless  po- 


verty, were  suddenly  translated  into  ease 
and  affluence — and  that  through  a  min- 
istration of  liberality  left  at  your  door  by 
the  hand  of  some  unknown  benefactor — 
in  reference  to  him,  though  utterly  in  the 
dark  about  his  person,  you  may  be  guilty 
of  the  crime  of  ingratitude.  To  make  no 
inquiry  about  him  were  ungrateful.  To 
riot  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  gift,  without 
one  thought  of  concern  or  curiosity  about 
the  giver,  were  both  selfish  and  ungrate- 
ful. To  be  better  pleased  that  you  did  not 
know  and  have  no  repayment  of  gratitude 
to  make,  is  the  very  essence  of  ingrati- 
tude ;  and  that  too  in  reference  to  an  in- 
dividual whose' person  perhaps  you  never 
saw,  and  whose  name  perhaps  you  never 
heard.  To  sit  at  greater  ease  without  the 
burden  of  obligation  upon  you  to  any 
known  benefactor,  than  you  would  do  if 
he  stood  revealed  to  your  apprehension, 
and  claimed  the  due  return  of  affection  or 
of  service — this  is  decisive  of  a  heart 
tainted  with  the  sin  of  ingratitude.  It  is 
sin  which  keeps  you  from  enquiring  ;  and 
if  carefully  to  enquire  were  certainly  to 
find,  it  is  sin  which  keeps  you  from  dis- 
covering. You  want  the  light,  and  just 
because  you  hate  it.  You  have  not  the 
knowledge  of  the  heart  that  pitied  and  the 
hand  that  aided  you,  because  it  is  a  knovy- 
ledge  you  like  not  to  acquire. 

And  thus  it  is,  that  many  is  the  man 
who  is  ignorant  of  God — and  yet  lies  un- 
der the  full  guilt  and  burden  of  ungodli- 
ness. Many  is  the  man  who  with  the 
world  as  his  satisfying  portion,  never  lifts 
one  anxious  inquiry  after  Him  who  mad© 
the  world  ;  and  think  you  that  his  defec- 
tive theology  is  as  free  of  blame  or  con- 
demnation, as  is  the  defective  philosophy 
of  him  who  never  attempted  the  toils  of 
scholarship  1  Tell,  if  here  a  want  of  un- 
derstanding may  not  resolve  itself  into  a 
want  of  principle.  He  does  not  know  God. 
But  he  does  not  seek  to  know  him.  His 
mistakes  of  conception  regarding  the  De- 
ity, or  his  total  want  of  conception  about 
Him,  may  be  designed  as  mere  errors  of 
judgment,  or  as  a  mere  blindness  of  the 
judgment.  But  it  is  the  error  and  the 
blindnes?  of  one  who  wishes  not  to  see. 
He  grovels  in  ignorance  ;  but  it  may  be 
just  because  he  grovels  in  corruption.  Ke 
is  so  engrossed  with  the  creature,  that  he 
would  like  to  be  quit  of  a  Creator.  There 
may  be  an  utter  absence  of  light,  and  yet 
may  he  realize  all  the  guilt  of  impiety. 
He  may  stand  on  the  verge  of  atheism,  or 
even  be  darkling  within  its  limits — and 
yet  his  worthlessness  have  the  very  same 
element  with  the  worthlessness  of  him, 
before  the  eye  of  whose  conviction  God 
stands  fully  manifested,  and  who  places 
himself  in  known  defiance  to  his  under- 
stood and  authoritative  voice. 


32 


LECTUnE   V. — CHAPTER    I,    28. 


But  let  US  recur  again  to  our  illustra- 
tion. The  unknown  friend  may  wish  to 
reveal  himself  to  the  man  he  has  befriend- 
ed. He  may  send  a  messenger  with  a  let- 
ter to  his  door.  He  may  inscribe  such 
evidences  of  his  authenticity  there,  as 
would  force  conviction  if  the  letter  was 
but  read.  He  may  specify  the  amount, 
and  he  may  specify  the  particulars  of  Ihe 
ministration  which  had  been  rendered  ; 
and  that  in  such  a  way  as  to  prove  that 
he  was  the  author  of  it.  The  bearer  of 
the  communication  may  have  all  the 
marks  of  honesty  about  him — yet  this  be 
not  enough.  He  may  tell  a  consistent 
story — yet  this  be  not  enough.  There 
may  be  companions  along  with  him  of 
complexion  as  fair  and  creditable  as  his 
own  to  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  his 
statement — yet  this  be  not  enough.  The 
last  and  most  conclusive  evidence  may 
still  be  in  reserve — It  may  lie  in  the  sub- 
stance of  the  written  communication — and 
not  till  he  to  whom  it  is  addressed  has 
opened  it  and  read  it,  may  he  come  fully 
to  recognise  and  verify  his  benefactor. 

And  yet  to  a  soul  of  selfishness  and  in- 
gratitude, this  might  be  an  unwelcome 
intrusion.  He  may  have  no  desire  to  know 
his  benefactor  ;  and  have  a  dread  or  a  dis- 
like towards  the  revelation  of  his  will ; 
and  he  may  spurn  the  messenger  from  his 
door ;  and  he  may  refuse  to  open  or  to 
read  the  letter  that  has  been  offered  to 
him  ;  and  the  best  evidence  that  there 
was  upon  the  question  may  never  have 
been  before  his  eyes — not  because  it  did 
not  exist,  but  because  he  refused  to  look 
at  it — Nay  he  might  have  read,  but  read 
in  such  a  careless  and  hasty  style  of  pe- 
rusal, that  he  did  not  attain  to  conviction, 
and  just  because  he  took  no  pains  to  be 
convinced.  And  who  does  not  see  that 
his  want  of  right  understanding  resolves 
into  a  want  of  right  principle — that  there 
is  a  taint  of  moral  perversity  in  the  whole 


of  this  proceeding — that  the  sin  of  his 
judgment  is  the  sin  of  his  heart — and  that 
unbelief  which  many  would  screen  from 
condemnation,  is  in  his  instance  unbelief 
fostered  by  his  own  wilful  depravity,  and 
an  unbelief  for  whichxhe  deserves  to  be 
execrated  1 

And  so  may  it  be  of  Christianity.  God 
may  have  sent  a  written  communication 
to  the  world.  And  to  every  careful,  and 
desirous  reader,  the  evidence  of  His  hand 
may  be  legibly  inscribed  upon  it ;  and  he 
who  is  willing  to  do  His  will,  may  recog- 
nise in  the  doctrine  of  Christ  the  traces 
of  the  divinity  which  inspired  it ;  and  the 
man  on  whose  heart  a  weight  c)f  consci- 
entiousness lies,  may  by  the  dint  of  pa- 
tience and  of  prayer  come  to  a  full  and 
rational  assurance  of  its  truth :  and  just 
because  reading  and  enquiring  and  attend- 
ing the  ordinances,  and  all  under  the  im- 
pulse of  a  sense  of  duty,  may  he  become 
a  steadfast  believer.  But  if  careless  about 
God,  he  will  be  equally  careless  about 
any  revelation  that  professes  to  have  come 
from  Him.  The  Bible  may  often  solicit 
his  eye,  but  still  remain  unopened  and  un- 
used by  him.  That  book  from  Avhose 
pages,  if  explored  with  honesty  and  pray- 
er, there  might  beam  a  celestial  effulgency 
upon  his  understanding,  may  be  held  in 
neglect  or  treated  with  insult  and  derision. 
For  aught  he  knows,  it  may  be  the  record 
of  the  will  of  Him  who  ushered  him  into 
life,  and  ministers  to  him  all  its  enjoy- 
ments. And  if  ever  the  thought  of  this 
possibility  visited  his  heart,  and  he  in  the 
face  of  it  joined  in  the  infidel  cry  of  those 
who  deride  and  who  disown  it — then  on 
another  day  may  the  remembrance  of  this 
visitation  rise  in  judgment  against  him  ; 
and  it  be  made  clear  to  his  own  consci- 
ence, that,  in  spurning  the  Bible  from  his 
door  he  braved  the  hazards  of  a  contest 
with  Omnipotence. 


LECTURE  VI. 

Romans  ii,  1 — 12. 

"Therefore  tVion  art  inexciisablje,  O  man,  wliosoever  thou  art  that  jndcest :  for  wherein  thon  jndiesf  another,  thou 
condemiiest  thyself;  for  thou  that  judi;est  doest  the  same  things  Unt  we  are  sure  that  the  jiiiliiiiient  of  Hod  is  ac- 
cording to  trutli  ajainst  them  which  roramit  such  tilings.  And  thinUest  thou  this.  O  man,  that  jmlgo^t  them  whicli 
do  such  things,  and  doest  the  same,  that  thou  shalt  escape  the  judgmeut  of  God  ?  or  dcspisest  thou  the  riches  of 
his  goodness,  and  forltearance,  and  long-snlfcring :  not  knowing  that  the  goodness  of  Ood  leadeth  thee  to  repent- 
ance I  but,  after  thy  hardness  and  impenitent  licart,  treasures!  up  unto  thyself  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath  and 
revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God;  who  will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds  :  to  them  who, 
by  patient  continuance  in  well-doing,  seek  for  glory,  and  honour,  and  immortality,  eternal  life;  but  unto  them 
that  are  contentious,  and  do  not  obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness,  indignation  and  wrath  :  tribulation  and 
anguish  upon  every  soul  of  man  that  doeth  evil,  of  the  .Tew  first,  and  also  of  the  Gentile  ;  but  glory,  honour,  and 
peace,  to  every  man  that  worketh  pood  ;  to  the  .Tew  first,  and  also  to  the  Gentile  :  for  there  is  no  respect  of  persons 
with  God.  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also  perish  without  law  ;  and  as  many  as  have  sinned 
in  the  law,  shall  be  judged  by  the  law." 

Before  proceeding  to    the    exposition  I  concluding  verse  in  the  last  chapter,  that, 
of  this  chapter,  it  may  be  remarked  of  the  1  with  all  the  blindness  which  the  apostle 


LECTURE    VI. — CHAPTER   11,    1 12. 


33 


-charges  on  the  heathen,  and  with  all  the 
dislike  of  retaining   God  in  their  know- 
ledge which  he  ascribes  to  them — there 
was  still  one  particular  of  this  knowledge 
which  they  did  retain.     They  still  knew 
as  much  of  God's  judgment,  as  to  be  con- 
scious that  what  they  were  doing,  in  the 
sinfulness  and  rcprobacy  of  their  minds, 
was  worthy  of  death.     There  was  still  a 
remainder  of  conscience  about  them,  in 
virtue  of  which  they  felt  that  there  were  a 
sin  and  a  condemnation  which  attached  to 
their  own  persons.     With  alfthe  obliter- 
ation which*  had  come  upon  their  moral 
faculties — there  were  still  the  traces  of  a 
law  which  they  could  obscurely  read,  and 
of  a  voice  which  faintly  uttered  itself  in 
notes  of  disapprobation.     They  were  con- 
scious that  all  was  not  right  about  them  ; 
and  had  the  impression  of  a  being  greater 
than  themselves,  to  whose  account  they 
were  responsible  ;  and  the  idea  of  a  reck- 
oning and  of  a  sentence  were  not  altoge- 
ther strange  to  their  understanding.     For 
still,  in  the  most  sunken  ages  of  our  decay- 
ing  and    deteriorating  species,   did   each 
man  carry  about  with  him  such  a  light  as, 
if  he  did  not  follow  it,  would  render  him 
a  sinner — not  against  such  principles  as 
were  altogether  hidden,  but  against  such 
principles  as  were  partly  known  to  him. 
And  such  vestiges  of  a  natural  sense  about 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  may  not  only  be 
gathered  from  the  books  of  Pagan  anti- 
quity; but  they  may  be  still  more  satis- 
factorily educted,  from  the  converse  that 
we  hold  in  the  present  day  with  the  living 
Paganism    which    still    abounds    in    our 
world.    We  know  not  a  more  deeply  in- 
teresting walk  of  observation,  than  that 
which  is  prosecuted  by  modern  inission- 
aries,  when  they  come  into  contact  and 
communication    with  the   men  of  a  still 
unbroken  country — when  they  make  their 
lodgment  on  one  of  the  remote  and  yet 
untravelled    wilds   of    Paganism — when, 
after  the  interval  of  four  thousand  years 
from  the  dispersion  of  the  great  family  of 
mankind,  ihey  go  to  one  of  its  most  widclj'- 
diverging  branches,  and   ascertain  what 
of  conscience  or  what  of  religious  light 
has  among  them  survived  the  lapse  of  so 
many  generations — when  they  thus,  as  it 
were,  knock  at  the  door  of  nature  left  for 
ages  to   itself,   and  try  if  there   yet   be 
slumbering  any  sense  or  intelligence  there 
which  can  at  all  respond  to  the  message 
they  have  brought  along  with  them.    Nor 
do   we  know  an  evolution  of  the  human 
heart  which  carries  in  it  more  of  a  big  and 
an  affecting  interest,  than  that  on  which 
philosophy  has  never  cast  an  enquiring 
regard — even    that   among   its   dark   and 
long  unentered  recesses,  there  still  subsists 
an  undying  voice,  which  owns  the  comfort 
and  echoes  back  the  truth  of  Christianity, 


Insomuch  that,  let  missionaries  go  to  the 
very  extremity  of  our  species,  and  speak 
of  sin  and  judgment  and  condemnation, 
they  do  not  speak  in  vocables  unknown  ; 
and  sweet  to  many  a  soul  is  the  preacher's 
voice,  when  he  tells  that  unto  them  a  Sa- 
viour is  born ;  and,  out  of  the  relics  of 
even    this  deep  and  settled   degeneracy, 
can  be  gotten  the  materials  of  a  satisfying 
demonstration  ;  and  thus  in  the  very  dark- 
est places  have  converts  multiplied,  and 
Christian  villages  arisen,  and  the  gospel 
been   the   savour  of  life  unto  life  to  the 
some  who  have  embraced  it,  and  been  the 
savour  of  death  unto  death  to  the  many 
who  have  declined  it — all  proving  that  a 
principle   still   existed   in  their    bosoms, 
which  if  they  followed  would  guide  them 
to  salvation,  and  v/hich  if  they  fled  from 
would  try  them  and  Hnd  them  to  be  guilty. 
Nor    let    us  wonder  therefore,   that  the 
apostle,  even  when  speaking  of  those  who 
are    given    over    to  every  abomination, 
should  still  affirm  of  them  that  they  know 
the  judgments  of  God.    Even  a  remainder 
of  that  knowledge  which  they  liked  not 
to  retain,  still  kept  its  hold  upon  their  con- 
science and  gave  them  a  responsibility 
v/hich  belongs  not  to  the  beasts  that  perish. 
Man,  in  short,  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
world's  peopled   territory,  has  a  law  by 
which  he  may  righteously  be  judged;  and 
still  enough  of  it  is  known  and  felt  by  his 
own  conscience  to  make  it  out,  that  for  its 
violation  he  should  be   righteously   con- 
demned.    So  that,  dark  as  our  conceptions 
may  be  of  the  present  character  and  fu- 
ture fate  of  those  who  live  under  the  sha- 
dow of  heathenism,  we  may  be  sure  that 
a  clear  and  righteous  principle  of  i-etribu- 
tion  will  be  applied  to  them  all ;  and  that 
they  who  shall  be  judged  v/orthy  of  death 
on  that  day  will  be  found  to  liave  commit- 
ted such  things,  as  they  themselves  either 
knew  or  might  have  known  to  be  worthy 
of  it. 

There  is  still  another  phrase  in  the  verse 
which  may  require  to  be  adverted  to.  It 
is  there  said  of  the  people  who  committed 
things  worthy  of  death,  that  they  not  only 
did  the  same,  but  had  pleasure  in  them 
that  did  them.  This  last  marks  a  higher 
and  a  more  formed  depravity,  than  the  di- 
rect commission  of  that  which  is  evil.  To 
be  hurried  along  by  the  violence  of  pas- 
sion into  some  deed  of  licentiousness,  may 
consist  with  the  state  of  a  mind  that  feels 
its  own  degradation,  and  mourns  over  the 
infirmity  of  its  purposes.  But  to  look  with 
connivance  and  delight  on  the  sin  of  others 
— to  have  pleasure  in  their  companionship 
— and  to  spirit  them  on  in  the  ways  of  dis- 
obedience, after  perhaps  the  urgency 
which  prompted  his  own  career  of  it  has 
abated — this  argues,  not  the  subjection  of 
one  faculty  to  another,  but  the  subjectioa 


34 


LECTURE    VI. CHAPTER    11,    1 12. 


of  the  whole  man  to  sin,  viewed  as  an  ob- 
ject of  full  and  formal  approbation.  This 
is  a  reprobacy  of  the  mind,  to  which  the 
old  are  sometimes  given  over,  after  they 
have  run  their  course  of  dissipation.  At 
the  outset,  even  of  this  lawless  history, 
was  there  a  struggling  principle  within 
them,  which  debated,  and,  for  a  time,  par- 
ried off  the  question  of  indulgence  ;  and 
after  they  entered  on  the  transgressor's 
path,  did  they  taste  the  bitterness  of  many 
a  compunctious  visitation.  But  under  that 
hardening  process,  which  wc  have  already 
explained,  the  conscience  at  length  lost  its 
tenderness,  and  all  its  pangs  and  all  its 
remonstrances  were  forgotten  ;  and,  from 
one  year  to  another,  can  the  voluptuary, 
more  abandoned  than  before,  UiX  a  louder 
and  a  louder  defiance  to  the  authority 
which  at  one  time  overawed  him.  But 
never,  perhaps,  does  he  betray  such  a 
fatal  symptom  of  one  who  is  indeed  given 
over,  as  when  age,  with  all  its  ailing  help- 
lessness, has  at  length  overtaken  him; 
and  he  can  now  only  smile  at  the  remem- 
brance of  joys  which  he  can  no  longer 
realize ;  and  the  young  who  assemble  at 
his  festive  board,  are  by  him  cheered  for- 
ward on  that  way  of  destruction,  to  the 
end  of  which  he  is  so  fast  hastening  ;  and 
the  poison  of  his  own  indelicacy  sjweads 
its  vitiating  influence  over  the  unpractised 
guests  who  are  around  him.  Depravity 
so  unfeeling  as  this,  which  goes  to  aug- 
ment its  own  votaries  and  its  own  victims, 
and  to  perpetuate  a  legacy  in  hell  from 
one  rebellious  generation  to  another,  was 
daily  and  currently  exemplified  in  the 
manners  of  an  age  which  has  now  passed 
by.  And  if,  in  the  progress  of  an  exter- 
nal or  fashionable  reformation,  it  now  be 
nearly  unknown,  let  the  record  of  it  at 
least  serve  to  mark,  how  even  an  indivi- 
dual conscience  can  wither  in  its  posses- 
sor's bosom  to  the  very  margin  of  extinc- 
tion ;  and  how  ere  he  leaves  the  world  he 
can  bequeath  to  it  an  increas-j  of  degene- 
racy, adding  his  own  seductive  testimony 
to  all  the  other  engines  of  corruption 
which  are  already  at  work  in  it — thus 
serving  to  explain,  not  merely  how  guilt 
is  ever  growing  in  power  and  ascendancy 
over  the  habits  of  a  single  man,  but  how 
it  deepens  and  accumulates  and  rises  into 
magnitude  more  appalling,  along  the  line 
of  the  advancing  history  of  our  species. 

Before  entering  upon  the  exposition  of 
the  verses  which  have  now  been  read  in 
your  hearing,  let  it  be  remarked,  that  the 
special  design  of  the  writer  of  this  epistle 
begins  to  open  into  clearer  manifestation. 
The  fact  is,  that  it  was  written  to  the  be- 
lievers in  Rome,  before  he  ever  had  made 
a  personal  appearance  in  that  city.  We 
know  from  the  book  of  Acts,  that,  upon 
his  arrival  there,  it  was  his  first  care  to 


obtain  .an  interview  with  the  people  of  hit 
own  nation  ;  and  that,  as  his  practice  was 
in  other  places,  he  began  his  explanation 
of  the  gospel  in  the  hearing  of  the  Jews, 
and  then  turned  himself  also  unto  the 
Gentiles.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  this  written 
communication,  the  main  purport  of  the 
"argument,  is  to  conciliate  the  Jews  to  the 
faith  of  the  gospel.  It  is  to  make  them 
understand,  that,  in  respect  of  their  need 
of  salvation,  they  were  on  a  footing  just 
as  helpless  as  that  of  the  Gentiles  ;  that  a 
like  sentence  of  wrath  had  gone  out 
against  both  ;  and  a  like  process  of  reco- 
very was  indispensable  to  both.  For  the 
accomplishment  of  this  object,  he  makes, 
we  apprehend,  a  very  skilful  approach  to 
the  Jewi.sh  understanding.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  his  wr  ings,  in  fact,  do  we 
see  that  he  abounded  in  wise  but  honour- 
able devices,  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
weight  and  acceptance  to  his  reasonings. 
He  was  all  things  to  all  men,  not  to  the 
extent  of  surrendering  any  particle  of 
truth  to  their  prejudic(\s,  but  to  the  extent 
of  doing  all  that  might  be  fairly  or  inno- 
cently done,  for  the  purpose  of  softening 
and  surprising  them  out  of  their  prejudi- 
ces. The  picture  which  he  draws  in  the 
first  chapter,  is  a  picture  of  the  Gentilo 
world ;  and  its  most  conspicuous  linea- 
ments arc  those  of  Gentile  profligacy  ; 
and  in  laying  it  before  the  eye  of  a  Jewish 
observer,  he  in  fact  dcals^  with  him  even 
as  Nathan  did  with  David,  when  he  offer- 
ed him  a  di.sgui.sed  re])rescntation  of  his 
own  character,  and  turned  the  indignation' 
which  he  had  prevously  kindled  in  the 
bosom  of  the  monarch  upon  his  own  head. 
For  you  will  observe  that  though  the  most 
prominent  features  of  the  apostolic  sketch, 
are  drawn  from  the  abominations  and  the 
excesses  of  Heathenism,  there  are  others 
which  are  descriptive,  not  of  any  special, 
but  of  that  universal  corruption,  which 
may  be  read  and  recognised  on  the  per- 
son of  every  member  of  the  human  family. 
The  common  depravities  of  our  race  are 
made  to  enter  into  the  enumeration,  along 
with  those  which  are  more  monstrous  and 
unnatural;  and  the  vices  Which  are 
cliargeable  upon  all,  are  mixed  up  in  the 
.same  catalogue  with  the  vices  which  are 
chargeable  upon  some;  and  the  Jew, 
heedless  of  those  traits  of  the  description 
which  may  be  fastened  on  himself,  is  thus 
caught,  as  it  were,  into  an  indignation 
which  may  be  retorted  back  again  upon 
his  own  character.  It  is  thus  that  the 
apostle  begins  this  second  chapter,  much 
in  the  way  in  which  the  prophet  of  the 
Old  Testament  prosecuted  the  advantage 
that  he  had  won  over  David,  whose  re- 
sentment he  had  kindled  against  an  act 
of  oppression,  which  he  himself  had  both 
imitated    and    outdone.     "  Thou  art  the 


LECTURE   VI. CHAPTER    II,    1 12. 


35 


man,"  is  reiterated  upon  the  Jew,  through- 
out the  whole  of  the  second  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  third  chapter — it  being 
the  main  object  of  our  apostle  to  assail 
the  opposition  in  that  quarter  where  it 
looked  to  be  most  impregnable — to  extend 
the  conviction  of  sin  from  the  Gentile 
whom  he  had  laid  prostrate  before  him, 
to  the  Jew  who  still  kept  a  boastful  atti- 
tude, on  the  ground  of  that  self-sufficiency 
which  the  apostle  labours  to  cut  away — 
to  prove,  in  short,  that  all  were  under  sin, 
and  all  were  in  need  of  a  Saviour  ;  that- 
all  were  partakers  of  the  same  guilt,  and 
must  be  partakers  of  the  same  grace,  ere 
they  could  be  restored  to  acceptance  with 
that  God  whom  in  common  they  had  all 
offended. 

In  order  that  you  feel  the  force  of  the 
apostle's  demonstration,  there  is  one  prin- 
ciple which  is  held  to  be  sound  in  human 
law,  and  which  in  ail  equity  ought  to  be 
extended  to  the  law  of  God.  The  principle 
is  this — that,  however  manifold  the  enact- 
ments of  the  law  may  be,  it  is  possible, 
by  one  act  or  one  kind  of  disobedience, 
to  incur  the  guilt  of  an  entire  defiance  to 
the  authority  which  framed  it;  and  there- 
fore to  bring  rightfully  down  upon  the 
head  of  the  transgressor,  the  whole  weight 
of  the  severities  which  it  denounces 
against  the  children  of  iniquity.  To  be 
worthy  of  death,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
commit  all  the  things  which  are  included 
in  the  sad  enumeration  of  human  vices — 
any  more  than  it  is  necessary  for  a  crimi- 
nal, to  add  depredation  to  forgery,  or  mur- 
der to  both,  ere  a  capital  sentence  go  out 
against  him,  from  the  administrators  of 
the  law  upon  which  he  has  trampled.  You 
may  as  effectually  cut  with  a  friend  by 
one  hostile  or  insolent  expression,  as  if 
you  had  employed  a  thousand;  and  your 
disownal  of  an  authority  may  be  as  intel- 
ligibly announced,  by  one  deed  of  defi- 
ance as  by  many;  and  your  contempt  of 
Heaven's  court  be  as  strongly  manifested, 
by  your  wilful  violation  of  one  of  the 
commandments,  as  if  you  had  thwarted 
every  requirement  of  its  prescribed  and 
published  ceremonial.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  gradations  of  punishments  ;  but  these 
are  measured,  not  according  to  the  multi- 
plicity of  outward  offences,  but  according 
to  the  intensity  of  the  rebellious  principle 
that  is  within.  In  virtue  of  an  honourable 
feeling,  you  may  never  steal;  and  this  is 
the  deduction  of  one  external  iniquity 
from  the  history  of  the  doings  of  the  outer 
man.  But  it  is  not  on  that  account  an 
alleviation  of  the  ungodliness  of  the  inner 
man.  You  may  have  natural  affection, 
and  never  abandon  either  a  child  to  the 
exposure  of  its  infancy,  or  a  parent  to  the 
helplessness  of  his  age ;  and  yet  your 
heart  be  as  destitute  as  that  of  any  of  the 


inferior  animals,  of  affection  for  your 
Father  who  is  in  heaven.  The  man  who 
has  thrown  off  the  allegiance  of  loyalty, 
may  feel  no  inclination  to  Avalk  the  whole 
round  of  disobedience  to  the  laws  ;  and 
yet  upon  the  temptation  of  one  single  op- 
portunity, and  by  the  breaking  forth  of 
one  single  expression,  may  he  bringdown 
the  whole  vengeance  of  Government  upon 
his  person.  The  man  who  has  thrown  off 
the  allegiance  of  Religion,  may  neither 
have  the  occasion  nor  the  wish  to  commit 
all  the  offences  which  it  prohibits,  or  to 
utter  all  the  blasphemies  which  may  be 
vented  forth  in  the  spirit  of  deliance 
against  the  Almighty's  throne.  And  yet 
the  principle  of  defiance  may  have  taken 
full  possession  of  his  heart ;  and  irreli- 
gion  may  be  the  clement  in  which  he 
breathes.  And  in  every  instance,  when 
his  will  comes  into  competition  with  the 
will  of  God,  may  the  creature  lift  himself 
above  the  Creator  ;  and  though,  accord- 
ing to  the  varieties  of  natural  tempera- 
ment these  instances  may  be  more  mani- 
fold and  various  with  one  man  than  Avith 
another — yet  that  which  essentially  con- 
stitutes the  character  of  moral  and  spir- 
itual guilt  may  be  of  equal  strength  and 
inveteracy  with  both — Making  it  as  true 
of  a  reputable  member  of  society  in  our 
day,  as  it  was  of  the  formal  and  observ- 
ant Pharisee,  that  he  only  conformed  to 
the  law  of  God,  when,  though  walking  all 
the  while  in  the  counsel  of  his  own  heart, 
conformity  is  that  which  he  would ;  and 
always  trampled  upon  this  law,  whenever, 
walking  in  the  same  counsel,  conformity 
is  a  thing  which  he  would  not.  Ungodli- 
ness, in  short,  is  not  a  thing  of  tale  and 
measure.  It  is  a  thing  of  weight  and  of 
quality.  It  may  be  as  thoroughly  infused 
through  the  character  of  him  who  is  ob- 
servant of  all  the  civilized  decencies  of 
life,  as  of  him  whose  enormities  have 
rendered  him  an  outcast  from  all  the  com- 
mon regards  of  society.  Heaven's  sanc- 
tuary is  alike  scorned  and  alike  neglected 
by  both ;  and  on  the  head  of  each,  will 
there  be  the  same  descending  burden  of 
Heaven's  righteous  indignation. 

Among  the  varieties  both  of  taste  and 
of  habit  which  obtain  with  the  different 
individuals  of  our  species,  there  are  modi- 
fications of  disobedience  agreeable  to  one 
class  and  disguslfiil  to  another  class.  The 
careful  and  calculating  economist  may 
never  join  in  any  of  the  excesses  of  dissi- 
pation ;  and  the  man  of  regardless  expen- 
diture may  never  send  an  unrelieved 
petitioner  from  his  door  ;  and  the  religious 
formalist  may  never  omit  either  sermon 
or  sacrament,  that  is  held  throughout  the 
year  in  the  place  of  his  attendance  ;  and 
the  honourable  merchant  may  never  flinch 
or  falsify,  in  any  one  of  the  transactions 


S6 


LECTURE   VI. CHAPTEK.   U,    1 12, 


of  business.  Each  has  such  points  of 
conformity  as  suits  him,  and  each  has 
such  other  points  of  non-conformity  as 
suits  him  ;  and  thus  the  one  may  despise 
or  even  execrate  the  other,  for  that  par- 
ticular style  of  disobedience  by  which  he 
indulges  his  own  partialities ;  and  the 
things  which  they  respectively  do,  differ 
there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  matter  of 
them — but  as  to  the  mind  of  unconcern 
about  God  which  all  of  them  express, 
they  are  virtually  and  essentially  the 
same.  So  that  amid  the  censure  and 
contempt  which  so  currently  pass  be- 
tween men  of  various  classes  and  charac- 
ters in  society,  there  is  one  pervading 
quality  of  ungodliness  which  they  hold  in 
common  ;  and  in  virtue  of  which  the  con- 
demnation that  one  pronounces  upon 
another,  may  righteously  be  turned  upon 
himself;  and  it  be  said'of  him  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  apostle,  '  therefore  thou  art 
inexcusable,  O  man,  whosoever  thou  art 
that  judgest;  for  wherein  thou  judgest 
another  thou  condemnest  thyself;  for 
thou  that  judgest  dost  the  same  things.' 

Romans  ii,  1 — 12.  This  passage  re- 
quires almost  nothing  in  the  way  of  ver- 
bal criticism.  The  term  for  'despise'  in 
the  4lh  verse  needed  not  to  have  been  so 
rendered  as  to  denote  an  active  contempt 
— but  rather  a  mere  disregard  and  negli- 
gence of  the  opportunity,  which  God  in 
His  forbearance  had  afl'orded  to  sinners, 
for  returning  and  making  their  peace 
with  Him.  The  term  'patient'  again,  in 
the  7th  verse,  signifies,  both  here  and  in 
other  places  of  Scripture,  something  more 
active  than  the  mere  patience  under 
suffering.  They  who  bring  forth  fruits 
with  patience,  are  they  who  do  so  with 
perseverance.  They  who  run  their  race 
with  patience,  are  they  who  persevere  in 
so  running.  They  who  maintain  a  patient 
continuance,  are  they  who  maintain  a 
persevering  continuance  in  well-doing. 

The  whole  passage  is  so  plain,  that  it 
scarcely  admits  of  elucidation  even  from 
a  paraphrase.  But  let  the  following  be 
offered  to  you. 

'  Therefore,  O  man,  thou  art  without 
excuse,  whosoever  thou  art,  that  judgest ; 
for,  in  judging  another,  thou  condemnest 
thyself— seeing  that  thou  who  judgest 
doest  the  same  things.  And  we  are  sure, 
that  God's  judgment  is  according  to  truth, 
against  those  who  commit  these  things. 
And  dost  thou  think,  O  man,  who  judgest 
them  that  do  such  things,  and  doest  the 
same,  that  thou  shalt  escape  God's  judg- 
ment ?  Or  do  you  despise  His  goodness 
and  forbearance  and  long-suffering,  inad- 
vertent of  this,  that  it  is  His  goodness 
which  affords  to  you  a  season  of  repent- 
ance] But,  instead  of  this,  do  you,  after 
your  hard  and  impenitent  heart,  treasure 


up  to  yourselves  wrath  against  the  day 
of  wrath,  and  against  the  day  when  the 
righteousness  of  God's  judgments  shall 
be  rendered  manifest]  God  will  render  to 
every  man  according  to  his  deeds — to 
them  who  by  a  course  of  perseverance  in 
well-doing  seek  for  glory,  honour,  and 
immortality,  eternal  life  ;  but  unto  them 
who  of  contention  and  obstinacy  do  not 
obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness, 
will  be  rendered  indignation  and  wrath: 
tribulation  and  anguish,  upon  every  son 
of  man  that  doethevil,  of  the  Jew  first 
and  also  of  the  Gentile  ;  but  glory,  honour, 
and  peace,  to  every  man  that  worketh 
good ;  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to  the 
Gentile  :  for  there  is  no  respect  of  persons 
with  God  on  that  day,  whatever  apparent 
preference  he  may  make  of  one  man  over 
another,  and  of  one  people  over  another 
in  the  present  stage  of  His  administrations. 
He  will  then  judge  every  man  according 
to  the  ligiit  that  was  in  his  mind,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  which  spake  its  authority 
to  his  conscience,  and  which  he  himself 
recognizes  to  be  of  rightful  obligation.' 

It  may  be  remarked  that  'tribulation' 
simply  denotes  affliction  ;  and  is  the  same 
here  in  the  original,  as  in  the  passage, 
'we  are  troubled  on  every  side' — and  that 
'anguish'  signifies  the  aflliction  from 
which  there  is  no  hope  of  our  .bjcing  extri- 
cated ;  and  is  the  same  in  the  original,  as 
in  the  passage,  that  'though  troubled  on 
every  side  we  are  not  distressed.''^ 

At  the  outset  of  liiis  chapter,  the  apostle 
appeals  to  a  principle  which  is  vigour- 
ously  at  work  in  every  bosom  ;  and.  from 
its  felt  and  conscious  existence  within  us, 
would  he  press  upon  our  belief  the  reality 
of  the  same  principle,  as  residing  in  the 
Godhead — as  applied  by  him  to  every 
creature  who  is  capable  of  exercising  it 
in  his  own  mind  ;  and  leading  to  a  result, 
that  will  be  verified  on  the  great  day  of 
the  winding  up  of  this  world's  administra- 
tion. By  nature  we  are  slow  to  self-con- 
demnation ;  and,  beset  with  the  engross- 
ments of  our  passion  and  our  own  interest, 
we  see  not  in  ourselves  the  criminality  of 
the  same  things  which  we  reprobate  in 
others;  and  conscience  either  passes  no 
verdict  at  all,  or  in  such  a  faint  and 
gentle  whisper  that  it  is  not  heard,  wiien 
it  takes  a  rare  and  a  feeble  cognizance  of 
our  own  character.  But  the  self-love, 
which  deafens  the  voice  of  conscience  in 
its  application  to  our  own  case,  lays  no 
such  barrier  in  its  way  when  it  pronounces 
on  the  case  of  others.  And  hence  the 
familiar  spectacle,  of,  not  merely  an 
adverse  judgment,  but  even  of  a  wraih 
and  an  indignation  in  the  mind  of  one 
man  against  the  vanity  or  the  dishonesty 


•  2  Cor.  iv,  8. 


LECTURE   VI. CHAPTER   11,    1 12. 


37 


\ 


or  the  calumnies  of  another,  to  the  evil  of 
which  he  is  blind  or  insensible  when 
exemplified  in  an  equal  degree  upon  his 
own  person. 

Now  this  very  judging  of  others,  proves 
that  there  is  in  him  a  capacity  for  this 
exercise.  It  shows  that  there  is  a  moral 
light  and  a  moral  sense  still  residing  in 
his  bosom.  It  proves  a  sense  of  the  differ- 
ence between  right  and  wrong;  and  that 
when  a  certain  veil  is  lifted  away  from 
the  materials  of  the  examination,  so  as  to 
bring  his  mind  into  a  more  unclouded 
discernment  of  them — then,  there  is  in 
that  mind  a  conscience,  which  can  ope- 
rate and  pronounce  aright,  upon  what  is 
meritorious  and  what  is  blameworthy  in 
the  character  of  man.  Should  that  man 
be  himself,  and  should  this  circumstance 
throw  a  darkening  shroud  over  the  field 
of  examination,  it  surely  is  no  palliation 
of  his  sinfulness,  nor  does  it  render  him 
less  amcnal)le  to  the  judgment  of  God,  if 
this  shroud  which  hides  his  own  charac- 
ter from  his  own  eyes  be  drawn  over  it 
by  his  own  selfishness.  You  cannot  al- 
lege his  blindness  in  mitigation  of  the 
sentence  that  is  to  go  forth  against  him, 
if  it  be  a  blindness  which  has  no  place  in 
reference  to  the  faults  of  other  men  ;  and 
only  gathers  again  over  the  organs  of  his 
moral  discernment,  when  the  hand  of  his 
own  partiality  sets  up  a  screen  between 
the  eye  of  his  conscience  and  the  equal 
or  perhaps  surpassing  fiults  of  his  own 
character.  The  mere  fact  that  he  can 
and  does  judge  of  others,  proves  that  a 
law  of  right  and  wrong  is  present  with 
him.  The  fact  that  he  does  not  so  judge 
of  himself,  only  proves,  not  that  he  is 
without  the  light  of  moral  truth  lilve  the 
beasts  that  perish — but  that  he  keeps 
down  that  truth  by  unrighteousness;  that 
when  its  voice  is  so  stifled  as  to  be  un- 
heard, it  is  he  himself  who  stifles  it ;  that 
his  blindness  is  not  the  natural  incapacity 
of  an  animal,  but  the  wilful  and  chosen 
and  much-loved  blindness  of  a  depraved 
man.  If  you  see  one  of  our  species  judg- 
ing certain  thingsin  the  conduct  of  another, 
infer  from  this  that  he  knows  of  a  code  to 
which  by  his  own  voice  he  awards  a  moral 
authority.  If  you  see  him  not  judging  in 
the  same  way  of  the  same  things  in  him- 
self, consider  this  as  a  wilful  suppression 
of  the  truth,  which  does  not  extenuate,  but 
which  in  every  way  heightens  his  guilt, 
and  turns  his  moral  insensibility,  not  into 
a  plea,  but  into  an  aggravation.  And  if 
there  be  not  a  country  in  the  world,  where 
this  twofold  exhibition  is  not  to  be  wit- 
nessed— if,  even  among  the  rudest  wander- 
ers of  the  desert,  there  is  the  tact  of  a 
moral  discernment  between  what  is  fair 
and  what  is  injurious  in  the  character  of 
man — if  in  the  tierce  contests  of  savages, 


you  see  them  simply  capable  of  being 
alive  to  the  injustice  of  others,  while  in 
the  wild  and  untamed  rapacity  of  their 
natures,  they  experience  no  check  from 
the  sense  and  conviction  of  their  own — 
then  be  assured,  that,  on  the  great  day  of 
account,  will  it  be  found,  that  there  is  a 
law  which  can  reach  even  unto  them; 
and  a  retribution  of  equity  which  can  be 
rendered  unto  them ;  and  a  vengeance 
which,  in  despite  of  every  plea  and  every 
palliation  that  can  be  offered  for  these 
darkest  and  most  degraded  of  our  breth- 
ren, can  be  righteously  inflicted — Making 
it  manifest,  that  a  judgment-seat  may  be 
set  up  on  the  last  day  of  our  world ;  and 
that  around  it,  from  its  remotest  corners, 
all  the  men  of  all  its  generations  may  be 
assembled  ;  and  that  not  one  of  them  will 
be  found  to  have  lived  without  the  scope 
and  limits  of  a  jurisdiction,  on  the  princi- 
ples of  which  ho  may  rightfully  be  tried — 
so  as  that  yet  the  triumph  of  God's  justice 
shall  be  signalized  upon  every  individual ; 
nor  will  there  be  a  single  doom  pronounced 
upon  any  creature, in  anyone  department 
of  the  great  moral  teri-itory,  that  is  not 
strictly  accordant  with  this  song  of  Reve- 
lation— "Even  so,  Lord  God  Almighty! 
true  and  righteous  are  thy  judgments; 
just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of 
Saints." 

But  let  us  look  nearer  home.  There  is 
not  an  exercise  more  familiar  to  your  own 
hearts,  than  that  by  which  you  feel  the 
demerits  of  others,  and  judge  of  them 
accordingly.  The  very  movements  of 
anger  within  you  are  connected  with  a 
sense  of  right  and  wrong — such  a  sense 
as  evinces  you  to  be  in  possession  of  a 
law,  which  you  can  bring  to  bear  in  exa- 
mination and  condemnation  upon  the 
doings  of  man  ;  and  should  this  law  be 
evaded  through  the  duplicities  and  the 
deceits  of  selfishness,  in  its  application  to 
yourself— then  know  that  a  principle  so 
universal  among  mankind,  in  reference 
to  their  judgments  the  one  of  the  other, 
is  of  unfailing  operation  in  the  mind  of 
the  Deity,  and  will  be  applied  by  Him  to 
all  who  by  the  mere  possession  of  a  moral 
faculty  prove  themselves  to  be  the  fitting 
subjects  of  His  moral  cognizance.  If  in 
the  whole  course  of  your  existence,  you 
ever  judged  another ;  this  renders  you  at 
that  one-time  a  right  and  proper  subject 
of  judgment  yourself;  and  if  this  be  your 
daily  and  habitual  exercise,  insomuch 
that  any  development  of  vanity  or  sel- 
fishness or  unfairness  in  another  is  sure 
to  call  out  from  you  a  feeling  of  condem- 
nation, then  this  proves  that  you  are 
hourly  and  habitually  the  rightful  subjects 
of  a  moral  guardianship  and  a  moral 
jurisdiction.  The  faculty  you  have,_  is 
but  a  secondary  impress  of  that  superior 


38 


LECTURE   VI. CHAPTER    II,    1 12. 


and  pervading  faculty  which  belongs 
to  God,  as  the  judge  of  all  and  the 
lawgiver  of  all.  Be  as.sured  that  there 
is  a  presiding  Justice  in  Mis  administra- 
tion ;  that  there  is  a  moral  government 
founded  on  a  righteousness,  the  lessons  of 
which  are  more  or  less  kninvn  by  all,  and 
the  sanctions  of  which  will  be  accordingly 
fulfilled  upon  all.  Your  very  power  of 
judging  others,  proves  that  its  lessons  are 
in  some  degree  known  to  you.  And  think 
not,  O  man  which  judgest  those  who  do 
such  and  such  things,  and  doest  the  same, 
that  thou  wilt  escape  the  judgment  of 
God. 

God,  in  the  day  of  final  account,  will 
find  out  in  the  case  of  every  human  Being 
whom  lie  docs  condemn,  the  materials  of 
his  valid  condemnation.  These  materials 
ma)''  in  a  great  measure  be  hidden  from 
us  now  ;  and  yet  the  palpable  fact  of  each 
being  able  morally  to  judge  another,  and 
to  pass  his  moral  opinion  upon  another, 
however  little  he  may  be  disposed  to  scru- 
tinize himself,  forms  a  very  palpable  dis- 
closure of  the  fact,  that  there  is  in  our 
hearts  the  sense  of  a  moral  law — a  moni- 
tor who,  if  we  do  not  follow  him  as  our 
guide  here,  will  be  our  accusing  whness 
hereafter.  And  from  every  feeling  of  re- 
probation, if  not  from  every  feeling  of  re- 
sentment towards  others  of  which  we  are 
capable,  we  may  gather  assurance  of  the 
fact,  that  there  docs  exist  within  us  such  a 
sense  of  the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong,  as,  if  not  acted  on  in  our  own  con- 
duct, will  be  enough  to  convict  us  of  a 
latent  iniquity,  and  to  call  down  upon  us 
a  rightful  sentence  of  condemnation. 

So  long  as  .self  is  the  subject  of  its  over- 
seership,  the  moral  sense  may  be  partial 
or  reluctant  or  altogether  negligent  of  its 
testimonies.  But  if  it  can  give  those  tes- 
timonies clearly  enough  and  feelingly 
enough,  when  it  casts  a  superintending 
eye  over  the  conduct  of  others,  this  proves 
that  an  inward  witness  could  speak  also 
to  us,  but  does  not,  because  we  have 
bribed  him  into  silence.  In  other  words, 
it  will  be  found  on  the  last  day,  that  we 
had  light  enough  to  conduct  us  if  we 
would  have  followed,  and  to  condenni  us 
if  we  have  either  refused  or  wilfully  dark- 
ened its  intimations.  So  that  God  will  be 
clear  when  He  speaketh  and  justified 
when  He  judgeth.  He  will  wipe  His  hands 
of  every  outcast  on  that  great  and  solemn 
occasion  ;  and  make  it  evident  that  the 
guilt  of  all  the  iniquities  for  which  he  is 
punished  is  at  his  own  door — that  there  is 
no  unrighteousness  of  severity  with  God, 
but  that  '  His  judgment  is  indeed  accord- 
ing to  truth  when  it  is  against  them  who 
commit  such  things.' 

The  apostle  affirms  his  own  sureness  of 
this,  and  with  a  view  to  make  us  sure  of 


it  also.    The  truth  is,  that  a  want  of  be- 
lief inGod  as  a  Judge,  is  nearly  as  preva- 
lent as  the  want  of  belief  in  Christ  as  a 
Saviour.     Could  the  one  be  established 
within   you,  it   would   create  an  inquiry 
and  a  restlessness  and  an  alarm,  which 
might  soon  issue  in  the  attainment  of  the 
otlier.    But  the  general  habit  of  the  world 
proves,  that,  in  reference  to  God  as  a  God 
of  judgment,  there  is  a  profound  and   a 
prevailing   sleep  among  its  generations. 
The  children  of  alienated  and  degenerate 
Nature,  are  no  more  awake  to  the  law  in 
all   the  unchangeableness  of  its  present 
authority,  and  in  all  the  certainty  of  its 
coming  terrors — than  they  are  awake  to 
the  gospel  in  the  freedom  of  its  offers,  and 
in  the  sureness  of  its  redemption,  and  in 
the  exceeding  greatness  and  preciousnesa 
of  all  its  promises.    There  is  just  as  little 
sense  of  the  disease  as  there  is  little  of 
esteem  for  the  remedy.    Theologians  ac- 
cordingly tell  us  of  the  faith   of  the  law, 
and  of  the  faith  of  the  gospel.    By  the  one 
we  believe  what  the  law  reveals,  in  re- 
gard to  its  own  requirements  and  its  own 
.sanctions.     By  the  other  we  believe  what 
the  gospel  reveals,  in  regard  to   its  own 
proposals  and  its  own  invitations  and  its 
own   privileges.     Faith  attaches  itself  to 
the  law  as  well  as  to  the  gospel ;  and  obe- 
dience to  the  gospel  as  well  as  to  the  law. 
The  apostle  here  speaks  of  our  not  obey- 
ing  the   truth — and   the  psalmist  says — 
•'Lord,    I   have   believed    thy   command- 
ments."    The   truth   is,  that,  among  the 
men  of  our  listless  and   secure   species, 
there  is  no  realizing  sense  of  their  being 
under  the  law — or  of  their  being  under  the 
haunting    control    and    inspection    of    a 
Lawgiver.    Their  habit  is  that  of  walking 
in  the  counsel  of  their  own  hearts  and  in 
the  sight  of  their  own  eyes — nor  do  they 
feel,  in  the  waywardness  of  tlieir  self-ori- 
ginating  movements,  that   they   are   the 
servants  of  another  and  amenable  to  the 
judgment  of  another.     Let  a  man  just  at- 
tend to  the  current  of  his   thoughts  and 
purposes     and    desires,    throughout    the 
course  of  a  whole  day's  business  ;  and  he 
will  find  how  lamentably  the  impression 
of  a  divine  superintendence,  and  the  sense 
of  a   heavenly  and  unseen   witness,  are 
away  from  his  heart.     This  will  not  ex- 
cuse  his  habitual   ungodliness — due,   as 
we  have  often  affirmed  it  to  be,  to  the  wil- 
ful smothering  of  convictions,  which,  but 
for  wilful  depravity,  he  might  have  had. 
But  such  being  the  real  insensibility  of 
man  to  his  own  condition  as  a  responsible 
and  an  amenable  creature,  it  is  well  that 
by  such  strenuous  affirmations   as  those 
of  the  apostle,  he  .should  be  reminded  of 
the  sureness  wherewith  God  will  appoint 
a  day  in  righteousness  ;  and  institute  a 
judgment  over  the  quick  and  the  dead. 


LECTURE   VI. — CHAPTER    II,    1 12. 


39 


Unbelief  is  not  so  much  a  dissent  of  the 
-mind  from  any  one  particular  truth  or 
doctrine  of  revelation,  as  a  darkness  of 
the  mind  which  intercepts  a  realizing 
view  of  all  the  truths  and  all  the  objecl.s 
that  lie  spread  over  the  region  of  spiritu- 
ality. The  clearing  away  of  this  dark- 
ness renders  these  objects  visible  ;  and  it 
is  a  variation  in  the  order  of  their  disclo- 
sure which  forms  one  chief  cause  of  the 
varieties  of  religious  experience.  Some 
catch  in  the  firsf  instance  a  view  of  the 
law,  scattering,  as  if  from  the  mouth  of  a 
volcano,  its  menaces  and  its  terrors  on  all 
the  children  of  disobedience  ;  and  it  is  not' 
till  after  a  dreary  interval  of  discompo- 
sure and  distress,  that  they  behold  the 
mantle  lifted  away  from  that  stronghold 
into  which  all  of  them  flee  as  an  escape 
and  a  resting  place.  Others  again  catch 
at  the  outset  a  milder  and  a  quieter  ray 
from  the  light  of  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness ;  and  it  is  not  till  they  have  been 
conducted  within  the  fold  of  a  most  sure 
and  ample  niediatorship,  and  from  whence 
they  may  look  tranquilly  and  at  a  safe 
and  protected  distance  on  all  around  them 
— it  is  not  till  then,  that  they  are  made  to 
see  the  hatefulness  of  sin,  and  all  the 
dread  and  all  the  dignity  of  God's  fiery 
denunciations  against  it.  These  things 
follow  each  other  by  a  different  succes- 
sion with  different  individuals ;  but  cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  most  partial  glimpse  of 
the  smallest  portion  of  the  whole  terri- 
tory of  faith,  is  greatly  more  to  be  desired, 
than  the  deep  and  sunken  and  unallevia- 
ted  carnality  of  him,  who  is  wholly  given 
unto  things  present  and  things  sensible ; 
and  even  he,  to  whom  the  guilt  and  dan- 
ger alone  have  been  unfolded,  is  far  more 
hopefully  conditioned,  than  he,  who,  alike 
insensible  to  the  vvrath  of  God  the  Judge, 
and  to  the  beseeching  voice  of  God  the 
Saviour,  has  taken  up  with  time  as  his 
portion  and  his  all  ;  and,  living  as  he 
list-s,  lives  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  j>eace, 
•which,  if  not  broken  up  ere  he  dies,  a  few 
years  will  demonstrate  to  have  been  in- 
deed a  fatal  and  then  irrecoverable  de- 
lusion. 

The  4th  verse  of  this  chapter  has  been 
referred  to  by  Peter  in  his  second  epistle 
— wherein  he  also  explains  why  it  is  that 
God  does  not  cut  short  the  present  stage 
of  His  administration — why  it  is,  that  He 
tolerates  so  long  the  succession  of  one 
sinful  generation  after  another — why  it 
is,  that  He  sweeps  not  away  such  a  moral 
nuisance  as  our  rebellious  world,  and  so 
have  done  with  it — why  it  is,  for  example, 
that  at  this  very  hour  we  see  not  the 
symptoms  of  dissolving  nature,  and  hear 
not  the  trumpet  of  preparation  for  the 
solemnities  of  the  last  day,  and  feel  not 
the  heat    of   melting    elements,  or    the 


shaking  of  the  ground  from  under  us — 
but,  instead  of  these,  why  it  is  that  all  is 
going  on  in  its  wonted  order,  and  the  sun 
moves  as  steadily,  and  the  seasons  roll  as 
surely,  and  all  the  successions  of  nature 
follow  each  other  with  as  undisturbed 
regularity,  as  if  destined  so  to  abide,  and 
so  to  persevere  even  unto  eternity. 

We  know  not  the  theory  of  ungodly 
men  upon  this  subject,  but  their  practice 
speaks  most  intelligibly  what  they  feel 
about  it.  They  tread  upon  this  world's 
surface  as  firmly,  as  if  the  world  stood  on 
a  secure  and  everlasting  foundation.  They 
prosecute  this  world's  objects  as  strenu- 
ously, as  if  in  the  gaining  their  little  por- 
tion of  it,  they  gamed  a  value  which  in 
exchange  would  be  greater  than  the  value 
of  men's  soul's.  They  toil  and  calculate 
and  devise  for  this  world's  interests,  with 
as  intense  and  undivided  earnestHess,  aj 
if  they  and  the  world  were  never  to  be 
separated.  In  the  face  of  evidence — in 
the  face  of  experience — in  the  face  of  all 
they  know  about  death,  and  of  all  that 
has  been  revealed  to  them  about  judgment 
and  retribution  and  the  final  wreck  of  the 
present  system  of  things,  do  they  assign 
a  character  of  perpetuity  to  what  is  seen 
and  sensible  around  them;  nor  could  they 
possibly  labour  more  devotedly  in  the 
pursuits  of  time,  though  they  themselves 
were  to  contiruie  here  for  ever,  and  all 
things  to  continue  as  they  were  from  the 
beginning  of  the  ci-eation. 

Such  is  the  practical  impression  of  a 
natural  man  about  the  life  that  he  lives  in 
the  world ;  and  all  his  habits  of  life  and 
business  are  founded  upon  it.  But  how 
ditferent  from  the  revelation  of  its  design 
and  purpose  as  given  by  the  apostles.  It 
is  a  suspension  of  the  wrath  of  God 
against  sinners,  that  space  may  be  allow- 
ed for  repentance.  It  is  that  He,  not  will- 
ing that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all 
should  return,  forbears  the  infliction  of 
His  final  vengeance  till  they  have  got 
their  opportunity.  The  perverse  interpre- 
tation which  a  worldly  man  puts  upon  the 
continuance  of  the  world,  is,  that  the 
world  is  worthy  of  all  his  affections  ;  and 
that  it  is  his  wisdom  to  rear  upon  its  basis 
the  fabric  of  his  hopes.  He  misses  the 
altogether  different  conclusion  which 
should  be  drawn  from  it — that  this  con- 
tinuance is  due  to  the  goodness  of  God, 
lengthening  out  to  him  and  to  us  all  the 
season  of  an  offered  indemnity,  and  of  a 
proclaimed  pardon,  and  of  an  inviting 
gospel  with  the  whole  of  its  privileges  and 
blessings — and  so,  not  knowing  that  this 
goodness,  instead  of  rivetting  him  more 
to  the  world  should  lead  him  to  forsake 
the  love  of  it  for  the  love  of  its  Maker, 
does  he  misunderstand  and  misapply  the 
bearing  of  time  upon  eternity. 


# 


LECTURE   VI. CHAPTER   II,    1 12. 


What  we  have  already  noticed,  about 
the  alternative  character  of  that  dispen- 
sation  under  which  we  sit,  is  strikingly 
brought  out  in  the  verses  before  us.  Good- 
ness to  the  innocent,  or  goodness  to  the 
deserving,  merely  displays  this  attribute 
in  a  state  of  simplicity  ;  but  the  goodness 
which  remains  unquclled  and  unexhausted 
after  it  has  been  sinned  against — the 
goodness  which  persists  in  multiplying 
upon  the  transgressor  the  chances  of  his 
recovery,  and  that  in  the  midst  of  affront 
and  opposition — the  goodness  which,  loth 
to  inflict  the  retaliating  blow,  still  holds 
out  a  little  longer  and  a  little  longer  ;  and, 
with  all  the  means  in  its  power  of  aveng- 
ing the  insults  of  disobedience,  still  ekes 
out  the  season  for  its  return,  and  plies  it 
•with  all  the  encouragements  of  a  free 
pardon  and  an  ofiered  reconciliation — 
this  is  the  exuberance  of  goodness,  this  is 
the  richness  of  forbearance  and  long- 
suffering  ;  and  it  is  the  very  display  which 
God  is  now  making  in  reference  to  our 
■world.  And  by  every  year  which  rolls 
over  our  heads — by  every  morning  in 
■which  we  find  that  we  have  awoke  to  the 
light  of  a  new  day  instead  of  awakening 
in  torment — by  every  hour  and  every 
minute  through  which  the  stroke  of  death 
is  suspended,  and  you  still  continue  a 
breathing  man  in  the  land  of  gospel  calls 
and  gospel  invitations — is  God  now  justi- 
fying His  goodness  towards  you.  And 
earnest  as  He  is  for  your  return,  and  heed- 
less as  you  are  of  all  this  earnestness, 
does  it  call  as  time  moves  onward  for  a 
higher  and  a  higher  exertion  of  forbear- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  Divinity,  to  re- 
strain His  past  and  accumulating  wrath, 
from  being  discharged  on  the  head  of 
tho.se  among  whom  though  God  entreats 
yet  no  man  will  turn,  and  though  He 
stretch  out  His  hand  yet  no  man  regardeth. 

Now  if  .such  be  the  character  of  God 
in  His  relation  to  man,  mark  what  charac- 
ter it  stamps  upon  man  should  he  remain 
unsoftened  and  unimpressed  by  it.  It 
were  offence  enough  to  sin  against  the 
authority  of  a  superior  ;  but  to  sin  against 
his  forbearanc(;  forms  a  sore  and  a  fatal 
aggravation.  Thus  to  turn  upon  the  long- 
suffering  of  God  and  to  trample  it — tlius 
to  pervert  the  .season  which  He  has  allot- 
ted for  repentance,  into  a  season  of  more 
secure  and  presumptuous  transgression — 
thus,  upon  every  delay  of  vengeance  with 
which  He  favours  us,  the  more  to 
strengthen  ourselves  in  hard  and  haughty 
defiance  against  Him — this  indeed  is  a 
highway  of  guilt,  which,  if  you  be  not 
arrested  therein,  Avill  lead  to  a  sorer  judg- 
ment and  a  deadlier  consummation.  Turn 
then  all  of  you  at  the  call  of  repentance, 
or  it  is  the  very  highway  on  which  you 
are  treadmg.    It  is  because  He  is  rich  in 


goodness,  that  we  have  been  spared  to 
this  present  moment  of  our  history  ;  and 
now  hear  Him  in  the  very  language  of 
His  own  revelation  bid  you  turn  and  turn, 
for  why  will  you  die.  But  if  you  will  not 
draw  from  the  treasures  of  His  forbear- 
ance, there  is  treasure  of  another  kind 
that  is  heaping  by  every  day  of  your  ne- 
glected salvation,  in  a  storehouse  of  ven- 
geance ;  and  which,  on  the  great  day  when 
God  shall  ease  Him  of  all  His  adversaries, 
will  all  be  poured  forth  upon  you.  And 
thus  it  is,  that  if  you  despise  the  riches  of 
His  goodness  and  forbearance  and  long- 
suffering,  and  suffer  not  them  to  lead  you 
to  repentance,  you  will  by  your  hardness 
and  impenitency,  treasure  up  unto  your- 
selves wrath  again.st  the  day  of  wrath, 
and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgmenis 
of  God. 

Let  us  therefore,  in  plain  urgency,  bid 
you  repent ;  and,  untramelled  by  system, 
set  before  you,  as  the  apostle  does,  both 
the  coming  wrath  and  the  coming  glory ; 
and  tell  you  that  the  one  is  to  him  who 
doeth  evil,  and  that  the  other  is  to  him  who 
doeth  well ;  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
there  is  nothing  in  faith,  or  in  any  of  its 
mysteries,  whifh  will  supersede  the  day 
of  judgment  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  pas- 
sajje  here  before  us.  The  apostle  is  not 
only  describing  what  would  have  happen- 
ed under  the  first  covenant,  but  what  will 
happen  under  the  second.  For  though 
justified  by  faith,  we  shall  bo  judged  by 
works  ;  and  let  not  the  one  of  these  arti- 
cles be  so  contrasted  with  the  other,  as  to 
throw  a  shade  either  of  neglect  or  insig- 
nificance over  it.  When  rightly  under- 
stood, they  reflect  upon  each  other  a  mu- 
tual lustre,  and  lend  to  each  other  a  mu- 
tual confirmation.  Faith  is  the  high  road 
to  I'cpentance.  Our  acceptance  of  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  as  our  title  for  an 
entrance  into  heaven,  is  an  essential  step- 
ping-stone to  our  own  personal  righteous- 
ness as  our  preparation  for  the  joys  and 
the  exercises  of  heaven  ;  and  if  there  be 
a  stirring  of  conscience  and  an  agitation 
of  alarm  in  any  of  your  hearts,  under  the 
sense  of  your  not  being  what  you  ought 
to  be — we  can  do  nothing  more  effectual, 
than  to  propose  the  blood  of  Christ  to 
yf)ur  faith,  in  order  thiit  under  the  trans- 
forming and  sanctifying  influence  of  such 
a  belief,  you  both  be  what  you  ought  and 
do  what  you  ought. 

The  great  object  of  the  apostle's  demon- 
.stration  is,  that  men  should  make  their 
escnpe  from  the  penalties  of  the  law,  to 
the  hiding-place  provided  for  them  in  the 
gospel.  And  though  he  here  intimates  the 
rewards  which  it  holds  out  to  obedience, 
and  the  fearful  vengeance  which  it  holds 
out  against  transgression — yet  he  does  not 
intimate  that  any  individual  ever  earned 


LECTURE   VI. — CHAPTER   II,    I 12. 


4£ 


the  one,  or  ever  secured  by  his  own  right- 
eousness an  exemption  from  the  other. 
His  object  is  to  make  known  to  us  the 
constitution  or  the  economy  of  God's  gov- 
ernment, that,  should  any  of  its  subjects 
fulfil  all  its  requisitions,  they  should  be 
rewarded ;  but  without  saying  that  they 
actually  did  so — or,  that,  should  any  of 
its  subjects  fail  in  those  requisitions  they 
would  be  punished;  but  without  telling  us 
whether  any  or  some  or  all  come  under 
this  condemnation.  How  it  was  that  they 
actually  did  conduct  themselves  under 
this  administration,  he  tells  us  afterwards 
— when  he  says  of  all,  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  that  they  were  under  sin ;  and 
that  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  flesh  can 
be  justified,  for  that  all  had  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. 

And  yet  after  all  there  will  be  a  judg- 
ment ;  and  this  judgment  will  proceed 
upon  each  individual  according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  his  body ;  and  it  is  upon 
those  who  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience, 
or  who  maintain  a  patient  continuance  in 
well-doing,  that  these  accents  of  invita- 
tion will  descend — '•  Well  done,  thou  good 
and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord;"  and  it  is  also  upon 
those  who  are  contentious  and  obey  not 
the  truth  but  obey  unrighteousness,  that 
the  awful  bidding  away  to  the  everlasting 
fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels 
will  be  pronounced,  by  Him  who  conducts 
the  solemnities  of  that  great  occasion. 
But  then,  as  we  read  afterwards,  it  will  be 


Jesus  Christ  to  whom  this  judgment  will 
be  committed  ;  and  the  judgment  will  be 
according  to  'my  gospel,'  or  the  gospel 
which  the  apostle  proclaims  to  his  hearers. 
The  judgment  of  condemnation  will  be 
upon  those  who  have  withstood  its  over- 
tures ;  or  who,  if  these  overtures  had 
never  reached  them,  have  withstood  the 
instigations  of  their  own  conscience, 
which  ought  to  have  been  a  law  unto 
them.  And  the  judgment  of  acquittal  will 
be  upon  those  who  have  obeyed  the  truth, 
or  who  have  rendered  obedience  unto  the 
faith — those  whose  persons  and  whose 
works  are  accepted  for  the  sake  of  a  better 
righteousness  than  their  own — those  who, 
after  they  believed,  were  sealed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  and  were  made 
the  workmanship  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  were  created  anew  unto  good  works. 
So  that,  after  the  first  covenant  has  been 
superseded  by  the  second — after  ma:n  has 
become  dead  unto  the  law  and  made  alive 
unto  Christ — after  all  its  demands  have 
been  satisfied,  and  it  has  no  more  power 
to  challenge  or  to  condemn  him  who  truly 
believes  in  Jesus,  Jesus  himself  takes  up 
the  judgment  of  him,  and  tries  him  on  the 
question  whether  he  is  actually  a  believer  ; 
and  the  deeds  done  in  the  body  are  the 
evidences  of  this  question,  and  make  it 
manifest  on  that  day  that  the  faith  which 
he  professed  was  no  counterfeit,  being 
fruitful  in  all  those  works  of  righteous- 
ness which  are  by  Jesus  Christ  unto  the 
praise  and  glory  of  God. 


LECTURE  VII. 


Romans  ii,  12 — 29. 

"  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also  perish  witliout  law ;  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law, 
shall  be  judged  by  the  law,  (for  not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are  just  before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  jus- 
tified. f"or  when  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  hav- 
ing not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves  ;  which  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  their  con- 
science also  bearing  witness,  and  their  thoughts  the  mean  while  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another,)  in  the  day 
when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by  .lesus  Christ  according  to  my  gospel  Behold,  thou  art  called  a  Jew, 
and  restest  in  the  law,  and  makest  thy  boast  of  God,  and  knowesi  his  will,  and  approvest  the  things  tliat  are  more 
excellent,  being  instructed  out  of  the  law;  and  art  confident  that  thou  thyself  art  a  guide  of  the  blind  a  light  of 
them  which  are  in  darkness,  an  instructor  of  the  foolish,  a  teacher  of  babes,  which  hast  the  form  of  knowledge  and 
of  the  truth  in  the  law.  Thou  tlierefore  that  teachest  another,  teachest  thou  not  thyself!  tliou  that  preachest  a 
man  should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal  1  thou  that  sayest  a  man  should  not  commit  adultery,  dost  thou  commit 
adultery  ^  thou  that  abhorrest  idols,  dost  thou  commit  sacrilege  ?  thou  that  makest  thy  boast  of  the  law,  through 
breaking  the  law  dishonourest  thou  God  7  for  the  name  of  God  is  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles  through  you,  as 
it  is  written.  For  circumcision  verily  profiteth,  if  thou  keep  the  law  ;  but  if  thou  be  a  breaker  of  the  law,  thy 
circumcision  is  made  uncirqumsion.  Therefore,  if  the  iincireumcision  keep  the  righteousness  of  the  lavv,  shall  not 
his  uneircumcision  be  counted  for  circumcision  '!  and  shall  not  uncircumcision,  wliich  Is  by  nature,  if  it  fulfil  the 
law,  judge  thee,  who  by  the  letter  and  circumcision  dost  transgress  the  law  7  For  he  is  not  a  Jew  which  is  one 
outwardly:  neither  is  that  circumcision  which  is  outward  in  the  ilesh  :  but  he  is  a  Jew  which  is  one  inwardly: 
and  circumcision  is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter ;  whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God." 


V.  12.  Without  a  written  law  as  the 
Jews  had — they  shall  perish  without  being 
judged  by  that  law.  There  will  be  ano- 
ther law  to  judge  them — and,  whosoever 
perishes,  it  will  not  be  the  consequence 
6 


of  a  condemnation  brought  to  bear  upon 
him  by  a  law  which  he  did  not  know  of. 
They  who  have  sinned  in  the  law,  that  is 
in  the  written  law,  are  they  who  have 
sinned  under  that  law — the  Jews  who  will 


42 


LECTURE    VII. CHAPTER   II,    12 29. 


be  judged  by  it.  V.  13.  There  is  a  term 
which  we  may  often  have  to  recur  to — 
and  which  we  therefore  shall  explain  at 
present.  Some  would  have  it  that  justifi- 
cation in  the  New  Testament  means  the 
making  of  a  man  personally  just.  Con- 
ceive a  thief,  for  example,  to  undergo 
such  a  transformation  of  character  as 
that  he  iienceforward  is  honest  in  all  his 
transactions — this  would  be  making  him 
a  just  person  in  the  sense  which  some 
choose  to  assign  to  the  word — it  would  bo 
justifying  him.  We  believe  it  may  be 
made  out,  in  almost  every  place  where  it 
occurs,  that  this  is  not  the  real  meaning 
of  the  term — that  it  should  be  taken,  not 
in  a  personal,  but  In  what  may  be  called 
a  forensic  signification — or,  that  to  justify, 
instead  of  meaning  to  make  just  by  a 
process  of  operation  upon  the  character, 
means  to  pronounce  or  to  declare  just  by 
the  sentence  of  a  judicial  court.  This  is 
called  the  forensic  sense  of  the  term, 
because  a  court  of  justice  was  anciently 
called  a  forum ;  and  it  is  evident  that, 
here  at  least,  the  word  must  be  understood 
forensically — for  the  doers  of  the  law  do 
not  need  to  be  made  just  personally. 
They  are  already  so;  and  therefore  for 
them  to  be  justified,  is  to  be  declared  just 
by  the  sentence  of  him  who  administers 
the  law.  V.  15.  There  seem  here  to  be 
two  distinct  proofs  of  the  Gentiles  being 
a  law  unto  themselves.  The  first  is  from 
the  fact  of  there  being  a  conscience  indi- 
vidually at  work  in  each  bosom,  and 
deponing  either  to  the  merit  or  the  de- 
merit of  actions.  The  second  from  the 
fact  of  their  accusing  or  excusing  one 
another,  in  the  reasonings  or  disputes 
which  took  place  between  man  and  man. 
For  what  is  translated  'thoughts,'  may  be 
rendered  into  dialectic  reasonings,  or  dis- 
putes which  one  man  has  with  another, 
when  a  question  of  right  or  justice  is 
started  between  them.  It  proves  them  to 
be  in  possession  of  a  common  rule,  or 
standard  of  judging,  or,  in  other  words, 
that  a  law  is  actually  among  them.  So 
true  is  it,  even  in  its  application  to  the 
Gentiles,  that  there  is  a  light  which  light- 
eth  every  man  who  cometh  into  the 
world.  V.  22.  To  commit  sacrilege,  or  to 
take  to  our  private  use,  that  which  is 
consecrated  to  God.  This  is  what  might 
very  readily  be  brought  home  to  a  Jewish 
conscience — it  being  matter  of  frequent 
complaint  against  the  Jews,  that  they 
offered  what  was  lame  and  defective  in 
sacrifice.  V.  24.  This  is  written  for  ex- 
anriple,  in  Ezekiel  xxxvi.  20,  where  it  is 
said  that  the  Heathen  in  mockery  said 
unto  the  people  of  Israel  when  they  were 
carried  away  captive — "These  are  the 
people  of  the  Lord  and  are  gone  forth  out 
of  His  land." 


This  is  all  that  needs  to  be  advanced  in 
the  way  of  exposition — and  the  following 
is  a  paraphrase  of  this  passage, 

'  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  without 
law,  shall  also  perish,  not  by  the  con- 
demnation of  that  law,  but  of  another 
which  they  had ;  and  as  many  as  have 
sinned  who  were  under  the  dispensation 
of  the  written  law,  shall  |py  that  law  be 
judged.  For,  as  to  the  Jews,  they  arc  not 
the  hearers  of  the  law  who  are  reckoned 
just  before  God ;  but  they  are  the  doers 
of  the  law  only  who  shall  be  justified. 
And,  as  to  the  Gentiles,  they  having  not 
the  law  of  Mount  Sinai,  yet,  when  by  na- 
ture they  do  the  things  contained  in  that 
law,  these,  though  without  a  written  code, 
have  a  something  in  its  place  which  to 
them  has  all  the  authority  of  a  law.  For 
they  show  that  the  matter  of  the  law  is 
written  in  their  hearts — both  from  their 
conscience  testifying  what  is  right  and 
wrong  in  their  own  conduct,  and  from 
their  reasonings  in  which  they  either  ac- 
cuse or  vindicate  one  another.  No  man 
shall  be  judged  by  a  law  known  only  to 
others  and  unknown  to  himself;  but  all 
shall  be  judged  by  the  light  which  be- 
longed to  them,  in  that  day  when  God 
shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  agreeably  to  the  gospel  which 
I  now  declare  unto  you.  Behold,  thou  art 
called  a  Jew,  and  hast  a  confidence  in  thy 
law,  and  makest  a  boast  of  thy  peculiar 
relationship  with  God,  and  thou  knowest 
His  will,  and  canst  both  distinguish  and 
approve  the  things  which  are  more  excel- 
lent— being  instructed  out  of  thy  law. 
And,  with  all  this  superior  advantage,  thou 
lookest  upon  thyself  as  a  guide  of  the 
blind,  and  as  a  liglit  of  them  who  are  in 
darkness,  and  as  an  instructor  of  the  ig- 
norant, and  as  a  teacher  of  babes — seeing 
that  thou  hast  the  whole  summary  of 
knowledge  and  truth  which  is  in  the  law. 
But  it  is  not  he  who  heareth,  or  he  who 
knoweth,  but  he  who  doeth  that  shall  be 
justified  ;  and  dost  thou  who  teachc^st  an- 
other, teach  effectually  thyself  ! — thou 
who  proclaimest  that  a  man  should  not 
steal,  dost  thou  steal  ? — thou  who  sayest 
that  a  man  should  not  commit  adultery, 
dost  thou  commit  adultery? — thou  who 
abhorrest  idols,  dost  thou  rob  God  of  His 
temple  offerings  ? — thou  who  mak(;st  thy 
boast  of  the  law,  through  the  breaking  of 
the  law  dost  thou  dishonour  God  ?  For 
we  have  it  upon  record,  that  through  you 
the  name  of  God  has  been  blasphemed. 
For  your  circumcision,  and  other  outward 
observances  which  form  the  great  visible 
distinction  between  you  and  the  Gentiles 
— these  are  profitable  if  you  keep  the 
whole  law;  but  if  you  break  the  law,  the 
keeping  of  its  external  ordinances  will 
not  raise  you  above  the  level  of  those  who 


LECTURE   Vn. CHAPTER   II,    12 29, 


43 


know  them  not,  and  practise  them  not. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  these  latter  do 
by  nature  the  things  which  by  the  light 
of  nature  they  know  to  be  lawful,  and  so 
keep  righteousness  as  far  as  they  are  in- 
formed of  it — though  they  have  not  prac- 
tised the  literal  and  outward  ordinances, 
they  shall  be  dealt  with  as  if  they  had 
kept  them.  And  what  is  more,  they  will 
even  have  such  a  superiority,  as  to  sit  in 
judgment  over  you,  who,  notwithstanding 
your  written  law  and  your  ordinances, 
are  in  fact  transgressors  of  the  law.  For 
he  is  not  a  right  Jew  who  is  only  one  out- 
wardly. Neither  is  that  the  circumcision 
that  is  regarded  by  God,  which  is  out- 
wardly in  the  flesh.  But  he  is  a  Jew  who 
is  one  inwardly  ;  and  the  genuine  circum- 
cision is  that  of  a  heart  subject  to  the 
spirit  of  the  law,  and  therefore  crucified 
as  to  its  carnal  affections,  and  not  that  of 
a  mere  outward  conformity  to  its  visible 
observations.  And  the  praise  of  this  real 
circumcision  is  not  of  man,  who  can  judge 
only*according  to  appearances ;  but  of 
God,  who  weigheth  the  secrets  of  the 
spirit,  and  who  can  alone  judge  righte- 
ously.' 

Let  us  now  pass  onward  to  a  few  prac- 
tical observations,  founded  on  the  passage 
which  we  have  attempted  to  explain. 

You  can  readily  enough  perceive,  how, 
both  with  Jews  and  Christians,  there  are 
materials  enough  for  such  an  examination, 
as  renders  them  the  fit  subjects  both  of  a 
reckoning  and  of  a  sentence  on  the  great 
day  of  account.  But  this  is  not  so  imme- 
diately seen  in  regard  to  rude  and  unin- 
formed Paganism.  To  be  without  the  pale 
of  a  written  revelation,  is  held  by  many, 
as  tantamount,  to  being  without  the  pale 
of  all  moral  and  judicial  cognizance.  And 
yet,  we  have  many  intimations,  that  the 
Heathen  will  also  be  brought  to  the  bar 
of  the  general  judgment — that,  though  per- 
haps more  gently  dealt  with,  yet  they  will 
be  dealt  with  as  the  responsible  subjects 
of  God's  moral  administration — that  there 
is  a  principle  of  judgment  which  reaches 
even  unto  them,  and  upon  which  it  will 
be  a  righteous  thing  for  God  to  pass  upon 
them  a  condemnatory  sentence.  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  we  are  informed,  being  to 
be  sisted  before  the  tribunal  of  that  day  ; 
and  a  punishment  awarded  them,  which 
will  only  be  more  tolerable  than  the  ven- 
geance that  awaits  those,  who  have  sinned 
in  the  face  of  clearer  light,  and  better  op- 
portunities. Insomuch,  that  we  know  not 
of  any  age,  however  far  back  it  may  lie 
removed  in  the  darkness  of  antiquity  ; 
nor  do  we  know  of  any  wandering  tribe, 
however  secluded  from  all  the  communi- 
cations of  light  and  knowledge  with  the 
rest  of  the  species — the  men  of  which  will 
not  be  called  before  the  great  tribunal  of 


humanity,  and  there,  on  the  review  of 
their  doings  in  this  world,  will  have  such 
a  place  and  such  a  portion  assigned  to 
them  in  the  next,  as  shall  be  in  fullest 
harmony  with  the  saying  that  all  the 
ways  of  God  are  in  truth  and  in  righte- 
ousness. 

It  were  repeating  over  here  what  we 
have  already  more  than  once  and  on  va- 
rious occasions  endeavoured  to  argument, 
did  we  again  enter  upon  the  question, 
How  this  can  bel  The  Heathen  will  not 
be  judged  by  the  written  law  of  Judaism, 
neither  will  they  be  judged  out  of  the 
things  that  are  written  in  the  Scriptures 
of  Christianity.  God  .will  not,  in  their 
case,  charge  them  with  the  guilt  of  a  sin, 
for  that  which  they  were  not  taught  and 
could  not  know  to  be  sinful.  It  is  not 
their  helpless  ignorance,  and  it  is  not  the 
fatality  of  their  birth,  and  it  is  not  the 
thick  moral  envelopment  that  has  settled 
itself  over  the  face  of  their  country  which 
will  condemn  them.  It  will  be  their  sin, 
and  that  coupled  with  the  circumstances 
of  their  knowing  it  to  be  sin,  which  will 
condemn  the  in.  And  we  have  already  re- 
marked in  one  lecture,  that  there  do  exist, 
even  in  the  remotest  tracks  of  Paganism, 
such  vestiges  of  light,  as,  when  collected 
together,  form  a  code  or  directory  of  moral 
coiiduct — that  there  are  still  to  be  found 
among  them  the  fragments  of  a  law, 
which  they  never  follow  but  with  an  ap- 
proving conscience;  and  never  violate 
but  with  the  check  of  an  opposing  re- 
monstrance, tliat  by  their  own  wilfulness 
and  their  own  obstinacy  is  overborne — in 
other  words,  that  they  are  a  law  unto 
themselves,  and  that  their  own  conscience 
vests  it  with  an  authority,  by  bearing  wit- 
ness to  the  Tightness  and  obligation  of  its 
requirements— So  that,  among  the  secret 
things  which  will  be  brought  to  light  in 
the  great  day  of  revelation,  will  it  be  seen, 
that  all  the  sin  for  which  a  Heathen  shall 
be  made  to  suffer,  was  sin  committed  in 
the  face  of  an  inward  monitor,  which 
warned  him  through  time,  and  will  con- 
demn him  at  his  outset  upon  eternity. 

In  another  lecture  we  observed,  that 
what  brought  the  conscience  of  Paganism 
palpably  out  from  its  hiding  place,  was 
the  undeniable  fact  of  the  charges  and  the 
recriminations  and  the  df^fonces,  of  which 
the  most  unenlightened  Pagans  were  ca- 
pable in  their  controversies  with  each 
other.  This  capacity  of  accusing  and  of 
excusing  proved  a  sense  and  a  standard 
of  morality  to  be  amongst  them.  With 
the  feeling  of  provocation  after  injury, 
was  there  mixed  the  judgment  of  a  differ- 
ence between  the  right  and  the  wrong — 
and  even  in  the  rude  outcry  of  savage  re- 
sentment and  the  fierce  onset  of  savage 
warfare,  may  we  detect  their  perceptioa 


44 


LECTURE   VII. CHAPTER   U,    12 — 29. 


of  what  is  honest  and  what  is  unfair  in 
the  dealings  of  man  with  man.  And  just 
grant  of  any  individual  amongst  them, 
that  he  is  keenly  alive  to  the  injustice  of 
others  to  himself,  while,  under  the  hurry- 
ing instigations  of  selfishness  and  passion, 
he  works  the  very  same  injustice  against 
them;  and  you  make  that  individual  a 
moral  and  an  accountable  being.  Wc 
grant  him  to  be  sensible  of  what  he  ought 
to  do,  and  thus  make  him  the  rightful  sub- 
ject of  condemnation  if  he  docs  it  not. 
"  For  thinkcst  thou,  O  man,  that  judgest 
them  who  do  these  things,  and  doest  them 
thyself,  that  thou  wilt  r'=;caj)e  the  judgment 
of  God  ■}"  Even  we  therefore,  unknowing 
as  we  are  of  the  inVvard  machinery  of  an- 
other's heart,  cnn  trace  as  it  were  an  ave- 
nue by  which  the  most  unlettered  barba- 
rian might  be  approached  in  the  way  of 
judgment  and  retribution.  And  much 
more  may  we  be  sure,  that  God,  who 
judgeth  all  things,  will  find  a  clear  and 
open  path  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  process 
that  is  here  laid  before  us — summoning 
all  to  their  account,  without  exception ; 
and,  from  the  farthest  limits  of  the  huii.jui 
territory,  calling  heathens  to  His  jurisdic- 
tion, as  well  as  Christian  and  Jews,  and, 
under  a  law  appropriate  to  each,  dealing 
out  the  distributions  of  equity  among  the 
various  families  and  denominations  of  the 
world. 

In  this  passage,  the  apostle,  after  the 
gradual  and  skilful  approaches  which  he 
had  made  for  the  purpose  of  finding  his 
way  to  the  .Jewish  understanding,  at  length 
breaks  out  into  the  warfare  of  open  and 
proclaimed  argument.  He  throws  out  his 
express  challenge,  and  closes  with  his  ad- 
versary— thus  entering  upon  the  main 
business  of  his  Epistle,  the  great  obj<  ct 
of  which  was  to  bring  over  his  own 
countrymen  to  the  obedience  of  the  faith. 
After  affirming  of  the  two  great  classes 
of  mankind,  that  each  was  subject  to  a 
law  of  its  own  acknowledging  ;  and  alter, 
upon  this  principle,  having  convicted  the 
Gentile  world  of  its  being  under  sin — he 
addresses  himself  to  the  Israelite,  and 
dexterously  lays  open  the  egregious  fully 
of  his  confidence — a  confidence  resting, 
it  would  appear,  not  on  his  practice  of  the 
law,  but  barely  on  his  possession  of  it — a 
satisfaction  with  himself,  not  for  foUovi  ing 
the  light,  but  simply  for  having  the  liglit 
—an  arrogant  sense  of  superiority  to 
others,  not  in  having  obeyed  the  com- 
mandment, but  just  in  having  had  the 
commandment  delivered  to  him — thus 
turning  into  a  matter  of  vanity,  that  wliich 
ought  in  fact  to  liave  aggravated  his  shame 
and  condemnation  ;  and  bearing  it  proud- 
ly over  others,  who,  had  they  acted  up  to 
their  more  slender  advantages,  would  in 


fact  have  been  entitled  to  sit  in  judgment 
and  superiority  over  him. 

It  is  observable,  that,  in  this  work  of 
convincing  the  Jews  of  sin,  the  apostle 
fastens,  in  the  first  instance,  on  the  more 
glaring  and  visible  delinquencies  from 
the  law  of  righteousness — as  tlieft  and 
adultery  and  sacrilege.  He  brings  forth 
that  which  is  fitted  to  strike  conviction 
into  the  mind  of  a  notorious  transgressor; 
who,  just  because  the  evidence  of  his  guilt 
is  more  palpable  than  that  of  others — just 
because  the  materials  of  his  condemnation 
more  immediately  meet  the  eye  of  his  own 
conscience — is,  on  that  very  account^ 
often  more  easily  induced  to  take  the  first 
steps  of  that  process  which  leads  to  re- 
conciliation with  the  offended  Lawgiver. 
And  this  is  the  reason,  why  it  is  said  of 
publican  and  profligate  persons,  that  they 
enter  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  before  the 
Scribes  and  the  Pharisees.  But  the  apos- 
tle is  not  satisfied  with  convincing  them 
only.  Before  he  is  done  with  his  demon- 
stration about  the  law,  he  enters  int#  the 
very  depths  of  it — even  as  the  Saviour,  in 
his  sermon  on  the  mount,  did  before  him. 
It  is  possible  to  undergo  the  outward  rite 
of  circumcision,  and  not  be  circumcised 
in  the  spirit  of  our  minds.  And  it  is  pos- 
sible to  maintain  a  conformity  with  all 
those  requirements  which  bear  on  the  ex- 
ternal conduct,  without  having  a  heart 
touched  by  the  love  of  God,  or  in  any  way 
animated  by  the  principle  of  godliness. 
He  does  not  end  his  demonstration  of  sin- 
fulness, till  he  has  completed  it ;  and, 
while  the  first  attack  of  his  expostulation 
is  directed  against  those  who  do  the  covert 
acts  and  wear  the  visible  insignia  of  re- 
bellion, he  sends  it  with  a  penetrating 
force  into  the  recesses  of  a  more  plausible 
and  pleasing  character — where,  with  noth- 
ing to  deform  or  to  shed  a  disgrace  over 
the  outward  history,  there  may  be  a  heart 
still  uncircumcised  out  of  all  its  affections 
to  the  creature,  and  utterly  alive  unto  the 
world,  and  utterly  dead  unto  God. 

We  conclude  with  two  remarks,  in  the 
way  of  home  and  personal  ;>pplication, 
founded  on  the  two  senses  given  to  the 
word  letter  as  contrasted  with  the  word 
spirit. 

The  first  sense  that  is  given  to  the  word 
letter,  is  the  outward  conformity  to  the 
law,  which  may  bo  rendered  apart  from 
the  inward  principle  of  reverence  or 
regard  for  it. 

Now  it  is  not  merely  true  that  your 
sabbaths  and  your  sacraments  may  be  as 
useless  to  you,  as  the  rite  of  circumcision 
ever  was  to  the  Jews.  It  is  not  merely 
true  that  the  whole  ceremonial  of  Chris- 
tianity may  be  duly  and  regularly  des- 
cribed  on  your   part,  without   praise  or 


LECTtniE    Vn. — CHAPTER   H,     12 29. 


<? 


without  acceptance  on  the  part  of  God. 
It  is  not  merely  true  that  worship  may  be 
held  every  day  in  your  own  houses,  and 
your  families  be  mustered  at  every  recur- 
ring opportunity  to  close  and  unfailing 
attendance  on  the  house  of  God.  But  it 
is  also  true,  that  all  the  moral  honesties 
of  life  may  be  rendered ;  and,  in  the 
walks  of  honourable  merchandise,  there 
ever  be  attached  toyour  name,  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  all  the  righteous  ;  and, 
foremost  in  the  lists  of  philanthropy, 
every  scheme  connected  with  its  cause 
may  draw  out  from  you  the  largest  and 
most  liberal  ministrations:  and  even  all 
this,  so  far  from  the  mei-e  facing  of  an 
outward  exhibition,  may  emanate  upon 
your  visible  doings,  from  the  internal 
operation  of  a  native  regard  for  your 
brethren  of  the  same  species,  and  of  a 
high-minded  integrity  in  all  your  transac- 
tions with  them.  And  yet  one  thing  may 
be  lackyig.  The  circumcision  of  the 
heart  r^y  be  that  which  you  have  no 
part  in.  All  its  longings  may  be  towards 
the  affairs  and  the  enjoyments  and  the 
interests  of  mortality.  Your  taste  is  not 
to  what  is  sordid,  but  to  what  is  splendid 
in  character;  but  still  it  is  but  an  earthly 
and  a  perishable  splendour.  Your  very 
virtues  are  but  the  virtues  of  the  world. 
They  have  not  upDn  them  the  impress  of 
that  saint! iness  which  will  bear  to  be 
transplanted  into  heaven.  The  present 
and  the  peopled  region  of  sense  on  which 
you  expatiate,  you  deck,  it  is  true,  with 
the  lustre  of  many  fine  accomplishments  ; 
but  they  have  neither  the  stamp  nor  the 
endurance  of  eternity  :  And,  ditlicult  as  it 
was  to  convict  th«  Hebrew  of  sin,  robed 
in  the  sanctities  of  a  revered  and  imposing 
ceremonial,  it  is  at  Itast  a  task  of  as  great 
strenuousncss  to  lay  the  humiliation  of 
the  gospel  spirit  upon  liim,  who  lives 
surrounded  by  the  smiles  and  the  ap- 
plauses of  society — or  so  to  awaken  the 
blindness,  and  circumcise  the  vanity  of 
his  heart,  as  to  bring  him  down  a  humble 
supplicant  at  the  footstool  of  mercy. 

What  turns  the  virtues  of  earth  into 
splendid  sins,  is  that  nothing  of  God  is 
there.  It  is  the  want  of  this  animating 
breath,  which  impresses  upon  them  all 
the  worthlessness  of  materialism.  It  is 
this  which  makes  all  the  native  loveliness 
of  our  moral  world  of  as  little  account,  in 
the  pure  and  spiritual  reckoning  of  the 
upper  sanctuary,  as  is  a  mere  "efflores- 
cence of  beauty  on  the  face  of  the  vegeta- 
ble creation.  It  serves  to  adorn  and  even 
to  sustain  the  interests  of  a  fleeting  gene- 
ration. Verily  it  hath  its  reward.  But 
not  till,  under  a  sense  of  nothingness  and 
of  guilt,  man  hies  him  to  the  cross  of 
expiation — not  till,  renouncing  all  right- 
eousness of  his  own,  he  flees  for  shelter 


to  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  as  that 
alone  which  is  commensurate  to  the  de- 
mands, and  congenial  with  the  holy  cha- 
racter of  the  Lawgiver — not  till,  in  the 
attitude  of  one  whose  breast  is  humbled 
out  of  all  its  proud  complacencies,  he 
receives  the  atonement  of  the  gospel,  and 
along  with  it  receives  a  clean  heart  and 
a  right  spirit  from  the  hand  of  his  accepted 
Mediator — it  is  not  till  the  period  of  such 
a  transformation,  when  he  is  made  the 
workmanship  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  that 
the  true  image  of  moral  excellence  which 
was  obliterated  from  our  species  at  the 
fall,  comes  to  be  restored  to  him,  or  that 
he  is  put  in  the  way  of  attaining  a  resem- 
blance to  his  Maker  in  righteousness  and 
in  true  holiness. 

We  meant  to  have  .added  another  re- 
mark founded  on  another  sense  of  the 
word  letter,  which  is  the  word  of  God  as 
opposed  to  the  Spirit  of  God.  But  we 
have  no  time  to  expatiate  any  further. 
Let  us  only  observe  that  the  apostle  speaks 
both  of  the  letter  and  Spirit  of  the  New 
Testament.  And  certain  it  is,  that,  were 
we  asked  to  fix  on  a  living  counterpart  in 
the  present  day  to  the  Jew  of  the  passage 
now  under  consideration — it  would  be  on 
him,  who,  thoroughly  versant  in  all  the 
phrases  and  dexterous  in  all  the  argu- 
ments of  orthodoxy,  is,  without  one  affec- 
tion of  the  old  man  circumcised  and 
without  one  sanctified  affection  to  mark 
him  the  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord,  withal,  a  zealous  and  staunch  and 
sturdy  controversialist.  He  too •  rests  in 
the  form  of  sound  words,  and  is  confident 
that  he  is  a  light  of  the  blind,  and  founds 
a  complacency  on  knowledge  though  it 
be  knowledge  without  love  and  without 
regeneration — nor  can  we  think  of  any 
delusion  more  hazardous,  and  at  the  same 
time  more  humbling,  than  that  by  which 
a  literal  acquaintance  with  the  gospel, 
and  a  literal  adherence  on  the  part  of 
the  understanding  to  all  its  truths  and  all 
its  articles,  may  be  confounded  with  the 
faith  which  is  unto  salvation.  Faith  is 
an  inlet  to  holy  affections.  Its  primary 
office  is  to  admit  truth  into  the  mind,  but 
it  is  truth  which  impresses  as  well  as 
informs.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  neither 
in  word  alone,  nor  in  argument  alone — it 
is  also  in  power  ;  and  while  we  bid  you 
look  unto  Jesus  and  be  saved,  it  is  such  a 
look  as  will  cause  you  to  mourn  and  to 
be  in  heaviness — it  is  such  a  look  as  will 
liken  you  to  His  image,  and  import  into 
your  own  character  the  graces  and  the 
affections  which  adorn  His.  It  is  here 
that  man  finds  hunself  at  the  limits  of  his 
helplessness.  He  cannot  summon  into  his 
breast  that  influence  which  will  either 
circumcise  its  old  tendencies,  or  plant 
new  ones  in  its  room.     But  the  doctrine 


46 


LECTURE   VII.— CHAPTER   II,    12 29. 


of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  him  crucified  is  the 
grand  instrument  for  such  a  renovation  ; 
and  he  is  at  his  post,  and  on  the  liliely 
way  of  obtaining  the  clean  heart  and  the 
right  spirit,  when,  looking  humbly  and 


desirously  to  Jesus  as  all  his  salvation,  he 
may  at  length  experience  the  operation 
of  faith  working  by  love  and  yielding  all 
manner  of  obedience. 


LECTURE  VIII. 


IloM.vxs  iii,  1,  2. 

"  What  advantage  then  hath  the  Jew  1  or  what  profit  is  there  of  circumcision  1    Much  every  way  ;  chiefly,  hecaoss- 
that  unto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God." 


Ovn  reason  for  stopping  at  this  part  of 
our  ordinary  course,  and  coming  forward 
with  a  dissertation  on  these  verses,  is  that 
the  subject  of  them  seems  to  guide  us  to  a 
decision,  in  a  matter  that  has  been  some- 
what obscured  with  the  difficulties  of  a 
hidden  speculation.  You  are  aware  that 
to  whom  much  is  given,  of  them  much  will 
be  required  ;  and  the  question  then  coines 
to  be,  whether  is  it  better  that  that  thing 
shall  be  given  or  withheld.  The  Jew, 
who  sinned  against  the  light  of  his  reve- 
lation, will  have  a  severer  measure  of 
retribution  dealt  out  to  him — than  the 
Gentile  who  only  sinned  against  the  light 
of  his  own  conscience;  and  the  nations 
of  Christendom  who  have  been  plied  with 
the  offers  of  the  gospel,  and  put  them 
needlessly  and  contemptuously  away,  will 
incur  a  darker  doom  throughout  eternity 
— than  the  native  of  China,  whose  remote- 
ness, while  it  shelters  him  from  the  light 
of  the  New  Testament  in  this  world,  shel- 
ters him  from  the  pain  of  its  fulfilled  de- 
nunciations in  another  ;  and  he  who  sits  a 
hearer  under  the  most  pure  and  faithful 
ministrations  of  the  word  of  God,  has 
more  to  answer  for — than  he  who  lan- 
guishes under  the  lack  either  of  arousing 
sermons,  or  of  solemn  and  impressive  or- 
dinances ;  and  neither  will  a  righteous 
God  deal  so  hardly  with  the  members  of 
a  population,  where  reading  is  unknown, 
and  the  Bible  remains  an  inaccessible 
rarity  among  the  families — as  of  a  popu- 
lation where  schools  have  been  multiplied 
for  the  behoof  of  all,  and  scholarship  has 
descended  and  is  diffused  among  the 
poorest  of  the  commonwealth.  And  with 
these  considerations,  a  shade  of  uncer- 
tainty appears  to  pass  over  the  question — 
whether  the  Christianization  of  a  people 
ought  at  all  to  be  meddled  with.  If  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  only  serve  to  exalt 
the  moral  and  everlasting  cgndition  of  the 
few  who  receive  it,  because  to  them  it  is 
the  savour  of  life  unto  life ;  but  serve  also 
to  aggravate  the  condition  of  those  who 


reject  it,  because  to  them  the  savour  of 
death  unto  death — whether  should  a  na- 
tion now  sitting  in  the  darkness  of  Pagan- 
ism, be  approached  with  the  overtures  of 
the  gospel  ?  This  is  a  doubt  which  has 
often  been  advanced,  for  the  purpose  of 
throwing  discouragement  and  discredit  on 
the  enterprise  of  the  missionaries ;  and 
though  not  on  exactly  the  same  principle, 
are  there  many  still,  who  hesitate  on  the 
measure  of  spreading  education  among 
the  peasantry.  Altogether,  it  were  de- 
sirable, in  this  age  of  benevolent  enter- 
prise, to  know  whether  it  is  the  part  of 
benevolence  to  move  in  this  matter,  or  to 
sit  still  and  let  the  world  remain  stationa- 
ry— leaving  it  to  that  milder  treatment, 
and  those  gentler  chastisements,  which 
the  guilt  of  man,  when  associated  with  the 
ignorance  of  man,  will  call  down  on  the 
great  day  from  the  hand  of  Ilim  who  both 
judgeth  and  administers  righteously. 

We  think  it  must  be  obvious,  to  those 
whose  minds  have  been  at  all  disciplined 
into  the  soberness  of  wisdom  and  true 
philosophy,  that,  without  an  authoritative 
solution  of  this  question  from  God  Him- 
self, we  arc  really  not  in  circumstances  to 
determine  it.  We  have  not  all  the  mate- 
rials of  the  question  before  us.  We  know 
not  how  to  state  with  the  precision  of 
arithmetic,  what  the  addition  is  which 
knowledge  confers  upon  the  sulierings  of 
disobedience  ;  or  how  far  an  accepted  gos- 
pel exalts  the  condition  of  him,  who  was 
before  a  stranger  to  it.  We  cannot  bal- 
ance the  one  against  the  other,  or  render 
to  you  any  computation  of  the  difference 
that  there  is  between  them.  We  cannot 
descend  into  hell :  and  there  take  the 
dimensions  of  that  fiercer  wrath  and  tribu- 
lation and  anguish,  which  are  laid  on 
those  who  have  incurred  the  guilt  of  a  re- 
jected Christianity — and  neither  can  we 
ascend  to  heaven  ;  and  there  calculate  the 
heights  of  blessedness  and  joy,  to  which  . 
Christianity  has  raised  the  condition  of 
those  who  have  embraced  it.    It  is  all  a 


LECTURE   VIII. CHAPTER   III,    1,  2. 


47 


matter  of  revelation  on  which  side  the 
difference  lies  ;  and  he  who  is  satisfied  to 
be  wise  up  to  that  which  is  written,  and 
feels  no  wayward  restlessness  of  ambi- 
tion after  the  wisdom  that  is  beyond  it, 
will  quietly  repose  upon  the  deliverance 
of  Scripture  on  this  subject ;  and  never 
will  the  surmises  or  the  speculations  of  an 
uninformed  world,  lay  an  obstacle  on  him, 
as  he  moves  along  the  path  of  his  plainly 
bidden  obedience  •  nor  will  all  the  hazards 
and  uncertainties,  which  the  human  ima- 
gination shall  conjure  up  from  the  brood- 
ing abyss  of  human  ignorance,  embarrass  | 
him  in  the  execution  of  an  obviously  pre- 
scribed task.  So  that  if  in  any  way 
Christ  must  be  preached  ;  and  if  in  the 
face  of  consequences,  known  or  unknown, 
the  knowledge  of  Him  must  be  spread 
abroad  to  the  uttermost ;  and  if  he  be  re- 
quired, at  this  employment,  to  be  instant 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  declaring 
unto  all  the  way  of  salvation  as  he  has 
opportunity — if  these  be  the  positive  re- 
quirements of  the  Bible,  then,  whatever 
be  the  proportion  which  the  blessings 
bear  to  the  curses  that  he  is  the  instru- 
ment of  scattering  on  every  side  of  him, 
enough  for  him  that  the  authority  of 
Heaven  is  the  warrant  of  his  exertions; 
and  that,  in  making  manifest  the  savour 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  in  every 
place,  he  is  unto  God  a  sweet  savour  of 
Christ,  both  in  them  that  are  saved  and  in 
them  that  perish. 

"Go  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  under  heaven,"  and  "go  unto  all 
the  world,  and  teach  all  nations."  These 
parting  words  of  our  Saviour,  ere  He  as- 
cended to  His  Father,  may  not  be  enough 
to  quell  the  anxieties  of  the  speculative 
Christian ;  but  they  are  quite  enough  to 
decide  the  course  and  the  conduct  of  the 
practical  Christian.  To  his  mind,  it  sets 
the  question  of  missions  abroad,  and  also 
the  question  of  schools  and  bibles  and 
christianizing  processes  at  home,  most 
thoroughly  at  rest.  And  though  the  reve- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  had  not  ad- 
vanced one  step  farther,  on  that  else  un- 
trodden field,  where  all  that  misery  and 
all  that  enjoyment  which  are  the  attend- 
ant results  upon  a  declared  gospel  in  the 
world  might  be  surveyed  and  confronted 
togethei- — yet  would  he  count  it  his  obli- 
gation simply  to  do  the  bidding  of  the 
word,  though  it  had  not  met  the  whole  of 
his  appetite  for  information.  But  in  the 
verses  before  us,  we  think  it  does  advance 
this  one  step  farther.  It  does  appear  to 
us,  to  enter  on  the  question  of  profit  and 
loss  attendant  on  the  possession  of  the 
oracles  of  God ;  and  to  decide,  on  the 
part  of  the  former,  that  the  advantage  was 
much  every  way.  And  it  is  not  for  those 
individuals  alone  who  reaped  the  benefit, 


that  the  apostle  makes  the  calculation. 
He  makes  an  abatement  for  the  unbelief 
of  all  the  others  ;  and,  balancing  the  dif- 
ference, does  he  land  us  in  a  computation 
of  clear  gain  to  the  whole  people.  Audit 
bears  importantly  on  this  question,  when 
we  are  thus  told  of  a  nation  with  whom 
we  are  historically  acquainted,  that  it  was 
belter  for  them  on. the  whole  that  they 
possessed  the  oracles  of  God.  We  may 
well  venture  to  circulate  these  precious 
words  among  all  people,  when  told  pf  the 
most  stiff-necked  and  rebellious  people  on 
earth,  that,  with  all  the  abuse  they  made 
of  their  scriptures,  these  scriptures  con- 
ferred not  merely  a  glory,  but  a  positive 
advantage  on  their  nation.  And  yet  what 
a  fearful  deduction  from  this  advantage 
must  have  been  made,  by  the  wickedness 
that  grew  and  gathered,  and  was  handed 
down  from  one  generation  to  another.  If 
it  be  true  of  the  majority  of  their  kings» 
that  they  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord 
exceedingly  ;  and  if  it  be  true  that,  with 
the  light  of  revelation  and  amongst  the 
warnings  of  prophecy,  they  often  rioted 
amongst  the  abominations  of  idolatry  be- 
yond even  all  the  nations  that  were  around 
them  ;  and  if  it  be  true  that  the  page  of 
Jewish  history  is  far  more  blackened  by 
the  recorded  atrocity  and  guilt  of  the  na- 
tion, than  ever  it  is  illumed  by  the  memo- 
rials of  worth  or  of  piety ;  and  if  it  be 
true  that,  throughout  the  series  of  many 
centuries  which  rolled  over  the  heads  of 
the  children  of  Israel,  while  they  kept  the 
name  and  existenceof  a  community,  there 
was  an  almost  incessant  combat  between 
the  anger  of  an  offended  God  and  the  per- 
verseness  of  a  stout-hearted  and  rebellious 
people — insomuch  that,  after  the  varied 
discipline  of  famine  and  invasion  and  cap- 
tivity had  been  tried  for  ages  and  found 
to  be  fruitless,  the  whole  fabric  of  the 
Hebrew  commonwealth  liad  by  one  tre- 
mendous discharge  of  fury  to  be  utterly 
swept  away — It  were  hard  to  tell,  what  is 
the  amount  of  aggravation  upon  all  this 
sin,  in  that  it  was  sin  against  the  light  of 
the  oracles  of  God  ;  but  the  apostle  in  the 
text  has  told  us,  that,  let  the  amount  be 
what  it  may,  it  was  more  than  counter- 
vailed by  the  positive  good  done  through 
these  oracles  :  and  comparatively  few  as 
the  righteous  men  were  who  walked  in 
the  ordinances  and  commandments  of  the 
Lord  blameless  ;  and  however  tliinly  sown 
were  those  worthies  of  old  dispensation, 
on  whom  the  light  that  beamed  from 
Heaven  shed  the  exalting  influences  of 
faith  and  godliness ;  and  though  the  up- 
right of  the  land  were  counted  but  in 
minorities  and  in  remnants,  throughout 
almost  every  period  of  the  nation's  pro- 
gress from  its  beginning  to  its  overthrow 
— yet  it  serves  to  guide  our  estimate  of 


48 


LECTURE   Vm. CHAPTER   HI,    I,  2. 


comparison  between  the  gain  and  the  loss 
of  God's  oracles  in  the  midst  of  a  country, 
when,  with  the  undoubted  fact  of  the  few 
who  had  been  made  holy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  many  on  whom  they  fastened  a 
sorer  condemnation  upon  the  other,  we 
are  still  told  that  the  gain  did  preponde- 
rate— that  the  Jews  who  had  the  Scrip- 
tures had  an  advantnge  over  the  Gentiles 
who  had  them  not — that  any  people  are 
better  of  having  among  them  the  instru- 
ment which  makes  a  man  a  child  of  light, 
even  though  in  its  operation  it  should 
stamp  a  deeper  guilt  upon  ton  men,  and 
make  them  more  the  children  of  hell  than 
before — that  all  the  means  therefore,  which 
in  their  direct  and  rightful  tendency  have 
the  effect  to  save  and  to  enlighten  human 
souls,  should  be  set  most  strenuously  ago- 
ing, even  though  these  means  should  he 
resisted ;  and  it  is  impossible  but  this  of- 
fence must  come,  and  a  deadlier  woe  will 
be  indicted  on  all  through  whom  such  an 
offence  Cometh.  Should  the  fishers  of 
men  rescue  a  few  from  the  abyss  of  na- 
ture's guilt  and  nature's  wretchedness,  it 
would  appear  that  in  the  work  of  doing  so, 
they  may  be  the  instruments  of  sinking 
many  deeper  into  that  abyss  than  if  it  had 
never  been  disturbed  or  entered  upon  with 
such  an  operation.  We  have  not  the  means 
of  instituting  a  comparison  between  the 
quantity  of  good  that  is  rendered  by  a  small 
number  being  entirely  cxtiicated  from  the 
gulph  of  perdition,  and  the  quantity  of  evil 
tliat  ensues  from  a  large  number  being 
more  profoundly  immersed  in  it  than  be- 
fore. This  is  a  secret  which  still  lies  in  the 
womb  of  eterruty";  yet  we  cannot  but 
think  that  a  partial  disclosure  has  been 
made,  and  the  veil  is  in  part  lifted  away 
from  it,  by  the  deliverance  of  our  apos- 
tle. At  all  events  it  clears  away  the 
practical  difficulties  which  are  attendant 
on  a  missionary  or  christianizing  question, 
when  we  are  here  given  to  understand, 
that  the  Jews,  with  all  the  aggravations 
consequent  on  sin,  when  it  is  sin  in  the 
face  of  knowledge,  were  on  the  whole  bet- 
ter in  that  they  had  the  oracles  of  God. 

Let  us  now  follow  up  these  introductory 
views,  with  a  few  brief  remarks  both  on 
the  speculative  and  on  the  practical  part 
of  this  question. 

First,  then,  as  to  the  speculative  part  of 
it.  The  Bible,  when  brought  into  a  new 
country,  may  be  instrumental  in  saving 
the  some  who  submit  to  its  doctrine  ;  and, 
in  so  doing,  it  saves  them  from  an  abso- 
lute condition  of  misery  in  which  they 
were  previously  involved.  It  makes  good 
to  each  of  them,  the  difference  that  there 
is,  between  a  state  of  great  positive  wretch- 
edness and  a  state  of  great  positive  enjoy- 
ment. If  along  with  this  advantage  to  the 
few  who  receive  it,  it  aggravates  the  con- 


dition of  those  who  reject  it,  it  is  doubt- 
less the  instrument  of  working  out  for  each 
of  them  an  increment  of  misery.  But  it 
does  not  change  into  wretchedness,  that 
which  before  was  enjoyment.  It  only 
makes  the  wretchedness  more  intense ; 
and  the  whole  amount  of  the  evil  that  has 
been  rendered,  is  only  to  be  computed  by 
the  difference  in  degree  between  the  suf- 
fering that  is  laid  upon  sin  with,  and  sin 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Saviour. 
We  do  not  know  how  great  the  difference 
of  misery  is,  to  those  many  whose  guilt 
has  been  aggravated  by  the  neglect  of  an 
offered  gospel  ;  and  we  do  not  know  how 
to  compare  it  arithmetically,  with  the 
change  from  positive  misery  to  positive 
enjoyment,  which  is  experienced  by  those 
few  who  have  embraced  the  gospel.  In 
the  midst  of  all  this  uncertainty,  there  is 
room  and  place  in  our  minds  for  the  posi- 
tive information  of  Scripture  ;  and  if  we 
gather  from  it  that  it  was  better  for  the 
Jews,  in  spite  of  all  the  deeper  responsi- 
bility and  deeper  consequent  guilt  which 
their  possession  of  the  Old  Testami^nt  laid 
upon  the  perverse  and  disobedient  of  the 
nation,  yet  that  a  ncnt  accession  of  gain 
was  thus  rendered  to  the  whole — then  may 
we  infer  that  any  enterprise  by  which  the 
Bible  is  more  extensively  circuhited,  or 
more  extensively  taught,  is  of  positive 
ben(;fit  to  every  neighbourhood  which  is 
the  scene  of  such  an  operation. 

But  secondly. — Though  in  the  Jewish 
history  ihat  has  already  elapsed,  ^ley  were 
the  few  to  whom  the  oracles  of  God  were 
a  blessing,  am!  the  many  to  whom  they 
were  an  additional  condemnation — yet.  on 
the  whole,  did  the  good  so  predominate  in 
its  amount  over  tiie  evil,  that  it  on  the 
whole  was  for  the  better  and  not  for  the 
worse  that  they  possessed  these  oracles. 
But  the  argument  gathers  in  strength,  as 
we  look  onward  to  futurity — a.s  aided  by 
the  light  of  proptiecy,  we  taki^  a  glimpse, 
however  faint  and  distant,  of  millennial 
days — as  we  dwell  upon  the  fact  of  the 
universal  prevalence  that  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  at  length  to  reach  to  all 
the  countries  of  the  world — when  we  con- 
sider that  all  onr  prc.scuit  proportions  shall 
at  length  be  reversed  ;  and  that  if  Chris- 
tians now  be  the  few  to  the  many.  Chris- 
tians then  will  be  the  many  to  the  few. 
Even  in  this  day  of  small  things,  the  di- 
rect blessing  which  f)lloW3  in  the  train 
of  a  circulated  Bible  and  a  proclaimed 
gospel,  overbalances  the  incidental  evil  ; 
and  when  we  think  of  the  latter-day  glory 
which  it  ushers  in — when  we  think  of  that 
secure  and  lasting  <>stablishment  which  in 
all  likelihood  it  will  at  length  arrive  at — 
when  we  compute  the  generations  of  that 
millennium  which  is  awaiting  a  peopled 
and  a  cultivated  world — when  we  try  to 


LECTURE   Viri. — CHAPTER   III,    I,  2. 


49 


fancy  the  magnificent  results,  which  a  la- 
bouring and  progressive  Christianity  will 
tlien  land  in — who  would  shrink  from  the 
work  of  hastening  it  forward,  because  of 
a  spectre  conjured  up  from  the  abyss  of 
human  ignorance]  Even  did  the  evil 
now  predominate  over  the  good,  still  is  a 
missionary  enterprise  like  a  magnanimous 
daring  for  a  great  moral  and  spiritual 
achievement,  which  will  at  length  reward 
the  perseverance  of  its  devoted  labourers. 
It  is  like  a  triumph  for  the  whole  species, 
purchased  at  the  expense,  not  of  those 
who  shared  in  the  toils  of  the  undertaking, 
but  of  those  who  met  with  their  unconcern 
or  contempt,  the  benevolence  which  la- 
boured to  convert  them.  There  are  col- 
lateral evils  attendant  on  the  progress  of 
Christianity.  At  one  time  it  brings  a 
sword  instead  of  peace,  and  at  another  it 
stirs  up  a  variance  in  families,  and  at  all 
times  does  it  deepen  the  guilt  of  those  who 
resist  the  overtures  which  it  makes  to 
them.  But  these  are  only  the  perils  of  a 
voyage  that  is  richly  laden  with  the  moral 
wealth  of  many  future  generations.  These 
are  but  the  hazards  of  a  battle  which  ter- 
minates in  the  proudest  and  most  produc- 
tive of  all  victories — and,  if  the  liberty  of 
a  great  empire  be  an  adequate  return  for 
the  loss  of  the  lives  of  its  defenders,  then 
is  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God,  which  will  at  length  be  extended 
over  the  face  of  a  still  enslaved  and  alien- 
ated world,  more  than  an  adequate  return 
for  the  spiritual  loss  that  is  sustained  by 
those,  who,  instead  of  fighting  for  the 
cause,  have  resisted  and  reviled  it. 

We  now  conclude  with  a  few  practical 
remarks. 

First.  It  is  with  argument  such  as  this, 
that  we  would  meet  the  anti-missionary 
spirit,  which,  though  a  good  deal  softened 
and  silenced  of  late  years,  still  breaks 
forth  occasionally  into  active  opposition  ; 
or,  when  it  forbears  to  be  aggressive,  still 
binds  up  the  great  body  of  professing 
Christians,  in  a  sort  of  lethargic  indiffer- 
ence to  one  of  the  worthiest  of  causes. 
The  time  is  not  far  distant  from  us,  when 
a  christianizing  enterprise  was  traduced 
as  a  kind  of  invasion  on  the  safety  and 
innocence  of  Paganism — when  it  was  the 
burden  of  an  eloquent  and  well-told  re- 
gret, that  the  simplicity  of  Hindoo  man- 
ners should  so  be  violated — when  some- 
thing like  the  charm  of  the  golden  age 
was  associated  with  these  regions  of  pri- 
meval idolatry — and  it  was  affirmed,  that, 
though  idolatry  is  blind,  yet  it  were  better 
not  to  awaken  its  worshippers,  thari  to 
drag  them  forth  by  instruction  to  the 
hazards  and  the  exposures  of  a  more  fear- 
ful responsibility.  We  trust  you  perceive 
from  our  text,  that,  even  though  the  con- 
verts were  few  and  the  guilty  scorners  of 
7 


the  gospel  message  were  many,  yet  still, 
on  the  principles  of  the  apostolic  reckon- 
ing, there  may  even  during  the  first  years 
of  a  much  resisted  Christianity,  be  an 
overplus  of  advantage.  And  why  should 
we  be  restrained  now  from  the  work  by  a 
calculation,  which  did  not  restrain  the 
missionaries  of  two  thousand  years  ago — 
when  they  made  their  first  entrance  on  a 
world  of  nearly  unbroken  and  unallevi- 
ated  heathenism'?  Shall  we,  with  our 
pigmy  reach  of  anticipation,  cast  off  the 
authority  of  precept  issued  by  Him  who 
seeth  the  end  from  the  beginning ;  and 
who  can  both  bless  the  day  of  small 
things  with  a  superiority  of  the  good  over 
the  evil,  and  make  it  the  dawn  of  such  a 
glory  as  will  far  exceed  the  brightest  vis- 
ions in  which  a  philanthropist  can  in- 
dulge] The  direction  at  all  events  is  im- 
perative, and  of  standing  obligation.  It 
is  Go  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture, and  Go  and  preach  unto  all  nations  ; 
and  you  want  one  of  the  features  of  Him 
who  standeth  perfect  and  complete  in  the 
whole  will  of  God — you  are  lacking  in 
that  complete  image  of  what  a  Christian 
ought  to  be— if,  without  desire  and  with- 
out effort  in  behalf  of  that  great  process 
by  which  the  whole  world  is  at  length  to 
be  called  out  from  the  darkness  and  the 
repose  of  its  present  alienation,  you  neither 
assist  it  with  your  substance  nor  remem- 
ber it  in  your  prayers. 

But  secondly.  If  man  is  to  be  kept  in 
ignorance  because  every  addition  of  light 
brings  along  with  it  an  addition  of  respon- 
sibility— then  ought  the  species  to  be  ar- 
rested at  home  as  w.ell  as  abroad  in  its 
progress  towards  a  more  exalted  state  of 
humanity  ;  and  such  evils  as  may  attend 
the  transition  to  moral  and  religious  know- 
ledge, should  deter  us  from  every  attempt 
to  rescue  our  own  countrymen  from  any 
given  amount  of  darkness  by  which  they 
may  now  be  encompassed.* 

But  lastly.  However  safe  it  is  to  com- 
mit the  oracles  of  God  into  the  hands  of 
others,  yet,  considering  ourselves  in  the 
light  of  those  to  whom  these  oracles  arc 
committed,  it  is  a  matter  of  urgent  con- 
cern, Avhether,  to  us  personally,  the  gain 
or  the  loss  will  predominate.  It  is  even 
of  present  advantage  to  the  nation  at 
large,  that  the  word  of  God  circulates  in 
such  freedom  and  with  such  frequency 
among  its  numerous  families.  But  this 
only — because  the  good  rendered  to  some 
prevails  over  the  evil  of  that  additional 
guilt  which  is  incurred  by  many.  And 
still  it  resolves  itself,  with  every  separate 
individual,  into  the  question  of  his  secured 

*  We  forbear  to  expatiate  over  again  upon  this  partic- 
ular argument,  as  we  have  already  Drought  it  forward  in 
the  15th  Sermon  of  our  Commercial  Discourses — at  p. 
374,  Vol.  VI.  of  the  Series. 


5e 


LECTURE   VIII. — CHAPTER.   HI,    1,  2. 


heaven,  or  his  more  aggravated  hell — 
whether  he  be  of  the  some  who  turn  the 
message  of  God  into  an  instrument  of 
conversion  ;  or  of  the  many  who,  by  neg- 
lect and  unconcern,  render  it  the  instru- 
ment of  their  sorer  condemnation.  It 
may  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  and 
(Jomorrah  than  for  him  in  the  day  of 
Judgment.  To  have  been  so  approached 
from  Heaven  with  the  overtures  of  salva- 
tion, as  every  nr.xn  is  who  has  the  Bible 
within  his  reach — to  have  had  such  invi- 
tations at  your  door  as  you  may  have  had 
for  the  mere  reading  of  them — to  have 
been  in  the  way  of  such  a  circular  from 
God  to  our  guilty  species,  which  though 
expressly  addressed  to  no  one  individual, 
j'et,  by  the  wide  sweep  of  a  "whosoever 
will,"  makes  it  as  pointed  a  message  to 
all  and  to  any,  as  if  the  proprietor  of  each 
bible  had  received  it  under  cover  with  the 
inscription  of  his  name  and  surname  from 
the  upper  sanctuary — that  God  should 
thus  pledge  Himself  to  the  offer  of  a  free 
pardon  through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  and 
profess  His  readiness  to  pour  out  His  Spi- 
rit upon  all  who  turn  to  Him  that  they  may 
live — for  Him  to  have  brought  Himself  so 
near  in  the  way  of  entreaty ;  and  to  have 
committed,  in  the  face  of  many  high  and 
heavenly  witnesses  who  are  looking  on, 
to  have  committed  His  truth  to  the  posi- 
tion, that  none  who  venture  themselves  on 
the  revealed  propitiation  of  the  gospel, 
and  submit  to  the  guidance  of  Him  who 
is  the  author  of  it,  shall  fail  of  an  entrance 
into  life  everlasting — Thus  to  have  placed 
a  blissful  eternity  within  the  step  of  crea- 
tures so  utterly  polluted  and  undone,  is 
indeed  a  wondrous  approximation.  But 
O  how  tremendously  will  it  turn  the  reck- 
oning against  us,  should  it  be  found  that 
though  God  thus  willed  our  salvation,  yet 
we  would  not;  and  refusing  to  walk  in 
the  way  which  He  with  such  a  mighty 
cost  of  expiation  had  prepared  for  us, 
cleaved   in   preference   to  the  dust  of  a 


world  that  is  soon  to  pass  away ;  and,  liv- 
ing as  we  list,  kept  by  our  guilty  indiffer- 
ence to  olfers  so  full  of  tenderness,  to 
prospects  of  glory  so  bright  and  so  al- 
luring. 

But  let  us  hope  better  things  of  you  and 
things  that  accompany  salvation  though 
we  thus  speak.  Let  us  call  upon  you  to 
follow  in  the  train  of  those  Old  Testament 
worthies,  who,  though  few  in  number,  so 
redeemed  the  loss  incurred  by  the  general 
perverseness  of  their  countrymen,  as  to 
make  it  on  the  whole  for  the  advantage 
of  their  nation  that  to  them  were  commit- 
ted the  oracles  of  God.  Be  followers  of 
them  who  through  faith  and  patience  are 
now  inheriting  those  promises,  which, 
when  in  the  flesh,  they  saw  afar  off,  and 
were  persuaded  of  them,  and  embraced 
them,  and  confessed  that  they  were 
strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth.  De- 
clare plainly  by  your  life  that  you  seek 
another  country  ;  that  you  have  no  desire 
for  a  world  where  all  is  changing  and 
breaking  up  around  you — where  sin  is  the 
native  element,  and  death  walking  in  its 
train  rifles  the  places  of  our  dearest' re- 
membrance, of  all  those  sweets  of  friend- 
ship and  society  which  wont  to  gladden 
them.  Let  the /sad  memorial  of  this 
world's  frailty,  and  the  cheering  revela- 
tions of  another,  shut  you  up  unto  the 
faith — Let  them  so  place  the  alternative 
between  time  and  eternity  before  you,  as 
to  resolve  for  you  which  of  them  is  far 
better.  And  with  such  a  remedy  for  guilt 
as  the  blood  of  an  all-prevailing  atone- 
ment, defer  no  longer  the  work  of  recon- 
ciliation with  the  God  whom  you  have 
offended  :  and  receive  not  His  grace  in 
vain  ;  and  turn  to  the  study  and  perusal 
of  those  oracles  which  He  hath  granted 
to  enlighten  you — knowing  that  they  are 
indeed  able  to  make  you  wise  unto  salva- 
tion, through  the  faith  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus. 


LECTURE  IX. 


RoMAXS  iii,  1 — 9. 


«'  What  advantage  then  hath  the  .lew  1  or  what  profit  is  there  of  circumcision  ^  Much  every  way :  chiefly,  hecanse 
that  unto  tUcm  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God.  For  what  if  some  did  not  believe  1  shall  their  unbulief  make 
the  faith  of  God  without  effect?  God  forbid  :  yea,  let  God  be  true,  but  every  man  a  liar;  as  it  is  written,  That 
thou  mightest  be  ju.'^tified  in  thy  sayings,  and  mi<rhtest  overcome  when  thou  art  judsjed.  But  if  our  unrijrhleous- 
ness  commend  the  ri{;hteousncss  of  God,  what  shall  we  sayl  Is  God  unri:;hleous  who  taketh  vengeance?  (1  speak 
as  a  man.)  God  forbid :  for  then  hcjw  shall  God  judge  the  world  ?  For  if  the  truth  of  God  hath  more  abounded 
through  my  lie  unto  his  glory;  why  yet  am  I  al.so  judged  as  a  sinner?  and  not  rather,  (as  we  be  slanderously  re- 
ported, and  as  some  affirm  that  we  say,)  Let  us  do  evil,  that  good  may  come — whose  damnation  is  just  ?  What 
then  ?  are  we  better  than  they  ?  No,  in  no  wise  :  for  we  have  before  proved  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that  they  aro 
all  under  sin." 

You  will  recollect  that  by  the  argument  j  after  having  demonstrated  the  universality 
ot  the    foregoing  chapter,  our    apostle,  j  of  Gentile  guilt  in  the  sight  of  God,  at- 


LECTURE   IX. CHAPTER.   Ill,    1—9. 


51 


tempts  the  same  demonstration  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Jews.  He  proves,  that,  with 
the  possession  of  all  that  which  distin- 
guished them  outwardly  from  other  na- 
tions, they  might  fully  participate  in  that 
condemnation  to  which  sin  has  rendered 
us  all  liable  ;  and  even  aflirms  as  much 
as  may  lead  us  to  understand,  that  the 
privileges  which  belonged  to  them,  when 
neglected  and  abused,  were  in  fact  so 
many  circumstances  of  aggravation.  It 
was  very  natural,  that,  at  this  point  of  his 
argument,  he  should  conceive  an  objec- 
tion that  might  arise  against  it ;  and,  speak- 
ing in  the  person  of  an  adversary,  he  pro- 
poses this  objection  in  the  form  of  a  ques- 
tion from  him.  This  question  he  answers 
in  his  own  name.  And  the  remonstrance 
of  his  imaginary  opponent,  together  with 
his  own  reply  to  it,  occupy  the  first  a  ad 
second  verses  of  the  chapter  upon  which 
we  have  entered.  Look  upon  these  two 
verses  as  the  first  step  and  commencement 
of  a  dialogue,  that  is  prosecuted  onwards 
to  the  9th  verse  ;  and  you  have,  in  what 
we  have  now  read,  a  kind  of  dramatic  in- 
terchange of  argument,  going  on  between 
Paul  and  a  hostile  reasoncr,  whom  he 
himself,  by  an  act  of  imagination,  has 
brought  before  him.  This  is  a  style  of 
argumentation  that  is  quite  familiar  in 
controversy.  The  preacher  will  some- 
times deal  with  an  objection,  just  in  the 
very  terms  he  would  have  done,  if  it  were 
cast  in  living  conversation  agninst  him, 
by  one  standing  before  his  pulpit;  and 
the  writer,  v/hen  he  anticipates  a  resist- 
ance of  the  same  kind  to  his  reasoning- 
will  just  step  forward  to  encounter  it,  as 
he  would  have  done,  if  an  entrance  were 
actually  made  against  him  on  the  lists  of 
authorship.  This  is  the  way  in  whieh  the 
apostle  appears  to  be  engaged  in  the 
verses  before  us;  and  if  you  conceive 
them  made  up  of  objections  put  by  an 
antagonist,  and  replies  to  those  questions 
by  himself,  it  will  help  to  clear  your  un- 
derstanding of  the  passage  now  under  our 
consideration. 

You  have  already  heard  at  length  all 
the  elucidation  which  we  mean  to  olfer,  on 
the  first  question  and  part  of  the  first 
answer  of  this  dialogue.  After  the  Jew 
had  been  so  much  assimilated  in  guilt  to 
the  Gentile,  as  he  had  been  by  the  apostle 
in  the  last  chapter,  the  objection  suggests 
itself,  Wiiere  then  is  the  advantage  of 
having  been  a  Jew  ].  Where  is  the  mighty 
blessedness  which  was  spoken  of  by  God 
to  the  patriarchs,  a's  that  which  was  to 
signalize  their  race  above  all  the  other 
descendants  of  all  other  families]  The 
reply  given  to  this  in  the  second  verse  is, 
that  the  chief  advantage  lay  in  their 
having  committed  to  them  the  oracles  of 
God.    You   will  recollect    the   inference 


that  we  drew  from  this  answer  of  the 
apostle's — even,  that  though  the  Scriptures 
laid  a  heavier  responsibility  upon  those 
who  had  them,  than  upon  those  who  had 
them  not ;  and  though,  in  virtue  of  this, 
the  many  among  the  ancient  Hebrews 
were  rendered  more  criminal  than  they 
else  would  have  been,  and  were  therefore 
sunk  on  that  account  more  deeply  into  an 
abyss  of  condemnation  ;  and  though  they 
were  only  the  few  who  by  faith  in  these 
Scriptures  attained  to  the  heights  of  celes- 
tial blessedness  and  glory — yet  there  must 
have  been  a  clear  preponderance  of  the 
good  that  was  rendered  over  the  evil  that 
was  incurred,  seeing  it  to  be  affirmed  by 
the  inspired  author  of  this  argument  that 
there  was  a  clear  advantage  upon  the 
whole.  We  will  not  repeat  the  applica- 
tions which  we  have  already  made  of  this 
apostolic  statement,  to  the  object  of  vindi- 
cating a  missionary  enterprise,  by  send- 
ing the  light  and  education  of  Christianity 
abroad — or  of  vindicating  the  efforts  of 
diffusing  more  extensively  than  heretofore 
the  same  education  at  home.  But  be 
assured,  that  it  were  just  as  wrong  to 
abstain  from  doing  this  which  is  in  itself 
good,  lest  evil  should  come — as  it  were  to 
do  that  which  is  in  itself  evil,  that  good 
may  come.  Nor,  however  powerfully  they 
may  have  operated  in  retarding  the  best 
of  causes,  is  there  any  thing  in  the  objec- 
tions to  which  we  there  adverted,  that 
ought  to  keep  back  our  direct  and  imme- 
diate  entrance  upon  the  bidden  field  of 
"  Go  and  teach  all  nations" — "  Go  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature  under 
heaven." 

The  apostle  we  conceive  to  be  still 
speaking-  in  his  own  person,  throughout 
the  third  and  fourth  verses.  It  is  to  be 
remarked  that  'some'  in  the  original 
signifies  a  part  of  the  whole,  but  not 
necessarily  a  small  part  of  it.  It  may  be 
a  very  great  part  and  majority  of  the 
whole — as  in  that  passage  of  the  book  of 
Hebrews,  where  it  is  said  'some  when 
they  heard  provoked — how  belt  not  all  that 
came  out  of  Egypt  w-ith  Moses.'  The 
truth  is,  that,  as  far  as  we  historically 
know  of  it,  all  did  provoke  God  upon  that 
occasion,  save  Joshua  and  Caleb,  and 
those  younger  of  the  people  who  were 
still  incapable  of  bearing  arms.  And  in 
Timothy  we  read  that  '  some  shall  depart 
from  the  faith' — though  the  apostle  is 
there  speaking  of  that  overwhelming 
apostacy  of  the  middle  ages,  which  left 
so  faint  and  feeble  a  remainder  of  light  to 
Christendom  for  many  centuries.  And,  in 
like  manner,  were  they  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  Jews,  who  were  only  so  in  the 
letter,  and  in  the  outward  circumcision ; 
and  were  not  so  in  spirit,  or  in  the  cir- 
cumcision of  the  heart.  They  were  greatly 


52 


LECTURE   IX. CHAPTER    III,    1 9. 


the  more  considerable  part  who  did  not 
believe  ;  and  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  heavy 
deduction  from  the  good  actually  rendered 
to  the  Jews,  could  the  apostle  still  stand 
up  in  the  vindication  of  those  promises 
which  God  held  forth  to  their  ancestors; 
of  a  blessing  upon  those  who  should  come 
after  them — letting  us  know,  that,  though 
they  were  the  many  who  aggravated  their 
own  condemnation,  and  the  few  who  by 
inheriting  the  privileges  inherited  a  bles- 
sing, yet  the  truth  of  God  here  called  the 
faith  of  God,  was  not  unfulfilled — that 
whatever  comes  in  the  shape  of  promise 
or  of  prophecy  from  Him,  will  have  its 
verification — that  whatever  be  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  man,  God  will  still  retain  the 
attribute  given  to  Him  by  the  apostle 
elsewhere,  even  that  He  cannot  lie.  So 
that,  should  it  be  questioned  whether  the 
family  of  Israel,  in  consequence  of  God's 
dealing  with  them,  had  an  advantage 
over  all  the  other  families,  it  will  be  found 
in  the  holy  and  faithful  men  of  the  old 
dispensation,  few  as  they  were;  and  it 
will  be  found  on  the  great  day  of  mani- 
festation, when  all  the  reverses  of  Jewish 
history  from  the  first  calling  forth  of 
Abraham  to  their  last  glorious  restoration 
shall  have  been  accomplished — that  He 
will  be  justified  in  every  utterance  He 
made  respecting  them,  and  that  He  will 
overcome  when  He  is  judged  of  it. 

» God  forbid '  is  in  the  original  simply 
'let  it  not  be.' 

In  the  fifth  verse  the  apostle  again  brings 
forward  his  objector,  and  puts  into  his 
mouth  an  argument.  It  is  our  unright- 
eousness, says  he,  which  hath  made  room 
for  God's  righteousness  in  its  place,  which 
sets  off  as  it  were,  and  renders  it  so  worthy 
of  acceptation  ;  and  if  this  be  the  case, 
might  it  not  be  said  that  it  is  not  righteous 
in  God  to  inflict  wrath  forthat  which  hath 
redounded  so  much  to  the  credit  and  the 
manifestation  of  His  own  attributes.  This 
objection  is  brought  forward  in  another 
form  in  the  7th  verse.  If  God's  truth  have 
been  rendered  more  illustrious  by  my  lie, 
or  by  my  sin,  and  so  He  has  been  the  more 
glorified  in  consequence — why  does  He 
find  fault  with  me,  and  punish  me  for  sins 
which  advance  eventually  His  honour? 
Should  we  not  rather  sin  that  God's  righte- 
ousness may  be  exalted,  and  do  the  instru- 
mental evil  that  the  ultimate  good  may 
come  out  of  it  1  The  apostle  gives  two 
distinct  answers  to  these  questions,  after 
giving  us  a  passing  intimation  in  the  5th 
verse,  that  he  is  not  speaking  in  his  own 
person  as  an  apostle  when  he  brings  for- 
Avard  these  objections,  but  only  speaking 
as  a  man  whom  he  supposes  to  set  him- 
self against  the  whole  of  his  argument ; 
and  tells  us  also  in  the  7th  verse  that  the 
maxim  of  doing  evil  that  good  may  come, 


which  he  here  supposes  to  be  pled  by  an 
unbelieving  Jew,  was  also  charged,  but 
slanderously  charged  upon  Christians. 
The  way  in  which  he  sets  aside  the  objec- 
tion in  the  5th  verse  is,  that,  if  admitted, 
God  would  be  deprived  of  His  power  of 
judging  the  world — and  the  objection  in 
the  7th  and  8th  verses  set  aside  by  the 
simple  affirmation,  that  if  there  be  any 
who  would  do  evil  that  good  may  coma 
their  condemnation  is  just. 

Before  urging  these  lessons  any  furtho 
let  us  offer  a  paraplirase  of  these  verses 

'What  is  the  advantage  then  possessed 
by  the  Jew,  it  will  be  said,  or  what  bene- 
fit is  it  to  him  that  he  is  of  the  circumcis- 
ion ?  We  answer  that  the  benefit  is  great 
many  ways — and  chiefly  that  to  that  peo- 
ple have  been  committed  the  revealed 
scriptures  of  God.  And  even  though  the 
greater  part  did  not  believe,  yet  still  their 
unbelief  puts  no  disparagement  on  the 
veracity  of  God.  Though  all  men  were 
liars,  this  would  detract  nothing  from  the 
glory  of  God's  truth ;  and,  however  this 
objection  may  be  pushed,  it  will  be  found 
in  the  language  of  the  Psalmist  that  God 
will  be  justified  in  all  his  sayings  and  will 
overcome  when  He  is  judged.  But  to  this 
it  may  further  be  said,  if  God  do  not  suf- 
fer in  His  glory  by  our  guilt — nay  if,  out 
of  the  materials  of  human  sinfulness.  He 
can  rear  a  ministration  by  which  He  and 
all  His  attributes  may  be  exalted — why 
should  He  deal  in  anger  against  those, 
whom  He  can  thus  turn  into  the  instru- 
ments of  His  honour'?  The  unrighteous- 
ness of  man  sets  off  the  righteousness  of 
God  ;  and  He  gets  glory  to  Himself  by  our 
doings ;  and  is  it  therefore  a  righteous 
thing  in  Him  to  inflict  vengeance  on  ac- 
count of  them?  Such  is  the  sophistry  of 
vice,  but  it  cannot  be  admitted — else  the 
judgment  of  God  over  the  world  is  at  an 
end.  And  it  is  further  said  by  those  who, 
in  the  language  of  a  former  chapter,  have 
turned  God's  truth  into  a  lie — that  that 
hath  made  God's  truth  to  abound  the  more 
unto  His  own  glory — that  He  has  so  dealt 
with  them  as  to  bring  a  larger  accession 
of  glory  to  Himself;  and  where  then  is 
the  evil  of  that  which  finally  serves  to 
illustrate  and  make  brighter  than  before 
His  character?  Should  I  be  condemned' 
a  sinner,  for  having  done  that  which  glo- 
rifies God  ? — might  not  I  do  the  instrumen- 
tal evil,  for  the  sake  of  the  eventual  good  1 
Such  is  the  morality  that  has  been  charged 
upon  us — but  falsely  so  charged — for  it  is 
a  morality  which  ought  to  be  reprobated.' 

In  this  passage  the  apostle  touches, 
though  but  slightly  and  transiently,  on  a 
style  of  scepticism  to  Avhich  he  afterwards 
adverts  at  a  greater  length  in  the  9th  chap- 
ter of  this  epistle  ;  and  we,  in  like  manner, 
shall  defer  the  great  bulk  of  our  observa- 


LECTURE    IX. CHAPTER    III,    1 — 9. 


53 


lions  about  it,  till  we  have  arrived  at  the 
things  hard  to  be  understood  which  are 
found  therein.  But  let  us  also  follow  the 
apostle,  in  that  fainter  and  more  tempora- 
ry notice  which  he  takes  of  these  things 
on  the  present  occasion — when  before 
completing  his  proof  that  both  Jewsand 
Gentiles  were  under  sin,  he  both  affirms 
that  God  was  glorified  upon  the  former  in 
spite  of  their  unrighteousness ;  and  yet 
deals  with  that  unrighteousness  as  if  it 
was  an  offence  to  Him — that  even  out  of 
their  disobedience  an  actual  honour  ac- 
crues to  Himself;  and  yet  that  the  ven- 
geance of  His  wrath  is  due  to  that  disobe- 
dience— that  let  the  worthlessness  of  man 
be  what  it  may,  the  vindication  and  the 
victory  will  be  God's ;  and  yet  upon  this 
very  element  of  worthlessness,  which 
serves  to  illustrate  the  glories  of  His  cha- 
racter, will  He  lay  the  burden  of  a  righte- 
ous indignation.  There  was  something  in 
the  subtlety  of  the  Jewish  doctors  of  that 
age,  which  stood  nearly  allied  with  the 
infidel  metaphysics  of  the  present ;  and 
which  would  attempt  to  darken  and  to 
overthrow  all  moral  distinctions,  and  to 
dethrone  God  from  that  eminence,  which, 
as  the  moral  governor  of  the  world,  be- 
longs to  Him.  And  it  is  well  that  the 
apostle  gives  us  a  specimen  of  his  treat- 
ment of  this  sophistry,  that,  when  exposed 
to  it  ourselves,  we  may  know  what  is  the 
scriptural  way  of  meeting  it,  and  what  are 
the  scriptural  grounds  on  which  its  influ- 
ence may  be  warded  away  from  us. 

The  truth  is,  that,  in  the  days  of  the 
apostle  as  well  as  in  our  own  days,  spec- 
ulative difficulties  were  made  use  of  to 
darken  and  confound  the  clearest  moral 
principles  ;  and,  then  as  well  as  now,  did 
the  imagination  of  men  travel  into  a  re- 
gion that  was  beyond  them,  whence  they 
fetched  conceits  and  suppositions  of  their 
own  framing,  for  the  purpose  of  extin- 
guishing the  light  that  was  near  and  round 
about  them.  And  some  there  were  who 
took  refuge  from  the  conviction  of  sin,  in 
the  mazes  of  a  sophistry,  by  which  they 
tried  to  perplex  both  themselves  and  others 
out  of  the  plainest  intimations  of  con- 
science and  common  sense.  There  is  no 
man  of  a  fair  and  honest  understanding, 
who,  if  not  carried  beyond  his  depth  by 
the  subtleties  of  a  science  falsely  so  call- 
ed, does  not  yield  his  immediate  consent, 
and  with  all  the  readiness  he  would  do  in 
a  first  principle,  to  the  position  that  God 
is  the  rightful  judge  of  His  own  creatures ; 
and  that  it  is  altogether  for  Him  to  place 
the  authority  of  a  law  over  them,  and  to 
punish  their  violations ;  and  that  it  is  an 
unrighteous  thing  in  us  to  set  our  will  in 
opposition  to  His  will,  and  a  righteous 
thing  in  Him  to  avenge  Himself  of  this 
disobedience.    These  are  what  any  plain 


man  will  readily  take  up  with,  as  being 
among  the  certainties  of  the  Divine  Gov- 
ernment ;  and  not  till  he  bewilders  him- 
self by  attempting  to  explain  the  secre- 
cies of  the  Divine  Government,  will  the 
impression  of  these  certainties  be  at  all 
deafened  or  effaced  from  the  feelings  of 
his  moral  nature.  Now  what  the  apostle 
appears  to  be  employed  about  in  this  pas- 
sage, is  just  to  defend  our  moral  nature 
against  an  invasion  upon  the  authority  of 
its  clearest  and  most  powerful  suggestions. 
The  antagonists  against  whom  he  here 
sets  himself,  feel  themselves  pursued  by 
his  allegations  of  their  guilt ;  and  try  to 
make  their  escape  from  a  reproachful 
sense  of  their  own  sinfulness ;  and,  for 
this  purpose,  would  they  ambitiously  lift 
up  the  endeavours  of  their  understanding 
towards  the  more  high  and  unsearchable 
counsels  of  God.  It  is  very  true,  that, 
however  sinfully  men  may  conduct  them- 
selves. He  will  get  a  glory  to  His  own  at- 
tributes from  all  His  dealings  with  them. 
It  is  very  true,  that,  like  as  the  wrath  of 
man  shall  be  made  to  praise  Him,  so  shall 
the  worthlessness  of  man  be  made  to  re- 
dound to  the  honour  of  God's  truth  and 
of  God's  righteousness.  Should  even  all 
men  be  liars,  the  veracity  of  God  will  be 
the  more  illustrated  by  its  contrast  with 
this  surrounding  evil,  and  by  the  fulfil- 
ment upon  it  of  all  His  denunciations. 
The  Holiness  of  the  Divinity  will  blazen 
forth  as  it  were  into  brighter  conspicuous- 
ness,  on  the  dark  ground  of  human  guilt 
and  human  turpitude.  God  manifests  the 
dignity  of  His  character,  in  His  manifest- 
ed abiiorrence  against  all  unrighteousness 
and  ungodliness  of  men.  In  the  last  day 
the  glory  of  His  power  will  be  made 
known,  when  the  Judge  cometh  in  flaming 
fire  to  take  vengeance  on  those  who  dis- 
obey Him ;  and  even  the  very  retribution 
which  He  deals  forth  on  the  heads  of  the 
rebellious,  will  be  to  Him  the  trophies  of 
an  awful  and  lofty  vindication. 

Now  the  objection  reiterated  in  the  va- 
rious questions  of  this  passage  is,  that  if 
out  of  the  unrighteousness  of  man,  such  a 
revenue  as  it  were  of  fame  and  chai'acter 
shall  accrue  to  the  Deity — why  should  He 
be  offended "?  Why  should  He  inflict  so 
much  severity  on  the  sin,  which  after  all 
serves  to  illustrate  His  own  sacredness, 
and  to  exalt  His  own  majesty  1  Why 
should  He  lay  such  a  weight  of  guilt  on 
those,  who,  it  would  appear,  are  to  be  the 
instruments  of  His  glory  !  Is  not  sin,  if 
not  a  good  thing  in  itself,  at  least  a  good 
thing  in  its  consequences,  when  it  thus 
serves  to  swell  the  pomp  of  the  Eternal, 
and  throw  a  brighter  radiance  around  His 
ways  ?  And  might  not  we  then  do  this 
evil  thing  that  the  final  and  the  resulting 
good  may  emerge  out  of  it )     And  might 


54 


LECTURE   IX. CHAPTER    HI,    1 9. 


not  that  sin,  which  we  have  been  taught 
to  shun  as  dishonouring  to  God,  be  there- 
fore chosen  on  the  very  opposite  princi- 
ple, of  doing  that  which  will  ultimately 
bring  a  reversion  of  honour  to  His  charac- 
ter, and  of  credit  and  triumph  to  all  His 
administrations  ! 

One  would  have  thought,  that  the  ob- 
vious answer  to  all  this  sophistry,  was, 
that  if  you  take  away  from  God  the  pre- 
rogative of  judging  and  condemning  and 
intlicting  vengeance,  you  take  away  from 
Him  all  the  ultimate  glory  which  He  ever 
can  derive,  from  the  sinfulness  of  His  own 
creatures — that  the  very  way  in  which  the 
presence  of  sin  sets  forth  the  sactedness 
of  the  Deity,  is  by  the  abhorrence  that  He 
manifests  towards  it — that  the  unright- 
eousness of  man  commendeth  the  right- 
eousness of  God,  only  by  God  dealing 
with  this  unrighteousness,  in  the  capacity 
of  a  judge  and  of  a  lawgiver — that  if  you 
strip  Him  of  the  power  of  punishment, 
you  strip  Him  of  the  power  of  rendering 
such  a  vindication  of  His  attributes,  as 
will  make  Him  venerable  and  holy  in  the 
eyes  of  His  own  subjects — that,  in  fact, 
there  remains  no  possibility  of  God  fetch- 
ing any  triumph  to  Himself,  from  the  re- 
belliousness of  His  creatures,  if  He  can- 
not proceed  in  the  work  of  moral  govern- 
ment against  their  rebellion.  And  thus, 
if  God  may  not  find  fault,  and  if  His  judi- 
cial administration  of  the  world  is  to  be 
overthrown,  there  will  none  of  that  glory 
come  to  Him  out  of  human  sinfulness, 
which  the  gainsayer  of  our  text  pleads  in 
mitigation  of  human  sinfulness. 

This  Paul  might  have  said.  But  it  is 
instructive  to  perceive,  that,  instead  of 
this,  he  satisHes  himself  with  simply  af- 
firming the  tirst  principles  of  the  ques- 
tion. He  counts  it  enough  barely  to  state, 
that  if  there  was  anything  in  the  reason- 
ing of  his  opponent,  then  God's  right  of 
judging  the  world  would  be  taken  away. 
He  holds  this  to  be  a  full  condemnation 
of  the  whole  sophistry,  th:it,  if  it  were  ad- 
mitted, how  then  could  God  judge  the 
world  ?  With  the  announcement  of  what 
is  plain  to  a  man  of  plain  understanding, 
does  he  silence  an  argument  which  can 
only  proceed  from  a  man  of  subtle  under- 
standing. And  in  reply  to  the  maxim, 
'let  us  do  evil  that  good  may  come,'  he 
enters  into  no  depths  of  jurisprudence  or 
moral  argumentation  upon  the  subject; 
but  simply  allirms  that  the  condemnation 
of  all  who  should  do  so  were  a  righteous 
condemnation. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  enter  on  the  philosophy 
of  any  subject,  upon  which  Paul  does  not 


enter.  But  we  may  at  least  remark,  thaf 
this  treatment  of  his  adversaries  by  the 
apostle  is  consonant  with  the  soundest 
maxims  of  philosophy.  We  know  not  a 
better  way  of  characterizing  the  spirit  of 
that  sound  and  humble  and  sober  philoso- 
phy, which  has  conducted  the  human 
mmd  to  its  best  acquisitions  on  the  field 
of  natural  truth,  than  simply  to  say  of  it, 
that  it  ever  prefers  the  certainty  of  expe- 
rience, to  the  visions  of  a  conjectural 
imagination  —  that  it  cautiously  keeps 
within  the  line  which  separates  the  known 
from  the  unknown,  and  would  never 
suffer  a  suspicion  fetched  from  the  latter 
region,  to  militate  against  a  plain  certainty 
that  stands  clearly  and  obviously  before 
it  on  the  forn)er  region.  And  when  it 
carries  its  attention  from  natural  to  moral 
science,  it  never  will  consent  to  a  princi- 
ple of  sure  and  authoritative  guidance  for 
the  heart  and  conduct  of  man  in  the 
present  time,  to  be  subverted  by  any 
dilficulty  drawn  from  a  theme  so  inac- 
cessible as  the  unrevealed  purposes  of 
God,  or  from  a  iield  of  contemplation  so 
remote,  as  the  glories  which  are  even- 
tually to  redound  to  the  character  of  God 
at  the  linal  winding  up  of  His  adminis- 
tration. 

It  is  not  for  man  to  hold  at  obeyanco 
the  prompt  decisions  of  moral  sense,  till 
he  make  out  an  adjustmimt  between  them 
and  such  endless  fancies  as  may  be  con- 
jured up  from  the  gulphs  of  misty  and 
metaphysical  speculation.  Both  piety  and 
philosophy  lend  their  concurrence  to  the 
truth,  that  secret  things  belong  to  God, 
and  revealed  things  only  belong  to  us 
and  to  our  children.  He  has  written,  not 
merely  on  the  book  of  His  revealed  testi- 
mony, but  he  has  written  on  the  book  of 
our  own  consciences  the  lesson,  that  He 
is  rightfully  the  governor  of  the  world, 
and  tiiat  we  are  rightfully  the  subjects  of 
that  government.  There  is  a  monitor 
within,  who,  with  a  still  and  a  small  but 
nevertheless  a  powerful  voice,  tells  that 
if  we  disobey  Him  we  do  wrong.  There 
is  a  voice  of  the  heart  which  awards  to 
Him  the  place  of  sovereign,  and  to  us  the 
place  of  servants.  If  He  ought  not  to 
judge,  and  may  nut  impose  the  penalties 
of  disobedience,  this  relationship  is  alto- 
gether dissolved.  And  it  is  too  much  for 
man  to  fetch,  either  from  the  aerial  region 
that  is  above  him,  or  from  the  dark  and 
hiddtjn  futurity  that  is  before  him,  a 
prineiple  which  shall  lay  prostrate  the 
authority  of  conscience,  and  infuse  the 
baleful  elements  of  darkness  and  distrust 
into  its  clearest  intimations. 


LECTURE   X. CHAPTER    III,    9 — 19. 


$5 


LECTURE  X. 


Romans  iii,  9 — 19. 

"  What  then"!  are  we  better  than  theyl  No,  in  no  wise  :  for  we  have  before  proved  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that 
they  arc  all  under  sin:  as  it  is  written, There  is  none  richteous,  no  not  one  :  there  is  none  thatunderstandeth,  there 
is  none  that  seeketh  after  God.  They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way.  they  are  together  become  unprofitable  ;  there  is 
none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one.  Their  throat  is  an  open  sepulclire  :  with  their  tongues  Ihey  have  used  deceit : 
the  poison  of  asps  is  under  their  lips  :  whose  mouth  is  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness  :  their  feet  are  swift  to  shed 
blood  :  destruction  and  misery  are  in  their  ways  :  and  the  way  of  peace  have  they  not  known  :  there  is  no  fear  of 
God  before  their  eyes  Now  we  know,  that  what  things  soever  the  law  saith,  it  saith  to  theni  who  are  under  the 
law  ;  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become  guilty  before  God." 


V.  9. 'Better,' in  respect  of  having  a 
righteousness  before  God.  We  have  be- 
fore charged  Jews  and  Gentiles  with  be- 
ing under  sin.  We  aflfirmed  it  to  their  own 
conscience.  We  now  prove  it  to  the  .Tews 
from  their  own  revelation.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  paraphrase  of  this  passage. 

'  What  then  !  are  we  Jews  better  than 
those  Gentiles  in  respect  of  our  justifica- 
tion by  our  own  obedience  ?  Not  at  all — 
for  we  before  charged  both  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles with  being  under  sin.  And  we  prove 
it  from  God's  written  revelation,  where  it 
is  affirmed,  that  there  are  none  who  have  a 
righteousnessthat  He  will  accept — not  even 
one.  There  are  none  who  are  thus  satisfied 
with  themselves,  and  feel  no  need  of  such 
a  justification  as  we  propose,  that  really 
understandeth,  or  truly  seeketh  after  Gotl. 
They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way  and 
have  become  unprofitable,  and  there  is 
none  of  them  that  doeth  what  is  substan- 
tially and  religiously  good — no,  not  one. 
From  their  mouths  there  proceedeth  every 
abomination  ;  and  they  speak  deceitfully 
with  their  tongues  ;  and  the  poison  of 
malignity  distils  from  their  lips  ;  and 
their  mouth  is. full  of  imprecation  upon 
others,  and  of  bitterness  against  them. 
And  they  not  only  speak  mischief,  but 
they  do  it ;  for  they  eagerly  run  to  the 
shedding  of  blood  ;  and  their  way  may  be 
tracked,  as  it  were,  by  the  destruction  and 
the  wretchedness  which  mark  the  progress 
of  it ;  and  they  know  not  and  love  not  the 
way  of  peace  ;  and  as  to  the  fear  of  God, 
He  is  not  looked  to  or  regarded  by  them. 
Now  all  this  is  charged  upon  men  by  the 
book  of  the  Jewish  law.  We  are  only  re- 
peating quotations  out  of  their  own  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  as  what  the  law  saith  is  intend- 
ed for  those  who  are  under  the  law,  and 
not  for  those  who  are  strangers  to  it  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  its  announcements — 
all  these  sayings  must  be  applied  to  Jews  ; 
and  they  prove  that  it  is  not  the  mere 
possession  of  a  law,  but  the  keeping  of  it 
which  secures  the  justification  of  those 
over  whom  it  has  authority.  Their 
mouths,  therefore,  must  also  be  stopped  ; 
and  the  whole  world,  consisting  of  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  must  all  be  brought  in  as 
guilty  before  God.* 


We  here  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that 
Paul  had  already,  in  the  second  chapter, 
affirmed  the  guilt  of  the  Jews,  and  conde- 
scended upon  the  instances  of  it.  He  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  proved  their 
guilt ;  he  had  only  charged  them  with  it ; 
and  yet  through  the  conscience  of  those 
whom  we  addres.s,  it  is  very  possible  that 
a  charge  may  no  sooner  be  uttered,  than  a 
conviction  on  the  part  of  those  against 
whom  we  are  directing  the  charge,  may 
come  immediately  on  the  back  of  it.  There 
is  often  a  power  in  a  bare  statement, 
which  is  not  at  all  bettered  but  rather  im- 
paired by  the  accompaniment  of  reason- 
ing. If  what  you  say  of  a  man  agree  with 
his  own  bosom  experience  that  it  is  really 
so,  there  is  a  weight  in  your  simple  affir- 
mation which  needs  not  the  enforcing  of 
any  argument.  It  is  this  which  gives  such 
authority  to  those  sermons  even  still,  that 
recommend  them.selves  to  the  conscience  ; 
and  it  was  thi.s,  in  fact,  which  gained  more 
credit  and  acceptance  for  the  apostles 
than  did  all  their  miracles.  They  revealed 
to  men  the  secrets  of  their  own  hearts; 
and  what  the  inspired  teacher  said  they 
were,  they  felt  themselves  to  be ;  and 
nothing  brings  so  ready  and  entire  an 
homage  to  the  truth  that  is  spoken,  as  the 
agreement  of  its  simple  assertions  with 
the  finding  of  a  man's  own  conscience. 
This  manifestation  of  the  truth  unto  the 
conscience,  which  was  the  grand  instru- 
ment of  discipleship  in  the  first  ages  of 
the  church,  is  the  grand  instrument  still ; 
and  it  is  thus  that  an  unlearned  hearer, 
who  just  knows  his  own  mind,  may  be 
touched  as  effectually  to  his  conviction,  ^ 
by  the  accordancy  between  what  a 
preacher  says,  and  what  he  himself  feels, 
as  the  most  profound  and  pliilosophical 
member  of  an  accomplished  congregation. 
And  tlius  that  ob.stinacy  of  unbelief,  which 
we  vainly  attempt  to  carry  by  the  power 
of  any  elaborate  or  metaphysical  demon- 
stration, may  give  way,  both  with  the  un- 
taught and  the  cultivated,  to  the  bare  state- 
ment of  the  preacher — when  he  simply 
avers  the  selfishness  of  the  human  heart; 
and  its  pride,  and  its  sensuality,  and  above 
all  its  ungodliness. 

Bui  Paul  is  not  satisfied  with  this  alone. 


56 


LECTURE   X. CHAPTER   UI,    9 19. 


He  refers  the  Jews  to  their  own  Scriptures. 
He  deals  out  quotations  chiefly  taken  from 
the  book  of  Psalms ;  and,  in  so  doing,  he 
avails  himself  of  what  both  he  and  the 
other  apostles  felt  to  be  a  peculiarly  fit 
and  proper  instrument  of  conviction,  in 
their   various   reasonings   with  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel.  You  meet  with  this  style  of 
argumentation  on  many  distinct  occasions, 
and  often  ushered  in  with  the  phrase  '  as 
it  is  written.'     It  was  thus  that  Christ  ex- 
pounded to  his  disciples  what  was  written 
in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  prophets, 
and  in  the  psalms,  concerning  Him  ;  and 
that  these  disciples  again  went  forth  upon 
the  Jews,  armed  for  their  intellectual  war- 
fare out  of  the  Old  Testament.    In  almost 
every   interview  they  had  with  the  He- 
hrews,  you  will  meet  with  this  as  a  pecu- 
liarity which  is  not  to  be  observed,  when 
epistles   are   addressed,  or  conversations 
are  held,  with  Gentiles  only.    Thus  Ste- 
phen  gave  a  long  demonstration  to  his 
persecutors  out  of  the  Jewish  history  ;  and 
Peter  rested  his  argument  for  Jesus  Christ, 
on  the  interpretation  that  he  gave  of  one 
of  the  prophetic  psalms  ;  and  Paul,  in  his 
sermon  at  Antioch,  went  back  to  the  story 
of  Egyptian  bondage  and  carried  his  ex- 
planation downwards  through  David  and 
his  family,  to  the  doctrine  of  the  remis- 
sion of  sins  by  the   Saviour,  who  sprang 
from  him;  and,  in  the  Jewish  synagogue 
at  Thessalonica,  did  he  reason  with  them 
three  sabbath  days  out  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
and  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Felix,  did 
he  aver,  that  his  belief  in  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, was  that  of  one  who  believed  all  the 
things  that  are  written  in  the  law  and  in 
the   prophets;  and    in    argumenting  the 
cause  of  Christianity  before  Agrippa,  did 
he  rest  his  vindication  on  what  Agrippa 
knew  of  the  promises  that  were  found  in 
the  Old  Testament ;  and  when  he  met  his 
countrymen  at  Rome,  it  was  his  employ- 
ment, from   morning  to  evening,  to  per- 
suade them  concerning  Jesus  both  out  of 
the  law  of  Moses  and  out  of  the  prophets. 
He  who  was  all  things  to  all  men,  was  a 
Jew  among  the  Jews.     He  reasoned  with 
them   on   their  own   principles,   and   no 
where  more  frequently  than  in  this  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans — where,  though  he  had 
previously   spoken  of  their  sinfulness  to 
their  conscience,  he  yet  adds  a  number 
of  deponing  testimonies  to  the  same  effect 
from  their  own  book  of  revelation. 

It  is  this  agreement  between  the  Bible  and 
a  man's  own  conscience,  which  stamps 
upon  the  book  of  God  one  of  its  most  satis- 
fying evidences.  It  is  this  perhaps  more 
than  any  thing  else  which  draws  the  in- 
terest and  the  notice  of  men  towards  it. 
For  after  all,  there  is  no  way  of  fixing  the 
attention  of  man  so  powerfully  as  by 
holding  up  to  him  a  mirror  of  himself; 


and  no  wisdom  which  he  more  prizes,  or 
to  which  he  bows  more  profoundly,  than 
that  which  by  its  piercing  and  intelligent 
glance,  can  open  to  him  the  secrecies  of 
his  own  heart,  and  force  him  to  recognize 
a  marvellous  accordancy  between  its  po- 
sitions, and  all  the  varieties  of  his  own 
intimate  and  home-felt  experience. 

The  question  then  before  us  is — Does 
the  passage  now  read  bear  such  an  ac- 
cordancy with  the  real  character  of  man, 
as  that  which  we  are  now  alluding  to?  It 
abounds  in  affirmations  of  sweeping  uni- 
versality, and  a  test  of  their  truth  or  of 
their  falsehood  is  to  be  found  in  every 
heart.  The  apostle  has  here  made  a  most 
adventui'ous  commitment  of  himself — for, 
however  much  he  may  have  asserted  about 
matters  that  lay  beyond  the  limits  of  hu- 
man experience  without  the  hazard  of  be- 
ing confronted,  the  matters  which  he  has 
here  touched  upon  all  lie  within  the  fa- 
miliar and  well-known  chambers  of  a 
man's  own  consciousness.  And  the  posi- 
tive announcements  that  he  has  made  are 
not  of  some  but  of  all  individuals — so  that 
could  a  single  specimen  be  discovered  of 
a  natural  man,  who  was  righteous,  and 
who  had  the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes, 
and  who  either  understood  or  sought  after 
Him,  and  who  was  free  of  all  malignity 
and  cruelty  and  censoriousness — then 
would  this  be  a  refutation  in  fact  of  what 
the  apostle  assumes  and  pronounces  in 
argument ;  and  though  it  requires  a  minute 
and  multif'orm  and  unexcepted  agreement 
between  the  book  of  revelation  and  the 
book  of  experience,  to  make  out  an  evi- 
dence in  behalf  of  the  former — yet  would 
one  single  caseof  disagreement  be  enough 
to  overthrow  all  its  pretensions,  and  to  de- 
pose the  apostles  and  evangelists  of  Chris- 
tianity, from  all  the  credit  -which  they 
have  ever  held  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world. 

You  know  that  the  apostle's  aim  in  the 
whole  of  this  argument,  is  to  secure  the 
reception  of  his  own  doctrine  ;  and  that, 
for  this  purpose,  he  is  addressing  himself 
to  those  who  need  to  be  convinced,  and 
are  therefore  not  yet  convinced  of  it.  They 
who  have  actually  submitted  themselves 
to  the  truth  which  he  is  urging,  and  have 
come  under  its  influence,  have  arrived  at 
the  very  understanding  of  God  which  he 
is  labouring  to  establish.  These  are  in 
the  way  to  which  he  is  attempting  to  recal 
the  whole  human  race,  and  must  therefore 
be  excepted  from  the  charge  of  being 
now  out  of  the  way.  There  are  many 
such  under  the  new  dispensation ;  and 
there  were  also  some  such  under  the  old 
who  must  also  be  regarded  as  being  oh 
the  side  of  the  apostle,  but  of  whom  the 
apostle  affirms,  that  ere  they  came  over 
to  that  side,  as  he  does  of  every  one  else, 


LECTURE   X. — CHAPTER   UI,    9 — 19, 


57 


that  they  realized  on  their  own  persons, 
the  sad  picture  which  he  draws  in  this 
place  of  human  degradation.  The  truth 
is  that  there  were  men  even  of  the  Old 
Testament  age,  who  were  within  the  pale 
of  the  gospel ;  and  of  whom,  in  conse- 
quence, it  cannot  be  affirmed  that  they 
exemplified  the  description  which  is  here 
set  before  us.  But  though,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  such  a  withdrawment  must 
be  conceded  in  behalf  of  those  who  are 
under  the  gospel,  we  are  prepared  to 
assert  that  the  inspired  writer  has  not 
overcharged  the  account  that  he  has  given 
of  the  depravity  of  those  who  are  under 
the  law — whether  it  be  the  law  of  con- 
science, or  of  Moses,  or  even  of  the  purer 
morality  of  Christ— Insomuch  that  all  who 
refuse  the  mysteries  of  His  grace,  are 
universally  in  the  wrong :  And  if  they 
who  are  believers,  still  a  very  little  flock, 
are  regarded  as  constituting  the  church  ; 
and  they  who  are  not  believers,  still  a 
vast  and  overbearing  majority,  are  re- 
garded as  constituting  the  world — then  is 
it  true,  that,  from  one  end  to  the  other  of 
it,  it  lieth  in  wickedness,  and  that  all  the 
world  is  guilty  before  God. 

Be  assured  then,  that  there  is  a  delusion, 
in  all  the  complacency  that  you  associate 
with  your  own  righteousness.  It  is  the 
want  of  a  godly  principle  which  essen- 
tially vitiates  the  whole :  And  additional 
to  this,  with  all  the  generosities  and  all 
the  equities  which  have  done  so  much  for 
your  reputation  among  men,  there  is  a 
selfishness  that  lurks  in  your  bosom ;  or  a 
vanity  that  swells  and  inflames  it;  or  a 
preference  of  your  own  object  to  that  of 
others,  which  may  lead  you  to  acts  or 
words  of  unfeeling  severity  ;  or  a  regard 
for  some  particular  gratification,  coupled 
with  a  regardlessnes?  for  every  interest 
which  lieth  in  its  way — that  may  render 
you,  in  the  estimation  of  Him  who  ponder- 
eth  the  heart,  as  remote  a  wanderer  from 
rectitude  as  he  on  the  path  of  whose 
visible  history  there  occurred  in  other 
\imes  the  atrocities  of  savage  cruelty  and 
savage  violence.  It  were  barbarous  to 
tell  you  so — had  we  no  remedy  to  offer  for 
that  moral  disease  which  so  taints,  and 


without  exception  too,  all  the  families  of 
our  species.  Life  has  much  to  vex  and  to 
trouble  it ;  and  the  heart  is  sadly  plied 
with  the  visitations  of  sorrow ;  and  its 
very  sensibilities,  which  open  up  for  it 
the  avenues  of  enjoyment,  expose  it  ere 
long  to  the  heavier  distress ;  and  the 
friends  who  in  other  years  gladdened  the 
walk  of  our  daily  history,  have  left  us 
unsupported  and  alone  in  the  midst  of 
a  toilsome  pilgrimage.  And  itwere  really 
cruel  to  add  to  the  pressure  of  a  creature 
so  beset  and  borne  in  upon,  by  telling  him 
of  his  worthlessness — did  we  not  stand 
before  him  charged  with  the  tidings  of  his 
possible  renovation  to  the  high  prospects 
of  a  virtuous  and  holy  immortality.  Let 
him  therefore  cast  the  burden  of  his  des- 
pondence away  ;  and,  if  there  be  a  novelty 
in  the  views  that  have  been  offered  of  his 
present  condition,  let  it  but  allure  him  to 
further  inquiry ;  and  if  any  conviction 
have  mingled  with  the  exercise,  let  him 
betake  himself  to  the  great  fountainhead 
of  inspiration  ;  and  if  he  have  found  no 
rest  in  all  his  former  unceasing  attempts 
after  happiness,  let  him  try  the  new  enter- 
prise of  becoming  wise  unto  salvation. 
Should  this  Bible  be  his  guide ;  and  prayer 
his  habitual  employment ;  and  the  great 
sacrifice,  with  the  intimation  of  which 
Paul  follows  up  his  humiliating  exposure 
of  the  wickedness  of  man,  be  his  firm 
dependence — with  these  new  elements  of 
thought,  and  this  new  region  of  anticipa- 
tion before  him,  he  will  reach  a  peace 
that  the  world  knoweth  not ;  and  he  will 
attain  in  Christ  a  comfort  that  he  never 
yet  has  gotten  in  any  quarter  of  contem- 
plation to  which  he  has  turned  himself; 
and  this  kind  Saviour,  touched  with  a 
fellow-feeling  for  his  sorrows,  both  knows 
and  is  willing  to  succour  him,  so  as  to 
replace  even  in  this  world  all  the  deduc- 
tions that  he  now  mourns  over,  and  at 
length  to  bear  him  in  triumph  to  that 
unfading  country  where  there  is  no  sorrow 
and  no  separation.* 


'  Our  more  copious  illustration  of  this  passage,  is  to 
be  found  in  the  15th  of  the  '  Commercial  Discourses'  al- 
ready referred  to  ;  and  which,  therefore,  we  have  not  re- 
peated in  this  place. 


58 


LECTURE   XI. CHAPTER   III,    20 — 26. 


LECTURE  XL 


Romans  iii,  20 — 26. 

"Therefore  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight:  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of 
sin.  But  now  the  righteousness  of  God  without  the  law  is  inanifusted,  being  witnessed  by  the  law  and  the  pro- 
phets; even  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith  of  Christ  Jesus  unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that  believe  ;— 
tor  there  is  no  diUerence  ;  fur  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  ; — being  justified  freely  by  his 
crace,  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus ;  whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propiliation  through  faith 
in  his  blood,  to  declare  his  righteousness  for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  through  tlie  forbearance  of  God;— 
to  declare,  I  say,  at  this  time,  his  righteousness;  that  he  might  be  just,  and  the  justiiier  of  him  which  belie  veth  in 
Jesus." 


There  is  perhaps  no  single  passage  in 
the  book  of  inspiration,  which  reveals  in  a 
way  so  formal  and  authoritative  as  the  one 
before  us,  the  path  of  transition  by  which  a 
sinner  passes  from  a  state  of  wrath  to  a  state 
of  acceptance.  There  is  no  passage,  to 
which  if  we  would  only  bring  the  docility 
and  the  compliance  of  childhood,  that  is 
more  fitted  to  guide  and  to  turn  an  en- 
quiring sinner  into  the  way  of  peace. 
Let  the  light  which  makes  apparent  to 
the  soul,  only  shine  upon  these  verses  ; 
and  there  is  laid  before  the  man  who 
questions  Avhat  it  is  that  he  must  do  to  be 
saved,  the  great  link  of  communication  on 
which  he  may  be  led  along  from  the 
ground  of  fearful  exposure  that  nature 
occupies,  to  the  ground  of  a  secure  and 
lasting  reconciliation.  Let  him  lay  aside 
his  own  wisdom,  and  submit  himself  to  the 
word  of  the  testimony  that  is  here  pre- 
sented to  his  notice  ;  and,  taught  in  the 
true  wisdom  of  God,  he  will  indeed  be- 
come wise  unto  salvation.  It  is  an  over- 
ture of  God's  own  making,  and  directly 
applicable  to  the  question  of  dispute,  that 
there  is  between  Ilim  and  the  men  who 
have  offended  Him.  It  is  •  one  setting 
forth  of  the  way  in  which  He  would  have 
the  difference  to  be  adjusted — nor  can  we 
conceive  how  defenceless  creatures,  stand- 
ing on  the  brink  of  an  eternity  for  which 
they  have  no  provision,  and  which  never- 
theless all  of  them  must  enter  and  abide 
upon  for  ever,  ought  to  have  their  atten- 
tion more  arrested  and  their  feelings  more 
engrossed  and  solemnized,  than  by  the 
communication  of  the  apostle  in  this  verse, 
and  by  the  unfoldings  of  that  embassy  of 
peace  that  is  here  so  simply  and  so  truly 
set  before  us. 

The  apostle  has  by  this  time  well  nigh 
finished  his  demon.stration  of  human  sin- 
fulness ;  and  he  makes  use  of  such  terms 
as  go  to  fasten  the  charge  of  guilt,  not  in 
that  way  of  vague  and  inapplicable  gener- 
ality from  which  it  is  so  easy  for  each 
man  to  escape  the  sense  of  his  own  per- 
sonal danger,  and  the  remorse  of  his  own 
individual  conscience;  but  as  go  to  fasten 
the  charge  on  every  single  member  or  de- 
scendant of  the  great  human  family. 
There  is  a  method  of  blunting  the  edge 


of  conviction,  by  interpreting,  in  a  kind 
of  corporate  and  collective  way,  all  that 
is  said  by  the  apostle  about  the  sinfulness 
of  Jews  on  the  one  hand  and  of  Gentiles 
on  the  other.  But  let  each  of  us  only  re- 
view his  past  life,  or  enter  with  the  light 
of  self-examination  into  the  chambers  of 
his  own  heart ;  and  he  will  feel  himself 
to  be  addressed  by  the  phrase  of  '  whoso- 
ever thou  art,  O  man  ;'  and  he  will  feel 
that  in  the  clause  of  'every  mouth  being 
stopped,'  his  own  mouth  should  be  stopped 
also ;  and  he  will  consent  that  he,  a  na- 
tive of  our  world,  has  a  part  in  the  apos- 
tle's asseveration  about  all  the  world  being 
guilty  before  God  ;  and  he  will  readily 
accord  with  the  Bible  in  that,  whereas  he 
is  a  partaker  of  flesh  and  blood,  he  offers 
no  exception  to  the  averment,  that,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  and  by  the  deeds  of  the  law, 
no  flesh  shall  be  justified. 

It  is  through  want  of  faith  that  we  are 
blind  to  the  reality  of  the  gospel ;  and  it 
is  also  through  want  of  faith  we  are  blind 
to  the  reality  of  the  law.  The  generality 
of  readers  see  not  any  significancy  in  the 
apostle's  words,  because  they  feel  not  any 
sense  of  the  things  that  are  expressed  by 
it.  They  are  just  as  dead  to  the  terrors 
of  the  law,  as  they  are  to  the  offers  and 
invitations  of  the  gospel.  The  sense  of 
God  pursuing  them  with  the  exactions  of 
an  authority  that  He  will  not  let  down,  is 
just  as  much  away  from  their  feelings,  as 
the  sense  of  God  in  Christ  beseeching  them 
to  flee  for  refuge  to  the  hope  set  before 
them.  The  man  who  is  surrounded  with 
an  opake  partition,  which  limits  his  view 
to  the  matters  that  lie  within  the  region 
of  carnality,  and  hides  from  him  alike  the 
place  of  condemnation  and  the  place  of 
deliverance  that  lie  beyond  it — he  may 
enjoy  a  peace  that  is  without  disturbance, 
becau.se,  though  he  have  no  positive  hope 
from  the  gospel,  he  has  no  positive  appre- 
hension from  the  law.  He  is  alike  insen- 
sible to  both;  and  not  till,  through  an 
opening  in  that  screen,  which  hides  from 
nature  the  dread  and  important  certain- 
ties that  are  lying  in  reserve  for  all  her 
children,  he  is  made  to  perceive  that  God's 
truth  and  righteousness  are  out  against 
him — will  he  appreciate  the  revelation  of 


LECTURE   XI. CHAPTER    III,    20 — 26. 


69 


that  great  mystery,  by  which  it  is  made 
known  how  truth  and  mercy  have  met 
together,  and  how  righteousness  and  peace 
have  kissed  each  other. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  the  exposition  of 
this  passage. 

Mark  in  the  20th  verse  how  this  ques- 
tion is  treated  as  one  between  God  and 
man.  It  is  not  that  one  man  may  not  be 
justified  in  the  sight  of  another — may  not 
have  fulfilled  all  that  the  other  has  a  right 
to  expect ;  but  the  question  is  about  justi- 
fication in  the  sight  of  God.  It  is  a  judicial 
proceeding  before  God. 

V.  21.  A  'righteousness  without  the 
law,'  is  simply  a  righteousness  which  we 
obtain  without  having  fulfilled  that  law  in 
our  own  persons.  Paul  never  loses  the 
advantage  of  any  testimony  that  is  given 
to  the  doctrine  of  Christ  out  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures ;  and  while  he  therefore  raises 
against  himself  the  opposition  of  the  great 
majority  of  his  countrymen,  by  asserting 
a  righteoaisness  that  was  arrived  at  in 
some  other  way  than  through  the  path  of 
obedience  to  their  law,  yet  he  does  not 
omit  the  opportunity  of  trying  to  disarm 
this  opposition,  by  avouching  that  this  very 
righteousness  was  borne  witness  to  by  the 
law  and  the  prophets.  The  testimonies 
of  the  prophets  are  various  and  abundant 
on  this  topic ;  for  a  view  of  the  testimo- 
nies of  the  law,  we  refer  you  to  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

V.  22.  The  righteousness  which  is  pro- 
posed by  the  apostle,  as  that  which  alone 
is  valid  to  the  object  of  justification,  is 
called  by  him  the  righteousness  of  God. 
It  is  that  the  acceptance  of  which  does 
not  dishonour  Him.  It  is  that  which  He 
Himself  has  provided,  and  which  He 
bestows  as  a  grant  to  all  who  will.  We 
cannot  speak  too  plainly  about  an  alter- 
native, on  which  there  hinges  the  whole 
■V eternity  of  a  sinner.  (^Conceive  the  sinner 
to  draw  nigh,  in  the  imagination  of  his 
own  merits — God  says  to  him,  'I  cannot 
receive  you  upon  this  footing,  but  here  is 
a  righteousness  which  I  hold  out  to  you, 
wrought  not  by  yourself  but  by  my  Son, 
and  I  now  ask  your  consent  that  you  be 
clothed  upon  therewith.  Come  to  me, 
consenting  to  be  so  clothed  upon,  and  I 
take  you  into  full  reconciliation.' — '  Unto 
all.' ^  The  offer  of  this  righteousness  is 
upon  all  who  believe.  Their  belief  con- 
stitutes their  acceptance  of  the  thing  of- 
fered ;  and  what  was  formerly  theirs  in 
offer,  becomes  by  their  faith  theirs  in  pos- 
session. '  No  difference.'  There  is  no 
difference  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  in 
respect  of  all  having  sinned ;  and  there 
iis  as  little  difference  in  respect  of  the 
way  in  which  all  may  be  justified. 

V.  23.  Come  short  of  glorifying  God — 
•When  they  knew  God  they  glorified  him 


not  as  God ;'  and  they  therefore  are  short 
of  having  wherewith  to  glory  of  before 
God.  Even  Abraham  had  nothing  to  glory 
of  before  God ;  and  of  consequence  no 
claim  or  title  to  be  glorified  by  God. 

V.  24.  You  understand  that  the  term 
justify  signifies,  not  to  make  a  man  right- 
eous in  personal  character,  but  to  hold  and 
declare  him  righteous  in  point  of  law. 
We  have  already  explained  that  it  is  to  be 
understood  forensically.  We  here  under- 
stand that  this  justification  is  not  wrought 
for,  but  given,  and  given  freely.  It  is  not 
a  purchase,  but  a  present.  It  is  given  by 
grace,  which  is  just  saying,  that  it  is  given 
gratis.  When  we  say  that  it  is  not  a  pur- 
chase, we  mean  that  it  is  not  purchased 
by  ourselves.  Still  however  it  was  pur- 
chased, but  by  another.  To  redeem  is  to 
recover  what  is  lost,  but  by  rendering  an 
adequate  price  for  it.  We  had  lost  right- 
eousness in  the  sight  of  God.  Jesus  Christ 
redeemed  the  righteousness  that  we  had 
lost.  He  gave  the  price  for  it;  and  we 
are  freely  offered  that  thing  which  is  the 
fruit  of  His  purchase. 

V.  25.  'Set  forth.'  Exhibited.  This  is 
my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased.  Set  forth  before  the  eyes.  The 
term  propitiation  is  the  same  with  what  in 
the  Old  Testament  is  translated  mercy- 
seat.  On  the  great  day  of  atonement  it 
was  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  an  ap- 
pointed sacrifice.  "  And  there  I  will  meet 
thee,"  says  God  to  Moses,  "  and  will  com- 
mune with  thee  from  above  the  mercy- 
seat."  It  rather,  however,  signifies  the  of- 
fering itself,  than  the  place  in  which  the 
offering  was  sprinkled.  You  know  what 
it  is  to  make  the  Being  whom  you  have 
offended  propitious.  The  propitiation  is 
the  offering  by  which  propitiousness  is 
obtained.  Jesus  Christ  in  dying,  rendered 
a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 
And  you  in  particular  have  the  benefit  of 
this  propitiation ;  He  becomes  your  pro- 
phiation  upon  your  having  faith  in  His 
blood.  There  is  a  general  faith  which  re- 
spects the  whole  testimony  of  God,  that, 
if  true  and  not  counterfeit,  will  also  re- 
spect  all  the  particulars  of  that  testimony. 
Still  however  there  is  a  danger  in  connect- 
ing our  reconciliation  with  this  general 
faith  ;  for  there  may  be  a  delusive  vague- 
ness, you  will  observe,  in  the  matter,  and 
the  attention  may  fail  to  be  exercised  on 
that  distinct  truth  with  which  reconcilia- 
tion has  most  expressly  and  immediately 
to  do.  Let  it  be  well  remarked  then,  that 
in  this  verse  propitiation  is  said  to  be 
through  faith  in  his  blood.  There  is  an  ap- 
propriateness of  this  kind  kept  u  p  in  God's 
dealings  with  us.  Through  faith  in  the 
blood  of  Christ,  we  obtain  that  redemption 
which  is  through  this  blood,  even  the  for- 
giveness of  sin.    It  is  through  faith  in 


60 


LECTURE   XI. CHAPTER   III,    20 26. 


God's  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  we 
shall  upon  asking  Him  receive  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  latter  act  of  faith  brings 
down  upon  us  the  benefit  of  which  it  is 
the  object,  even  the  Spirit — as  the  former 
act  of  faith  brings  down  upon  us  the  bene- 
fit of  which  it  is  the  object,  even  the  wash- 
ing away  of  our  guilt  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.  As  is  the  faith,  so  is  the  fulfil- 
ment. Our  Saviour  did  not  ask  the  blind 
men — Believe  ye  that  I  am  able  to  do  all 
things  1 — but  Believe  ye  that  I  am  able  to 
do  this  thing  ?  And  upon  their  replying 
— Yes,  He  touched  their  eyes  and  said. 
According  to  your  faith  so  be  it  done  unto 
you — and  their  eyes  were  opened.  The 
man  who  has  faith  that  he  will  get  the 
Spirit  of  Charity,  and  prays  accordingly — 
though  he  should  get  forgiveness  on  the 
back  of  his  prayer,  is  not  getting  accord- 
ing to  that  faith.  The  man  who  has  the 
faith  that  Christ's  Spirit  can  sanctify  him, 
and  prays  for  it — though  he  should  get 
forgiveness  on  the  back  of  his  prayer,  is 
not  getting  according  to  that  faith.  But 
the  man  who  has  the  faith  that  the  blood 
of  Christ  can  wash  away  guilt,  and  prays 
that  in  this  blood  his  guilt  may  be  washed 
away,  and  on  the  back  of  his  prayer  is 
accepted  in  the  Beloved  and  for  His  sake 
— he  is  getting  precisely  according  to  his 
faith.  And  thus  it  is  that  there  is  an  ac- 
cordancy  between  the  benefits  of  faith, 
and  the  particular  truths  of  revelation 
which  faith  has  respect  unto — when  it 
brings  down  these  benefits  upon  the  be- 
liever. Faith  has  been  compared  by  some 
theologians  to  the  bunch  of  hyssop,  and 
the  blood  of  Christ  is  called  the  blood  of 
sprinkling. 

For  'as  to'  the  remission  of  sins  that 
are  past.  To  declare  His  righteousness, 
in  the  having  remitted  by  his  forbearance, 
the  sins  of  the  ages  that  are  past. 

V.  26.  It  is  at  this  time  that  God  hath 
set  Him  forth.  He  now  shows  what  was 
before  hidden  from  the  prophets.  In  the 
fulness  of  time  Christ  is  now  manifested. 
It  was  a  mystery  in  former  ages,  how  a 
holy  God  could  pardon.  This  is  now 
declared;  and  it  is  now  made  manifest 
that  God  might  be  just,  while  he  justifies 
those  who  believe  in  Jesus. 

The  following  is  the  paraphrase  of  this 
passage. 

'Therefore  no  individual  shall  work 
out  a  righteousness  that  justifies  him  by 
his  doing  of  the  law — for  the  law  makes 
his  sin  manifest.  But  now,  in  lack  of  this 
righteousness  of  man,  there  is  manifested 
a  righteousness  of  God — not  consisting  of 
our  obedience  to  the  law,  though  both  the 
law  and  the  prophets  bear  witness  to  it. 
This  is  that  righteousness  of  God,  which 
is  received  by  our  faith  in  Christ  Jesus, 
which  is  oflfered  unto  all,  and  actually 


conferred  on  all  who  believe  without  dis- 
tinction. For  all  have  sinned  and  come 
short  of  rendering  glory  to  God ;  and 
none  are  therefore  justified  in  the  way  of 
reward,  but  receive  justification  as  a  gift 
of  kindness,  out  of  that  which  has  been 
purchased  for  us  by  Christ  Jesus — whom 
God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation 
through  faith  in  His  blood;  and  thus  to 
declare  the  righteousness  of  God,  in  His 
having  forborne  to  punish  the  sins  of 
those  who  were  forgiven  in  the  former 
ages  of  the  world — to  declare  this  right- 
eousness to  us  now,  and  so  make  it  mani- 
fest, that  it  was  not  merely  a  kind  and  a 
compassionate,  but  also  a  just  thing  in 
God,  to  justify  him  who  believeth  in  Jesus. 
The  first  lesson  that  we  should  like  to 
urge  upon  you  from  this  passage,  is  the 
gospel  doctrine  of  our  acceptance  with 
God,  in  all  the  strict  entireness  and  purity 
of  its  terms.  There  is  nothing  which  so 
much  darkens  the  mind  of  an  inquirer, 
and  throws  such  a  cloudiiiess  over  the 
simple  announcements  that  God  has  made 
to  us,  as  the  tendency  of  a  legal  spirit,  to 
mix  up  the  doings  of  the  creature  with 
the  free  grace  and  mercy  of  the  Creator. 
Take  up  with  it  as  an  absolute  truth,  that 
the  law  has  condemned  you.  Be  very* 
sure  that  this  is  the  sentence  which  is  in 
force,  against  even  the  most  virtuous  and 
upright  of  the  species.  Do  not  try  to 
mitigate  the  evils  of  your  condition,  or  to 
blunt  the  edge  and  application  of  the  law, 
as  having  pronounced  a  destroying  sen- 
tence upon  your  person — by  alleging  any 
extenuation  of  your  otfences,  or  any  num- 
ber of  actual  conformities.  You  have 
broken  the  law  in  one  point,  have  you 
not]  So  only  has  the  assassin  done,  in 
respect  to  the  law  of  his  country.  His 
execution  is  the  legal  consequence  of  his 
guilt ;  and  by  that  you  will  carry  out 
your  guilt  to  its  legal  consequence,  it 
will  be  better  for  you  that  you  regard 
yourself,  as  under  the  law  to  be  wholly 
undone.  If  you  do  not  you  will  keep  out 
from  your  mind  the  whole  clearness  and 
comfort  of  the  gospel.  If  you  admit  any 
merit,  or  any  innocence  of  your  own, 
among  the  ingredients  of  your  security 
before  God — then  all  is  thrown  back 
again  upon  a  questionable  and  precarious 
and  uncertain  foundation.  The  contro- 
versy between  God  and  man  is  wakened 
up  anew,  by  such  a  proceeding.  You  are 
again  consigned,  as  before,  among  the  old 
elements  of  doubt  and  distrust ;  and  the 
question,  what  degree  of  comparative 
innocence  is  enough  to  admit  your  own 
righteousness  into  the  plea  of  justification 
before  God,  will,  by  its  ambiguous  and 
unresolvable  nature,  remove  you  as  far 
from  any  solid  ground  of  dependence,  aa 
if  there  was  no  righteousness  of  another 


LECTURE   XI. — CHAPTER    III,    20 — 26. 


61 


in  which  you  might  appear,  and  as  if  no 
propitiation  had  been  made  for  you.  If 
you  want  peace  to  your  own  minds,  and 
u  release  to  yourself  from  all  its  perplexi- 
ties— better  that  you  discard  all  the  items 
of  your  own  personal  merit  from  the 
account  of  your  acceptance  with  God.  Go 
not  to  obliterate  that  clear  line  of  demar- 
cation which  the  apostle  has  drawn,  be- 
tween salvation  by  works  and  salvation 
by  grace,  and  which  he  proposes  to  us  as 
the  only  two  terms  of  an  alternative 
which  cannot  be  compounded  together ; 
but  of  which,  if  the  one  be  chosen,  the 
other  must  be  entirely  rejected.  The 
foundation  of  your  trust  before  God,  must 
either  be  your  own  righteousness  out  and 
out,  or  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ 
out  and  out.  To  attempt  a  composition 
of  Ihem  is  to  lean  on  a  foundation,  of 
which  many  of  the  materials  may  be 
solid ;  but  many  of  them  also  are  brittle, 
and  all  of  them  are  frailly  cemented  toge- 
ther with  untempered  mortar.  If  you  are 
to  lean  upon  your  own  merit,  lean  upon  it 
wholly — If  you  are  to  lean  upon  Christ, 
lean  upon  Him  wholly.  The  two  will  not 
amalgamate  together  ;  and  it  is  the  attempt 
to  do  so  which  keeps  many  a  weary  and 
heavy-laden  inquirer  at  a  distance  from 
rest,  and  at  a  distance  from  the  truth  of 
the  gospel.  Maintain  a  clear  and  a  con- 
sistent posture.  Stand  not  before  God 
with  one  foot  upon  a  rock,  and  the  other 
upon  a  treacherous  quick-sand.  And  it  is 
not  your  humility  alone  which  we  want 
to  inspire — it  is  the  stable  peace  of  your 
hearts  that  we  are  consulting,  when  we 
tell  you  that  the  best  use  you  can  make 
of  the  law  is  to  shut  your  mouth  when  it 
otfers  to  speak  in  the  language  of  vindi- 
cation ;  and  to  let  its  requirements  on  the 
one  hand,  and  your  rebellion  on  the  other, 
give  you  the  conviction  of  sin. 

In  stepping  over  from  the  law  as  a 
ground  of  meritorious  acceptance,  step 
over  from  it  wholly.  Make  no  reserva- 
tions.   You  are  aware  of  the  strenuous- 


ness  with  which  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  warded  off  the  rite  of  cir- 
cumcision from  the  church.  He  would 
admit  of  no  compromise  between  one 
basis  of  acceptance  and  another.  This 
were  inserting  a  flaw  and  a  false  principle 
into  the  principle  of  our  justification  ;  and 
to  import  the  element  of  falsehood  were  to 
import  the  element  of  feebleness.  We 
call  upon  you,  not  to  lean  so  much  as  the 
weight  of  one  grain  or  scruple  of  your 
confidence  upon  your  own  doings — to 
leave  this  ground  entirely,  and  to  come 
over  entirely  to  the  ground  of  a  Redeem- 
er's blood  and  a  Redeemer's  righteousness. 
Then  you  may  stand  firm  and  erect  on  a 
foundation  strong  enough  and  broad 
enough  to  bear  you.  You  will  feel  that 
your  feet  are  on  a  sure  place ;  and  we 
know  nothing  that  serves  more  effectually 
to  clear  and  disembarrass  the  mind  of  an 
inquirer  from  all  its  perplexities,  than 
when  the  provinces  of  the  law  and  the 
gospel,  instead  of  mingling  and  mutually 
encroaching  the  one  upon  the  other,  come 
to  be  seen  in  all  the  distinctness  of  their 
character  and  offices.  The  law  ministers 
condemnation  and  nothing  else.  The 
gospel,  by  its  own  unaided  self,  ministers 
that  righteousness  which  finds  acceptance 
with  God.  God  has  simply  set  forth 
Christ  to  be  a  propitiation.  You  have  to 
look  upon  Him  as  such,  and  He  becomes 
your  propitiation.  Make  no  doubt  of  its 
being  an  honest  exhibition,  which  God 
makes  of  His  Son.  It  is  not  an  exhibition 
by  which  He  intends  to  deceive  you. 
And  great  will  be  your  peace,  when  thus 
drawn  away  from  yourself,  and  drawn 
towards  the  "Saviour.  It  will  be  the  com- 
mencement of  a  trust,  that  will  establisli 
the  heart  in  comfort ;  and,  though  a  mys- 
tery which  cannot  be  demonstrated  to  the 
world,  will  it  be  the  experience  of  every 
true  believer,  that  it  is  tlie  commencement 
of  an  affection  which  will  establish  the 
heart  in  the  love  and  in  tlie  habit  of  holi- 


LECTURE  XIT. 

Romans  iii,  27 — 31. 

"  Where  is  boasting  then?  It  is  excluded.  By  what  lawl  of  works  1  nay;  But  by  the  law  of  faith.  Therefore  we 
concliule,  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith  without  the  deeds  of  the  law.  Is  he  tlie  God  of  the  Jews  only  !  is  he  not 
also  of  the  Gentiles?  Ves,  of  the  Gentiles  also  :  seeing  it  is  one  God  which  shall  justify  the  circumcision  by  faith, 
and  uncircumcision  through  faith.  Do  we  then  make  void  the  law  through  faith)  God  forbid  :  yea,  we  establish 
the  law." 


The  terrn  law  may  often  be  taken  in  a 
more  general  acceptation,  than  that  of  an 
authoritative  rule  for  the  observation  of 
those  who  are  subject  to  it.    It  may  sig- 


nify the  method  of  succession,  by  which 
one  event  follows  another — either  in  the 
moral  or  the  physical  world;  and  it  is 
thus  that  we  speak  of  a  law  of  nature,  or 


LECTURE  XII. CHAITER   m,   27 — 31. 


n  law  of  the  human  mind,  thereby  deno- 
ting the  train  or  order  of  certain  consecu- 
tive facts,  which  maintain  an  unvarying 
dependence  among  themselves.  Both  the 
law  of  works,  and  the  law  of  faith,  though 
the  judicial  character  of  God  is  strongly 
evinced  in  the  establishment  of  them,  may 
be  understood  here  in  this  latter  sense 
which  we  have  just  now  explained.  The 
law  of  works,  is  that  law  by  which  the 
event  of  a  man's  justification  follows, 
upon  the  event  of  his  having  performed 
these  works.  The  law  of  faith  is  that 
law,  by  which  the  event  of  a  man's  justi- 
fication follows,  upon  the  event  of  his 
conceiving  faith — just  as  the  law  of  gra- 
vitation is  that  law  upon  which  every 
bod}'  above  the  surface  of  the  earth,  when 
its  support  is  taken  away,  will  fall  to- 
wards its  centre.  And  as  the  law  of  re- 
fraction is  that,  upon  which  every  ray  of 
light,  when  it  passes  obliquely  from  air 
into  water,  is  bent  from  the  direction 
which  it  had  formerly. 

v.  29.  It  is  good,  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  up  in  your  mind  the  concatena- 
tion that  obtains  between  one  part  of  the 
epistle  and  the  other,  to  mark  every  re- 
currence of  similar  terms  which  takes 
place  in  the  prosecution  of  its  argument. 
He  had  in  the  second  chapter,  made  a 
pointed  address  to  the  Jew — who  rested  in 
the  law,  and  made  his  boast  of  God.  He 
now  excludes  his  boasting  ;  and  in  doing 
so  reduces  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  to  the 
same  condition  of  relationship  with  God. 

V.  30.  The  term  '  one'  may  either  be 
taken  numerically,  or  refers  to  the  unity 
and  unchangcableness  of  God's  purpose. 

By  a  preceding  verse,  the  works  of  the 
law  are  set  aside  in  the  matter  of  our  jus- 
tification. And  it  comes  in  as  an  appro- 
priate que.stion — Is  the  law  made  void 
through  this?  What  would  have  been 
consequent  upon  obedience  to  the  law,  is 
now  made  consequent  upon  faith  ;  and 
does  this  nullify  the  law"?  No,  it  will  be 
found  that  it  serves  to  establish  tlie  law, 
securing  all  the  honour  which  is  due  to 
the  Lawgiver  ;  perpetuating  the  obligation 
and  authority  of  the  law  itself;  and  in- 
troducing into  the  heart  of  the  believer 
such  new  principles  of  operation,  as  to 
work  conformity  between  the  law  of  God 
and  the  life  of  man,  a  conformity  that  is 
ever  making  progress  here  and  will  at 
length  be  perfected  hereafter. 

The  passage  now  expounded  scarcely 
requires  any  paraphrastic  elucidation  at 
all — yet  agreeable  to  our  practice  we  shall 
still  oft'er  one. 

'Where  is  boasting  Iheni  It  is  ex- 
cluded. In  what  method  1  By  the  me- 
thod of  justification  through  works  1  No, 
it  is  by  the  method  of  justification  through 
faith.    But  if  works  had  any  part  in  our 


justification  there  would  still  be  room  fot 
boasting — and  we  must  therefore  conclude 
since  boasting  is  done  away  that  they 
have  no  part  at  all — and  that  man  is  jus- 
tified by  faith  without  the  deeds  of  the 
law.  Is  He  only  the  God  of  the  Jews? 
Is  He  not  also  the  God  of  the  Gentiles? 
Yes,  of  the  Gentiles  also — seeing  that  He 
the  same  God  dispenses  justification  to  both 
in  the  .same  way,  that  i.s,  justifying  the 
circumcision  by  faith  and  also  the  uncir- 
cumcision  by  faith.  Do  we  then  make 
the  law  void  through  faith  ?  By  no  means. 
We  rather  establish  the  law.' 

We  now  proceed  as  usual  to  press  upon 
you,  any  such  lessons  as  may  be  extract- 
ed from  the  passage  of  the  day. 

And  first  you  know  it  to  be  a  frequent 
evasion,  on  the  part  of  those  who  dislike 
the  utter  excluding  of  works  from  that 
righteousness  which  justifies  a  sinner  be- 
fore God,  that  they  hold  the  affirmation 
of  Paul  upon  the  subject  to  be  of  the  ce- 
remonial and  not  of  the  moral  law.  They 
are  willing  enough  to  discard  obedience 
to  the  former,  but  not  obedience  to  the 
latter,  as  having  any  efficacy  in  justifica- 
tion. And  they  will  further  acknowledge, 
that  they  have  a  much  higher  esteem  for 
the  latter  than  for  the  former ;  that  they 
think  greatly  better  of  the  man  who  lias 
the  rectitudes  of  morality  to  signalise  his 
character,  than  of  the  man  who  has  only 
the  ritual  observations  of  a  punctual  and 
prescribed  ceremonial  to  signalise  his 
character;  that  all  rites,  be  they  Jewish 
or  Christian,  have  a  greatly  inferior  place 
in  their  estimation,  to  the  virtues  of  social 
life,  or  to  the  affections  of  an  inward  and 
enlightened  piety — insomuch  that  should 
there  stand  b(;fore  them  an  individual  of 
fidelity  incorruptible,  and  of  honour  fear- 
less and  unspotted,  and  of  humanity  ever 
breathing  the  desires  of  kindness  and  ever 
busying  it.self  with  deeds  of  kindness"  in 
behalf  of  our  species,  and  of  patriotism 
linking  all  its  energies  with  the  good  of 
his  native  land,  and  of  gentleness  shed- 
ding its  mild  and  pleasing  lustre  over  the 
walks  of  private  companionship,  and  of 
affection  kindling  its  still  more  intense 
and  exquisite  charm  in  the  bosom  of  his 
home — why  there  would  not  be  one  mo- 
ment's hesitation  with  them,  whether  the 
homage  of  their  reverential  and  regardful 
feelings,  were  more  due  to  such  an  indi- 
vidual, even  though  a  stranger  to  the  pu- 
ritanical regions  of  the  sabbath  and  of  the 
sacrament;  or  to  him,  who,  trenched  in 
the  outward  regularities  of  worship  and 
of  ordinance,  had  less  of  the  graces  and 
less  of  the  honesties  of  character  to  adorn 
him — and  you  can  well  anticipate  their 
reply  to  the  question.  Which  of  the  two 
had  the  more  to  boast  of— the  man  of  so- 
cial worth  or  the  man  of  a  saintly  exterior? 


LECTURE    Xri. — CHAPTER    III,    27 31. 


63 


We  are  far  from  disputing  the  justness 
of  their  preference  for  the  former  of  these 
two  men — but  we  would  direct  them  to  the 
use  that  they  should  make  of  this  prefer- 
ence, when  turning  to  its  rightful  and  con- 
sistent application  the  statement  of  our 
apostle,  that  from  the  afliair  of  our  justifi- 
cation all  boasting  is  excluded.  We  ask 
them  upon  a  reference  to  their  own  prin- 
ciples and  feelings,  whether  this  assertion 
of  the  inspired  teacher  points  more  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  moral  or  of  the  ceremo- 
nial law  ?  Is  it  not  the  fair  and  direct  an- 
swer that  it  points  the  more,  to  that  of  which 
men  are  inclined  to  boast  the  more  ?  To 
set  aside  the  law  of  works  in  the  matter 
of  our  justification  is  not  to  exclude  boast- 
ing at  all — if  it  be  only  those  works  that 
are  excluded,  which  beget  no  reverence 
when  done  by  others,  and  no  compla- 
cency when  done  by  themselves.  The 
exclusion  of  boasting  might  appear  to  the 
mind  of  an  old  Pharisee,  as  that  which 
went  to  sweep  away  the  whole  ceremo- 
nial in  which  he  gloried.  But  for  the  very 
same  reason  should  it  appear  to  the  mind 
of  him  who  is  a  tasteful  admirer  of  virtue, 
to  sweep  away  the  moral  accomplish- 
ments in  which  he  glories.  To  him,  in 
fact,  the  ceremonial  law,  in  which  he  has 
no  disposition  to  boast  whatever,  is  not 
so  touched  by  the  a  tlirmation  of  the  apos- 
tle, as  the  moral  \;\w  on  which  alone  he 
would  ground  a  boastful  superiority  of 
himself  over  others.  The  thing  which  is 
shut  out  here  from  the  office  of  justifica- 
tion, is  that  thing  which  excites  boasting 
in  man.  Carry  this  verse  to  the  Jew  who 
vaunted  himself  that  he  gave  tithes  and 
fasted  twice  in  the  week  ;  and  these  are 
the  observances,  which,  as  to  any  power  of 
justifying,  are  here  done  away.  Carry 
this  verse  to  the  man  who  stands  exalted 
over  his  fellows,  either  by  the  integrities 
vvhich  direct  or  by  the  kind  humanities 
which  adorn  him  ;  and  these  are  the  vir- 
tues, which,  as  to  their  power  of  justify- 
ing, are  just  as  conclusively  done  away. 
Whatever  you  are  most  disposed  to  boast 
of,  it  is  that  upon  which  the  sentence  of 
expulsion  most  pointedly  and  most  deci- 
sively falls  ;  and  the  ground  of  a  Phari- 
see's dependence  on  his  conformities  to 
the  ceremonial  law,  is  not  more  expressly 
cast  away  by  this  passage — than  is  the 
ground  of  his  dependence,  who,  in  our 
own  more  refined  and  cultivated  age, 
would  place  his  dependence  before  God 
on  those  moralities,  which  to  him  are  the 
objects  of  a  far  more  enlightened  admira- 
tion, and  of  a  far  juster  and  truer  com- 
placenc)^ 

It  is  thus,  that  the  towering  pretensions, 
even  of  the  most  moral  and  enlightened 
of  our  sages  in  modern  days,  may  be  ut- 
terly overthrown.      If  there  was  then  a 


greater  tendency  to  boast  of  ceremonial 
observations,  then  was  the  righteousness 
of  the  ceremonial  law  most  severely 
struck  at  by  the  apostle,  as  having  no 
place  in  our  justification.  But  if  there  be 
now  a  greater  tendency  to  boast  of  moral 
observations,  now  is  the  righteousness  of 
the  moral  law  most  pointedly  the  object 
of  his  attack,  as  out  of  propriety  and  of 
place  in  the  matter  of  our  justification, 
in  a  word,  this  verse  has  the  same  power 
and  force  of  conclusion  still,  that  it  had 
then.  It  then  reduced  the  boastful  Jew  to 
the  same  ground  of  nothingness  before 
God,  with  the  Gentile  whom  he  despised. 
And  it  now  reduces  the  eloquent  ex- 
pounder of  human  virtue  to  the  same 
ground,  with  that  drivelling  slave  of  rites 
and  punctualities  whom  he  so  tastefully, 
and  fi'om  the  throne  of  his  mental  supe- 
riority, so  thoroughly  despises — shutting 
in  fact  every  mouth,  and  making  the 
righteousness  of  all  before  God,  not  a 
claim  to  be  challenged,  but  a  gift  to  be 
humbly  and  thankfully  accepted  of  from 
His  hands. 

This  is  far  from  the  only  passage,  how- 
ever, which  excludes  the  moral  as  well 
as  the  ceremonial  law  from  any  standing 
in  the  province  of  our  justification.  In 
many  places  it  is  said,  that  our  justifica- 
tion is  not  of  works  in  the  general,  and 
without  any  addition  of  the  term  law  at 
all,  to  raise  the  question  whether  it  be  the 
moral  or  ceremonial  law  that  is  intended. 
And  in  the  proceeding  part  of  the  epistle, 
they  are  moral  violations  which  are  chiefly 
instanced,  for  the  purpose  of  making  it 
out,  that  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  flesh 
shall  be  justified.  In  the  theft  and  adul- 
tury  and  sacrilege  of  the  second  chapter, 
and  in  the  impiety  and  deceit  and  slander 
and  cruelty  of  the  third,  we  see  that  it 
was  the  moral  law,  and  the  oflence  of  a 
guilty  world  against  it,  which  the  apostle 
chiefly  had  in  his  eye  ;  and  when,  as  the 
end  of  all  this  demonstration,  he  comes 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  world's  guilt — 
why  should  we  restrict  the  apostle,  as  if 
he  only  meant  to  exclude  the  ceremonial 
from  the  office  of  justifying?  When  he 
says  that  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of 
sin,  is  it  the  ceremonial  law  only  that  is 
intended — when  in  fact  they  were  moral 
sins  that  he  had  all  along  been  specifying  ? 
Or  is  it  the  sole  purpose  of  the  apostle,  to 
humble  those  who  made  their  boast  of  the 
ceremonial  law — when  he  instances  how 
the  law  administered  to  himself  the  con- 
viction of  his  sinfulness,  by  fastening 
upon  the  tenth  commandment,  and  telling 
us  that  he  had  not  been  criminal,  except 
the  law  had  said,  thou  shalt  not  covet  ? 
What  do  you  make  of  the  passage  where 
it  is  said,  that  we  are  saved — not  by  works 
of  righteousness,  which  we   have  -done  ] 


u 


LECTURE   XII. CHAPTER    III,    27 — 31. 


Does  not  this  include  all  doings,  be  they 
of  a  moral  or  be  they  of  a  ceremonial 
character?  And  in  the  verses  which  im- 
mediately precede  this  quotation  from 
Titu.s,  whether  think  you  was  the  moral 
or  the  ceremonial  law  most  in  the  apostle's 
head — when,  in  alleging  the  worthJcssness 
of  all  the  previous  doings  of  his  own  con- 
verts, he  charged  them  with  serving  divers 
lusts  and  pleasures,  and  with  living  in 
malice  and  envy — hateful  and  hating  one 
another?  This  distinction  between  the 
moral  and  ceremonial,  is,  in  fact,  a  mere 
device,  for  warding  off  a  doctrine,  by 
which  alienated  nature  feels  herself  to  be 
pained  and  humbled  and  revolted,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world.  It  is  an  opiate,  by 
which  she  would  fain  regale  the  lingering 
sense  that  she  so  fondly  retains  of  her 
own  sufficiency.  It  is  laying  hold  of  a 
twig,  by  which  she  may  bear  herself  up, 
in  her  own  favourite  attitude  of  indepen- 
dence upon  God ;  and  gladly  would  she 
secure  the  reservation  of  some  merit  to 
herself,  and  of  some  contributions  out  of 
her  own  treasury,  to  the  achievement  of 
her  own  justification.  But  this  is  a  pro- 
pensity, to  which  the  apostle  grants  no 
quarter,  and  no  indulgence  whatever. 
Wherever  it  appears,  he  is  sure  to  appear 
in  unsparing  hostility  against  it ;  and 
never  will  your  mind  and  the  mind  of  the 
inspired  teacher  be  at  one,  till,  reduced  to 
a  sense  of  your  own  nothingness.,  and 
leaning  your  whole  weight  on  the  suffi- 
ciency of  another — you  receive  justifica- 
tion as  wholly  of  grace,  and  feel  on  this 
ground  that  every  plea  of  boasting  is 
overthrown. 

We  may  here  notice  another  shift,  by 
which  nature  tries  to  ease  herself  of  a 
conclusion  so  mortifying.  She  will  at 
times  allow  justification  to  be  of  faith 
wholly;  but  then  she  will  make  a  virtue 
of  her  faith.  All  the  glorying  that  she 
would  have  associated  with  her  obedience 
to  the  law,  she  would  now  transfer  to  her 
acquiescence  in  the  gospel.  The  docility, 
and  the  attention,  and  the  love  of  truth, 
and  the  preference  of  light  to  that  dark- 
ness which  they  only  choose  whose  deeds 
are  evil — these  confer,  in  her  fond  estima- 
tion, a  merit  upon  believing ;  and  here 
therefore  would  she  make  a  last  and  a 
desperate  stand,  for  the  credit  of  a  share 
in  her  own  salvation. 

If  the  verse  under  consideration  be 
true,  there  must  be  an  error  in  this  imagi- 
nation also.  It  leaves  the  sinner  nothing 
to  boast  of  at  all ;  and  should  he  continue 
to  associate  any  glorying  with  his  faith, 
then  is  he  turning  this  faith  to  a  purpose 
directly  the  reverse  of  that  which  the 
apostle  intends  by  it. 

There  is  no  glory,  you  will  allow,  to 
yourself,  in  seeing  with  your  eyes  open 


that  sun  which  stands  visibly  before  you 
— whatever  glory  may  accrue  to  Him, 
who  arrayed  this  luminary  in  his  bright- 
ness, and  endowed  you  with  that  won- 
drous mechanism,  which  conveys  the  per- 
ception of  it.  There  is  no  part  of  the 
glory  of  a  gift,  ascribed  to  the  mendicant, 
who  simply  looks  to  it — whatever  praise 
of  generosity  may  be  rendered  to  Him 
who  is  the  giver  ;  or  still  more  to  Him  who 
hath  conferred  upon  the  hand  its  moving 
power,  and  upon  the  eye  its  seeing  faculty. 
And  even  though  the  beggar  should  be 
told  to  wait  another  day,  and  then  to  walk 
to  some  place  of  assignation,  and  there  to 
obtain  the  princely  donation  that  was  at 
length  to  elevate  his  family  to  a  state  of 
independence — in  awarding  the  renown 
that  was  due  upon  such  a  transaction, 
would  it  not  be  the  munificence  of  the 
dispenser  that  was  held,  to  be  all  in  all  ; 
and  who  would  ever  think  of  lavishing  one 
fraction  of  acknowledgment,  either  upon 
the  patience,  or  upon  the  exertion,  or  upon 
the  faith  of  him  who  was  the  subject  of 
all  this  liberality?  And  be  assured  that 
in  every  way,  there  is  just  as  little  to  boast 
of  on  the  part  of  him,  who  sees  the  truth 
of  the  gospel,  or  who  labours  to  come 
within  sight  of  it,  or  who  relies  on  its  pro- 
mises after  he  perceives  them  to  be  true. 
His  faith,  which  has  been  aptly  termed 
the  hand  of  the  mind,  may  apprehend  the 
offered  gift  and  may  appropriate  it  ;  but 
there  is  just  as  little  of  moral  praise  lo  be 
rendered  on  that  account,  as  to  the  beggar 
for  laying  hold  of  the  offered  alms.  It  is 
with  the  man  whom  the  gospel  has  re- 
lieved of  his  debt,  as  it  is  with  the  man 
whom  the  gold  of  a  generous  benefactor 
has  relieved  of  his.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  shape  of  glory  that  is  due  at  all  to  the 
receiver  ;  and  nothing  could  ever  have 
conjured  up  such  an  imagination,  but  the 
delusive  feeling  that  cleaves  to  nature  of 
her  own  sufficiency.  There  is  not  one 
particle  of  honour  due  to  the  sinner  in 
tills  affair  ;  and  all  the  blessing  and  hon- 
our and  glory  of  it  must  be  rendered  Him, 
who,  in  the  face  of  His  manifold  provoca- 
tions, and  when  He  might  have  illustrated 
both  the  power  of  His  anger  and  the  tri- 
umphs of  His  justice,  gave  way  to  the 
movements  of  a  compassion  that  is  infi- 
nite; and  had  with  wisdom  unsearchable, 
to  find  out  a  channel  of  conveyance — by 
which,  in  consistency  with  the  glory  of 
such  attributes  and  with  the  principle  of 
such  a  government  as  are  unchangeable, 
He  might  call  His  strayed  children  back 
again  to  the  arms  of  an  offered  reconcilia- 
tion, and  lavish  on  all  who  cf-me  the  gifts 
of  a  free  pardon  in  time  an'l  a  full  per- 
fection of  happiness  through  eternity. 

And  to  cut  away  all  pretensions  to  glo- 
rying on  the  score  of  faith — the  faith  it- 


LECTURE   Xn. CHAPTER   HI,   27 31. 


65 


self  is  a  gift.  The  gospel  is  like  an  offer 
made  to  one  who  has  a  withered  hand  ; 
and  power  must  go  forth  with  the  offer  ere 
the  hand  can  be  extended  to  take  hold  of 
it.  The  capacity  of  simply  laying  hold 
of  the  covenant  of  peace,  is  as  much  a 
grant,  as  is  the  covenant  itself.  The  help- 
less and  the  weary  sinner,  who  has  looked 
so  fruitlessly  after  the  failh  which  is  unto 
salvation,  knows  that  the  faculty  of  see- 
ing with  his  mind,  is  just  as  necessary  to 
him,  as  is  the  truth  itself  which  is  address- 
ed to  it.  He  knows  that  it  is  not  enough 
for  God  to  present  him  with  an  object ; 


but  he  must  also  awaken  his  eye  to  the 
perception  of  it.  And  let  him  who  wants 
the  faith  cavil  as  he  may,  in  the  vain  im- 
agination of  a  suliicieiicy  that  he  would 
still  reserve  for  man  in  the  matter  of  his 
redemption — certain  it  is,  that  he  who  has 
the  faith,  sees  the  hand  of  God  botii  in 
conferring  it  at  the  first,  and  in  keeping 
it  up  afterwards.  And,  thankful  both  for 
the  splendour  of  his  hopes,  and  for  the 
faculty  of  seeing  it,  bis  is  an  unmixed  sen- 
timent of  humility  and  gratitude  to  the 
being,  who  has  called  him  out  of  darkness 
into  the  marvellous  light  of  the  gospel. 


LECTURE  XIH. 


Romans  iv,  1 — 8. 

"  What  shall  we  then  say  that  Abraham,  our  father  as  pertaining  to  the  flesh,  hath  found  1  For  if  Abraham  were  jus- 
tified by  works,  he  hath  whereof  to  glory,  but  not  before  God.  For  what  saith  the  licripture  .'  Abraham  believed 
God,  and  it  was  counted  unto  him  tor  righteousness.  Now  to  him  that  workelh  is  the  reward  not  reckoned  of  grace, 
but  of  debt.  But  to  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believethon  him  that  juslirieth  the  unc;odJy,  his  faith  is  counted  lor 
righteousness.  Even  as  David  alsodescribeth  the  blessedness  of  the  man,  unto  whom  God  imputpth  righteousness 
without  works,  Saying  Blessed  are  they  whose  iniquities  are  forgiven,  and  whose  sins  are  covered.  Blessed  is  the 
man  to  whom  the  Lord  will  not  impute  sin." 


Paul  never  forgets,  in  the  course  of  this 
argument,  that  he  is  addressing  himself 
to  Jews  ;  and,  bred  as  he  was  in  all  their 
prejudices,  he  evinces  a"  strong  and  a 
ready  sense  of  the  antipathies,  that  he 
would  ever  and  anon  be  stirring  up  in 
their  minds,  by  the  doctrine  on  which  he 
expatiated.  He  knew  how  much  they  all 
gloried  in  Abraham  and  how  natural  it 
was  for  them  therefore  to  feel  that  Abra- 
ham had  something  to  glory  of  in  him- 
self; and,  as  he  urged  that  faith  which 
-  excludes  boasting,  the  case  of  the  patriarch 
occurred  to  him  ;  nor  could  he  have  se- 
lected a  better  than  that  of  one  so  emi- 
nently the  favourite  of  God  as  he  was,  for 
illustrating  the  principle  upon  which  God 
holds  out  friendship  and  acceptance  to 
mankind. 

Ver.  1.  The  term  flesh  does  not  stand 
related  to  the  circumstance  of  Abraham 
being  our  father.  It  does  not  mean  what 
is  it  that  Abraham,  our  father  by  earthly 
descent,  hath  found — but  what  is  it  that 
Abraham  our  father  hath  found  by  his 
natural  or  external  performances.  What- 
ever can  be  done  by  the  powers  of  nature, 
can  be  done  by  the  flesh.  The  outward 
observances  of  Judaism  can  be  so  done ; 
and  thus  the  IMosaic  law  is  termed  by  Paul 
the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment.  In 
the  question  he  puts  to  the  Galatians — 
"Having  begun  in  the  Spirit  are  ye  now 
made  perfect  by  the  flesh  1"  he  is  expos- 
tulating with  those  who  thought  that  the 
rite  of  circumcision,  one  of  the  Jewish 
9 


observances,  was  necessary  to  perfect 
their  acceptance  with  God.  Paul  pro- 
fesses of  him.self,  that  he  gloried  not  in  the 
flesh;  and,  in  enumerating  the  reasons 
which  might  have  led  him  s  to  glory,  he 
refers,  not  merely  to  his  d'^cent,  but  to 
his  circumcision,  and  to  hi  pharisaical 
zeal,  and  t)  his  blanielessne.<-  in  regard  to 
the  righteousne.ss  of  the  law.  Abraham 
had  rites  and  performances  i.iid  on  him, 
and  he  was  punctuul  in  their -ib.servation  ; 
and  the  question  i.s.  What  did  Abraham 
procure  by  these  .services  ? 

Ver.  2.  It  by  these  services  he  was  jus- 
tified, he  has  >vhereof  to  glory,  whereof 
to  boast  himself  But  no!  his  boasting 
too  mu.'^t  be  excluded.  He  has  nothing 
whereof  to  glory  cf  bef)re  God. 

Ver.  3.  Getiesi;;,  XV.,  6.  This  is  said 
of  Abraham,  prtivious,  by  several  year.s, 
to  the  institutioi  or'  the  great  Jewish  rite 
of  circutncision.  He  was  in  fivour  with 
God,  before  this  deeil  of  obedience.  He 
was  dealt  with  by  i'od  as  a  rightc-ous  per- 
son, before  this  work  of  riglteousness  was 
done  by  him.  God  had  declared  Himself 
to  be  his  reward  ;  i;miI  by  his  tru.st  in  this 
declaration,  did  he  become  entitled  to  the 
reward.  This  confl  rred  on  it  the  charac- 
ter of  a  gift.  Otherwise  it  would  havo 
been  the  paymcit  of  a  debt,  as  of  w^-gts 
rendered  for  services  p  >rf()rin<'d. 

Ver.  4.  It  wo  dd  not  have  been  regard- 
ed as  a  gratuitous  thing,  but  as  a  thing 
due. 

Ver.  5.    Observe  a  few  things   here. 


66 


LECTURE   XUI. CHAPTER    IV,    1 8. 


The  man  who  has  obtained  justification 
may  be  looked  upon  as  in  possession  of  a 
title-deed,  which  secures  to  him  a  right  to 
God's  favour.  The  question  is,  How  comes 
he  into  possession  of  this  title-deed?  Did 
he  work  for  it,  and  thus  receive  it  as  a  re- 
turn for  his  work  !  No,  he  did  not  work 
for  it ;  and  thus  it  is  that  justification  is  to 
him  who  worketh  not — that  is,  he  did 
nothing  antecedent  to  his  justification  to 
bring  this  privilege  down  upon  him  ;  and 
it  is  a  contradiction  to  allow  that  it  is  by 
doing  anything  subsequent  to  justification 
that  he  secures  this  privilege,  for  it  is  se- 
cured already.  He  is  now  in  possession 
of  it.  He  has  not  to  work  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  what  he  already  has.  And 
neither  did  he  work  for  it  at  the  time  that 
he  had  it  not.  He  came  to  it  not  by  doing 
but  by  believing.  His  is  like  the  case  of 
a  man  getting  in  a  present  the  title  to  an 
estate.  He  did  not  work  for  it  before  it 
was  presented,  and  so  get  it  as  a  reward. 
It  was  a  gift.  He  does  not  work  for  it  af- 
ter it  is  presented,  for  it  is  his  already. 
But  you  must  remark  here — though  it  is 
not  in  consideration  of  works  done  either 
before  or  after  the  grant  that  the  privilege 
was  bestowed — yet  that  is  not  to  say,  but 
that  the  person  so  privileged  becomes  a 
busy,  diligent,  ever-doing,  and  constantly- 
working-man.  When  it  is  said  that  the 
faith  of  him  who  worketh  not  is  counted 
for  righteousness — it  is  meant,  that  he 
does  not  work  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing a  right  of  acceptance,  and  that  it  is 
not  upon  the  consideration  of  his  works 
that  this  rite  has  been  conferred  upon 
him.  But  it  is  not  meant  that  such  a  per- 
son works  not  for  any  purpose  at  all. 
To  recur  to  the  case  of  him  who  has  a 
gratuitous  estate  conferred  upon  him,  he 
neither  worked  for  the  estate  before  he 
obtained  it,  nor  for  it  after  he  has  obtain- 
ed it.  But  from  the  very  moment  of  his 
assured  prospect  of  coming  into  the  pos- 
session of  it,  may  he  have  become  most 
zealously  diligent  in  the  business  of  pre- 
paring himself  for  the  enjoyrient  of  all 
the  advantages,  and  the  discharge  of  all 
the  obligations  connected  with  this  pro- 
perty. He  may  have  put  himself  under 
the  tuition  of  him  who  perhaps  at  one  time 
possessed  it,  and  do  it  thoroughly,  and 
could  instruct  him  how  to  make  the  most 
of  it.  He  did  not  work  for  it ;  but  now 
that  he  has  got  it  he  has  been  set  most 
busily  a-working,  though  not  for  a  right 
to  the  property,  yet  all  for  matters  con- 
nected with  the  property.  He  may  forth- 
with enter  on  a  very  busy  process  of  edu- 
cation, to  render  him  meet  for  the  society 
of  those  with  whom  he  is  now  in  kindred 
circumstances.  And  thus  with  the  Chris- 
tian, who  by  faith  receives  the  gift  of  eter- 
nal life.    It  cannot  be  put  down  to  the  ac- 


count of  works  done,  either  before  or  after 
the  deed  of  conveyance  has  passed  into 
his  hands.  But  no  sooner  does  he  lay 
hold  of  the  deed,  than  he  begins,  and  that 
most  strenuously,  to  qualify  himself  for 
the  possession — to  translate  himself  into 
the  kindred  character  of  heaven — to  wean 
himself  away  from  the  sin  and  the  sordid- 
ness  of  a  world,  which  he  no  longer  re- 
gards as  his  dwelling-place — and,  with  a 
foot  which  touches  lightly  that  earth  from 
which  he  is  to  ascend  so  soon  into  the 
fields  of  eternal  glory  that  are  above  him, 
to  aspire  after  the  virtues  that  are  current 
there  ;  and,  by  an  active  cultivation  of  his 
heart,  labour  to  prepare  himself  for  a  sta- 
tion of  happiness  and  honour  among  the 
companies  of  the  celestial. 

We  would  further  have  you  to  remark, 
that  you  must  beware  of  having  any  such 
view  of  faith,  as  will  lead  you  to  annex  to 
it  the  kind  of  merit  or  of  claim  or  of  glo- 
rying under  the  gospel,  which  are  annex- 
ed to  works  under  the  law.  This  in  fact 
were  just  animating  with  a  legal  spirit, 
the  whole  phraseology  and  doctrine  of  the 
gospel.  It  is  God  who  justifies.  He  drew 
up  the  title-deed,  and  he  bestowed  the 
title-deed.  It  is  ours,  simply  by  laying 
hold  of  it.  The  donor  who  grants  a 
worldly  estate  to  his  friend,  counts  his 
friend  to  have  right  enough  to  the  property 
by  having  received  it.  God  who  offers  us 
an  inheritance  of  glory,  counts  us  to  have 
right  enough  to  the  possession  of  it  by  our 
relying  on  the  truth  and  the  honesty  of 
the  offer.  Under  the  law,  obedience  would 
have  been  that  personal  thing  in  us  which 
stood  connected  with  our  right  to  eternal 
life.  Under  the  gospel,  faith  is  that  per- 
sonal thing  in  us  which  stands  connected 
with  this  right ;  but  just  as  the  act  of 
stretching  forth  his  hand  to  the  offf^red 
alms,  is  that  personal  doing  of  the  mendi- 
cant that  stands  connected  with  his  pos- 
session of  the  money  received  by  him. 
Any  other  view  of  faith  than  that  which 
excludes  boasting,  must  be  altogether  un- 
scriptural;  and  will  mislead  the  enquirer; 
and  may  involve  his  mind  in  much  dark-r 
ness,  and  in  very  serious  difficulties. 
Where  is  boasting  then?  It  is  excluded. 
By  what  law?  Of  faith.  It  is  of  faith 
that  it  might  be  by  grace — not  that  it 
might  be  a  thing  of  merit,  but  a  thing  of 
freeness — a  present.  Te  are  saved  by 
grace  through  faith.  Conceive  it  a  ques- 
tion, whether  a  dwelling-house  is  enlight- 
ened by  a  candle  fronri  within,  or  by  an 
open  window.  The  answer  may  justly 
enough  be  th;it  it  is  by  the  window — and 
yet  the  window  does  not  enlighten  the 
house.  It  is  the  sun  which  enlightens  it. 
The  window  is  a  mere  opening  for  the 
transmission  of  that  which  is  from  with- 
out.    Christ  hath  wrought  out  a  righteous- 


LECTURE   XIII. CHAPTER    IV,    1 8. 


67 


ness  for  us  that  is  freely  offered  to  us  of 
God.  By  faith  we  discern  the  reality  of 
this  offer  ;  and  all  that  it  does  is  to  strike 
out,  as  it  were,  an  avenue  of  conveyance, 
by  which  the  righteousness  of  another 
passes  to  us ;  and  through  faith  are  we 
saved  by  this  righteousness. 

Ver.  t) — 8.  They  are  Jewish  authorities 
which  Paul  makes  use  of,  when  he  wants 
to  school  down  Jewish  antipathies — thus 
meeting  his  countrymen  on  their  own 
ground ;  and  never  better  pleased  than 
when,  on  the  maxim  of  all  things  to  all 
men,  he  can  reconcile  them  to  a  doctrine 
which  they  hate,  by  quoting  in  favour  of 
it  a  testimony  which  they  revere.  Take 
sin  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense,  as 
including  in  it  both  the  sin  of  omission 
and  the  sin  of  performance ;  and  then  the 
opposite  to  this,  or  sinlessness,  will  imply, 
not  only  that  there  has  been  no  perform- 
ance of  what  is  wrong,  but  no  omission  of 
what  is  right.  In  this  sense  sinlessness  is 
not  a  mere  negation,  but  is  lully  equiva- 
lent to  righteousness  ;  and  not  to  impute 
sin,  is  tantamount  to  the  imputation  of 
righteousness.  It  is  clear  that  the  righte- 
ousness thus  imputed,  which  the  Psalmist 
refers  to,  was  a  righteousness  without 
works — that  is,  without  such  works  as 
could  at  all  pretend  to  the  character,  or 
to  any  of  the  claims  of  righteousness. 
For  what  were  the  works  of  those  who 
had  this  righteousness  imputed  to  them .' 
They  were  iniquities  which  had  been  for- 
given, and  sins  which  had  been  covered. 

There  are  certain  technical  terms  in 
theology  which  are  used  so  currently,  that 
they  fail  to  impress  their  own  meaning  on 
the  thinking  principle.  The  term  'im- 
pute '  is  one  of  them.  It  may  hold  forth 
a  revelation  of  its  plain  sense  to  you — 
when  it  is  barely  mentioned  that  the  term 
impute  in  the  6th  verse,  is  the  same  in  the 
original  with  what  is  employed  in  that 
verse  of  Philemon  where  Paul  says,  "  If 
he  hath  wronged  thee,  or  oweth  thee 
ought,  put  that  on  mine  account  ?  To 
impute  righteousness  to  a  man  without 
works,  is  simply  to  put  righteousness  down 
to  his  account — though  he  has  not  per- 
formed the  works  of  righteousness. 

The  following  is  the  paraphrase  of  the 
passage : 

•  What  shall  we  make  then  of  our  fa- 
ther Abraham  ;  and  how  shall  we  esti- 
mate the  amount  of  what  he  procured  by 
those  works  of  obedience  which  he  ren- 
dered, and  are  still  required  of  us  by  a 
law  that  lays  such  things  upon  us  as  we 
are  naturally  able  to  perform"!  For  if 
Abraham  did  procure  justification  to  him- 
self by  these  works,  he  hath  something  to 
glory  of — though  we  have  jiist  now  af- 
firmed that  all  glorying  is  excluded.  Our 
affirmation  nevertheless  stands  good,  for 


he  hath  nothing  to  glory  of  before  God. 
And  what  saith  the  Scripture  about  this  1 
Not  that  Abraham  obeyed,  and  his  obedi- 
ence was  counted ;  but  Abraham  believed 
God,  and  his  belief  was  counted  unto  him 
for  righteousness.  Now  to  him  that  work- 
eth  and  getteth  reward  for  it,  reward  is 
not  a  favour  ;  but  the  payment  of  what  is 
due.  But  it  is  to  him  who  worketh  not 
for  a  right  to  acceptance,  but  believeth  on 
Him  who  offereth  this  acceptance  and  jus- 
tifieth  the  ungodly,  that  his  faith  is  count- 
ed for  righteousness.  Even  as  David  also 
describelh  the  blessedness  of  him  to  whom 
God  reckoneth  a  righteousness  without 
works — saying,  blessed  are  they  whose 
iniquities  are  forgiven,  and  whose  sins  are 
so  hidden  from  remembrance,  that  they 
are  no  longer  mentioned.  Blessed  is  the 
man  to  whom  the  Lord  will  not  reckon  the 
guilt  of  his  sin.' 

The  first  lesson  we  draw  from  this  pas- 
sage is  one  which  we  have  often  urged  in 
your  hearing  ;  but  aware  of  the  difference 
that  there  is  between  the  work  of  urging 
a  principle  for  the  moral  purpose  of  in- 
fluencing the  heart,  and  the  work  of  urg- 
ing a  principle  for  the  purpose  of  inform- 
ing and  rectifying  the  judgment — we  do 
not  feel  it  so  much  a  vain  repetition  to 
come  over  and  over  the  same  thing,  for 
the  one  of  these  purposes,  as  for  the  other 
of  them.  To  say  what  is  thoroughly  ap- 
prehended already,  and  that  for  the  pur- 
pose of  informing  the  mind,  were  tireson>e 
and  inapplicable  ;  but  to  say  what,  when 
present  to  the  view  of  the  understanding, 
is  fitted  to  work  a  spiritual  impression,  is 
said  for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  the 
mind.  And  this  may  be  done,  not  in  the 
way  of  presenting  it  with  novelties  ;  but 
the  mind  may  be  so  stirred  up  in  the  way 
of  remembi'ance.  And  this,  by  the  way, 
suggests  to  us  a  very  useful  test  of  distinc- 
tion, between  one  set  of  hearers  and  ano- 
ther, which  may  be  turned  by  you  all  into  a 
matter  of  self-application.  The  hearer, 
whose  main  relish  it  is  to  regale  his  intel- 
lect, will,  in  his  appetite  for  what  is  original 
and  argumentative  and  variegated,  nause- 
ate, as  tasteless  and  fatiguing,  the  constant 
recurrence  of  the  few  but  all-impressive 
simplicities  of  the  gospel.  The  hearer, 
whose  ruling  desire  it  is  to  refresh  and  to 
edify  the  spiritual  life,  will  no  more  feel 
distaste  to  the  nourishment  that  he  has  al- 
ready taken  in  for  the  good  of  the  soul, 
than  to  the  nourishment  that  he  has  al- 
ready and  often  taken  in  for  the  food  of 
the  body.  The  desire  for  the  sincere  milk 
of  the  word,  is  not  desire  for  amusement 
that  he  may  gratify  a  thirst  for  specula- 
tion— but  a  desire  for  aliment,  that  he  may 
grow  thereby.  And  thus  it  is,  that  what 
may  be  felt  as  unsufferable  sameness  by 
him  who  roams  with  delight  from  one 


68 


LECTURE   Xni. CHAPTER    IV,    1 8. 


prospect  and  one  eminence  to  another  in 
the  scholarship  of  Christianity,  may  in 
fact  be  the  staple  commodity  of  a  daily 
and  most  wholesomu  ministration  to  him 
who,  seeking  like  Paul  for  the  practical 
objects  of  an  acceptance  and  a  righteous- 
ness with  God,  like  him  counts  all  things 
but  loss  for  the  excellency  oi'  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Saviour;  antf  like  him  is  de- 
termined to  know  nothing,  but  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  c rue i lied. 

Let  us  not  therefore  be  prevented  from 
detaining  you  a  few  moments  longer,  by 
the  doctrine,  that,  however  much  the  most 
perfect  of  the  species  may  have  lo  glory 
of  in  the  eye  of  his  fellows,  he  hus  nuthiiig 
to  glory  of  before  God.  'J'he  apostle  af- 
firms this  of  Abraham,  a  patriarch  whose 
virtues  had  canonized  him  in  the  hearts  of 
all  his  descendants;  and  who  from  the 
heights  of  a  very  remote  antiquity,  still 
stands  forth  to  the  people  of  this  distant 
age,  as  the  most  venerably  attired  in  the 
worth  and  piety  and  all  the  primitive  and 
sterling  virtues  of  the  older  dispensation. 
As  to  his  piety,  of  this  we  have  no  docu- 
ment at  all,  till  after  the  time  when  God 
met  him — till  after  that  point  in  his  his- 
tory, which  Paul  assigns  as  the  period  of 
his  justification  by  faiih — till  after  he 
walked  in  friendship  with  the  God  who 
found  him  out  an  alien  of  nature  ;  and 
stretching  forth  to  him  the  hand  of  ac- 
ceptance, shed  a  grace  and  a  glory  over 
the  whole  of  his  subsequent  pilgrimage 
in  the  world.  "Now  if  thou  didst  receive 
it,  wherefore  shouldest  thou  glory  as  if 
thou  hadst  not  reci'ived  it  1"  It  is  tliis 
question  of  the  apostle,  which,  among  the 
varied  graces  and  accomplishments  of 
a  Christian,  perpetuates  his  humility,  as 
the  garb  and  the  accompanim  iit  of  them 
all.  "  Nevertlu^less  not  me,  but  the  grace 
of  God  that  is  in  me,"  is  the  great  princi- 
ple of  explanation,  which  applies  to  every 
virtue  that  springs  and  grows  and  expands 
into  luxuriance  and  beauty  on  the  charac- 
ter of  man,  after  his  conversion  ;  and  so 
keeps  him  humble  amid  all  the  heights  of 
progressive  excellence  to  which  he  is  con- 
ducted. Certain  it  is,  that  it  is  not  till  ui'Uu- 
this  period  ;  that  he  acquires  the  right 
principle,  or  can  make  any  right  advances 
in  the  path  of  godliness;  and  that,  what- 
ever he  had  antecedently — whether  of  af- 
fection to  parents,  or  of  patriotic  regard 
to  country,  or  of  mild  and  winning  affa- 
bility to  neighbourhood,  or  of  upright 
duty  in  the  walks  either  of  public  or  rela- 
tive life  to  society  around  him,  or  of  all 
that  which  calls  forlh  the  voice  of  man  to 
testify  in  behalf  of  the  virtues  that  arc 
useful  and  agreeable  torn  in — certain  it  is, 
that  with  every  hum  in  being,  prior  to  that 
great  transaction  in  his  history  which,  in 
the  face  of  all  the  ridicule  excited  by  the 


term,  we  denominate  his  conversion — God 
is  not  the  being  whose  moral  and  judicial 
authority  is  practically  recognized  in  any 
of  these  virtues,  and  he  has  nothing  to 
glory  of  before  God. 

It  is  thus  we  should  like  toconvince  the 
good  man  of  this  world  of  his  wickedness, 
and  to  warn  him  that  the  plaudits  of  the 
world's  admiration  here  may  bo  followed 
up  by  shame  and  everlasting  contempt 
hereafter.  In  this  visible  and  earthly 
Scene,  we  are  surrounded  with  human 
beings,  all  of  whom  arc  satisfied  if  they 
see  in  us  of  their  own  likeness;  and, 
shouljj  we  attain  the  average  character  of 
society,  the  gener.il  and  collective  voice 
of  society  will  sufler  us  to  pass.  Mean- 
while, and  till  God  be  pleased  to  manifest 
Himself,  we  see  not  God  ;  and,  not  till  the. 
revelation  of  his  likeness  is  made  to  us,  do 
we  see  our  di;liciency  froin  that  image  of 
unspotted  holiness — to  be  restored  to  which 
is  the  great  purpose  of  the  dispensatioa 
we  sit  under:  and  thus,  in  spiritual  blind- 
ness and  spiritual  insensibility,  do  the 
children  of  alienated  nature  spend  their 
days — lifting  an  unabashed  front  and 
bearing  a  confident  pretension  in  society, 
even  as  the  patria.ch  Job  challenged  the 
accusation  of  his  friends  iiiid  protested 
innocence  and  kindness  and  dignity  be- 
fore them  ;  but  who,  when  God  Himself 
met  his  awakened  eye,  and  brought  the 
over[)owering  lustre  of  His  attributes  to 
bear  upon  him,  said  of  Him  whom  he  had 
only  before  heard  of  by  the  hearing  of 
the  ear,  that,  now  he  saw  Him  with  the 
seeing  of  the  eye,  he  abhorred  himself 
and  repented  in  dust  and  in  ashes. 

This  is  the  sore  evil  under  which  hu- 
manity labours.  It  is  sunk  in  ungodli- 
nt^ss,  while  blindness  hinders  the  seeing 
of  it.  'J'he  magnitude  of  the  guilt  is  un- 
felt ;  and  therefore  does  man  persist  in  a 
most  treacherous  complacency.  The  mag- 
nitude of  the  danger  is  unseen,  and  there- 
fore does  man  persist  in  a  security  most 
ruinous.  There  may  be  some  transient 
suspicion  of  a  hurt,  but  a  gentle  alarm 
may  be  hushed  by  a  gentle  application  ; 
and  therefore  the  hurt,  in  the  language  of 
the  prophet,  is  healed  but  slightly.  Peace 
when  there  is  no  peace  forms  the  fatal 
lethargy  of  a  world  lying  in  wickedness 
— a  peace  which  we  should  like  to  break 
up,  by  setting  in  prospect  before  you  novir 
liie  dread  realities  of  a  future  world;  but 
a  peace,  which,  with  the  vast  majority  we 
fear  is  never  broken  up,  till  these  realities 
have  encompassed  them  by  tlu.'ir  presence 
— even  tiie  sound  of  the  last  trumpet,  and 
the  appearances  of  celestial  visitors  in  the 
sky,  and  all  the  elements  in  commotion, 
and  an  iimun)erabl<!  multitude  of  new- 
risen  men  whose  eyes  have  just  opened 
on  a  lirmament  which  lowers  prematurally 


LECTURE   XIII. CHAPTER   IV,    1 — 8. 


69 


over  a  world  that  is  going  to  expire — oh 
it  is  sad  to  think  that  pulpits  should  have 
no  power  of  disturbance,  and  the  voice 
of  tliose  who  fill  them  should  die  so  impo- 
tently  away  iVom  the  ears  of  men  who  in 
a  few  little  years  will  be  sealed  to  this 
great  catastrophe  of  our  species — when 
tokens  so  portentous  and  preparations  so 
so  solemn  as  these  will  mark  that  day  of 
decision,  which  closes  the  epoch  of  time, 
and  ushers  in  an  irrevocable  eternity  ! 

The  second  lesson  which  we  should 
like  to  urge  upon  you  is,  that  the  disease 
of  nature,  deadly  and  virulent  as  it  is,  and 
that  beyond  the  suspicion  of  those  who 
are  touched  by  it,  is  not  beyond  the 
remedy  provided  in  the  gospel.  Ungodli- 
ness is  the  radical  and  pervading  ingre- 
dient of  this  disease;  and  it  is  here  said 
of  God  that  he  justifies  the  ungodly.  The 
discharge  is  as  ample  as  the  debt;  and 
the  grant  of  pardon  in  every  way  as 
broad  and  as  long,  as  is  the  guilt  which 
requires  it.  The  deed  of  amnesty  is  equiv- 
alent to  the  offence ;  and,  foul  in  native 
and  spiritual  character  as  the  transgres- 
sion is,  there  is  a  commensurate  right- 
eousness which  covers  the  whole  defor- 
mity, and  translates  him  whom  it  had 
made  utterly  loathsome  in  the  sight  of 
God,  into  a  condition  of  full  favour  and 
acceptance  before  Him.  Had  justification 
been  merely  brought  into  contact  with 
some  social  iniquity,  this  were  not  enough 
to  relieve  the  conscience  of  him,  who 
feels  in  himself  the  workings  of  a  direct 
and  spiritual  iniquity  against  God — who 
is  burdened  with  a  sense  of  his  manifold 
idolatries  against  the  love  of  Him,  who 
requires  the  heart  as  a  willing  and  uni- 
versal offering — and  perceives  of  himself 
that  the  creature  is  all  his  sufficiency; 
and  that,  grant  him  peace  and  health  and 
abundance  in  this  world,  he  would  be 
satisfied  to  quit  with  God  for  ever,  and  to 
live  in  some  secure  and  smiling  region  of 
atheism.  This  is  the  crying  sin  with 
every  enlightened  conscience.  It  is  the 
miquity  of  the  heart  that  survives  every 
outer  reformation,  and  lurks  in  its  pro- 
found recesses  under  the  guise  and  sem- 
blance of  many  outward  plausibilities — it 
is  this,  for  which  in  the  whole  compass  of 
nature,  no  healing  water  can  be  found, 
either  to  wash  away  its  guilt,  or  to  wash 
away  its  pollution.  "  It  is  a  sense  of  this 
which  festers  in  the  stricken  heart  of  a 
sinner,  and  often  keeps  by  him  and  ago- 
nizes him  for  many  a  dny,  like  an  arrow 
sticking  fast.  And  it  is  not  enough  that 
justification  be  brought  into  contact  with 
the  sin  of  all  our  social  and  all  our  relative 
violations.  It  must  be  made  to  reach  the 
deadliest  element  in  our  controversy  with 
God,  and  be  brought  into  contact  as  it  is 
in  our  text,  with  the  sin  of  ungodliness. 


And,  to  complete  the  freeness  of  the 
gospel.  There  are  many  who  keep  at  a 
distance  from  its  overtures  of  mercy,  till 
they  think  they  have  felt  enough  and 
mourned  enough  over  their  need  of  them. 
Now  we  have  no  such  command  over  our 
sensibilities ;  and  the  must  grievous  part 
of  our  disease  is,  that  we  arc  not  suffici- 
ently touched  with  the  impression  of  its 
soreness ;  and  we  ought  not  thus  to  wait 
the  progress  of  pur  emotions,  while  God 
is  standing  before  us  with  a  deed  of  justi- 
fication, held  out  to  the  ungodliest  of  us 
all.  To  give  us  an  interest  in  the  saying, 
that  God  justifieth  the  ungodly,  it  is  enough 
that  we  count  it  a  faithful  saying,  and  that 
we  count  it  worthy  of  all  acceptation.  It 
is  very  true,  that  we  will  not  count  it  a 
faithful  saying,  unless,  from  some  cause 
or  other,  (and  no  cause  more  likely  than 
a  desire  to  escape  from  the  consequences 
of  sin)  we  have  been  induced  to  attend  to 
it.  And  neither  will  we  count  it  worthy 
of  all  acceptation,  unless  our  convictions 
have  led  us  to  feel  the  need  of  a  right- 
eousness, and  the  value  of  an  interest 
therein.  But  if  your  concern  about  your 
soul  has  been  such,  that  you  have  been 
led  to  listen  and  that  for  your  own  per- 
sonal behoof,  to  the  offer  of  the  gospel — 
that  is  warrant  enough  for  us  to  explain 
to  you  the  terms  of  it,  and  to  crave  your 
acceptance  of  them.  Whatever  your  pre- 
sent alienation,  whatever  the  present  hard- 
ness of  your  heart  under  the  sense  of  it, 
whatever  there  be  within  you  to  make  out 
the  charge  of  ungodliness,  and  whatever 
to  aggravate  that  charge  in  your  wretched 
apathy  amid  so  much  guilt  and  so  much 
danger — here  is  God  with  a  deed  of  righte- 
ousness, by  the  possession  of  which  you 
will  be  accepted  as  righteous  before  Him  ; 
and  which  to  obtain  the  possession  of, 
you  are  not  to  work  for  as  a  reward,  but 
to  accept  by  a  simple  act  of  dependence. 
It  becomes  yours  by  believing  ;  and  while 
it  is  our  office  to  deal  out  the  doctrine  of 
of  the  gospel,  we  do  it  with  the  assurance, 
that,  wherever  the  belief  of  its  truth  may 
light,  it  will  not  light  wrong;  but  that,  if 
the  faith  of  this  gospel  be  formed  in  the 
bosom  of  any  individual  who  now  hears 
us,  it  will  be  followed  up  by  a  fulfilment 
upon  him  of  all  its  promises. 

But  thirdly,  while  the  office  of  a  righte- 
ousness before  God  is  thus  brought  down, 
so  to  speak,  to  the  depth  of  human  wick- 
edness, and  it  is  an  offer  by  the  accept- 
ance of  which  all  the  past  is  forgiven — it 
is  also  an  offer  by  the  acceptance  of  which 
all  the  future  is  reformed.  When  Christ 
confers  sight  upon  a  blind  man,  he  ceases 
to  be  in  darkness;  and  when  a  rich  indi- 
vidual confers  wealth  upon  a  poor,  he 
ceases  to  be  in  poverty — and  so,  as  surely, 
when  justification  is  conferred  upon  the 


ro 


LECTURE   Xm. — CHArrER   XV,    1 — 8. 


ungodly,  his  ungodliness  is  done  away. 
His  godliness  is  not  the  ground  upon 
which  the  gift  is  awarded,  any  more  than 
the  sight  of  a  blind  man  is  the  ground 
upon  which  it  is  communicated  to  him, 
or  than  the  wealth  of  a  poor  man  is  the 
ground  upon  which  wealth  is  bestowed. 
But  just  as  sight  and  riches  come  out  of 
the  latter  gifts,  so  godliness  comes  out  of 
the  gift  of  justification  ;  and  while  works 
form  in  no  way  the  consideration  upon 
which  Ihe  righteousness  that  availeth  is 
conferred  upon  a  sinner,  yet  no  sooner  is 
this  righteousness  granted  than  it  will  set 


him  a-working.  So  that  while  we  hold  it 
a  high  privilege,  that  we  can  say  to  the 
ungodliest  of  you  all.  Here  is  the  free  and 
unconditional  grant  of  a  justification  for 
you,  the  validity  of  which  you  have  sim- 
ply to  rely  upon — the  privilege  rises  in- 
conceivably higher  in  our  estimation,  that 
we  can  also  say,  how  the  unfailing  fruit 
of  such  a  reliance  will  be  a  personal 
righteousness  emerging  out  of  the  faith 
which  worketh  by  love,  and  which  trans- 
forms into  a  new  creature  the  man  who 
truly  entertains  it. 


LECTURE  XIV. 


Romans  iv,  9 — 15. 

"Cometh  this  blessedness  then  upon  the  circumcision  only^,  or  upon  the  uncircumcision  also?  for  we  say  that  faith 
was  reckoned  to  Abraham  for  righteousness.  How  %vas  it  then  reckoned  1  when  he  was  in  circumcision,  or  in  un- 
circumcision ?  Not  in  circumcision,  but  in  uncircumcision.  And  he  received  the  sign  of  circumcision,  a  seal  of 
the  righteousness  of  the  faith  wliich  he  had  yet  being  uucircumcised  :  that  he  might  be  the  father  of  all  them  that 
believe,  though  they  be  not  circumcised  ;  that  righteousness  might  be  imputed  unto  them  also  :  and  the  father  of 
circumcision  to  them  who  are  not  of  the  circumcision  only,  but  who  also  walk  in  the  steps  of  that  faith  of  our 
father  Abraham  which  he  had  being  yet  uncircumeised.  For  the  promise,  that  he  should  be  the  heir  of  the  world, 
was  not  to  Abraham,  or  to  his  seed,  through  the  law,  but  through  the  righteousness  of  faith  For  if  they  which  are 
of  the  law  be  heir  -,  faith  is  made  void,  and  llie  promise  made  of  none  eil'ect.  Because  the  law  worketh  wrath ;  for 
where  no  law  is,  there  is  no  transgression."  % 


In  the  passage  which  stands  immediate- 
ly before  Paul  had  asserted  of  Abraham, 
that  it  was  his  faith  and  not  his  obe- 
dience which  was  counted  unto  him  for 
righteousness;  and  that  it  was  through 
the  former  medium,  and  not  through  the 
latter  that  he  attained  the  blessedness  of 
those  to  whom  God  did  not  reckon  the 
guilt  of  their  offences.  And  from  this 
particiilar  instance,  does  he  proceed,  in 
the  verse  before  us,  to  a  more  general 
conclusion  upon  the  subject. 

V.  9,  10.  He  resolves  the  question  pro- 
posed in  the  9th  verse  by  adducing  the 
case  of  Abraham.  In  what  state  was  he 
when  righteousness  was  imputed  to  him  ] 
The  historical  fact  is,  that  he  found  ac- 
ceptance with  God,  several  years  before 
the  rite  of  circumcision  was  imposed  upon 
him.  The  case  of  their  own  Abraham, 
was  the  case  of  one  who  was  justified  in 
uncircumcision.  An  agreement  between 
him  and  God.  had  previously  been  made. 
A  covenant  had  previously  been  entered 
upon.  There  was  a  promise  by  God ; 
and  there  was  a  faith  by  Abraham,  which 
gave  him  a  right  to  the  fulfilment  of  it — 
and  all  this  antecedent  to  his  being  cir- 
cumcised. And  when  it  was  laid  upon 
him  as  a  binding  observation,  it  was  as 
the  token  or  the  memorial  of  what  had 
passed  between  them.  It  was  not  the 
making  of  a  new  bargain.  It  was  the 
sealing  or  the  ratifying  of  an  old  one.    It 


was  not  another  deed  of  conveyance,  but 
an  infeftment  upon  the  deed  that  had 
already  been  drawn  out ;  and  though  cir- 
cumcision should  at  any  time  be  abolished, 
and  .some  other  form,  as  that  of  baptism, 
be  substituted  in  its  place,  this  no  more 
affected  the  great  principle  upon  which 
man  acquires  a  right  of  property  to  a 
place  in  Heaven,  than  the  great  principles 
of  justice  upon  which  an  earthly  posses- 
sion is  transferred  from  one  man  to  anoth- 
er, would  be  affected  by  a  mere  change  in 
the  forms  of  an  infeftment.  The  promise 
of  God  who  cannot  lie  makes  it  sure  ;  and 
yet  a  visible  token  may  be  of  use  in  im- 
pressing its  sureness,  by  serving  the  pur- 
pose of  a  more  solemn  declaration.  It  is 
just  expressing  the  same  thing  symboli- 
cally, which  had  before  been  expressed 
by  words.  By  refusing  the  second  ex- 
pression you  draw  back  from  the  first ;  by 
joining  the  second  expression  you  only  re- 
peat and  ratify  the  first.  Thus  circum- 
cision is  a  sign — not  a  covenant  itself,  but, 
in  the  language  of  Genesis,  the  token  of  a 
covenant.  And  thus  also  it  is  a  seal,  mark- 
ing that  more  formal  consent,  (to  a  thing 
however  that  had  been  before  agreed 
upon)  which  lays  one  or  both  of  the  par- 
ties under  a  more  sure  or  at  least,  more  so- 
lemn obligation. 

V.  11.  The  term  sign  may  be  generally 
defined  a  mark  of  indication — as  when  we 
speak  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  or  of  the 


LECTURE   XIV. CHAPTER   IV,    9 15. 


71 


signs  of  the  weather.  A  sign  becomes  a 
seal,  when  it  is  the  mark  of  any  deed  orany 
declaration,  having  actually  come  forth 
from  him  who  professes  to  be  the  author 
of  it.  It  authenticates  it  to  be  his — so  that 
should  it  be  a  promise,  it  binds  him  to  per- 
formance ;  or  should  it  be  an  order,  it  car- 
ries along  with  it  all  the  force  of  his  au- 
thority ;  or  should  it  be  an  engagement 
of  any  sort,  it  fastens  upon  him  the  obli- 
gation of  discharging  it.  It  may  some- 
times happen  that  a  seal  marks  the  con- 
currence of  two  parties  in  the  matter  to 
which  it  is  affixed — and  the  sign  of  cir- 
cumcision was  just  such  a  seal.  It  was 
enjoined  by  God.  It  was  consented  to  by 
Abraham. "  God  sealed  by  it  the  promise 
which  He  had  formerly  made  of  a  righte- 
ousness to  Abraham  who  believed;  and 
Abraham  expressed  by  it  that  he  was  a 
believer.  It  did  not  change  the  footing 
upon  which  Abraham  obtained  the  favour 
that  was  due  to  righteousness.  It  only 
gave  the  form  and  the  solemnity  of  a 
symbolical  expression  to  that,  which  was 
already  in  full  reality  and  effect,  though 
it  had  only  yet  been  the  subject  of  a  ver- 
bal expression.  The  symbolical  expres- 
sion may  afterwards  be  changed,  or  it 
may  be  dispensed  with  altogether  ;  and 
yet  the  original  connection  between  faith 
and  the  imputation  of  righteousness,  sub- 
sist as  it  was  at  the  beginning.  Abraham 
is  the  primary  model  of  this  connection, 
and  remains  so  after  the  abolition  of  that 
temporary  rite  which  marked  the  Jewish 
economy.  And  now  that  that  economy  is 
dissolved,  he  is  still  the  father  of  all  them 
who  believe  though  they  be  not  circum- 
cised— that  like  as  righteousness  was  im- 
puted to  him  when  uncircumcised,  so  may 
it  be  imputed  unto  them  also. 

V.  12.  It  is  not  enough  that  they  be  of 
the  circumcision,  that  they  may  be  the 
children  of  Abraham,  in  the  sense  under 
which  the  apostle  contemplates  this  rela- 
tionship in  the  passage  before  us.  It  is 
faith  which  essentially  constitutes  this 
relationship.  They  who  have  the  faith 
are  his  children,  though  they  have  not  the 
circumcision.  They  who  have  the  cir- 
cumcision are  not  his  children,  if  they 
have  not  the  faith.  The  sign  without  the 
thing  signified  will  avail  them  nothing. 
It  is  true  that  circumcision  is  a  seal  set  to 
it  by  the  will  and  authority  of  God,  and 
guarantees  a  promise  of  righteousness  on 
His  part.  But  it  is  of  righteousness  unto 
faith  ;  and  when  there  is  no  faith,  there  is 
no  failure  of  any  promise  connected  with 
this  subject,  though  it  should  remain 
unfulfilled.  The  way  to  ascertain  the 
reality  of  this  faith,  is  not  by  the  simple 
act  of  a  man  submitting  to  have  the  seal 
of  circumcision  put  upon  him.  It  is  by 
bis  walking  in  the  steps  of  that  faith 


which  actuated  the  doings  and  the  history 
of  Abraham ;  and  in  virtue  of  which  he 
obtained  a  meritorious  acceptance  with 
God — even  prior  to  the  rite  of  circumci- 
sion being  laid  upon  him. 

V.  13.  Not  heir  of  the  present  evil  world, 
but  of  a  better  country  than  this,  that  is 
an  heavenly — a  city  which  hath  founda- 
tions, whose  builder  and  maker  is  God — 
a  new  earth,  as  well  as  new  heavens, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness — Not  to 
inherit  this  world,  but  to  be  counted 
worthy  of  obtaining  that  world  upon 
which  the  righteous  are  made  to  enter 
after  their  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
The  promise  of  all  this  was  not  to  those 
who  obey,  but  to  those  who  believe — not 
through  the  law,  but  through  the  righteous- 
ness of  faith. 

V.  14.  If  it  be  of  the  law,  then  it  must 
be  of  perfect  obedience  to  that  law.  It 
cannot  be  through  the  medium  of  a  bro- 
ken, but  through  the  medium  of  an  ob- 
served law  ;  and  not  till  its  conditions  are 
fulfilled,  can  faith  have  any  warrant  to 
lay  hold  of  the  promises.  This  is  just  as 
good  as  nullifying  faith  altogether;  and 
just  as  g(jod  as  rendering  the  promise 
quite  ineffectual — because  in  fact  there 
has  been  no  perfect  obedience.  There 
have  been  infractions  of  the  law  by  all, 
and  all  therefore  are  the  children  of 
wrath. 

V.  15.  To  escape  from  this,  there  must 
be  some  other  method  of  making  out 
a  righteousness  unto  eternal  life  than 
through  the  law;  for,  admit  the  arbitra- 
tions of  the  law,  and  wrath  will  be  wrought 
out  of  them.  Condemnation  will  be  the 
sure  result  of  this  process.  It  must  and 
will  pronounce  the  guilt  of  transgression 
upon  all;  and,  to  get  quit  of  this,  there 
must  be  some  way  or  other  of  so  disposing 
of  the  law,  as  that  it  shall  not  be  brought 
to  bear  in  judgment  upon  a  sinner.  It 
has  been  so  disposed  of.  It  has  been 
magnified  and  made  honourable  in  the 
person  of  our  illustrious  Redeemer;  and 
so  borne  away  from  the  persons  of  those 
who  through  faith  in  Him  are  made,  by 
the  constitution  of  the  economy  of  the 
gospel,  partakers  of  His  righteousness. 
The  judgment  of  the  law  has  been  shifted 
away  from  them;  and,  with  this,  the 
charge  of  transgression  has  been  lifted 
away  from  them. 

The  following  is  the  paraphrase. 
'Doth  the  blessing  of  an  imputed  right- 
eousness come  then  upon  the  circumcision 
only — or  may  it  also  come  upon  those 
who  are  uncircumcised  1  We  have  said 
that  it  came  upon  Abraham,  and  that  it 
was  faith  which  was  reckoned  unto  him 
for  righteousness.  Now  in  what  circum- 
stances was  he  at  the  time  when  it  was  so 
reckoned?    Was  he  in  circumcision,  or 


72 


LECTURE   XIV.— CHAPTER   IV,   9 — 15. 


uncircumcision  1  Not  in  circumcision,  but 
in  uncircumcision.  And  circumcision  he 
received  merely  as  a  token  or  as  a  seal  of 
the  righteousness  of  that  faith  which  he 
had  when  he  was  uncircumcised — that  he 
might  be  the  great  exemplar  of  all  those 
who  after  him  should  believe,  though  they 
were  not  circumcised — that  to  them  also, 
even  as  unto  him,  there  might  be  an  im- 
putation of  righteousness — and  that  ho 
might  furthermore  be  the  exemplar  of 
those  who  were  circumcised  ;  and  were 
at  the  same  time,  more  than  this,  walking 
in  the  steps  of  that  faith  which  their  father 
Abraham  had  while  uncircumcised.  For 
the  promise,  that  he  should  obtain  the 
inheritance,  was  not  to  Abraham  or  his 
seed  through  the  law,  but  through  the 
righteousness  of  faith.  For  if  they  only 
are  to  inherit  who  fulfil  the  law,  then 
faith  is  rendered  powerless,  and  the  pro- 
mise can  have  no  fulfilment.  Because 
the  law  worketh  wrath  and  not  favour ; 
and  it  is  only  when  it  is  taken  out  of  the 
way  that  transgression  is  removed  and 
righteousness  can  be  imputed.' 

The  first  lesson  we  shall  endeavour  to 
draw  from  this  passage  is,  that  it  seems  to 
contain  in  it  the  main  strength  of  the 
scriptural  argument  for  Infant  Baptism. 
It  looks  a  rational  system,  to  make  sure 
of  the  thing  signilied  ere  you  impress  the 
sign — to  make  sure  of  the  belief  ere  you 
administer  the  baptism — if  this  outward 
ordinance  signify  any  thing  at  all,  to 
make  sure  that  what  is  so  signified  be  a 
reality.  And  all  this  has  been  applied 
with  great  appearance  of  force  and  plau- 
sibility to  this  question  ;  and  the  principle 
educed  out  of  it,  that,  ere  this  great  and 
initiatory  rite  of  our  faith  be  laid  upon 
any  individual,  he  should  make  a  credible 
profession  of  that  faith.  In  confirmation 
of  this,  we  are  often  bidden  to  look  to  the 
order  in  which  these  two  things  succeeded 
one  another  in  the  first  age  of  Christianity. 
We  read  of  this  one  convert  and  that 
other  having  believed  and  bt'cn  baptized; 
not  of  any  having  been  baptized  and  then 
believing.  And  so  this  should  be  the 
order  with  every  grown  up  person  who  is 
not  yet  baptised.  Should  there  be  any 
Buch  person,  who,  from  accidental  cir- 
cumstances, has  not  had  this  rite  adminis- 
tered to  him  in  his  own  country — demand 
the  profession  of  his  faith,  and  be  satisfied 
that  it  is  a  credible  profession,  ere  you 
baptise  him. 

Let  missionaries,  these  modern  apostles, 
do  the  same  in  the  pagan  countries  where 
they  now  labour — ;just  as  the  first  apostles 
did  before  tlicm — ^^just  as  was  done  with 
Abraham  of  old,  who,  agreeably  to  Paul's 
argument,  first  believed  and  afterwards 
underwent  the  rite  of  circumcision.  But 
mark  how  it  fared  with  the  posterity  of 


Abraham.  He,  the  first  Hebrew,  believed 
and  was  circumcised ;  and  it  was  laid 
down  for  a  statute  in  Israel,  that  all  his 
children  should  be  circumcised  in  infancy. 
In  like  manner,  the  first  Christians  be- 
lieved and  were  baptised  ;  and,  though 
there  be  no  statute  laid  down  upon  the 
subject,  yet  is  there  no  violation  of  any 
contrary  statute,  when  all  our  children 
are  baptised  in  infancy.  At  the  origin  of 
the  two  institutions  the  order  of  succes- 
sion is  the  same  with  both.  The  thing 
signified  took  precedency  of  the  sign. 
Along  the  stream  of  descent  which  issued 
from  the  first  of  them,  this  order  was  re- 
versed, and  by  an  express  authority  too, 
so  as  that  the  sign  took  precedency  of  the 
thing  signified :  And  so  has  it  been  the 
very  general  practice,  with  the  stream  of 
descent  that  issued  from  the  second  of 
them ;  and  if  the  want  of  express  authority 
be  pled  against  us,  we  reply  that  this  is 
the  very  circumstance  which  inclines  us 
to  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  the  former  dis- 
pensation. Express  authority  is  needed 
to  warrant  a  change ;  but  it  is  not  needed 
to  warrant  a  continuation.  It  is  this  very 
want  of  express  authority,  we  think,  which 
stamps  on  the  opposite  system  a  character 
of  presumptuous  innovation.  When  once 
bidden  to  walk  in  a  straight  line,  it  does 
not  require  the  successive  impulse  of  new 
biddings  to  make  us  persevere  in  it.  But 
it  would  require  a  new  bidding  to  justify 
our  going  off  from  the  line,  into  a  track 
of  deviation.  The  first  Christians  believ- 
ed and  were  baptised.  Abraham  believed 
and  was  circumcised.  He  transmitted  the 
practice  of  circumcision  to  infants.  We 
transmit  the  practice  of  baptism  to  infants. 
There  is  no  satisfactory  historical  evi- 
dence of  our  practice  having  ever  crept 
in — the  innovation  of  a  later  period  in  the 
history  of  the  church.  Had  the  mode  of 
infant  baptism  sprung  up  as  a  new  piece 
of  sectarianism,  it  would  not  have  escaped 
the  notice  of  the  authorship  of  the  times. 
But  there  is  no  credible  written  memorial 
of  its  ever  having  entered  amongst  us  as 
a  novelty ;  and  we  have  therefore  the 
strongest  reason  for  believing,  that  it  has 
come  down  in  one  uncontrolled  tide  of  ex- 
ample  and  observation  from  the  days  of 
the  apostles.  And  if  they  have  not  in  the 
shape  of  any  decree  or  statunry  enact- 
ment that  can  be  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, given  us  any  authority  for  it — they 
at  least,  had  it  been  wrong,  and  when  they 
saw  that  whole  families  of  discipleship 
were  getting  into  this  style  of  observation, 
would  have  interposed  and  lifted  up  the 
voice  of  their  authority  against  it.  But 
we  read  of  no  such  interdict  in  our  Scrip- 
tures ;  and,  in  these  circumstances,  we 
hold  the  inspired  teachers  of  our  faith  to 
have  given  their  testimony  in  favour  of 


LECTURE   Xrv. CHAPTER   IV,   9 15. 


7a 


infant  baptism,  by  giving  us  the  testimony 
of  their  silence. 

It  is  vain  to  allege  that  the  Jewish  was 
a  grosser  dispensation — not  so  impregna- 
ted with  life  and  rationality  and  spiritual 
meaning  as  ours — with  a  ceremonial  ap- 
pended to  it  for  the  purpose  mainly  of 
building  up  a  great  outward  distinction, 
between  the  children  of  Israel  and  all  the 
other  families  that  were  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  ;  and  that  this  was  one  great  use  of 
circumcision,  which,  whether  affixed  dur- 
ing the  period  of  infancy  or  advanced 
life,  served  equally  to  signalize  the  people, 
and  so  to  strengthen  that  wall  of  separa- 
tion, which,  in  the  wisdom  of  Providence, 
had  been  raised  for  the  sake  of  keeping 
the  whole  race  apart  from  the  general 
world,  till  the  ushering  in  of  a  more  com- 
prehensive and  liberal  dispensation.  The 
flesh  profiteth  nothing,  says  the  Saviour, 
"the  words  I  speak  unto  you  they  are 
spirit  and  they  are  life."  But  it  so  hap- 
pens that  in  the  ordinance  of  circumci- 
sion, there  are  the  very  spirit  and  the  very 
life  which  lie  in  the  ordinance  of  baptism. 
Viewed  as  a  seal,  it  marks  a  promissory 
obligation  on  the  part  of  God,  of  the  same 
privileges  in  both  cases ;  and  that  is  the 
righteousness  of  faith.  Viewed  as  a  sign, 
it  indicates  the  same  graces.  It  indicates 
the  existence  of  faith,  and  all  its  accom- 
panying influences  on  the  character  of 
him  who  has  been  subjected  to  it.  That 
is  not  circumcision  which  is  outward  in 
the  flesh,  says  Paul ;  but  circumcision  is 
of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit  and  not  in  the 
letter.  That  is  not  baptism,  says  Peter, 
which  merely  puts  away  the  filth  of  the 
flesh ;  but  baptism  is  the  answer  of  a  good 
conscience  unto  God.  If  the  baptism  of 
infants  offer  any  violence  to  the  vital  and 
essential  principles  of  that  ordinance — the 
principles  of  the  ordinance  of  circumci- 
sion are  altogether  the  same.  Circumci- 
sion is  the  sign  of  an  inward  grace  ;  and 
upon  Abraham,  in  the  previous  possession 
of  this  grace,  the  sign  was  impressed. 
And,  in  the  face  of  what  might  have  been 
alleged,  that  it  was  wrong  when  the  sign 
and  the  thing  signified  did  not  go  together 
— this  sign  of  circumcision  was  neverthe- 
less perpetuated  in  the  family  of  Abraham, 
by  being  impressed  on  the  infancy  of  all 
his  descendants.  In  like  manner,  when 
an  adult  stands  before  us  for  baptism, 
should  we  be  satisfied  that  he  has  had  the 
washing  of  regeneration,  then  may  v/e  put 
the  question — 'Can  any  man  forbid  wa- 
ter, that  he  should  not  be  baptised  who 
has  received  the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as 
we  V  But  should  any  man  go  further,  and 
forbid  water  to  the  infants  of  his  present 
or  his  future  family,  he  appears  to  do  so 
on  a  principle  which  God  himself  did  not 
recognise ;  and,  while  he  seems  to  exalt 
10 


faith  over  forms,  by  waiting  for  the  rise 
of  this  inward  grace  ere  he  will  impose 
the  outward  ceremonial,  he  stamps  a  re- 
flection on  that  very  procedure  that  was 
instituted  for  him  who  is  called  the  father 
of  the  faithful. 

But  is  it  not  wrong,  when  the  sign  and 
the  thing  signified  do  not  go  together? 
Yes,  it  is  very  wrong  ;  and  let  us  shortly 
consider  who  they  generally  are  that  are 
in  the  wrong,  when  such  a  disjunction  at 
any  time  occurs.  In  the  case  of  an  adult, 
the  thing  signified  should  precede  the 
sign.  When  he  offers  himself  for  baptism, 
he  asks  to  be  invested  with  the  sign  that 
he  is  a  disciple — and  he  makes  a  credible 
appearance  and  profession  of  his  being 
so.  Were  it  not  a  credible  profession, 
then  the  administrator  is  in  the  fault,  for 
having  put  the  outward  stamp  of  Chris- 
tianity on  one  whom  he  believed  to  be  a 
counterfeit.  Were  it  a  profession  render- 
ed credible  by  the  arts  of  hypocrisy,  then 
the  minister  is  free ;  and  the  whole  guilt 
that  arises  from  an  unworthy  subject, 
standing  arrayed  in  the  insignia  of  our 
faith,  lies  upon  him  who  wears  them.  But 
in  the  case  of  an  infant,  the  sign  precedes 
the  thing  signified.  The  former  has  been 
imprest  upon  him  by  the  will  of  his  pa- 
rent; and  the  latter  remains  to  be  wrought 
within  him  by  the  care  of  his  parent.  If 
he  do  not  put  forth  this  care,  he  is  in  the 
fault.  Better  that  there  had  been  no  sign, 
if  there  was  to  be  no  substance;  and  he 
by  whose  application  it  was  that  the  sign 
was  imprinted,  but  by  whose  neglect  it  is 
that  the  substance  is  not  infused — he  is  the 
author  of  this  mockery  upon  ordinances. 
He  it  is  who  hath  made  the  symbolical 
language  of  Christianity  the  vehicle  of  a 
falsehood.  He  is  like  the  steward  who  is 
entrusted  by  his  superior  with  the  sub- 
scription of  his  name  to  a  space  of  blank 
paper,  on  the  understanding  that  it  was  to 
be  filled  up  in  a  particular  way,  agreeable 
to  the  will  of  his  lord  ;  and,  instead  of 
doing  so,  has  filled  it  up  with  matter  of  a 
different  import  altogether.  The  infant, 
with  its  mind  unfilled  and  unfurnished, 
has  been  put  by  the  God  of  providence 
into  hia  hands ;  and  after  the  baptism 
which  he  himself  hath  craved,  it  has  been 
again  made  over  to  him  with  the  signa- 
ture of  Christian  discipleship,  and,  by  his 
own  consent,  impressed  upon  it;  and  he, 
by  failing  to  grave  the  characters  of  dis- 
cipleship upon  it,  hath  unworthily  betray- 
ed the  trust  that  was  reposed  in  him  ;  and, 
like  the  treacherous  agent  who  hath  pros- 
tituted his  master's  name  to  a  purpose  dif- 
ferent from  his  master's  will,  he  hath  so 
perverted  the  sign  of  Heaven's  appoint- 
ment, as  to  frustrate  the  end  of  Heaven's 
ordination.  The  worthirs  of  the  Old  'i'es- 
tament,   who,  in  obedience  to  the  God 


74 


LECTTTEE   XIV. CHAPTER    IV,    9 — 15. 


whom  they  served,  circumcised  their  chil- 
dren in  infancy,  never  forgot  that  they 
were  the  children  of  the  circumcision  ; 
and  the  mark  of  separation  they  had  been 
enjoined  to  impose  upon  them,  reminded 
them  of  the  duty  under  which  they  lay, 
to  rear  them  in  all  the  virtues  of  a  holy 
and  a  separate  generation  ;  and  many  a 
Hebrew  parent  was  solemnised  by  this  ob- 
servance into  the  devotedness  of  Joshua, 
who  said,  that  whatever  others  should  do, 
he  with  all  his  house  should  fear  the  Lord  ; 
and  this  was  the  testimony  of  the  Searcher 
of  hearts  in  behalf  of  one  who  had  laid 
the  great  initiatory  rite  of  Judaism  upon 
his  offspring,  that  He  knew  him,  that 
he  would  bring  up  his  children  after  him 
in  all  the  ways  and  statutes  and  ordi- 
nances that  he  had  himself  been  taught ; 
and  it  was  the  commandment  of  God  to 
His  servants  of  old,  that  they  should  teach 
their  children  diligently,  and  talk  to  them 
as  they  rose  up  and  sat  down,  and  as  they 
walked  by  the  way-side,  of  the  loyalty 
and  gratitude  that  should  be  rendered  to 
the  God  of  Israel.  Thus  was  the  matter 
ordered  under  the  old  dispensation.  The 
sign  was  impressed  upon  the  infant,  and 
it  served  for  a  signal  of  duty  and  direc- 
tion to  the  parent.  It  pointed  out  to  him 
the  moral  destination  of  his  child,  and  led 
him  to  guide  it  onward  accordingly. 
There  ought  to  be  a  correspondence  be- 
tween the  sign  and  the  thing  signified.  At 
the  very  outset  of  the  child's  life,  did  the 
parent  fix  upon  its  person  the  one  term  of 
this  correspondence,  as  a  mark  of  his  de- 
termination to  fix  upon  its  character  the 
other  term  of  it.  It  was  as  good  as  his 
promissory  declaration  to  that  effect ;  and 
if  this  be  enough  to  rationalize  the  infant 
circumcision  of  the  Jews,  it  is  equally 
enough  to  rationalize  the  infant  baptism 
of  Christians.  The  parent  of  our  day, 
who  feels  as  he  ought,  will  feel  himself  in 
conscience  to  be  solemnly  charged,  that 
the  infant  whom  he  has  held  up  to  the 
baptism  of  Christianity,  he  should  bring 
up  in  the  belief  of  Christianity  ;  and  if 
he  fail  to  do  this,  it  is  he  who  has  degra- 
ded this  simple  and  impressive  ceremonial 
into  a  thing  of  nought — it  is  he  who  has 
dissolved  the  alliance  between  the  sign 
and  the  thing  signified — it  is  he  who 
brings  a  scandal  upon  ordinances,  by 
stripping  them  of  all  their  respect  and  all 
their  significancy.  Should  the  child  live 
and  die  unchristian,  there  will  be  a  pro- 
per and  essential  guilt  attached  to  him  in 
consequence ;  but  it  will  at  least  not  be 
the  guilt  of  having  broken  a  vow  which 
he  was  incapable  of  making.  And  yet 
the  vow  was  made  by  some  one.  It  was 
made  by  the  parent ;  and  in  as  far  as  the 
ruin  of  the  child  may  be  resolved  into  the 
negligence  of  him  to  whom  he  owes  his 


birth,  it  is  he  who  moved  the  baptism  and 
it  is  he  who  hath  profaned  it. 

This  ordinance  lays  a  responsibility  on 
parents — the  sense  of  which  has,  wedoubl 
not,  given  a  mighty  impulse  to  the  causa 
of  Christian  education.  It  is  well  thai 
there  should  be  one  sacrament  in  behalf 
of  the  grown  up  disciple,  for  the  solemn 
avowal  of  his  Christianity  before  men  , 
and  the  very  participation  of  which  binds 
more  closely  about  his  conscience  all  the 
duties  and  all  the  consistencies  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  it  is  also  well  that  there  should 
be  another  sacrahient,  the  place  of  which 
in  his  history  is,  not  at  the  period  of  his 
youth  or  manhood,  but  at  the  period  of 
his  infancy  ;  and  the  obligation  of  which 
is  felt,  not  by  his  conscience  still  in  em- 
bryo, but  by  the  conscience  of  him  whose 
business  is  to  develope  and  to  guard  and 
to  nurture  its  yet  unawakened  sensibili- 
ties. This  is  like  removing  baptism  up- 
ward on  a  higher  vantage  ground.  It  is 
assigning  for  it  a  station  of  command  and 
of  custody  at  the  very  fountainhead  of 
moral  influence;  and  we  repeat  it  to  be 
well,  that  Christianity  should  have  here 
fixed  one  of  its  sacraments — that  it  should 
have  reared  such  a  security  around  the 
birth  of  every  immortal — that  it  should 
so  have  constituted  baptism,  as  to  render 
it  a  guide  and  a  guardian,  whose  post  is 
by  the  cradle  of  the  infant  spirit;  and 
which,  from  coming  into  contact  with  the 
first  elements  of  tuition,  has,  we  doubt  not, 
from  this  presiding  eminence,  done  much 
to  sustain  and  perpetuate  the  faith  of  the 
gospel  from  generation  to  generation. 

We  have  one  observation  more.  Bap- 
tism, viewed  as  a  seal,  marks  the  promise 
of  God,  to  grant  the  righteousness  of  faith 
to  him  who  is  impressed  by  it ;  but, 
viewed  as  a  sign,  it  marks  the  existence 
of  this  faith.  But  if  it  be  not  a  true  sign, 
it  is  not  an  obligatory  seal.  He  who  be- 
lieves and  is  baptised  shall  be  saved.  But 
he  who  is  baptised  and  believes  not  shall 
be  damned.  It  is  not  the  circumcision 
which  availeth,  but  a  new  creature.  It  is 
not  the  baptism  which  availeth,  but  the 
answer  of  a  good  conscience.  God  hath 
given  a  terrible  demonstration  of  the  utter 
worthlessness  of  a  sign  that  is  deceitful, 
and  hath  let  us  know  that  on  that  event  as 
a  seal  it  is  dissolved.  He  thus  stands 
emancipated  from  all  His  promises,  and 
adds  to  His  direct  vengeance  upon  ini- 
quity, a  vengeance'  for  the  hypocrisy  of 
its  lying  ceremonial.  When  a  whole  cir- 
cumcised nation  lost  the  spirit,  though 
they  retained  the  letter  of  the  ordinance. 
He  swept  it  away.  The  presence  of  the 
letter,  we  have  no  doubt,  heightened  the 
provocation ;  and  beware,  ye  parents, 
who  regularly  hold  up  your  children  to 
the  baptism  of  water,  and  make  their  bap- 


LECTURE   Xrv. CJUPTER   IV,    9 15. 


75 


tism  by  the  Holy  Ghost  no  part  of  your  con- 
cern or  of  your  prayer — lest  you  thereby 
swell  the  judgments  of  the  land,  and  bring 
down  the  sore  displeasure  of  God  upon 
your  families. 

This  affords,  we  think,  something  more 
than  a  dubious  glimpse  into  the  question, 
that  is  often  put  by  a  distracted  mother, 
when  her  babe  is  taken  away  from  her — 
when  all  the  converse  it  ever  had  with 
the  world,  amounted  to  the  gaze  upon  it 
of  a  few  months  or  a  few  opening  smiles, 
which  marked  the  dawn  of  felt  enjoyment ; 
and  ere  it  had  reached  perhaps  the  lisp 
of  infancy,  it,  all  unconscious  of  death, 
had  to  wrestle  through  a  period  of  sick- 
ness with  its  power  and  at  length  to  be 
overcome  by  it.  Oh,  it  little  knew,  what 
an  interest  it  had  created  in  that  home 
where  it  was  so  passing  a  visitant — nor, 
when  carried  to  its  early  grave,  what  a 
tide  of  emotion  it  would  raise  among  the 
few  acquaintances  it  left  behind  it !  On 
it  too  baptism  was  imprest  as  a  seal,  and 
as  a  sign  it  was  never  falsified.  There 
was  no  positive  unbelief  in  its  little  bosom 
— no  resistimce  yet  put  forth  to  the  truth 
— no  love  at  all  for  the  darkness  rather 
than  the  light — nor  had  it  yet  fallen  into 
that  great  condemnation  which  will  at- 
tach to  all  who  perish  because  of  unbe- 
lief, that  their  deeds  are  evil.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  know  that  God  instituted  circum- 
cision for  the  infant  children  of  Jews,  and 
at  least  suffered  baptism  for  the  infant 
children  of  those  who  profess  Christianity. 
Should  the  child  die  in  infancy,  the  use 
of  baptism  as  a  sign  has  never  been 
thwarted  by  it ;  and  may  we  not  be  per- 
mitted to  indulge  a  hope  so  pleasing,  as 
that  the  use  of  baptism  as  a  seal  remains 
in  all  its  entireness — that  He  who  sanc- 
tioned the  affixing  of  it  to  a  babe,  will 
fulfil  upon  it  the  whole  expression  of  this 
ordinance :  And  when  we  couple  with 
this  the  known  disposition  of  our  great 
forerunner — the  love  that  He  manifested 
to  children  on  earth — how  He  suffered 
them  to  approach  His  person — and,  lav- 
ishing endearment  and  kindness  upon 
them  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  told  His 
disciples  that  the  presence  and  company 
of  such  as  these  in  heaven  formed  one 
ingredient  of  the  joy  that  was  set  before 
Him — Tell  us  if  Christianity  do  not  throw 
a  pleasing  radiance  around  an  infant's 
tomb  1  and  should  any  parent  who  hears 
us,  feel  softened  by  the  touching  remem- 
brance of  a  light,  that  twinkled  a  few 
short  months  under  his  roof,  and  at  the 
end  of  its  little  period  expired — we  cannot 
think  that  we  venture  too  far,  when  we 
say  that  he  has  only  to  persevere  in  the 
faith  and  in  the  following  of  the  gospel, 
and  that  very  light  will  again  shine  upon 
him    in    heaven.      The    blossom    which 


withered  here  upon  its  stalk,  has  been 
transplanted  there  to  a  place  of  endu- 
rance ;  and  it  will  then  gladden  that  eye 
which  now  weeps  out  the  agony  of  an 
affection  that  has  been  sorely  wounded ; 
and  in  the  name  of  Him  who  if  on  earth 
would  have  wept  along  with  them,  do  we 
bid  all  believers  present,  to  sorrow  not 
even  as  others  which  have  no  hope,  but 
to  take  comfort  in  the  thought  of  that 
country  where  there  is  no  sorrow  and  no 
separation. 

O,  when  a  mother  meets  on  high 
The  babe  she  lost  in  infancy, 
Hath  she  not  then,  for  pains  and  fears — 
The  day  of  woe,  the  watchful  night — 
For  all  her  sorrow,  all  her  tears — 
And  overpayment  of  delight"! 

We  have  put  forth  these  remarks,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  inspiring  a  very  violent 
distaste  towards  the  practice  of  others  in 
respect  of  baptism,  but  of  reconciling  you 
to  your  own  ;  and  of  protecting  you  from 
any  disturbance  of  mind,  on  account  of 
their  arguments.  It  forms  no  peculiarity 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  that  men 
differ  so  much  in  matters  connected  with 
Christianity;  but  it  forms  a  very  pleasing 
peculiarity,  that  men  can  do  now  what 
they  seldom  did  before,  they  can  agree  to 
difl'er.  With  zeal  for  the  esssentials,  they 
can  now  tolerate  each  other  in  the  cir- 
cumstantials of  their  faith  ;  and  under  all 
the  variety  which  they  wear,  whether  of 
complexion  or  of  outward  observance,  can 
recognize  the  brotherhood  of  a  common 
doctrine  and  of  a  common  spirit,  among 
very  many  of  the  modern  denominations 
of  Christendom.  The  line  which  measures 
off  the  ground  of  vital  and  evangelical 
religion,  from  the  general  ungodliness  of 
our  world,  must  never  be  effaced  from 
observation ;  and  the  latitudinarianism 
which  would  tread  it  under  foot,  must  be 
fearfully  avoided;  and  an  impregnable 
sacredness  must  be  thrown  around  that 
people,  who  stand  peculiarized  by  their 
devotedness  and  their  faith  from  the  great 
bulk  of  a  species  who  are  of  the  earth  and 
earthly.  There  are  landmarks  between 
the  children  of  light  and  the  children  of 
darkness,  which  can  never  be  moved 
away  ;  and  it  were  well  that  the  habit  of 
professing  Christians  was  more  formed  on 
the  principle  of  keeping  up  that  limit  of 
separation,  which  obtains  between  the 
church  and  the  world — so  that  they  who 
fear  God  should  talk  often  together  ;  and 
when  they  do  go  forth  by  any  voluntary 
movement  of  their  own  on  those  who  fear 
Him  not,  they  should  do  it  in  the  spirit, 
and  with  the  compassionate  purpose  of 
missionaries.  But  while  we  hold  it  ne- 
cessary to  raise  and  to  strengthen  the  wall 
by  which  the  fold  is  surrounded — and  that, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  intercepting  the 
flow  of  kindness  and  of  Christian  philan- 


?« 


LECTURE   XIV. CHAPTER   IV,   9 — 15. 


thropy  from  within,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  intercepting  the  streams  of  contamina- 
tion from  without — we  should  like  to  see 
all  the  lines  of  partition  that  have  been 
drawn  in  the  fold  itself  utterly  swept 
away.  This  is  fair  ground  for  the  march 
of  latitudinarianism — and  that,  not  for  the 
object  of  thereby  putting  down  the  sig- 
nals of  distinction  between  one  party  of 
Christians  and  another,  but,  allowing  each 
to  wear  its  own,  for  the  object  of  asso- 
ciating them  by  all  the  ties  and  the  re- 
cognitions of  Christian  fellowship.  In  this 
way,  we  apprehend,  that  there  will  come 
at  length  to  be  the  voluntary  surrender 
of  many  of  our  existing  distinctions,  which 
will  far  more  readily  give  way  by  being 
tolerated  than  by  being  fought  against. 
And  this  is  just  the  feeling  in  which  we 
regard  the  difference,  that  obtains  on  the 
subject  of  baptism.  It  may  subside  into 
one  and  the  same  style  of  observation,  or 
it  may  not.  It  is  one  of  those  inner  par- 
titions which  may  at  length  be  overthrown 
by  mutual  consent  ;  but,  in  the  mean 
time,  let  the  portals  of  a  free  admittance 
upon  both  sides  be  multiplied  as  fast  as 
they  may  along  the  whole  extent  of  it ; 
and  let  it  no  longer  be  confounded  with 
the  outer  wall  of  the  great  Christian  tem- 
ple,  but  be  instantly  recognized  as  the 


slender  partition  of  one  of  its  apartments, 
and  the  door  of  which  is  opened  for  the 
visits  of  welcome  and  kind  intercourse  to 
all  the  other  members  of  the  Christian 
family.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  of  the 
Particular  Baptists  of  England,  that  they 
form  the  denomination  of  Fuller  and 
Carey  and  Ryland  and  Hall  and  Foster  ; 
that  they  have  originated  among  the 
greatest  of  all  missionary  enterprises; 
that  they  have  enriched  the  Christian 
literature  of  our  country  with  authorship 
of  the  most  exalted  piety,  as  well  as  of 
the  first  talent  and  the  first  eloquence  ; 
that  they  have  waged  a  very  noble  and 
successful  war  with  the  hydra  of  Antino- 
mianism ;  that  perhaps  there  is  not  a 
more  intellectual  community  of  ministers 
in  our  island,  or  who  have  put  forth  to 
their  number  a  greater  amount  of  mental 
power  and  mental  activity  in  the  defence 
and  illustration  of  our  common  faith ; 
and,  what  is  better  than  all  the  triumphs 
of  genius  or  understanding,  who,  by  their 
zeal  and  fidelity  and  pastoral  labour 
among  the  congregations  which  they  have 
reared,  have  done  more  to  swell  the  lists 
of  genuine  discipleship  in  the  walks  of 
private  society — and  thus  both  to  uphold 
and  to  extend  the  living  Christianity  of 
our  nation. 


LECTURE  XV. 


Romans  iv,  16 — 22. 

Therefore  it  is  of  faith,  that  it  might  be  by  grace  ;  to  the  end  the  promise  might  be  sure  to  all  the  set'd  :  not  to  that 
only  which  is  of  the  law,  but  to  that  also  which  is  of  the  faith  of  Abraham  who  is  the  father  of  us  all.  (As  it  is 
written,  I  have  made  thee  a  father  of  many  nations,)  before  him  whom  he  believed,  even  God,  who  quickeneth  the 
dead,  and  calleth  those  things  which  be  not  as  though  they  were :  who  against  hope  believed  in  hope  that  he  might 
become  the  father  of  many  nations,  according  ti>  that  which  was  spoken,  Ko  shall  thy  seed  be.  And  being  not 
•weak  in  faith,  he  considered  not  his  own  body  now  dead,  when  he  was  about  an  himdred  years  old,  neither  yet  the 
deadness  of  Sarah's  womb  :  he  staggered  not  at  tlie  promise  of  God  through  unbelief;  but  was  strong  in  faith,  giv- 
ing glory  to  God  :  and  being  fully  persuaded,  that  what  he  had  promised,  ne  was  able  also  to  perform.  And  there- 
fore it  was  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness." 


v.  16.  You  may  hci-e  remark,  that  faith 
is  not  a  meritorious  work  in  the  business 
of  our  salvation.  It  docs  not  stand  in  the 
place  of  obedience,  as  the  term  of  a  new 
bargain,  that  has  been  substituted  in  room 
of  an  old  one.  It  is  very  natural  to  con- 
ceive, that,  as  under  the  old  covenant  v/o 
had  salvation  tor  our  works — so,  under 
the  new,  we  have  salvation  for  our  faith  ; 
and  that  therefore  faith  is  that  which  wins 
and  purchases  the  reward.  And  thus  faith 
is  invested,  in  the  imagination  of  some, 
with  the  mr>rit  and  character  of  a  work : 
and  Heaven's  favour  is  still  looked  upon 
as  a  prenaium,  not  a  premium  for  doing, 
it  is  true,  but  a  premium  for  believing: 
And  this,  as  we  have  already  said,  has 
just  the  effect  of  infusing  the  legal  spirit 


into  the  letter  and  expression  of  our  evan- 
gelical system  ;  and  thus,  not  merely  of 
nourishing  the  pride  and  the  pretensions 
of  its  confident  votaries,  but  of  prolonging 
the  disquietude  of  all  earnest  and  humble 
inquirers.  For,  instead  of  looking  broadly 
out  on  the  gospel  as  an  offer,  they  look  as 
anxiously  inward  upon  themselves  for  the 
personal  qualification  of  faith,  as  they 
ever  did  upon  the  personal  qualification 
of  obedience.  This  transfers  their  atten- 
tion from  that  which  is  sure,  even  the  pro- 
mises of  God — to  that  which  is  unsure, 
oven  their  own  fickle  and  fugitive  emo- 
tions. Instead  of  thinking  upon  Christ, 
they  are  perpetually  thinking  upon  them- 
.selves — as  if  they  could  discover  Him  in 
the  muddy  recesses  of  their  own  heart. 


LECTURE   XV. CHAPTEPw    IV,    16 22. 


77 


without  previously  admitting  Him  by  the 
avenue  of  a  direct  and  open  perception. 
They  ought  surely  to  cast  their  challenged 
and  their  invited  regards  on  Him,  who  is 
the  same  to-day,  yesterday,  and  for  ever, 
when  He  calls  them  by  His  word,  to  look 
upon  Him  from  all  the  ends  of  the  earth 
and  be  saved.  But  no !  they  cast  their 
eyes  with  downward  obstinacy  upon  their 
own  minds  ;  and  there  toil  for  the  produc- 
tion of  faith  in  the  spirit  of  bondage ;  and 
perhaps,  after  they  are  satisfied  with  the 
fancied  possession  of  it,  rejoice  over  it  as 
they  would  over  any  other  meritorious 
acquirement  in  the  spn-it  of  legality.  This 
is  not  the  way  in  which  the  children  of 
Israel  looked  out  upon  the  serpent  that 
was  lifted  up  in  the  wilderness.  They  did 
not  pore  upon  their  wounds  to  mark  the 
progress  of  healing  there ;  nor  did  they 
reflect  upon  the  power  and  perfection  of 
their  seeing  faculties  ;  nor  did  they  even 
suffer  any  doubt  that  still  lingered  in  their 
imaginations,  to  restrain  them  from  the 
simple  act  of  lifting  up  their  eyes :  And 
when  they  were  cured  in  consequence, 
they  would  never  think  of  this  as  a  reward 
for  their  looking,  but  regard  it  as  the  fruit 
of  Heaven's  gracious  appointment.  Do  in 
like  manner.  It  will  make  both  against 
your  humility  and  your  peace,  that  you 
regard  faith  in  the  light  of  a  meritorious 
qualification  ;  or  that  you  attempt  to  draw 
a  comfort  from  the  consciousness  of  faith, 
which  you  ought  primarily  and  directly 
to  draw  from  the  contemplation  of  the 
Saviour.  If  salvation  be  given  as  a  re- 
ward for  faith,  then  it  is  not  of  grace. 
But  we  are  told  in  this  verse  that  it  is  of 
faith,  expressly  that  it  might  be  by  grace. 
And  therefore  be  assured,  that  there  is  an 
error  in  all  those  conceptions  of  faith 
which  tend  to  vitiate  or  to  destroy  this 
character;  which  make  the  good  things 
of  the  gospel  come  down  upon  you  as  a 
payment,  and  not  as  a  present ;  which 
make  the  preaching  of  eternal  life  through 
Christ  any  thing  else  than  simply  the  of- 
fer of  a  gift,  and  faith  any  thing  else  than 
simply  the  discerning  of  this  offer  to  be 
true,  and  receiving  it  accordingly.  In  the 
one  way,  you  can  only  be  as  sure  of  the 
promise  as  you  are  sure  of  yourself;  and 
what  a  frail  and  fluctuating  dependence 
is  this,  we  would  ask?  In  the  other  way, 
you  are  as  sure  of  the  promise,  as  you  are 
sure  of  God  ;  and  thus  your  confidence 
has  a  rock  to  repose  upon  ;  and  the  more 
firmly  you  adhere  and  are  rivetted  to  this 
foundation,  the  less  chance  is  there  of 
your  ever  being  moved  away  from  the 
hope  of  the  gospel ;  and  though  this  be 
established,  not  on  what  is  within  but  on 
what  is  without  you,  let  us  not  thereby 
imagine  that  all  the  securities  for  personal 
worth  and  personal  excellence  are  there- 


by overthrown — for  it  is  in  the  very  atti- 
tude of  leaning  upon  God,  that  man  is  up- 
held not  only  in  hope  but  in*holiness.  It 
is  in  the  very  position  of  standing  erect 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  promises,  that 
the  promised  strength  as  well  as  the  pro- 
mised righteousness  is  fulfilled  to  him. 
It  is  in  the  very  act  of  looking  unto  Jesus, 
that  the  light  of  all  that  grace  and  truth 
and  moral  lustre  which  shine  upon  him 
from  the  countenance  of  the  Saviour  is 
let  in  upon  the  soul ;  and  is  thence  re- 
flected back  again  in  the  likeness  of  this 
worth  and  virtue  from  his  own  person. 
We  have  no  fear  whatever  of  a  simple  de- 
pendence on  the  grace  of  the  gospel,  ope- 
rating as  an  impediment  to  the  growth  of 
the  holiness  of  the  gospel.  We  believe 
that  it  is  the  alone  stay  of  our  deliverance 
from  the  power  of  sin,  just  as  it  is  the 
alone  stay  of  our  deliverance  from  the 
fears  of  guilt :  And,  meanwhile,  go  not  to 
obscure  the  aspect  of  this  free  and  gene- 
rous ministration,  by  regarding  the  gospel 
in  any  other  light,  than  as  an  honestly  an- 
nounced present  of  mercy  to  all  who  will ; 
or  by  regarding  the  faith  of  the  gospel  in 
any  other  light,  than  you  would  the  ear 
that  heard  the  communication  of  the  pre- 
sent, or  than  you  would  the  hand  that  laid 
hold  of  it. 

But,  to  return  from  this  digression.  V. 
16.  17.  The  inheritance  is  of  faith,  that  it 
might  be  by  grace,  which  can  be  extend- 
ed to  many  nations ;  and  not  of  the  law, 
which  would  confine  it  to  one  nation. 
This  makes  it  sure  to  the  whole  seed  of 
Abraham,  not  merely  to  his  seed  by  natu- 
ral descent,  but  to  that  seed  which  stands 
related  to  him  from  being  believers.  It  is 
in  this  sense  that  it  is  written  of  him — he 
is  the  father  of  many  nations.  It  was  his 
faith  which  introduced  him  into  a  filial 
relationship  with  God  ;  and  in  the  eyes  of 
God,  on  whom  he  believed,  all  who  be- 
lieved after  him  were  regarded  as  his  chil- 
dren. It  was  very  unlikely  that  Abraham 
should  in  any  sense  be  blest  with  an  off- 
spring. But  God  calleth  out  from  nonen- 
tity such  things  as  be  not — and  He  also 
sees  such  an  analogy  between  natural  and 
spiritual  things,  that  He  gives  to  a  spirit- 
ual relationship  the  name  of  a  natural  re- 
lationship. He  did  both  in  the  case  of 
Abraham.  In  the  face  of  a  very  strong 
unlikelihood,  He  conferred  a  real  posterity 
on  Abraham.  And  He  constituted  him  in 
a  mystical  sense  the  fiither  of  a  still  more 
extended  posterity,  by  making  him  the 
father  of  all  who  believed. 

V.  18.  Abraham,  perhaps,  had  no  suspi- 
cion, at  the  utterance  of  this  promise,  of 
any  deep  or  spiritual  meaning  that  lay 
under  it.  He  certainly  apprehended  it  in 
its  natural  sense,  and  perhaps  in  this 
sense  aloiie.    Looking  forward  to  it  with 


78 


LECTURE    XV. CHAPTER   IV,    16 22. 


the  eye  of  experience,  he  could  have  no 
hope  ;  but  looking  forward  to  it  with  the 
eye  of  faith  in  the  divine  testimony,  he 
might  have  a  conlident  expectation.  It  is 
this  which  is  meant  by  'against  hope 
believing  in  hope.'  The  stronger  the  im- 
probability in  nature,  the  stronger  was 
the  faith  which  overcame  the  impression 
of  it.  He  sutfered  not  himself  to  be  stag- 
gered out  of  his  reliance  on  that  which 
was  spoken.  He  thus  rendered  an  homage 
to  the  truth  of  God ;  and  an  homage  pro- 
portional to  the  unlikelihood  of  the  thing 
which  God  testified.  It  was  also  an  hom- 
age to  His  power  as  well  as  to  His  truth. 
It  proved  that  He  thought  Him  able  to 
arrest  and  to  turn   nature;    and   if  He 

E remised  to  do  so,  that  what  He  promised 
[e  was  able  also  to  perform.  And  this 
faith  was  counted  to  him  for  righteous- 
ness. God  was  pleased  with  the  confi- 
dence that  was  placed  in  Him ;  and  His 
pleasure  in  it  was  enhanced  by  the  trials 
and  difficulties  which  it  ha,d  to  contend 
with.  It  is  thus  that  God's  honour,  and 
man's  interest  are  at  one.  We  honour 
Him  by  believing.  By  believing  we  arc 
saved.  The  fuller  and  firmer  our  persua- 
sion in  His  truth,  the  greater  is  the  hom- 
age that  we  render  Him,  and  the  more 
abundant  arc  both  the  present  peace  and 
the  future  glory  which  we  bring  down 
upon  ourselves.  To  hope  against  hope — 
to  believe  in  the  midst  of  violent  improba- 
bilities— to  realize  the  future  things  which 
are  addrest  to  faith,  and  are  so  unlike 
those  present  things  with  which  nature 
surrounds  us — to  maintain  an  unshaken 
confidence  because  God  hath  spoken, 
though  the  besetting  urgencies  of  sense 
and  experience  all  tend  to  thwart  and  to 
dislodge  it — These  are  the  trials  which,  if 
faith  overcome,  make  that  faith  more 
precious  than  gold  in  the  sight  of  our 
heavenly  witness;  and  it  will  be  found  to 
praise  and  honour  and  glory  at  the  ap- 
pearing of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  following  is  the  paraphrase  of  this 
passage. 

'Therefore  the  promised  inheritance  is 
of  faith,  that  it  might  be  by  grace,  which 
can  be  extended  to  all — so  as  to  ensure 
the  promise  to  the  whole  generation  of 
believers,  not  only  to  those  who  are  of  the 
law,  but  to  those  who  have  the  faith  of 
Abraham,  the  father  and  the  forerunner 
of  us  all.  Agreeably  to  the  scripture,'  "  I 
have  made  thee  a  father  of  many  nations," 
which  he  is  in  the  eye  and  estimation  of 
Him  on  whom  he  believed — even  God, 
who,  by  quickening  that  which  is  dead 
and  dormant,  both  called  forth  a  real 
posterity  to  Abraham,  and  also  constituted 
him  the  spiritual  father  of  a  posterity 
far  more  extended  than  that  of  which  he 
was  the  natural  progenitor.    This  looked 


most  unlikely  to  the  eye  of  nature  and 
experience ;  but,  in  the  face  of  all  the 
improbabilities  which  would  have  dark- 
ened the  hope  of  other  men,  did  he  with 
confidence  hope,  that  he  should  become 
the  father  of  many  nations — according  to 
the  word  that  was  spoken  to  him  about 
what  his  posterity  should  be.  And  being 
not  weak  in  faith,  he  considered  not  his 
own  body  now  dead,  when  he  was  yet 
about  an  hundred  years  old,  neither  yet 
the  deadncss  of  Sarah's  womb.  He  stag- 
gered not  at  God's  promise  through  un- 
belief, but  was  strong  in  faith,  thereby 
giving  glory  to  God's  faithfulness.  And 
being  fully  persuaded,  that  what  He  had 
promised  He  was  able  also  to  perform. 
And  therefore  was  it  reckoned  unto  him 
for  righteousness.' 

The  lessons  we  shall  try  to  enforce 
from  this  passage,  are  all  founded  on  the 
consideration,  that  Abraham,  in  respect 
of  his  faith,  is  set  up  as  a  model  to  us — 
that,  in  like  manner  as  he  believed  in  the 
midst  of  difficulties  and  trials,  so  ought 
we — that  we  ought  to  hold  fast  our  confi- 
dence in  the  midst  of  apparent  impossi- 
bilities, even  as  he  did — that  with  us  the 
eye  of  faith  should  look  above  and  be- 
yond all  that  is  seen  by  the  eye  of  flesh, 
even  as  with  him — and  that  we  should  not 
only  set  out  on  the  life  of  faith  after  his 
example,  but  should  also  walk  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  faith  of  our  father  Abraham. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  our 
great  pattern,  is  his  tenacious  and  reso- 
lute adherence  to  the  truth  of  God's  testi- 
mony. "  Let  God  be  true,"  says  the  apos- 
tle, "and  every  man  a  liar" — If  God  have 
spoken,  said  the  patriarch  by  his  conduct^ 
let  us  abide  by  it — though  all  nature  and 
all  experience  should  depone  to  the  con- 
trary. Amid  all  the  staggering  appear- 
ances by  which  he  was  surrounded,  he 
kept  by  his  firm  persuasion  in  God's  truth; 
and  it  was  this  which  inwardly  upheld 
him.  His  heart  was  fixed,  trusting  in  God. 
He  knew  that  it  was  His  voice  which  first 
called  him  forth,  and  he  was  fully  assured 
of  its  faithfulness  ;  and  that  it  was  his 
promise  which  first  allured  him  from  the 
abode  of  his  fathers,  and  he  held  it  to  be 
certain  that  what  God  had  promised  He 
was  able  to  perform;  and  when  all  that 
was  visible  to  sense  looked  unlikelihood 
upon  his  expectations,  they  were  kept  in 
full  buoyancy  and  vigour  by  his  unfalter- 
ing reliance  on  the  word  of  Him  who  is 
invisible.  All  the  agitations  of  his  varied 
history,  could  not  unfasten  his  soul  from 
the  anchor  of  its  fixed  and  unalterable  de- 
pendence. And  it  was  truly  noble  in  him^ 
who,  obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision,  had 
torn  himself  away  from  the  endearments 
of  the  place  of  his  nativity  ;  and,  at  the 
call  of  what  he  deemed  a  voice  of  right- 


LECTURE   XV. CHAPTER   IV,    16 22. 


79 


ful  authority,  went  forth  he  knew  not 
whither,  and  exchanged  the  abode  of  do- 
mestic serenity  and  bliss  for  the  mazes  of 
a  toilsome  and  uncertain  pilgrimage  ;  and 
amid  all  that  was  fitted  to  dismay  his  heart 
when  travelling  in  countries  that  were  be- 
fore unknown,  made  the  will  of  God  the 
ruling  impulse  of  his  history,  and  the 
promise  of  God  the  presiding  star  which 
cheered  and  conducted  him  on  his  way — 
it  was  a  truly  noble  triumph  of  faith  in 
this  great  patriarch,  who,  when  a  stranger 
in  a  strange  land,  looked  around  him,  and 
beheld  nothing  in  the  verge  of  this  lower 
world  that  did  not  lour  upon  his  destinies 
— yet  could  rejoice  both  in  the  safety  that 
encompassed  him,  and  in  the  glory  that 
was  before  him — upheld  singly  but  surely 
on  this  one  consideration,  that  God  hath 
said  it,  and  shall  he  not  do  it  ? 

It  was  against  hope,  believing  in  hope, 
for  him  to  sustain  with  so  much  confi- 
dence the  expectation,  that  to  him  a  son 
should  be  born.  But  the  most  striking 
display  of  his  thus  hoping  against  hope, 
was  when  told,  that  unto  his  son  and  his 
seed  after  him,  God  should  establish  an 
everlasting  covenant,  and  at  the  same  time 
bidden  to  offer  him  up  in  sacrifice,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  do  what  God  ordered  ;  and  yet 
retained  in  his  heart  the  belief  of  what 
God  said — when  he  lifted  against  him  the 
meditated  blow  of  death,  knowing,  that, 
even  from  death,  God  could  revive  him — 
when  he  simply  betook  himself  to  his  pre- 
scribed task  ;  and  kept  by  a  purpose  of 
obedience,  with  which  he  not  only  over- 
came all  the  relentings  of  nature,  but 
threw  a  darkening  shroud  over  prophecies 
that  stood  linked  with  the  life  of  Isaac  in 
the  world.  He  knew  that  God  would  find 
a  way  of  his  own  to  their  accomplish- 
ment ;  and  it  was  this  which  bore  him  on- 
ward to  the  full  proof  and  vindication  of 
his  faith :  And  should  we  be  at  a  loss  to 
comprehend  what  is  meant  by  against 
hope  believing  in  hope,  we  see  in  this 
trial  that  was  laid  upon  Abraham,  and  in 
the  acquittal  he  made  of  himself,  the  most 
plain  and  picturesque  exhibition  of  it. 

Now  to  be  strong  in  faith  as  he  was,  to 
cherish  the  full  persuasion  that  he  did,  to 
believe  whh  him  in  the  midst  of  obstacles, 
to  make  the  glory  of  God's  truth  carry  it 
over  the  appearances  of  nature,  so  as  to 
stagger  not  in  the  face  of  them,  but  to 
hope  against  hope — this  is  still  the  exer- 
cise of  every  Christian  mind,  and  it  were 
well  to  be  guided  therein  by  the  example 
of  this  venerable  patriarch.  Such  is  the 
way  in  which  the  message  of  the  gospel 
is  constructed — such  are  the  terms  of  that 
embassy  with  which  its  ministers  are 
charged,  that  the  promise  of  God  as  a 
shield,  and  of  God  as  an  exceeding  great 
reward,  is  as  good  as  laid  down  at  the 


door  of  every  individual  who  hears  it.  It 
is  true  that  the  promise  thus  laid  down 
will  not  be  fulfilled  upon  him,  unless  he 
take  it  up  ;  or,  in  other  words,  unless  he 
believe  it.  Now  there  is  a  ditficulty  in 
the  way  of  nature  believing  any  such 
thing.  There  is  a  struggle  that  it  must 
make  with  its  own  fears  and  its  own  sus- 
picions, ere  it  can  admit  the  credibility 
of  a  holy  God  thus  taking  sinners  into 
acceptance.  There  is  an  unlikelihood 
here,  which  is  ever  obtruding  itself  on  the 
apprehensions  of  the  guilty,  and  which 
tends  to  keep  the  offered  peace  and  pardon 
and  reconciliation  of  the  gospel  at  an 
exceedingly  hopeless  distance  away  from 
them.  Can  it  indeed  be  true  that  God  is 
at  this  moment  beseeching  me  to  enter 
into  agreement  with  Him  ]  Can  it  indeed 
be  true  that  a  way  of  approach  has  been 
devised,  open  for  admittance  to  my- 
self; and  on  which,  if  I  am  found,  I  am 
met  by  the  loving  kindness  and  tender 
mercies  of  Him  who  looks  so  fearful  to 
my  imagination?  Can  it  be  true  of  that 
lofty  and  tremendous  B^ing  who  sits  on  a 
throne  of  rhajesty  ;  and  with  whom  I  have 
been  wont  to  associate  the  character  of 
jealousy,  and  wrath,  and  a  sacredness  so 
remote  and  inflexible,  that  none  may  draw 
nigh  unto  it — can  it  be  true  that  He  is  now 
bending  compassionately  over  me,  and 
entreating  my  return  from  those  paths  of 
alienation  in  which  I  have  all  along  wan- 
dered ]  We  indeed  read  of  an  adjusted 
ceremonial,  by  which  sinners  may  be 
brought  within  the  limits  of  His  august 
sanctuary ;  and  we  read  of  a  Mediator 
who  hath  made  the  rough  places  plain, 
and  levelled  the  otherwise  impassable 
mountains  of  iniquity  which  stood  between 
us  and  God  :  But  can  it  indeed  be  true, 
that  Christ  is  wooing  and  welcoming  our 
approach  towards  Him,  and  if  we  only 
come  with  reliance  to  Him  as  to  the  mercy 
seat,  then  to  us  there  will  be  no  condem- 
nation 1  Nature  may  strongly  desire  such 
a  consummation ;  but  nature  strongly 
doubts  its  possibility.  And  it  takes  a 
struggle  to  surmount  her  apprehensions; 
and  it  is  against  hope  if  she  believe  in 
hope ;  and  there  is  a  contest  here  to  be 
gone  through,  ere  our  fears  of  that  inflex- 
ible truth  which  has  proclaimed  in  the 
hearing  of  our  conscience  the  curses  of  a 
violated  law,  shall  be  overcome  by  our 
faith  in  that  truth,  which  proclaims  in 
Scripture  the  blessings  of  a  free  and 
offered  gospel.  And  here  then  let  the 
example  of  Abraham  be  proposed  to  cheer 
our  way  over  this  barrier  of  unbelief. 
Let  us  stoutly  imitate  him  in  the  resolute 
combat  he  held  with  the  misgivings  of 
nature.  Let  even  the  very  chief  of  sin- 
ners face  the  unlikelihood  that  such  as  he 
can   be  taken  into  friendship  with  the 


80 


LECTURE   XV. CHAPTER   IV,    16 22. 


God,  before  whom  his  profaneness  and 
profligacy  have  hitherto  risen  as  a  smoke 
of  abomination.  Let  even  him  buoy  up 
his  expectations,  against  the  whole  weii^ht 
and  burden  of  this  despondency.  In.pro- 
bable  as  it  may  iool<  to  the  eye  of  nature, 
that  an  outcast  so  polluted  and  so  loath- 
some can  be  admitted  into  the  honours  of 
righteousness  ;  and  that  though  onward  to 
the  point  of  his  present  history  he  be 
crimsoned  over  with  the  guilt  of  ungodli- 
ness, can  not  only  be  forgiven,  but  be  jus- 
tified— yet  let  him  against  this  hope  be- 
lieve in  hope,  and  the  stronger  his  faith 
the  more  abundant  to  him  will  be  the 
imputation  of  righteousness.  In  that  very 
proportion  in  which  he  has  heretofore 
trampled  on  the  glory  of  God  by  his  diso- 
bedience, will  he  render  a  glory  to  His 
truth  by  now  believing  in  Him  who  justi- 
fieth  the  ungodly.  Let  him  consider  the 
faith  of  Abraham,  and  let  the  expressions 
which  the  aposile  employs  to  characterize 
it  now  crowd  upon  his  observation,  and 
cany  all  doubt  and  timidity  before  them. 
It  is  just  by  standing  on  the  tj-uth  of  the 
gospel,  and  then  bearing  up  under  the 
sense  of  the  guilt  that  hangs  over  us — it 
is  just  by  firmly  and  determinedly  persist- 
ing in  this  attitude  of  confidence  on  the 
word  of  God,  even  in  the  midst  of  all 
which  without  that  word  should  sink  us 
into  despair — it  is  just  by  so  doing,  that 
like  Abraham  we  stagger  not  because  of 
unbelief;  and  like  him  we  against  hope 
beli(-ve  in  hope  ;  and  like  him  we  are  not 
weak  in  the  faith,  but  by  being  strong  in 
it  give  glory  to  Goil ;  and  like  him  are 
fully  piT.suadcd  that  what  God  hath  prom- 
ised, He  is  able  to  pcrf  irm  ;  and  like  him 
be  assured,  the  guiltiest  (if  you  ail,  that  if 
such  be  your  faith,  held  firm  and  fast  even 
unto  the  end — like  as  unto  him  so  will 
this  faith  be  imi)Uled  unto  you  for  right- 
eousness. 

There  is  another  great  unlikelihood  in 
the  matter  of  Christianity,  to  call  forth  the 
exercise  of  against  hope  believing  in  hope 
— not  mcMely  that  God's  disposition  to- 
wards us  should  be  so  changed  as  that  He 
shall  regard  us  with  an  eye  of  acceptance, 
but  that  our  tlisposition  toward  God  shall 
be  so  changed  as  to  make  us  happy  in  the 
fellowship  of  a  common  character  and  of 
a  congenial  intercourse  with  Him.  This 
we  are  not  by  nature.  Our  delighted 
converse?  is  with  the  things  that  are  made, 
and  not  with  the  Maker  of  them.  In  re- 
fi-renct!  to  Him  there  is  ihe  insensibility 
of  spiritual  death  ;  and  the  great  transi- 
tion that  we  have  to  undergo  ere  Heaven 
can  to  us  be  a  place  of  kindred  enjoy- 
ment, is  to  be  m:ide  alive  again.  For  this 
purpose  there  must  be  a  revival,  which 
no  pi.ttiiig  forth  of  any  constitutional 
energy  in  man  can  at  all  accomplish — a 


process  of  quickening,  which  nature  can- 
not originate,  and  nature  cannot  carry 
forward — a  resurrection  of  the  soul,  that 
is  as  far  beyond  the  bidding  of  any  hu- 
man voice,  as  is  the  egress  of  a  reani- 
mated body  from  the  grave.  The  man 
who  knows  how  steeped  all  his  feelings 
and  all  his  faculties  are  in  ungodliness, 
knows  the  moral  and  spiritual  birth  that 
we  are  now  adverting  to,  to  be  against  the 
current  of  all  his  former  experience,  and 
beyond  the  achievement  of  all  his  present 
most  strenuous  exertions.  And  if  against 
hope  he  believe  in  the  hope,  that  such  a 
regeneration  shall  be  begun  or  perfected 
in  him,  it  will  be  on  the  footing  of  some 
such  promise  as  sustained  the  expecta- 
tions of  the  patriarch.  This  unfolds  to 
us  the  link  which  connects  our  faith  with 
our  sanctification.  God  hath  promised 
the  clean  heart  and  the  right  spirit  to  all 
who  are  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  and,  according 
to  the  firmness  of  our  reliance  upon  this 
promise,  will  be  the  fulness  of  its  accom- 
plishment upon  our  persons.  Believest 
thou  that  I  am  able  to  do  this?  says  the 
Saviour  to  the  man  who  looked  to  Him 
for  a  miraculous  cure  ;  and  according  to 
his  faith  so  was  it  done  unto  him.  The 
apostle  Paul  looked  upon  another  rnan 
under  disease,  and  perceived  that  he  had 
faith  to  be  healed.  Peter  affirmed  of  the 
cripple  whom  he  restored  to  the  use  of  his 
limbs  in  the  temple,  that  the  name  of 
Christ  through  faith  in  His  name  had 
made  this  man  strong — yea  the  faith  which 
is  by  Him,  had  given  him  this  perfect 
soundness  in  the  presence  of  them  all. 
And  thus  do  we  recover  our  spiritual 
health.  And  thus  are  the  blindness  and 
the  paralysis  and  the  impotency  that  have 
so  benumbed  our  moral  faculties  done 
away.  The  full  and  firm  persuasion  of 
the  patriarch,  that  what  is  impossible  with 
man  is  possible  with  God,  will  bring  down 
this  possibility  in  living  demonstration 
upon  our  own  characters.  He  who  pro- 
mises also  says,  that  for  this  I  must  be 
enquired  after ;  and  the  prayer  of  faith 
brings  down  the  fulfilment ;  and  the  man 
who  asks  for  what  is  siJ  consonant  to  the 
will  of  God,  as  that  he  shall  be  made  alive 
unto  himself,  has  only  like  Abraham  to 
believe  Him  able  to  call  from  the  womb 
of  nonentity  that  power  into  being,  by 
which  he  is  made  a  new  creature  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  A  creature  from  the 
depths  of  his  conscious  depravity,  thus 
knocking  at  the  door  which  he  cannot 
open,  but  who  believes  that  one  is  stand- 
ing there  to  hear  and  to  answer  him — a 
humble  aspirant  after  the  character  of 
Heaven,  who  prays  in  faith  for  the  love  to 
God  which  he  has  never  yet  felt,  and  for 
the  charity  to  man  with  which  he  has 
vainly  tried  to  animate  his  own  cold  and 


LECTURE   XV. CHAPTER   IV,    16 — 22. 


SI 


selfish  bosom — the  labouring  disciple  of 
revelation,  whose  ear  has  taken  up  the 
promise  of  our  internal  inheritance,  but 
who  knows  that  it  is  only  through  the  me- 
dium of  a  birth  in  his  own  heart  as  pre- 
ternatural as  that  of  Isaac  that  he  ever 
can  arrive  at  it — let  him  imitate  the  father 
of  the  faithful  in  his  confident  reliance  on 
the  promise  of  God  ;  and  like  him  let  him 
believe  in  the  power  that  quickenelh  from 
above ;  and  like  him  who  was  not  weak 
in  faith,  let  him  consider  not  the  deadness 
of  his  own  moral  and  spiz'itual  energies, 
but  give  to  God  the  whole  glory  of  the  reno- 
vation he  aspires  after — and  he  will  most 
assuredly  experience  with  all  Christians, 
that  when  weak  then  is  he  strong,  and  that 
what  God  hath  promised  He  is  able  also 
to  perform. 

But  the  habit  of  against  hope  believing 
in  hope,  is  not  restricted  to  the  great  and 
general  promises  of  Christianity.  It  ex- 
tends to  all  the  promises  of  the  book  of 
revelation — to  those  for  example,  in  which 
God  has  condescended  even  on  the  passing 
affairs  of  our  pilgrimage  in  this  world  ; 
and  athrmed  thai  He  will  not  leave  us 
destitute  of  such  things  as  are  needful  fur 
the  body ;  and  hath  admonished  us  to 
cast  this  care  upon  Him,  on  the  assurance 
of  daily  bread  to  us  and  our  little  ones. 
Amid  the  reelings  of  this  eventful  period,* 
we  doubt  not  that  the  aspect  of  the  times 
has  borne  upon  it  a  hard  and  a  louring 
expression  towards  many  a  family ;  and 
that,  standing  on  the  eve  of  a  fearful  de- 
scent into  the  abyss  of  poverty,  great  has 
been  the  distress  and  great  has  been  the 
disquietude;  and  that  while  the  present 
and  the  visible  dependence  was  fast  melt- 
ing away,  and  every  successive  arrival 
had  for  months  together  tolled  to  the  ear 
of  the  mercantile  world  a  still  more  dis- 
mal futurity  that  was  coming — many  have 
been  the  hearts  among  you  that  were  fail- 
ing for  fear,  and  to  the  eye  of  nature  was 
it  against  all  hope,  that  you  ever  could  be 
borne  throi>gh  the  dark  spaces  of  uncer- 
tainty that  lay  before  you.  And  yet  even 
here  the  Christian  has  ground  against 
hope  to  believe  in  hope.  The  promise  of 
daily  bread  is  to  him  and  to  his  children. 
Let  him  but  have  the  faith  of  the  patri- 
arch, and  he  will  not  be  afraid  of  evil 
tidings;  and  while  there  be  others,  who, 
in  the  rush  of  a  great  commercial  storm, 
are  melted  in  their  soul  because  of  trou- 
ble ;  and  reel  to  and  fro,  and  stagger  like 
a  drunken  man,  and  are  at  their  wits'  end 
— he  believeth  and  is  calm,  and  at  length 
finds  himself  in  the  desired  haven.  And 
we  appeal  to  this  worst  of  seasons  ;  we 
appeal  to  a  period  from  the  crash  and  the 


•  In  1820 -when  commercial  distress,  and  political  dis- 
content, threatened  a  violent  outbreaking  in  the  manu- 
facturing districts  of  the  West  of  Scotland. 


turbulence  and  the  fearful  despondency 
of  which  we  are  yet  scarcely  emerging — ■ 
when  society  has  been  heaving  under  the 
burden  of  a  commerce  greater  than  it  can 
bear,  and  the  surfeited  and  overladen 
world  has  been  rolling  back  upon  its  au- 
thors the  produce  of  their  own  frenzied 
speculations — when  the  proudest  of  our 
great  trading  establishments  have  toppled 
to  an  overthrow,  and  strewed  the  face  of 
an  ocean  that  is  still  labouring  with  the 
ruins  and  the  fragments  of  shipwrecked 
ambition — We  are  confident  that  even  in 
the  very  midst  of  such  a  history  as  this, 
there  is  not  a  house  we  can  enter,  nor  a 
family  from  which  we  can  obtain  the  re- 
cord of  all  their  vicissitudes  and  all  their 
vexations,  where  we  shall  not  find  a  tro- 
phy of  the  faithfulness  of  God — where  up 
to  the  extent  of  His  own  engagement, 
which  are  what  tilings  we  absolutely  stand 
in  need  of,  and  why  care  we  for  the  rest  1 
— He  has  not  ministered  subsistence  and 
safety  to  all  who  put  their  trust  in  Him — so 
that  here  is  an  ever  recurring  topic  for  the 
exercise  of  faith  ;  and  in  behalf  of  God 
do  we  affirm,  even  in  the  unlikeliest  and 
most  threatening  of  all  periods,  that  as  the 
faith  so  will  be- the  fulfilment. 

And  upon  this  very  theme  of  our  pre- 
sent remarks,  does  the  offering  up  of  Isaac 
admit  of  a  most  powerful  and  pertinent 
application.  It  was  through  him,  that 
Abraham  saw  afar  off  the  glory  that  was 
promised ;  and  yet  was  he  required  by 
God  to  sacrifice  with  his  own  hands  ;  and, 
even  against  hope  believing  in  hope,  he 
proceeded  to  render  an  unfaltering  com- 
pliance with  the  order ;  and  while  he  made 
full  proof  of  his  obedience  on  the  one 
hand,  did  God  on  the  other  make  full 
proof  of  His  faithfulness.  There  is  a  time 
when  adversity  brings  a  man  so  low,  as 
to  strip  him  of  more  than  his  all ;  and 
when  it  places  him  before  the  tribunal  of 
his  assembled  creditors  ;  and  when  justice 
bids  a  faithful  account  and  a  full  surren- 
der of  all  that  belongs  to  him  ;  and  when 
nevertheless,  by  an  act  of  dexterous  and 
unseen  appropriation,  he  may  retain  a 
something  with  which  he  links  the  future 
revival  of  his  busine.ss,  or  the  future  sub- 
sistence of  his  family.  Now  this  is  his 
appointed  sacrifice,  This,  in  despite  of 
all  fond  anticipation  in  behalf  of  his  pros- 
pects, and  of  ail  relentiiigs  on  behalf  of 
his  children,  it  is  his  duty  to  give  up.  His 
business  is  to  discharge  himself  of  every 
item  of  God's  will,  and  to  embark  himself 
with  full  reliance  on  God's  promises. 
This  is  the  trial  both  of  his  integrity  and 
of  his  fiiith  ;  and  on  the  altar  of  truth  it  is 
his  part  to  deposit  an  entire  article,  and 
to  bring  forward  every  secret  and  untold 
offering  to  the  light  of  an  open  manifesta- 
tion.    This  we  would  call  the  triumph  of 


82 


LECTURE   XV. CHAPTER   IV,    16 22. 


faith  over  vision,  and  of  trust  in  God  over 
the  apprehensions  of  nature  ;  and  the  un- 
seen witness,  who  all  the  while  is  most 
intently  looking  on,  can  out  of  the  infinity 
of  means  which  He  has  at  command, 
again  brinp  siiHiciency  to  his  door — can 
till  him  with  all  that  peace  of  contentment, 
with  which  godliness  is  great  gain,  and 
bless  with  the  light  of  His  approving 
countenance  that  liumbler  walk  to  which 
he  has  descended — can  throw  a  sweetness 
and  a  shelter  around  him  that  perhaps  he 
never  felt  in  the  loftier  exposures  of  so- 
ciety ;  and  irradiate  his  more  moJest  and 
homely  dwelling  place,  with  a  hope  that 
beams  beyond  the  grave,  and  soars  above 
all  the  changes  of  this  fleeting  and  uncer- 
tain pilgrimage. 

'I'here   is   still   another  lesson  that  re- 
mains to  be  drawn  and  enforced  from  the 
example  of  Abraham,  besides  the  strength 
of  his   faith ;    and    that  is   the  practical 
movement   which    it   imprest   upon  him. 
To  be  the  children  of  him  who  is  called 
the  father  of  the  faithful — it  is  not  enough 
that  we  imitate  him  in  the  principle  of  his 
faith — we  must  also,  according  to  the  lan- 
guage of  the  apostle,  walk  in  the  footsteps 
of  it.     It  is  very  true  that  it  was  the  belief 
of  Abraham  which  was  counted  to  him  for 
righteousness.    He  believed  what  the  Lord 
had  spoken  ;  and  had  there  not  been  an- 
other communication  to  him  from  Heaven, 
than  simply  that  he  was  to  have  a  son 
through  whom  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
were  to  be  blessed,  we  can  conceive  a  firm 
persuasion  of  the  truth  of  this  announce- 
ment, resting  in  the  m.nd  of  the  patriarch, 
without  stimulating  him  to  one  deed  or  to 
one  movement  in  consequence.     It  might 
have  found  ingress  there,  and  taken  up  a 
most  inviolable  lodgment  in  his  heart,  and 
he  be  reckoned  with  as  righteous  because 
of  it;  and  yet  he  may  have  occupied  the 
very  station,  and  lived  the  very  life  that 
he  would  have  done,  though  no  such  mes- 
sage had  ever  come  to  his  door,  and  no 
such   promise   had  ever  been  addrest  to 
him.     But,  instead  of  this,  we  find  that  his 
faith  in  the  heavenly  visitation   was   in- 
stantly followed  up  by  a  change  in  the 
whole  course  and  habit  of  his  pilgrimage ; 
and  a  painful  abandonment  of  all  that  was 
naturally  dear  to  his  heart  was  the  very 
first  fruit  of  it,  and  he  for'.nwith  put  him- 
self under  a  control  which  maintained  an 
authoritative  guidance  over  the  whole  of 
his  future  history  ;  and  in  the  full  attitude 
of  service  and  subordination,  did  he  wait 
the  bidding  of   that  master's  voice,  who 
prescribed  to  him  the  conduct  of  all  his 
journeyings  through  the  world,  and  often 
laid  upon  him  the  most  arduous  tasks  of 
obedience :  And  nothing  can  be  more  com- 
pletely passive  and  resigned,  than  the  pos- 
ture of  him  who  has  been  styled  the  father 


of  all  who  do  believe — in  that,  when  the 
commandment  came  forth  upon  him  from 
God,  he  never  once  imagined  that  there 
was  any  thing  else  for  him  to  act  in  the 
afl'air,  but  just  to  render  an  instantaneous 
compliance  therewith.  We  have  heard 
belief  and  obedience  contrasted  the  one 
with  the  other,  and  in  such  a  way  as  if 
these  two  terms  stood  in  practical  opposi- 
tion. In  the  case  of  Abraham  we  see  them 
standing  in  sure  and  immediate  succession, 
so  that  the  one  emanated  from  the  other ; 
and  just  in  proportion  to  the  strength  of 
his  faith,  and  to  the  glory  which  he  ren- 
dered unto  God  for  His  faithfulness,  and 
to  the  unstaggering  reliance  that  he  had 
upon  His  assurances,  and  to  the  thorough- 
ness of  his  persuasion  that  what  God  had 
promised  He  was  able  also  to  perform — 
just  in  that  very  proportion,  did  he  com- 
mit himself  to  the  authority  of  God,  and 
amid  all  the  uncertainties  incident  to  one 
who  was  going  he  knew  not  whither,  did 
he  take  counsel  and  direction  from  Him 
who  was  his  master  in  heaven  ;  and  no- 
thing can  be  more  evident  than  that  char- 
acter of  devotedness  to  the  whole  will  of 
God  which  stood  imprest  on  the  subse- 
quent doings  of  his  life  upon  earth  ;  and, 
instead  of  a  mere  contemplative  persua- 
sion with  which  he  looked  forward  to  the 
country  that  Avas  promised  to  him,  did  he 
shape  his  measures  with  all  the  prepara- 
tion and  activity  of  a  man  who  had  been 
set  upon  the  enterprise  of  travelling  to- 
wards it.  So  that  faith,  instead  of  lulling 
him  out  of  his  activity,  was  the  very  prin- 
ciple which  both  set  it  agoing  and  kept  it 
agoing.  It  was  the  moving  force  which 
first  tore  him  away  from  those  scenes  and 
from  that  society  to  which  nature  so  ad- 
hesively cleaves  ;  and  after  he  had  been 
loosed  from  all  that  was  dear  to  him,  did 
the  same  force  act  upon  him  with  that 
continued  impulse,  which  made  him  just 
as  exemplary  for  his  works  of  obedience 
as  he  was  for  the  strength  and  determina- 
tion of  his  faith.  It  is  most  true,  as  Paul 
says  to  the  Romans,  that  by  faith  Abra- 
ham was  justified,  and  not  by  obedience. 
But  it  is  just  as  true  what  he  says  to  the 
Hebrews,  that  it  was  by  faith  that  Abra- 
ham obeyed — when  he  was  called  to  go  out 
into  a  place  which  he  should  after  receive 
for  an  inheritance  ;  and  he  went  out  not 
knowing  whither  he  went.  By  faith,  he 
sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise  as  in  a 
strange  country,  dwelling  in  tabernacles 
with  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  heirs  with  him 
of  the  same  promise.  For  he  looked  for 
a  city  which  hath  foundations  whose 
builder  and  maker  is  God.  And  he  walk- 
ed as  a  stranger  and  pilgrim  upon  earth, 
and  declared  plainly  that  he  had  gone 
forth  in. quest  of  a  country. 
The  truth  is,  that  God  did  not  confine 


LECTURE    XV. CHAPTER    IV,    16 — 22. 


83 


His  utterance  with  Abraham  to  a  bare 
promise,  on  the  truth  of  which  it  was  his 
part  to  rely.  The  very  first  utterance  that 
is  recorded  was  a  precept,  on  the  authority 
of  which  it  was  his  part  to  proceed.  "Get 
thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy  kin- 
dred and  from  thy  father's  house,  into  a 
land  that  I  will  show  thee."  It  is  very 
true  that  ere  he  would  obey  there  was 
something  to  believe.  He  had  to  believe 
that  it  was  God  who  spake  unto  him.  He 
must  have  believed  in  the  land  of  which 
he  had  been  told.  He  must  have  believed 
in  the  truth  of  the  promise,  that  came  im- 
mediately on  the  back  of  the  command- 
ment. He  must,  in  fact,  have  given  an 
entire  and  unexcepted  glory  to  the  truth 
of  God — and  must  therefore  have  had  a 
faith  reaching  to  the  whole  extent  of  God's 
testimony.  Had  God  simply  said  "  I  will 
make  of  thee  a  great  nation,"  the  belief 
of  such  an  announcement  did  not  essen- 
tially lead  to  any  movement  on  the  part 
of  our  patriarch.  But  when  God  said — 
*'  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  I  will 
make  of  thee  a  great  nation" — the  belief 
of  the  announcement,  extended  in  this 
manner,  would  lead  Abraham  to  perceive, 
that  the  act  of  his  leaving  home  was  just 
as  essential  to  the  fulfilling  of  it,  as  the 
act  of  his  becoming  a  great  nation  was 
essential.  And  the  joy  he  felt  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  communication,  would  just 
be  in  proportion  to  the  prompt  obedience 
that  he  rendered  to  the  former  part  of  it. 
It  was  his  faith  in  the  first  address  of  God 


to  him,  that  led  him  to  the  first  step  of  his 
obedience  ;  and  it  was  his  faith  in  God's 
future  addresses,  where  precepts  and  pro- 
mises are  intermingled  together,  that  led 
him  on  to  future  steps  of  obedience  :  And 
it  is  just  by  walking  in  the  same  path  of 
obedience  that  he  did,  that  we  walk  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  faith  of  our  father  Abra- 
ham. An  article  of  belief  may  lie  up  in 
our  minds,  without  any  change  or  any 
transition  ;  and  such  a  belief  can  have  no 
footsteps.  But  when  it  is  a  belief  that 
carries  movement  along  with  it — when  it 
is  a  belief  in  one  who  both  bids  and 
blesses  with  his  voice  at  the  same  time — 
when  it  is  a  belief  that  is  conversant  with 
such  an  utterance  &s  the  following — 
"  Arise,  walk  through  the  land  in  the 
length  and  in  the  breadth  of  it :  For  I 
will  give  it  unto  thee;"  or  with  such  an 
utterance  as  the  following — "  I  am  the  Al- 
mighty God  :  walk  before  me  and  be  thou 
perfect,  and  I  will  make  my  covenant  be- 
tween me  and  thee,  and  will  nsultiply  thee 
exceedingly" — when  it  is  belief  in  a  God 
who  so  manages  this  intercourse  with  His 
creatures,  as  to  cheer  them  by  His  pro- 
mises, and  guide  them  by  His  directions 
at  the  same  instant — ihere  is  a  dependence 
that  will  issue  from  such  a  faith,  but  there 
is  an  obedience  also  ;  and  the  successive 
parts  of  that  practical  history  which  it 
originated  at  the  first,  and  animates 
throughout  afterwards,  are  the  footsteps 
of  the  faith. 


LECTURE  XYI. 


Romans  iv,  23 — 25. 

'  Now,  it  was  not  written  for  his  sake  alone,  that  it  was  imputed  to  him  ;  but  for  us  also,  to  whom  it  shall  be  im- 
puted, if  we  believe  on  him  that  raised  up  Jesus  our  Lord  from,  tiie  dead  ;  who  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and 
was  raised  cfgain  for  our  justification." 


These  things  were  written  for  our  ad- 
monition on  whom  the  latter  ends  of  the 
world  have  come.  The  circumstance  of 
Abraham's  faith  being  proposed  as  an  ex- 
ample to  us,  should  bring  up  our  confi- 
dence to  the  same;  pitch  of  boldness  and 
determination  which  are  ascribed  to  his 
in  the  preceding  verses.  He  against  hope 
believed  in  hope ;  that  is,  he  trusted  in 
the  face  of  unlikelihood.  So  ought  we, 
however  unlikely  it  is  to  the  eye  of  na- 
ture, that  sinners  should  be  taken  into 
friendship  with  that  God  whose  holiness 
is  at  irreconcilable  variance  with  sin.  We 
just  do  as  Abraham  did  before  us,  when 
we  rest  and  rely  upon  God's  friendship  to 
us  in  Christ  Jesus ;  and  that  simply  on 


the  ground  that  we  judge  Him  to  be  faith- 
ful who  has  promised.  It  ought  to  en- 
courage our  faith,  when  we  read  of  him 
who  was  the  father  of  the  faithful,  stag- 
gering not  at  the  promise  of  God  through 
unbelief,  but  being  strong  in  faith,  and 
thereby  glorifying  God  by  his  persuasion 
that  what  He  had  promised  He  was  able 
also  to  perform.  When  we  read  that  it 
was  this  very  resolute  and  unfaltering  re- 
liance on  the  part  of  Abraham,  which 
God  counted  to  him  for  righteousness , 
and  that  the  same  faith  upon  our  part  will 
bring  down  upon  us  the  benefits  of  a  like 
imputation — this  ought  to  overrule  the 
fears  of  guilt.  It  should  rebuke  all  our 
doubts  and  apprehensions  away  from  us. 


84 


LECTURE    XVI, CHAPTER    IV,    23 — 25, 


It  should  rivet  our  souls  on  this  sure 
foundation,  that  God  hath  said  it,  and  shall 
lie  not  perform  it?  It  should  clear  away 
the  louring  imagery  of  terror  and  distrust 
from  the  sinner's  agitated  bosom  :  And  if 
the  most  characteristic  peculiarity  in  the 
belief  of  Abraham  was,  that  it  was  belief 
in  the  midst  of  staggering  and  appalling 
improbabilities — should  not  this  just  stim- 
ulate 10  the  same  belief  the  spirit  of  him, 
who,  feeling  that  by  nature  he  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  God  in  whose  sacred  breast 
there  exists  a  jealousy  of  all  that  is  evil, 
is  apt  to  view  with  incredulity  the  ap- 
proaches of  the  same  God  when  He  prof- 
fers reconciliation  even  to  the  worst  and 
most  worthless  offenders;  and  protests  in 
their  hearing,  that,  if  they  will  only  draw 
nigh  in  the  name  of  Christ,  He  will  forgive 
all  and  forget  all  ] 

V.  25.  The  circumstance  that  is  singled 
out  in  this  passage  as  the  object  of  the 
faith  of  Christians,  is  that  of  God  having 
raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead.  In  other 
parts  of  the  Bible  the  resurrection  of  the 
Saviour  is  stated  to  be  the  act  of  God  the 
Fathe-r;  and,  however  much  the  import 
of  this  may  have  escaped  the  notice  of  an 
ordinary  reader,  it  is  pregnant  with  mean- 
ing of  the  weightiest  importance.  You 
know  that  when  the  prison  door  is  opened 
to  a  criminal,  and  that  by  the  very  autho- 
rity which  lodged  him  there,  it  evinces 
that  the  debt  of  "his  transgression  has  been 
rendered  ;  and  that  he  now  stands  acquit- 
ted of  all  its  penalties.  It  was  not  for  His 
own  but  for  our  offences  that  Jesus  was 
delivered  unto  the  death,  and  that  His 
body  was  consigned  to  the  imprisonment 
of  the  grave.  And  when  an  angel  de- 
scended from  heaven  and  rolled  back  the 
great  stone  from  the  door  of  the  sepulchre, 
this  speaks  to  us  that  the  justice  of  God 
is  satisfied,  that  the  ransom  of  our  iniqui- 
ties has  been  paid,  that  Christ  has  render- 
ed a  full  discharge  of  all  that  debt  for 
which  He  undertook  as  the  great  Surety 
between  God  and  the  sinners  who  believe 
in  Him.  And  could  we  only  humble  you 
into  the  conviction  that  you  need  the 
benefit  of  such  a  redeeming  process — 
could  we  only  show  you  to  yourselves  as 
the  helpless  transgressoi's  of  a  command- 
ment that  cannot  be  trampled  on  with  im- 
punity— could  we  thoroughly  impress  you 
with  the  principle  that  God  is  not  to  be 
mocked,  and  that  the  sanctions  of  that 
moral  government  which  He  wields  over 
the  universe  He  has  thrown  around  Him 
are  not  to  be  treated  as  things  of  no  sig- 
nificancy — could  we  reveal  to  you  your 
true  situation  as  the  subjects  of  a  law, 
that  still  pursues  you  with  its  exactions, 
while  it  demands  reparation  for  all  the 
indignities  it  has  gotten  at  your  hands — 
Then  would  the  topics  which  we  are  now 


attempting  so  feebly  to  illustrate,  and 
which  many  regard  as  the  jargon  of  a 
scholastic  theology  that  is  now  exploded, 
rise  in  all  the  characters  of  reality  and 
truth  before  the  eye  of  your  now  enlight- 
ened conscience  ;  and  gladly  would  you 
devolve  the  burden  of  your  guilt  on  the 
head  of  the  accepted  sacrifice,  that  you 
may  be  rescued  from  the  condemnation 
of  those  offences  fur  which  He  was  de- 
livered, that  you  may  be  lightened  of  all 
that  fearful  endurance  wFiich  He  haa 
borne. 

'And  raised  again  for  our  justification.' 
We  are  not  fond  of  that  repulsive  air 
which  has  doubtless  been  thrown  around 
Christianity,  by  what  some  would  call  the 
barbarous  terms  and  distinctions  of  school- 
men. But  it  will,  we  think,  help  to  illus- 
trate the  truth  of  the  matter  before  us, 
that  we  shortly  advert  to  the  theological 
phrases  of  a  negative  and  positive  justifi- 
cation. The  former  consists  of  an  acquittal 
from  guilt.  By  the  latter  a  title  is  con- 
ferred to  the  reward  of  righteousness. 
There  are  two  ways  in  which  God  may 
deal  with  you — either  as  a  criminal  in  the 
way  of  vengeance,  or  as  a  loyal  and  obe- 
dient subject  in  the  way  of  reward.  By 
your  negative  justification,  5'ou  simply 
attain  to  the  midway  position  of  God  let- 
ting you  alone.  He  does  not  lay  upon  you 
the  hand  of  retribution  for  your  evil  deeds ; 
but  neither  does  He  lay  upon  you  the  hand 
of  retribution  for  any  good  deeds.  You 
are  kept  out  of  bell,  the  place  of  penal 
suffering  for  the  vicious.  But  you  are  not 
preferred  to  heaven,  the  place  of  awarded 
glory  and  happiness  for  the  virtuous. 
Now  the  conception  is,  that  the  Saviour 
accomplished  our  negative  justification 
by  bearing  upon  His  own  person  the  chas- 
tisement of  our  sins — He  was  delivered 
for  our  offences  unto  the  death.  But  that 
to  achieve  our  positive  justification,  He 
did  more  than  suffer,  He  obeyed.  He  ac- 
cumulated as  it  were  a  stock  of  righteous- 
ness, out  of  which  He  lavishes  reward  on 
those  whom  He  had  before  redeemed  from 
punishment.  It  was  because  He  finished 
a  great  work  that  God  highly  exalted  Him ; 
and  from  the  place  which  lie  now  occu- 
pies does  He  shed  on  His  disciples  a  fore- 
taste of  heaven  here,  as  the  earnest  and 
the  preparation  for  their  inheritance  here- 
after. He  does  something  more  than  work 
out  their  deliverance  from  the  place  of 
torment,  and  thus  bring  them  to  the  neu- 
tral and  intermediate  state  of  those  who 
are  merely  forgiven.  He  pours  upon 
them  spiritual  blessings ;  and,  by  stamp- 
ing upon  them  a  celestial  character,  does 
He  usher  them  even  now  into  celestial 
joy — so  as  that,  with  their  affections  set 
upon  things  above,  they  may  already  be 
said  to  dwell  in  heavenly  places  with 


LECTURE    XVI. CHAPTER,    IV,    23 25. 


85 


Christ  Jesus  our  Lord:  And  thus  while  it 
was  by  His  death,  that  He  delivered  them 
from  the  guilt  of  their  offences — it  is  by 
His  rising  again,  that  He  obtained  for 
them  the  rewards  of  righteousness,  the 
privileges  of  a  completed  justification. 

And  here  we  may  remark,  that  by  the 
simple  bestowment  of  holiness  upon  Hi.-^ 
people,  does  He  in  fact  infuse  into  their 
spirits  the  great  and  essential  element  of 
heaven's  blessedness.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
think,  that  it  is  either  the  splendour  or  the 
music  of  paradise,  which  makes  it  a  place 
of  rejoicing.  It  is  because  righteousness 
will  flourish  there,  that  rapture  will  be  felt 
there.  It  is  because  heaven  is  the  abode 
of  purity,  that  it  is  also  an  abode  of  peace 
and  pleasantness.  It  is  because  every 
heart  thrills  with  benevolence,  that  in 
every  heart  there  is  beatitude  unspeaka- 
ble. It  is  love  to  God  that  calls  forth 
halleluiahs  of  ecstacy  which  ring  eter- 
nally in  heaven.  In  a  word,  it  is  not  an 
animal  but  a  spiritual  festival,  which  is 
preparing  for  us  in  the  mansions  above  : 
and  in  these  mansions  below,  a  foretaste 
IS  felt  by  those,  who,  through  patient  con- 
tinuance in  well-doing,  seek  for  glory  and 
immortality  and  honour.  The  real  disci- 
ples of  the  Saviour  on  earth,  can  testify, 
that  if  they  had  holine.ss  enough  they 
would  have  happiness  enough  ;  and  a  still 
more  affecting  testimony  to  the  truth,  that 
the  atmosphere  of  goodness  is  of  itself  an 
atmosphere  of  gladness  and  of  light,  may 
be  seen  in  the  mental  wretchedness  of 
those  who  mourn  some  deadly  overthrow 
from  that  purity  of  heart  which  at  one 
time  guarded  and  adorned  them — who 
have  fallen  from  peace,  and  that  simply 
because  they  have  fallen  from  principle — 
and  feel  in  their  bosoms  the  agonies  of 
hell,  and  that  without  another  instrument 
of  vengeance  to  pursue  them  than  a  sense 
of  their  own  ^native  and  inherent  worth- 
lessness. 

The  following  is  the  paraphrase  of  this 
short  passage. 

'  Now  it  was  not  foi"  the  mere  sake  of 
Abraham  that  righteousness  was  reckoned 
to  him  because  of  his  faith — but  for  us 
also,  to  whom  it  shall  be  reckoned,  if  we 
believe  on  Him  who  raised  up  Jesus  our 
Lord  from  the  dead — who  was  delivered 
up  unto  the  death  as  an  atonement  for  our 
offences ;  and  was  then  raised  that  He 
might  confer  upon  us  the  fruits  of  His 
own  achievement,  the  rewards  of  His  own 
obedience.' 

We  have  little  more  than  time  to  re- 
mark, that  the  faith  of  Christians,  is  as 
little  an  inert  or  merely  speculative  prin- 
ciple, as  the  faith  of  Abraham — that  it  is 
followed  up  by  a  practical  movement  just 
as  his  was,  and  has  its  footsteps  just  as 
his  had — that  if  the   outset   of  his   was 


marked  by  a  violent  separation  from  all 
the  habits  and  attachments  of  nature,  the 
outset  of  ours  is  marked  by  a  separation 
from  our  old  tastes  and  our  old  tenden- 
cies in  every  way  as  violent — that  if  in 
the  progress  of  his  he  had  to  obey  the  re- 
quirement which  laid  upon  the  sacrifice 
of  his  dearest  possessions  upon  earth,  in 
the  progress  of  ours  we  may  be  called 
upon  to  cut  off  a  right  hand  or  to  pluck 
out  a  right  eye — that  if  he  was  bidden  to 
wander  afar  from  the  scenes  of  his  in- 
fancy, and  to  abandon  all  the  endearments 
of  his  wonted  society  ;  so  also  we,  without 
having  to  describe  one  mile  of  locomo- 
tion, are  bidden  to  enter  upon  a  new 
spiritual  region,  and  by  so  doing,  to  be 
deserted  b}'  the  congeniality  and  appro- 
bation of  all  our  ungodly  friends  and  all 
our  worldly  companionships.  In  a  word, 
the  faith  of  Christianity,  like  the  faith  of 
the  patriarch,  is  not  a  mere  metaphysical 
notion — neither  are  the  blessings  of  Chris- 
tianity a  reward  for  the  soundness  of  it. 
The  faith  both  of  the  one  and  of  the  other 
is  just  such  a  practical  sense  of  the  reality 
of  unseen  and  eternal  things,  as  leads  us 
to  go  in  actual  quest  of  them  according 
to  a  prescribed  course  ;  and.  in  so  doing, 
to  renounce  present  things  whatever  bt; 
the  force  and  whatever  be  the  urgency  of 
their  allurements.  The  faith  that  was  in 
the  patriarch's  heart,  originated  such  do- 
ings in  the  history  of  his  life,  as  declared 
plainly  that  he  sought  a  country.  x\nd 
our  faith  is  nothing,  it  is  but  the  breath 
of  an  empty  profession,  but  the  utterance 
of  a  worthless  orthodoxy,  if  it  be  not  fol- 
lowed up  by  such  measures  and  such 
movements  as  plainlj'  declare  that  immor- 
tality is  the  goal  to  which  we  are  tending 
— that  the  world  is  but  the  narrow  fore- 
ground of  that  perspective  which  is  lying 
at  our  feet — and,  with  the  eye  stretching 
forward  to  the  magnificent  region  beyond 
it,  that  we  are  actually  keeping  on  the 
strait  but  single  path  which  conducts  to 
this  distant  heaven,  though  set  at  every 
footstep  with  tliorns,  and  hemmed  on  the 
right  and  on  the  left  with  didiculties  innu- 
merable. 

Go  forth  with  this  text  upon  actual  so- 
ciety, and  make  a  survey  of  that  mighty 
throng  that  move  upon  our  streets,  and 
frequent  in  thousands  our  market  places 
— behold  every  individual  in  the  busy  and 
anxious  pursuit  of  some  object  which  lies 
inthedistanceaway  from  him — meethim  at 
any  one  hour  of  his  history,  and  ascertain 
if  possible  whether  the  thing  on  which  his 
heart  is  lavishing  all  its  desirousness  be 
placed  on  this  or  on  the  other  side  of 
death :  And  if,  in  every  instance,  the 
character  of  the  occupation  shall  plainly 
declare  that  the  region  of  sense  which  is 
near  engrosses  every  feeling,  and  that  the 


86 


LECTURE   XVI. CHAPTER   IV,    23 25. 


region  of  spirit  which  is  distant  is  not  in 
all  his  thoughts — then,  if  foith,  instead  of 
a  barren  dogma,  be  indeed  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for  and  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen — on  this  very  day  might 
not  the  question  and  complaint  of  our 
Saviour  be  preferred,  'verily,  when  the 
Son  of  man  cometh  shall  He  find  faith 
upon  the  earih  T 

It  just  occurs  to  us  before  we  are  done, 
that  we  may  gather  from  the  history  of 
Abraham,  and  that  by  no  very  circuitous 
process  of  inference,  the  efficacy  of  afflic- 
tion in  promoting  the  conversion  of  a  soul 
to  God.  For  any  thing  that  appears,  he, 
at  the  call  of  Heaven,  left  a  happy  home, 
and  a  smiling  circle  of  relationship,  and  a 
prosperous  establishment,  and  a  neigh- 
bourhood that  esteemed  him.  This  added 
to  the  violence  of  the  separation.  But 
conceive  that,  previous  to  the  call,  his 
family  had  been  wrested  from  him  by 
death  ;  or  that  his  wealth  had  gone  by 
misfortune  into  dissipation  ;  or  that  that 
most  grievous  of  all  misfortunes  had 
befallen  him,  he  had  incurred  disgrace  by 
some  violent  departure  from  rectitude — 
then  the  ties  which  bound  him  to  the 
place  of  his  nativity  had  been   broken ; 


and,  instead  of  a  painful  banishment,  he 
would  have  felt  it  as  a  refuge  and  a 
hiding  place  to  have  gonq  a  solitary  wan- 
derer from  the  place  of  his  nativity.  And 
in  like  manner  may  affliction  loosen  even 
now.  the  bonds  that  attach  us  to  the 
world  ;  smd  that  love  of  it  which  is  oppo- 
site to  the  love  of  the  Father,  may  receive 
a  death-blow  from  some  great  and  un- 
looked-for calamity  ;  and  the  heart,  be- 
reaved of  all  its  wonted  objects,  may  now 
gladly  close  with  the  solicitations  of  that 
voice  which  speaketh  from  heaven,  and 
would  woo  us  to  the  abiding  glories  of 
eternity ;  and  we  may  now  find  it  easier 
to  give  up  our  disengaged  attachments 
unto  God — seeing  that  it  has  pleased  Him, 
by  the  infliction  of  His  chastening  hand, 
to  sever  away  from  them  all  those  objects 
on  which  they  wont  so  fondly  to  expatiate  ; 
and  thus  it  is,  that^from  the  awful  visita- 
tions of  death  or  poverty  or  any  other 
dreadful  overthrow  from  some  eminence 
which  at  one  time  was  occupied,  there 
may  at  length,  after  a  dark  and  brooding 
period  of  many  agitations,  emerge  the 
light  of  new-born  prospects ;  there  may 
at  length  spring  up  the  peaceable  fruit  of 
righteousness. 


LECTURE  XVII. 


Romans  v,  1,  2. 


•'  Ttierefor 


2,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  GoJ,  through  our  LorJ  Jesus  Christ;  by  whom  also  wc  1 
access  by  faith  into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand,  and  rejoice  in  hope  tf  tlie  glory  of  God." 


To  be  justified  here,  is  not  to  be  made 
righteous,  but  to  be  counted  righteous. 
To  be  justified  by  faith,  expresses  to  us 
the  way  in  which  an  imputed  righteous- 
ness is  made  ours.  Faith  is  that  act  of 
the  recipient,  by  which  he  lays  hold  of 
this  privilege.  It  contributes  no  more  to 
the  merit  that  is  reckoned  to  us,  than  the 
hand  of  the  beggar  adds  any  portion  to 
the  alms  that  are  conferred  upon  him. 
When  we  look  to  the  righteousness  that 
is  made  ours  by  faith,  it  is  well  to  go  al- 
together out  of  ourselves,  and  not  to  mix 
up  any  one  personal  ingredient  whellier 
of  obeying  or  of  believing  with  it.  The 
imagination  of  a  merit  in  faith,  brings  us 
back  to  legal  ground  again,  and  exposes 
us  to  legal  distrust  and  disquietude.  In 
the  exercise  of  faith,  the  believer's  eye 
looks  out  on  a  cheering  and  a  comforting 
spectacle ;  and  from  the  object  of  its 
external  contemplation,  does  it  fetch  home- 
ward all  the  encouragement  which  it  is 
fitted  to  convev.    In  a  former  verse  of 


this  epistle,  we  are  said  to  be  justified  by 
grace.  It  was  in  love  to  the  world,  that 
the  whole  scheme  of  another  righteous- 
ness was  devised,  and  executed,  and  ofi'ered 
to  man  as  his  plea  both  of  acquittal  and 
of  reward  before  the  God  whom  he  had 
offended.  In  another  place  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  read  of  being  justified  by 
Christ — even  by  Him  who  brought  in  that 
rigliteousncss  which  is  ur.to  all,  and  upon 
all  who  believe.  One  should  look  out  to 
that  whicR  forms  the  ground  and  the  mat- 
ter of  our  justification  ;  and  when  we  read 
here  that  we  are  justified  by  faith,  one 
should  understand  that  faith  is  simply  the 
instrument  by  which  we  lay  hold  of  this 
great  privilege — not  the  light  itself,  but 
the  window  through  which  it  passes — the 
channel  of  transmission  upon  our  persons, 
by  which  there  is  attached  to  them  the 
merit  of  the  righteousness  which  another 
has  wrought,  and  of  the  obedience  which 
another  has  rendered. 

'  We  have  peace  with  God.'     There  are 


LECTURE  XVII. — CHAPTER.  IV,  23 — 25. 


87 


two  senses  in  which  this  expression  may 
be  understood.  It  may  signify  that  peace 
which  is  brought  about  by  a  transition  in 
the  mind  of  the  Godhead,  and  in  virtue  of 
which  He  is  appeased  towards  us.  He 
ceases  from  that  wrath  against  the  sinner, 
which  only  abideth  on  those  who  believe 
not;  and  from  an  enemy,  He,  in  consider- 
ation of  a  righteousness  which  He  lays  to 
our  account  after  we  have  accepted  it  by 
faith,  becometh  a  friend.  Or  it  may  sig- 
nify that  state  which  is  brought  about  by 
a  transition  in  our  minds ;  and  in  virtue 
of  which  we  cease  from  our  apprehension 
of  God's  wrath  against  us — not,  we  think, 
a  dissolving  of  our  enmity  against  Him, 
but  a  subsiding  of  our  terrors  because  of 
Him — rest  from  the  agitations  of  conscious 
guilt,  now  washed  away — rest  from  the 
forebodings  of  anticipated  vengeance,  now 
borne  by  Him  on  whom  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  was  laid.  This  we  conceive 
to  be  the  true  meaning  of  peace  with  God 
in  the  verse  before  us.  The  whole  pas- 
sage, for  several  verses,  looks  to  be  a  nar- 
rative of  the  personal  experience  of  be- 
lievers— of  their  rejoicing,  and  of  their 
hoping,  and  of  their  glorying.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  peace  that  is  spoken  of  in  this 
verse  is  the  mind  of  believers — a  peace 
felt  by  them,  no  doubt,  because  they 
now  judge  that  God  is  pacified  towards 
them  ;  but  still  a  peace,  the  proper  resi- 
dence of  which  is  in  their  own  bosoms, 
that  now  have  ceased  from  their  fears  of 
the  Lawgiver,  and  are  at  rest. 

Peace  in  this  sense  of  it  then,  being  the 
effect  of  faith,  affords  a  test  for  the  reality 
of  this  latter  principle.  Some  perhaps 
may  think  that  this  could  be  still  more 
directly  ascertained,  if,  instead  of  looking 
at  the  test,  we  looked  immediately  to  the 
principle  itself.  By  casting  an  immediate 
regard  upon  one's  own  bosom,  we  may 
learn  whether  peace  is  there  or  not.  But 
by  casting  the  same  inward  regard,  might 
not  we  directly  learn  whether  faith  is 
there  or  not?  If  it  be  as  competent  for  the 
eye  of  consciousness  to  discern  the  faith 
that  is  in  the  mind,  as  to  discern  there  the 
peace  that  is  but  the  effect  of  faith — might 
not  we,  without  having  recourse  to  marks 
or  evidences  at  all,  just  lay  as  it  were  our 
immediate  finding  upon  the  principle  that 
we  want  to  ascertain ;  and  come  at  once 
to  the  assurance  that  faith  is  in  me,  be- 
cause I  am  conscious  it  is  in  me  1 

Now  let  it  be  remarked,  that  there  are 
certain  states  and  habitudes  of  the  soul, 
which  are  far  more  palpable  than  others 
to  the  eye  of  conscience — certain  affec- 
tions, which  give  a  far  more  powerful 
intimation  of  their  presence,  and  can  there- 
fore be  much  more  easily  and  imme- 
diately recognized — certain  feelings  of  so 
fresh  and  sensible  a  character,  that  almost 


no  power  of  self-examination  is  required 
to  ascertain  the  existence  of  them.  I 
could  much  more  readily,  for  example, 
find  an  answer  to  the  question,  what  the 
emotions  of  my  heart  are,  if  there  be  any 
depth  or  tenderness  in  them  at  all,  than  I 
could  answer  the  question  what  the  no- 
tions of  my  understanding  are, ;  and  whe- 
ther they  amount  to  a  belief,  or  stop  short 
at  a  mere  imagination.  A  state  or  a  pro- 
cess of  the  intellect,  is  far  more  apt  to 
elude  the  inward  discernment  of  man, 
than  a  state  or  a  process  of  sensible  im- 
pression, which  announces  its  own  reality 
to  him  in  spite  of  himself.  And  thus  it  is, 
that  it  may  be  a  very  difficult  thing  to 
find  whether  faith  be  in  me,  by  taking  a 
direct  look  at  the  state  of  the  understand- 
ing— while  it  may  not  be  difficult  to  find, 
whether  peace  be  in  me,  or  love  be  in  me, 
or  a  principle  of  zealous  obedience  be  in 
me — all  ofthese  making  themselves  known, 
as  it  were,  by  the  touch  of  a  distinct  and 
vigorous  sensation.  And  hence  the  test 
of  the  principle  may  be  far  more  readily 
come  at  than  the  principle  itself.  The 
foliage  and  the  blossoms  may  stand  more 
obviously  revealed  to  the  eye  of  the  inner 
man,  than  the  germ  from  which  they 
originate;  and  what  our  Saviour  says  of 
his  followers  is  true  of  the  faith  by  which 
they  are  actuated,  that  by  its  fruits  ye 
shall  know  it. 

And  as  to  the  peace  of  our  te.xt,  which 
is  stated  there  to  be  a  consequence  of 
faith — it  surely  cannot  be  denied,  but  by 
those  who  never  felt  what  the  remor.se  and 
the  restlessness  and  the  other  raging  ele- 
ments of  a  sinner's  bosom  are,  that  the  con- 
sequence is  far  more  obvious  than  the 
cause.  The  mind  that  has  been  tost  and 
tempest-driven  by  the  pursuing  sense  of 
its  own  worthlessness,  should  ever  these 
unhappy  agitations  sink  into  a  calm,  will 
surely  feel  the  transition  and  instantly  re- 
cognise it.  When  an  outward  storm  has 
spent  its  fury,  and  the  last  breath  of  it  has 
died  away  into  silence,  the  ear  cannot  be 
more  sensible  of  the  difierence — than  the 
inner  man  is,  when  the  wild  war  of  tur- 
bulence and  disorder  in  his  own  heart,  is 
at  length  wrought  off  to  its  final  termina- 
tion. The  man  may  grope  for  ever  among 
the  dark  and  brooding  imagery  of  his  own 
spirit,  and  never  once  be  able  to  detect 
there  that  principle  of  faith,  which  may 
tell  him  that  though  he  suffers  now  he  will 
be  safe  in  eternity.  But  should  this  un- 
seen visitor  actually  enter  with  him,  and 
work  the  effect  that  is  here  ascribed  to  it, 
and  put  an  end  to  that  sore  vengeance  of 
discipline  with  which  God  had  exercised 
him,  and  again  restore  the  light  of  that 
countenance  which  either  looked  to  him 
in  wrath  or  was  mantled  in  darkne.-^s — 
should  he  now  feel  at  peace  from  those 


8a 


LECTURE   XVil. — CHAPTER    V,    1,    2. 


terrors  that  so  recently  had  made  him 
afraid  ;  and  the  God  that  loured  judgment 
upon  his  soul,  now  put  on  a  luce  of  be- 
nignity, and  bid  this  unhappy  outcast 
again  look  up  to  Him  and  rejoice — should 
the  guilt  which  so  agonised  him  be  sprin- 
kled over  with  the  blood  of  atonement, 
and  he  again  be  translated  into  the  sun- 
shine of  conscious  acceptance  with  the 
Being  whose  chastening  hand  had  well 
nigh  overwhelmed  him — We  repeat  it,  that 
though  faith  in  itself  may  elude  the  explor- 
ing eye  of  him,  who  finds  the  search  that 
he  is  making  through  the  recesses  of  his 
moral  constitution  to  be  not  more  fatiguing 
than  it  is  fruitless — yet  faith  as  the  harbin- 
ger of  peace  may  manifest  at  once  its 
reality,  by  an  elfect  so  powerful  and  so 
precious. 

This  may  serve  perhaps  to  illustrate  the 
right  attitude  for  a  penitent  in  quest  of 
comfort,  under  the  burden  of  convictions 
which  distress  or  terrify  him.  lie  may  at 
length  fetch  it  from  without — but  he  never 
will  fetch  it  primarily  or  directly  from 
within.  The  cliildren  of  Israel  might  have 
as  soon  been  healed  by  looking  down- 
wardly upon  their  wounds,  rather  than 
upwardly  to  the  brazen  serpent,  as  the 
conscience-striken  sinner  will  lind  relief 
from  any  one  object  that  can  meet  his  eye, 
in  that  abyss  of  darkness  and  distemper 
to  which  he  has  turned  his  own  labouring 
bosom.  He  is  where  he  ought  to  be,  when 
lying  low  in  the  depths  of  humiliation  ; 
but  never  will  he  attain  to  rest  or  to  re- 
covery, till  led  to  the  psalmist's  prayer — 
'Out  of  the  depths  do  I  cry  unto  thee,  O 
Lord.*  It  is  not  from  the  trouble  that  is 
below,  but  from  the  truth  that  is  above, 
that  he  will  catch  the  sun-beam  which  is 
to  gladden  and  to  revive  him.  It  is  not 
by  looking  to  himself,  but  by  looking  unto 
Jesus — and  that  peace  with  God  which  he 
never  can  arrive  at  through  the  medium 
of  so  dark  a  contemplation  as  his  own 
character — that  peace  the  tidings  of  which 
he  never  will  read,  among  the  lineaments 
of  his  own  turpitude  and  deformity — the 
peace  to  which  no  exercise  of  penitential 
feeling,  though  prolonged  in  sorrow  and 
bitterness  to  the  end  of  his  days,  will  ever 
of  itself  conduct  him — the  peace  with  God, 
which,  through  himself  or  through  any 
penance  of  his  own  inllicting,  he  never 
will  secure,  can  only  come  in  sure  and 
abundant  visit;ition  upon  his  heart,  through 
the  channel  of  our  text,  when  it  is  peace 
with  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

'Look  unto  me,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  be  saved.'  'Like  as  Moses  lifted  up 
the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  so  must  the 
Son  of  man  be  lifted  up  ;  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life.'  God  who  com- 
manded the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness, 


hath  shined  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  be- 
lieve, to  give  them  the  light  of  the  know- 
ledge of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  they  who  believe  not 
and  are  lost,  are  blinded  by  the  god  of  this 
world,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel 
of  Ciirist,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should 
shine  unto  them.' 

V.  2.  The  single  word  also  may  con- 
vince us,  that  the  privilege  spoken  of  in 
tlie  second  verse,  is  distinct  from  and  ad- 
ditional to  the  privilege  spoken  of  in  the 
lirst.  The  gnice  whei'ein  we  stand  is  some- 
thing more  than  peace  with  God.  We 
understand  it  to  signify  God's  positive 
kindness  or  lavour  to  us.  You  may  have 
no  wrath  against  a  man,  whom  at  the  same 
time  you  have  no  feeling  of  positive  good- 
will to.  You  are  at  peace  with  him, 
though  not  in  friendship  with  him.  It  is 
a  great  deal  that  God  ceases  to  be  offend- 
ed with  us,  and  is  now  to  inliict  upon  us 
no  penalty.  But  it  is  still  more  that  God 
should  become  pleased  with  us,  and  is 
nov/  to  pour  blessings  upon  our  heads.  It 
is  a  mighty  deliverance  to  our  own  feel- 
ings, when  our  apprehensions  are  quiet- 
ed;  and  we  have  nothing  to  fear.  But  it 
is  a  still  higher  condition  to  be  preferred 
to,  when  our  hopes  are  awakened  ;  and 
we  rejoice  in  the  sense  of  God's  regard  to 
us  now,  and  in  the  prospect  of  His  glory 
hereafter.  It  is  additional  lo  our  peace  in 
believing,  that  we  also  have  joy  in  believ- 
ing. There  is  something  here  that  will 
remind  you  of  what  has  been  already  said 
of  negative  and  positive  justilication.  It 
was  in  dying,  that  Christ  pacitied  the  Law- 
giver. It  was  in  rising  again,  that  lie 
obtained,  as  the  reward  of  Ills  obedience, 
the  favour  of  God,  in  behalf  of  all  those 
for  whom  He  now  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion, and  from  these  two  verses,  the  dis- 
tinction to  which  we  have  already  advert- 
ed receives  another  illustration. 

The  following  is  a  paraphrase  of  these 
two  verses. 

'Therefore  having  righteousness  laid 
to  our  account  because  we  have  faith,  we 
enjoy  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Chri.st.  By  whom  also  it  is  that  wc 
have  obtained  admittance  through  our 
faith,  into  that  state  of  favour  with  God 
wherein  wc  stand  here,  and  rejoice  in  the 
hope  of  His  glory  hereafter.' 

'I'he  only  remaining  topic  that  occurs 
to  us  from  this  short  but  comprL-hensive 
passage,  is  that  glory  of  God  which  is 
hereafter  to  be  revealed.  The  Apostle 
Peter  speaks  of  believers  being  begotten 
again  to  a  lively  hope,  by  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  from  the  dead,  to  an  inheri- 
tance incorruptible  and  undefiled  and  that 
passeth  not  away,  and  is  reserved  in  hea- 
ven for  those  who  are  kept  by  the  power 
of  God  through  faith  unto  a  salvation, 


LECTURE   XVII. — CHAPTER    V,     1,    2. 


89 


that  is  ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last 
time.  We  cannot  speak  in  detail  upon  a 
subject  that  has  yet  to  be  revealed.  We 
cannot  lift  away  the  veil,  from  what  an- 
other apostle  tells  us  is  still  a  mystery, 
when  he  says,  that  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be.  But  we  may  at  least 
carry  our  observation  to  the  extent  of  the 
partial  disclosure  made  to  us  by  the  same 
apostle,  when  he  says,  though  "it  doth  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  yet  we  know, 
that,  when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall  be 
like  Him — for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 
From  this  we  at  least  gather,  that  we 
shall  have  a  direct  perception  of  God. 
You  know  how  much  it  is  otherwise  now 
— how,  though  He  is  not  far  from  any  one 
of  us.  He  is  as  hidden  from  all  observa- 
tion as  if  removed  to  the  distance  of  in- 
finity away  from  us — how,  though  locally 
He  is  in  us  and  around  us,  yet  to  every 
purpose  of  direct  and  personal  fellowship 
we  are  as  exiles  from  His  presence — how 
all  that  is  created,  though  it  bear  upon  it 
the  impress  of  the  Creator's  hand,  instead 
of  serving  to  us  as  a  reflection  of  the 
Deity,  serves  as  a  screen  to  intercept  our 
discernment  of  Him.  It  is  not  true,  that 
the  visible  structure  of  the  universe,  leads 
man  at  least,  to  trace  the  image,  and  to 
realize  the  power  and  operation  (^f  that 
Divinity  who  reared  it.  It  is  not  true,  that 
he  is  conducted  upwards,  from  the  agents 
and  the  secondary  causes  that  are  on  every 
side  of  him,  to  that  unseen  and  primary 
Cause  who  framed  at  first  the  whole  of 
this  wondrous  mechanism,  and  still  con- 
tinues to  guide  by  His  unerring  wisdom 
all  the  movements  of  it.  The  world,  in 
fact,  is  our  all ;  and  we  do  not  penetrate 
beyond  it  to  its  animating  Spirit ;  and  we 
do  not  pierce  the  canopy  that  is  stretched 
above  it,  to  the  glories  of  His  upper  sanc- 
tuary. The  mind  may  stir  itself  up  to  lay 
hold  of  God  ;  but,  like  a  thin  and  shadowy 
abstraction.  He  eludes  the  grasp  of  the 
mind — and  the  battled  overdone  creature 
is  left,  without  an  adequate  feeling  of  that 
my.sterious  Being  who  made  and  who  up- 
holds him.  To  every  unconverted  man, 
creation,  instead  of  illustrating  the  Deity, 
has  thrown  a  shroud  of  obscurity  over 
Him  ;  and  even  to  the  eye  of  a  believer, 
is  He  seen  in  dimness  and  disguise,  so 
that  almost  all  he  can  do  is  to  long  after 
Him  in  the  world  ;  and,  as  the  heart  pant- 
eth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  does  his  soul 
thirst  after  the  living  God.  The  whole 
creation  groanelh  nnd  travaileth,  under 
the  sentence  of  its  banishment  from  Him 
who  gave  it  birth  ;  and  even  they  who 
have  received  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit, 
do  groan  within  themselves,  under  the 
heavy  incumbrance  that  weighs  down  their 
souls  as  they  follow  hard  after  the  yet  un- 
12 


seen  Father  of  them.  All  they  can  reach 
in  this  nether  pilgrimage,  is  but  a  glimpse 
and  a  foretaste  of  the  coming  revelation  ; 
and  as  to  that  glory,  which, -while  in  the 
body,  they  shall  never  behold  with  the 
eye  of  vision,  they  can  now  only  rejoice 
in  the  hope  of  its  full  and  abundant  dis- 
closure in  the  days  that  are  to  come. 

It  were  presumptuous,  perhaps,  to  at- 
tempt any  conception  of  such  a  disclosure 
— when  God  shall  show  Himself  person- 
ally to  man — when  the  mighty  barrier  of 
interception,  that  is  now  so  opake  and  im- 
penetrable, shall  at  length  be  moved  away 
— when  the  great  and  primitive  Father  of 
all,  shall  at  length  stand  revealed  to  the 
eye  of  creatures  rejoicing  before  Him — 
when  all  that  design  and  beauty  by  which 
this  universe  is  enriched,  shall  beam  in  a 
direct  flood  of  radiance  from  the  original 
mind  that  evolved  it  into  being — when  the 
sight  of  infinite  majesty  shall  be  so  tem- 
pered by  the  sight  of  infinite  mercy,  that 
the  awe  which  else  would  overpower  will 
be  sweetened  by  love  into  a  most  calm 
and  solemn  and  confiding  reverence — and 
the  whole  family  of  heaven  shall  find  it 
to  be  enough  of  happiness  for  ever,  that 
the  graces  of  the  Divinity  are  visibly  ex- 
panded to  their  view,  and  they  are  admit- 
ted into  the  high  delights  of  ecstatic  and 
inert'able  communion  with  the  living  God. 
But  it  will  be  the  glory  of  His  moral  per- 
fections, that  will  minister  the  most  of 
high  rapture  and  reward  to  these  children 
of  immortality.  It  will  be  the  holiness 
that  recoils  from  every  taint  of  impurity. 
It  will  be  the  cloudless  lustre  of  justice 
unbroken,  and  truth  unchanged  and  un- 
changeable. It  will  be  the  unspotted 
worth  and  virtue  of  the  Godhead — yet  all 
so  blended  with  a  compassion  that  is  in. 
finite,  and  all  so  directed  by  a  wisdom 
that  is  unsearchable,  that  by  a  way  of  ac- 
cess as  wondrous  as  is  the  Being  who  de- 
vised it,  sinners  have  entered  within  the 
threshold  of  this  upper  temple  ;  and,  with- 
out violation  to  the  character  of  Him  who 
presides  there,  have  been  transported  from 
a  region  of  sin  to  this  region  of  unsullied 
sacredness.  And  there,  seeing  Him  as  He 
is,  do  they  become  altogether  like  unto 
Him  ;  and  there  are  they  transformed  into 
a  character  kindred  to  His  own  ;  and  there 
that  assimilating  process  is  perfected,  by 
which  every  creature  who  is  in  Paradise, 
has  the  image  of  glory,  that  shines  upon 
him  from  the  throne,  stamped  upon  his 
own  person  ;  and  there  each,  according  to 
the  measure  of  his  capacity,  is  filled  with 
the  worth  and  beneficence  of  the  God- 
head ;  and  there  the  distinct  reward  held 
forth  to  the  candidates  for  heaven  upon 
earth,  is,  that  they  shall  see  God,  and  be- 
come like   unto   God — like   Him   in   His 


90 


LECTURE   XVII. CHAPTER   V,    1,    2. 


hatred  of  all  iniquity,  like  Him  in  the 
love  and  in  the  possession  of  all  right- 
eousness. 

You  will  be  at  no  loss  now  to  under- 
stand, how  it  is  tliut  he  who  hath  this  hope 
in  him,  purilielh  himself  even  as  God  is 
pure.  It  is  by  progress  in  holiness,  in 
fact,  that  he  is  making  ground  on  that 
alone  way  which  leads  and  qualities  for 
heaven.  There  is  no  other  heaven  truly 
than  a  heaven  of  godliness  ;  and  by  every 
wilful  sin  that  is  committed,  does  man 
lose  so  much  of  distance  from  the  pro- 
mised reward,  and  puts  himself  more 
hopelessly  away  from  it.  You  will  see  by 
this  that  faith  in  the  gospel  and  a  delibe- 
rate following  after  sm,  is  a  contradiction 
in  terms.  The  very  road  to  heaven  is  a 
road  of  conformit}^  to  the  will,  and  of  un- 
ceasing approximation  to  the  resemblance 
of  the  Godhead.  The  great  object  of  the 
dispensation  we  sit  under,  is  to  be  restored 
to  His  forfeited  image,  and  to  be  reinsta- 
ted in  all  the  graces  of  the  character  that 
■we  have  lost.  The  atonement  by  Christ 
is  nothing — justitication  by  faith  is  no- 
thing— the  assumption  of  an  orthodox 
phraseology  is  nothing — unless  they  have 
formed  a  gate  of  introduction  to  that  arena, 
on  which  the  Christian  must  tight  his  way 
to  a  heavenly  character,  and  so  be  created 
anew  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness. 
Every  sin  throws  him  aback  on  the  ground 
that  he  is  travelling  ;  and  often  throws 
him  aback  so  fearfully,  that,  if  he  feels 
as  he  ought,  he  will  tremble  lest  he  has 
been  thrown  otf  from  the  ground  altoge- 
ther— lest  the  sore  retrogression  that  he 
has  made  from  all  holiness,  has  made  him 
an  outcast  from  all  hope — lest  by  putting 
a  good  conscience  away  from  him,  he  has 
made  shipwreck  of  faith  :  And  never  will 
the  irreconcilable  variance  between  sal- 
vation and  sin,  come  home  to  his  experi- 
ence in  more  sure  and  practical  demon- 
siration,  than  when  sin  has  thrown  him 
adrift  from  all  the  securities  which  held 
him ;  and,  through  a  lengthened  season 
of  abandonment  and  distress,  he  can  find 
no  comfort  in  the  word,  and  catch  no  smile 
from  the  upper  sanctuary,  and  hear  no 
whisper  of  mei'cy  from  God's  returning 
Spirit,  and  feel  no  happiness  and  no  hope 
in  the  Saviour. 

The  same  doctrine  receives  a  more 
pleasing  illustration  from  the  bright  side 
of  the  picture.  To  ascertain  the  kind  of 
happiness  that  is  in  heaven,  the  best  way 
is  to  observe  the  happiness  of  a  good  man 
upon  earth.  You  will  find  it  to  consist 
essentially  in  those  pleasures  of  the  heart, 
which  tlie  love  and  the  service  of  God 
bring  along  with  it — in  a  sense  of  the  di- 
vine favour,  beaming  upon  him  from 
above ;  and  in  the  fresh  and  perpetual 
feast  of  an  approving  conscience  within 


— in  the  possession  of  a  sound  and  a  well- 
poised  mind,  prepared  for  the  attack  of 
every  temptation,  and  with  all  its  ready 
powers  at  command,  on  the  intimation  of 
every  coming  danger — in  the  triumph  of 
those  noble  and  new-born  energies  by 
which  he  can  clear  the  ascending  way  of 
a  progressive  holiness,  through  all  those 
besetting  urgencies  that  are  found  to  en- 
tangle and  to  discomfit  other  men — and, 
above  all,  in  those  hours  of  sweet  and  so- 
lemn rapture,  by  which  he  diversifies  a 
walk  unspotted  in  the  world,  with  the  lofty 
devotion  of  his  occasional  retirements 
away  from  it.  Who  shall  say  that  right- 
eousness is  not  the  road  to  a  believer's 
heaven,  when  it  is  righteousness,  and  that 
alone,  which  gives  its  breath  and  its  being 
to  all  the  ecstacy  that  abounds  in  if!  Or 
who  shall  say  that  the  grace  in  which  he 
is  taught  to  rejoice,  encourages  to  sin, 
when  it  is  sin  that  wrests  every  foretaste 
of  the  coming  blessedness  from  his  soul  ; 
and  darkens,  if  not  to  utter  and  irreco- 
verable extinction  at  lea.st  for  a  period  of 
deep  and  dreadful  endurance,  all  his  pros- 
pects of  enjoying  it? 

We  shall  conclude  with  offering  you  an 
actual  specimen  of  heaven  upon  earth,  as 
enjoyed  for  a  season  of  devotional  con- 
templation on  the  word  of  God  ;  and  it 
may  afford  you  some  conception  of  the 
kind  of  happiness  that  is  current  there. 
"  And  now,"  says  the  good  bishop  Hofne, 
after  he  had  finished  his  commentary  on 
the  Psalms,  and  had  held  many  a  precious 
hour  of  converse  with  God  and  with  the 
things  that  are  above  when  meditating 
thereon — "And  now,  could  the  author  flat- 
ter himself,  that  any  one  would  take  half 
the  pleasure  in  reading  the  following  ex- 
position, which  he  hath  taken  in  writing 
it,  he  would  not  fear  the  loss  of  his  labour. 
The  employment  detached  him  from  the 
bustle  and  hurry  of  life,  the  din  of  politics 
and  the  noise  of  folly  ;  vanity  and  vexa- 
tion, flew  away  for  a  season,  care  and  dis- 
quietude came  not  near  his  dwelling.  He 
arose  fresh  as  the  morning  to  his  task; 
the  silence  of  the  night  invited  him  to  pur- 
sue it ;  and  he  can  truly  say  that  food  and 
rest  were  not  preferred  before  it.  Every 
psalm  improved  infinitely  upon  his  ac- 
quaintance with  it,  and  no  one  gave  him 
uneasiness  but  the  last ;  for  then  he 
grieved  that  his  work  was  done.  Happier 
hours  than  those  which  have  been  spent 
in  these  meditations  on  the  songs  of  Zion, 
he  never  expects  to  see  in  this  world. 
Very  pleasantly  did  they  pass,  and  moved 
smoothly  and  swiftly  along ;  for  when 
thus  engaged  he  counted  no  time.  They 
are  gone,  but  have  left  a  relish  and  a 
fragrance  upon  the  mind,  and  the  remem- 
brance of  them  is  sweet." 

May  every  sabbath  you  shall  spend 


# 


LECTURE   XVII. CHAPTER   V,    1,   2. 


91 


upon  earth,  bring  down  such  a  glimpse 
of  heaven's  glory  and  heaven's  blessed- 
ness upon  your  habitations.  No  care ; 
no  poverty  ;  no  desolation,  by  the  hand 
of  death  upon  your  household  ;  no  evil, 
saving  remorse,  that  the  world  can  oppose, 
need  to  keep  such  precious  visitations 
away  from  you.    But  O  remember  that  it 


is  only  to  those  who  keep  the  sayings  of 
the  Saviour,  that  He  has  promised  thus  to 
manifest  Himself;  and  it  is  only  after  a 
pure  and  watchful  and  conscientious  week, 
that  you  can  ever  expect  its  closing  sab- 
bath to  be  a  season  of  rejoicing  piety,  a 
day  of  peace  and  of  pleasantness. 


LECTURE  XVIII. 


Romans  v,  3 — 5. 


"And  not  only  so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulation  also  :  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  patience  ;  and  patience,  ex- 

gerience  ;  and  experience,  hope  :  and  hope  maketh  not  ashamed ;  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
earts  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  given  unto  us." 


The  apostle  had  before  said,  that  we 
rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God  ;  and 
he  now  says,  that  we  glory  in  tribulation 
also.  This  impresses  the  idea  of  the  great 
opposition  that  obtains,  between  an  appe- 
tite for  spiritual  and  an  appetite  for  tempo- 
ral blessings.  To  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  one 
is  a  habit  of  the  same  bosom,  that  rejoices 
and  glories  in  the  loss  or  destruction  of 
the  other — not  however  that  the  ruin  of 
any  present  good  is  desirable  on  its  own 
account,  for  all  such  affliction  is  not  joy- 
ous but  rather  grievous  ;  but  still  upon  the 
whole  should  it  be  matter  of  gladness,  if  the 
short  affliction  that  is  but  a  moment,  work- 
eth for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eter- 
nal weight  of  glory  ;  and  if  afterwards  it 
yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness to  those  who  are  exercised  thereby. 

"  Tribulation  worketh  patience."  You 
will  observe  that  the  word  translated  pa- 
tience, is  of  a  more  active  quality  in  the 
original  than  it  is  according  to  our  cus- 
tomary acceptation  of  it.  We  understand 
it  to  be  a  mere  virtue  of  sufferance,  the 
passive  property  of  enduring  without  com- 
plaint and  without  restlessness.  But  it 
really  extends  to  something  more  than 
this.  The  same  word  has  been  translated 
'  patient  continuance,'  in  that  verse  where 
the  apostle  speaks  of  a  patient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing.  The  word  perseve- 
rance, in  fact,"  is  a  much  nearer  and  more 
faithful  rendering  of  the  original  than  the 
word  patience.  "  Let  us  run  with  patience 
the  race  set  before  us,"  says  the  apostle, 
in  our  present  translation.  Let  us  run 
with  perseverance  the  race  set  before  us, 
were  an  improvement  upon  the  sense  of 
this  passage.  We  wait  with  patience,  or 
sit  still  with  patience,  or  simply  sutler 
with  patience  ;  but  surely  Ave  run  not  with 
patience  but  with  perseverance.  It  is 
well  when  tribulation  is  met  with  uncom- 
plaining acquiescence,  or  met  with  pa- 


tience— but  it  is  still  better  when  it  not 
only  composes  to  resignation,  but  stimu- 
lates to  a  right  and  religious  course  of 
activity.  "  It  is  good  for  me  to  have  been 
afflicted,"  says  the  psalmist,  "  that  I  might 
learn  thy  law."  "  Before  1  was  afflicted  I 
went  astray ;  but  now  have  I  kept  thy 
word."  It  is  very  well  when  affliction  is 
submitted  to  without  a  murmur — but  bet- 
ter still  when  it  quickens  the  believer's 
pace  in  the  divine  life,  and  causes  him  to 
emerge  on  a  purer  and  loftier  career  of 
sanctification  than  before. 

We  conceive  the  main  explanation  of 
an  afflicted  process  upon  the  heart  to  lie 
in  this,  that  the  heart  must  have  an  object 
on  which  to  fasten  its  hopes  or  its  re- 
gards ;  that  if  this  object  be  reft  from  it, 
a  painful  void  is  created  in  the  bosom,  the 
painfulness  of  which  is  not  done  away  till 
the  void  be  replaced  ;  that  the  soreness  of 
such  a  visitation  therefore,  as  sa}''  the  loss 
of  a  child,  inflicted  upon  a  worldly  man, 
will  at  length  find  its  relief  and  its  medi- 
cine in  worldly  objects  ;  and  that  in  the 
succession  of  company,  or  in  the  intense 
prosecution  of  business,  or  in  the  variety 
of  travelling,  or  in  the  relapse  of  his  feel- 
ings again  to  the  tone  of  his  ordinary  pur- 
suits and  ordinary  habits,  time  will  at 
length  fill  up  the  vacancy  and  cause  him 
to  forget  the  anguish  of  his  present  tribu- 
lation. But  if,  instead  of  wordly  he  be 
spiritual,  he  will  seek  for  comfort  from 
another  quarter  of  contemplation — he  will 
try  to  fill  up  the  desolate  place  in  his 
heart  with  other  objects — he  will  turn  him 
to  God,  and  labour  after  a  fuller  impres- 
sion of  that  enduring  light  and  love  and 
beneficence,  which,  if  they  only  shone 
upon  him  in  clearer  manifestation,  would 
effectually  chase  'away  the  darkness  of 
his  incumbent  melancholy.  In  such  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  such  feeliiigs, 
prayer  will   be  his  refuge ;  communion 


LECTURE   XVIII. CIIAPTErv.    V, 


with  God  will  be  the  frequent  endeavour 
of  his  soul ;  he  will  try  to  people  the  va- 
cancy created  in  his  bosom  by  the  loss  of 
earthly  things,  with  the  imagery  of 
heaven  ;  he  will  heave  up,  as  it  were,  his 
aflections,  now  disengaged  with  that 
which  wont  to  delight  and  to  occupy 
them,  but  is  now  torn  away  ;  he  will,  in 
the  stirrings  of  his  agitated  spirit,  attempt 
to  lift  them  to  that  serene  and  holy  and 
beautifid  sanctuary,  where  Christ  sitteth 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  And  who  does 
not  see  that  he  has  now  more  of  heart  to 
give  to  these  things,  delivered  as  it  is  from 
the  engrossment  of  a  fond  and  fiivourite 
affection  ;  and  that,  as  the  fruit  of  these 
repeated  attempts  to  follow  hard  after 
God,  he  may  at  length  obtain  a  nearer  ap- 
proximation ;  and  that,  on  the  singleness 
of  his  intent  and  undivided  desires,  a  light 
may  be  made  to  shine,  which  will  dis- 
close to  him  with  far  more  clear  and  af- 
fecting impression,  those  great  realities 
which  are  above  and  everlasting  ;  and 
that  with  his  faith  so  strengthened,  and 
his  separation  from  the  world  so  widened 
and  confirmed,  and  all  the  wishes  of  his 
heart  so  transferred  from  the  earth  that 
has  deceived  him  to  the  inheritance  that 
fadeth  not  away — Who  does  not  see,  that 
the  afflicting  process  which  the  man  has 
undergone,  has  transformed  him  into  a 
more  ethereal  being  than  before ;  has 
loosened  him  from  time,  and  rivetted  him 
with  greater  tenacity  and  determination 
than  ever  to  the  pursuits  of  eternity  ;  has 
forced  him  as  it  ware  to  seek  his  resources 
from  above,  and  thus  brought  him  to  abide 
by  the  fountain  of  living  waters ;  has 
riven  him,  as  it  were,  from  the  world,  and 
left  him  free  to  attach  his  loosened  regards 
to  the  invisibles  which  stand  at  a  distance 
away  from  him — So  that  now  he  can  fill 
up  his  heart  with  heaven  as  his  future 
home,  and  fill  up  his  time  with  the  service 
and  the  occupations  of  that  holiness  which 
is  the  way  that  leads  to  it  ■? 

You  know  that  in  the  parable  of  the 
sower,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches  is  a 
thorn  which  occupies  the  room,  and  over- 
bears the  influence  upon  the  heart,  of  the 
word  of  God.  But  you  also  know  that  the 
cares  of  life  are  also  thorns.  It  is  there- 
fore a  very  possible  thing,  that,  by  the 
tribulation  of  sudden  poverty,  one  set  of 
thorns  may  just  be  exchanged  for  another  ; 
and  that  by  the  ruminations  and  the  anx- 
ieties and  the  absorbing  thoughtfulncss 
which  the  ruin  of  fortune  brings  in  its 
rear,  the  things  of  heaven  may  as  effec- 
tually be  elbowed  out  of  the  place  which 
belongs  to  them,  as  by  all  the  splendours 
of  affluence  and  all  its  fascinations.  The 
only  sorrow  which  such  a  reverse  inflicts 
upon  the  bosom  of  the  sufferer,  may  be 
the   sorrow  of  this   world  that  worketh 


death.  Time  will  show.  The  experience 
of  the  effect  on  the  man's  personal  charac- 
ter and  history,  will  demonstrate,  whether 
the  root  of  the  matter  be  in  him  ;  and  if 
he  really  be  that  believer  on  whom  tribu- 
lation worketh  patience,  and  patience 
such  an  experience  of  himself  as  will  be 
a  ground  of  hopefulness  and  joy  to  him. 
Prune  away  a  branch  from  a  tree  that  is 
already  dead  ;  and  it  will  not  be  this  ope- 
ration that  will  revive  it.  Prune  away 
some  rank  and  excessive  luxuriance  from 
a  tree  that  is  living;  and  you  will  divert 
the  hurtful  flow  of  its  vegetable  moisture, 
from  the  part  where  it  iss  running  too 
abundantly,  and  restore  the  proper  tone 
and  healthf'ulness  to  its  whole  circulation. 
And  the  same  of  man.  His  affections  run 
sideway  among  the  idols  of  sense  and 
time  that  are  around  him.  And  God, 
whose  husbandry  we  are,  often,  by  a 
severe  but  salutary  operation,  severs  them 
away;  and  so  diverts  our  inclinations 
from  objects  to  which  they  cannot  exces- 
sively tend,  without  guilt  or  worldliness  ; 
and  leads  them  in  one  ascending  direction 
to  Himself;  and  if  this  be  the  love  of  God 
that  we  keep  His  commandments,  a  more 
faithful  walk  of  holiness  and  a  steadier 
perseverance  in  the  way  of  new  obedience 
are  the  fruits  of  His  chastening  visitation. 
And  thus  may  you  understand,  how  ac- 
cordant with  human  nature  the  affirmation 
of  our  Saviour  is,  when  He  speaks  of 
Himself  being  the  true  vine,  and  His 
father  the  husbandman — and  then  says, 
''Every  branch  in  me  that  beareth  not 
fruit  He  taketh  away  :  and  every  branch 
that  beareth  fruit  He  purgeth  it,"  or  as  it 
should  have  been,  "He  pruneth  it  that  it 
may  bring  forth  more  fruit." 

But  though  the  patience  of  our  text,  by 
being  turned  into  perseverance,  is  made 
rather  to  signify  the  impulse  and  direc- 
tion which  calamities  are  fitted  to  give  to 
the  active  principles  of  our  nature — yet 
we  are  not  to  exclude  a  meek  and  unre- 
sisting endurance  of  suffering,  as  one  of 
its  most  precious  fruits  on  the  character 
of  him  who  is  exercised  thereby.  There 
is  a  certain  mellowness  which  aflliction 
sheds  upon  the  character — a  softening 
that  it  effects  of  all  the  rougher  and  more 
repulsive  asperities  of  our  nature — a  deli- 
cacy of  temperament,  into  which  it  often 
melts  and  refines  the  most  ungainly  spirit 
— -just  as  when  you  visit  a  man,  from 
whose  masculine  and  overbearing  manner 
you  wont  to  recoil,  when,  in  the  full  flow 
and  loudness  and  impetuosity  of  health, 
he  carried  all  before  him;  but  whom  you 
find  to  be  vastly  more  amiable,  when, 
after  the  hand  of  disease  has  for  a  time 
been  upon  him,  he  still  retains  the  meek 
hue  of  convalescence.  It  is  not  the  pride 
of  aspiring  talent  that  we  carry  to  heaven 


LECTURE   XVIII. — CHAPTER    V,    3 — 5. 


93 


with  us.  It  is  not  the  lustre  of  a  superior- 
ity which  dazzles  and  commands  and 
overawes,  that  we  bear  with  us  there.  It 
is  not  the  eminence  of  any  public  dis- 
tinction, or  the  fame  of  lofty  and  success- 
ful enterprise.  And  should  these  give 
undue  confidence  to  the  man,  or  throw  an 
aspect  of  conscious  and  complacent  energy 
over  him,  he  wears  not  yet  the  complex- 
ion of  Paradise ;  and,  should  God  select 
him  as  His  own,  Pie  will  send  some  special 
aliliction  that  may  chasten  him  out  of  all 
which  is  uncongenial  with  the  place  of 
blessedness,  and  at  length  reduce  him  to 
its  unmingled  love  and  its  adoring  humil- 
ity. Affliction  has  a  kind  of  physical  as 
well  as  moral  power,  in  sweetening  the 
character,  and  in  impressing  a  grace  and 
a  gentleness  upon  it.  It  is  purified  by  the 
simple  process  of  passing  through  the 
fire.  "  The  fining  put  for  silver  and  the 
furnace  for  gold,"  says  Solomon;  "but 
the  Lord  trieth  the  hearts."  "  For  thou, 
O  God,  hasi  proved  us ;  thou  hast  tried  us 
as  silver."  "And  when  He  hath  tried 
me,"  says  Job,  "  I  shall  come  forth  as 
gold." 

But  the  use  of  affliction  is  not  merely  to 
better  the  quality  of  the  soul ;  it  is  to 
prove  this  quality  as  it  exists — 'And  pa- 
tience experience.' — It  furnishes  him  with 
a  proof  of  God's  love,  in  that  he  has  been 
enabled  to  stand  this  trial  with  principles 
exalted  by  it,  or  at  least  unimpaired.  And 
it  also  furnishes  him  with  a  proof  of  his 
own  sincerity.  It  causes  him  to  know 
that  there  is  now  that  in  his  heart,  which 
can  bear  him  up  under  the  ills  of  the 
present  life  ;  and  stimulate  him  in  the 
pursuit  of  life  everlasting.  It  makes  him 
acquainted  with  the  force  and  the  sted- 
fastness  of  his  own  character;  and  if  his 
conscience  can  attest,  that,  amid  all  the 
pressure  and  distress  of  his  earthly  suffer- 
ings, still  the  matters  of  faith  had  the 
practical  ascendancy  of  his  soul,  and 
made  him  feel  the  present  affljction  to 
be  light,  and  amply  compensated  for  all 
its  severity — this  is  to  him  a  satisfying 
demonstration  that  his  heart  was  now 
occupied  and  governed  by  principles 
which  nature  never  originates,  and  which 
never  do  take  possession  of  a  human 
bosom  till  they. are  imparted  by  grace. 
This  to  him  is  a  joyful  evidence,  not  of 
the  truth  of  the  gospel,  for  that  stands 
upon  arguments  of  its  own — but  that  the 
gospel  had  taken  effect  upon  himself,  and 
that  he  had  now  corne  personally  under 
the  regimen  of  that  doctrine  which  is  unto 
salvation. 

"And  experience  hope."  We  beg  to 
call  your  particular  attention  to  the  cir- 
cumstance, that,  at  an  antecedent  point 
in  this  train  of  consequences,  hope  had 
already  been  introduced  as  one  of  them. 


Peace  was  made  to  emanate  from  faith, 
and  joy  also,  and  hope  also.  They  who 
believed  no  sooner  did  so,  than  they  re- 
joiced in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  But 
in  their  progress  through  the  world,  they 
meet  with  tribulations  ;  and  it  is  said  of 
them  that  they  glory  in  these  also — be- 
cause of  the  final  result  of  a  process  that 
may  have  been  lengthened  out  for  many 
days,  after  faith  entered  their  hearts,  and 
peace  and  hope  sprung  up  as  the  direct 
and  immediate  effects  of  it.  The  hope  of 
the  fourth  vevse,  is  therefore  distinct  from, 
and  posterior  to  the  hope  of  the  second  ; 
and  it  also  appears  to  be  derived  from 
another  source.  The  first  hope  is.  hope 
in  believing — a  hope  which  hangs  direct 
on  the  testimony  of  God — such  a  hope  as 
may  be  conceived  to  arise  in  the  mind  of 
Abraham, on  the  very  first  communication 
that  God  had  with  him,  when  He  said,  T 
will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation — having 
no  other  ground,  in  fact,  than  a  belief  in 
the  veracity  of  the  promisor,  and  fed  and 
fostered  by  this  sole  consideration,  that 
God  hath  said  it  and  shall  He  not  do  it? 

Now  there  is  not  one  here  present,  to 
whom  the  gospel  does  not  hold  forth  a 
warrant  for  so  hoping.  It  declares  the  re- 
mission of  sins  to  all  who  put  faith  in  the 
declaration.  By  its  sweeping  term  'who- 
soever,' it  makes  as  pointed  an  offer  of 
eternal  life  to  each,  as  if  each  had  gotten 
a  special  intimation  by  an  angel  sent  to 
him  from  heaven.  If  he  do  not  believe, 
he  of  course  cannot  have  any  feelings 
that  are  at  all  appropriate  to  the  joyful 
contents  of  the  message  which  has  been 
rendered  to  him.  But  if  he  do  believ(.>, 
there  will  be  peace  and  joy  and  expecta- 
tion— and  these,  not  suspended  on  the  issue 
of  any  experience  that  is  yet  to  come; 
but  suspended,  and  that  immediately,  on 
a  simple  faith  in  the  tidings  of  the  gospel. 
They  are  called  tidings  of  great  joy  ;  and 
sure  we  are  that  they  would  stand  distin- 
guished from  all  other  tidings  of  this 
character,  if  they  did  not  awaken  the  joy 
at  the  precise  moment  of  their  being 
credited.  We  know  of  no  other  tidings 
which  can  be  called  joyful,  that  do  not 
make  one  rejoice  at  the  moment  of  their 
being  told  and  recognized  to  be  true.  You 
do  not  wait  so  many  days  or  weeks  till 
you  feel  glad,  at  some  good  news  that 
have  come  to  your  door.  You  are  glad  on 
the  moment  of  their  arrival,  simply  by 
giving  them  credit ;  and  the  gospel,  the 
strict  and  etymological  meaning  of  which 
is  simply  good  news,  will  in  like  manner 
gladden  every  heart  at  the  moment  of  its 
being  relied  upon  as  true  :  And,  it  being 
good  news  of  par'don  and  eternal  life  to 
all  and  every,  he,  one  of  the  all,  will,  if 
he  believe,  take  the  whole  comfort  of  the 
declaration   to  himself,  and  have  peace 


94 


LECTURE   XVm. — CHAPTER    V,    3 — 5. 


with  God   through  Jesus  Christ,  and  re- 
joice in  the  hope  of  His  glory. 

Now  the  second  hope  is  distinct  from 
this  first,  and  is  grounded  on  distinct  con- 
sidertitions — not  upon  what  the  believer 
sees  to  be  in  the  testimony  of  God,  but 
upon  what  he  finds  to  be  in  himself — It  is 
the  fruit,  not  of  faith,  but  of  experience  ; 
and  is  gathered,  not  from  the  word  that 
is  without,  but  from  the  feeling  of  what 
passes  within.  One  would  like  to  know 
how  the  first  and  the  second  hopes  find 
their  adjustment,  and  their  respective 
places,  in  the  bosom  of  a  "disciple ;  and 
what  is  the  precise  addition  which  the  lat- 
ter of  those  brings  to  the  former  of  them 
— whether  the  want  of  the  second  would 
darken  and  extinguish  the  first,  by  making 
him  ashamed  of  it. 

This  matter  can  be  illustrated  as  before 
by  the  case  of  Abraham.  God,  in  his 
first  communication  with  him,  made  him  a 
twofold  promise — one  of  which  was  to 
have  its  fuHilment  many  ages  after,  and 
another  of  which  was  to  be  fulfilled  in 
his  own  life  time.  He  promised  that  in 
him  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be 
blessed  ;  and  He  also  promised  that,  upon 
his  leaving  his  own  country.  He  should 
meet  with  him  and  show  him  the  land 
that  his  posterity  were  to  inherit.  Abra- 
ham simply  in  virtue  of  faith  would  hope 
for  the  accomplishment  of  both  promises. 
He  would  both  see  afar  off  the  day  of 
Christ  and  rejoice;  and  he  would  also 
leave  his  own  country,  in  the  confident 
expectation  of  again  meeting  with  God, 
and  having  the  land  of  his  descendants 
pointed  out  to  him.  Conceive  him  then 
to  have  been  disappointed  in  this  expec- 
tation— to  have  wandered  in  vain  without 
once  meeting  the  promised  manifestation 
— to  have  had  no  other  message  or  visita- 
tion from  the  heavens  save  the  first,  which, 
by  warranting  the  hope  of  another  that  it 
did  not  realise,  would  give  him  ground  to 
suspect  was  a  delusive  one.  Would  not 
Abraham,  in  this  case,  have  been  ashamed 
of  his  rash  confidence,  and  of  his  hasty 
enterprise,  and  of  the  vain  and  hazardous 
evils  into  which  he  had  thrown  himself? 
Would  not  the  fallacy  of  the  promise  that 
he  looked  for  in  life,  lead  him  to  withdraw- 
all  confidence  in  the  promise  that  was  to 
have  its  consummation  at  a  period  of  ex- 
ceeding distance  away  from  him  ?  And. 
on  the  other  hand,  did  not  the  actual  ful- 
filment of  the  near,  brighten  and  confirm 
all  his  original  expectations  of  the  distant 
fulfilment]  Were  not  all  his  subsequent 
meetings  with  God,  to  him  the  pledges 
and  the  earnests  of  the  great  accomplish- 
ment, that  still  lay  in  the  depths  of  a  very 
remote  futurity  ]  Did  not  they  serve  to 
convince  him,  that  the  hope  which  he  con- 
ceived at  the  first,  and  which  had  been  so 


confirmed  aflerwards,  was  a  hope  that 
maketh  not  ashamed  1  And  that  hope 
which  had  nothing  at  first  but  the  basis  of 
faith  to  rest  upon,  did  it  not  obtain  a  re- 
inforcement of  strength  and  of  security 
when  it  further  rested  on  the  basis  of  ex- 
perience 1 

I  make  a  twofold  promise  to  an  ac- 
quaintance— the  lesser  part  of  which 
should  be  fulfilled  to-morrow,  and  the  lat- 
ter on  this  day  twelvemonth.  If  he  be- 
lieve me  to  be  an  honest  man,  then,  simply 
appended  to  this  belief,  will  there  be  a 
hope  of  the  fulfilment  of  both  ;  and,  for 
a  whole  day  at  least,  he  may  rejoice  in 
this  hope.  To-morrow  comes ;  and,  if 
to-morrow's  promise  is  not  fulfilled,  who 
does  not  see  that  the  hope  which  emana- 
ted direct  from  faith  is  thereby  darkened 
and  overthrown,  and  that  the  man  will  be 
ashamed  of  his  rash  and  rejoicing  expec- 
tations 1  But  if,  instead  of  a  failure,  there 
is  a  punctual  fulfilment,  who  does  not  also 
see,  that  the  hope  he  conceived  at  first 
obtains  a  distinct  accession  from  the  expe- 
rience he  met  with  afterwards  ;  and  that 
without  shame  or  without  suspicion,  he 
will  now  look  to  the  coming  round  of  the 
year  with  more  confident  expectation  than 
ever  1  It  is  quite  true,  that  there  is  a  hope 
in  believing  ;  but  from  this  plain  example 
you  will  perceive  it  to  be  just  as  true,  that 
experience  worketh  hope. 

Now  it  is  just  so  in  the  gospel.  There 
is  a  promise  addrest  in  it,  the  accomplish- 
ment of  which  is  far  off;  and  a  promise, 
the  accomplishment  of  which  is  near  at 
hand.  The  fulfilment  of  the  one  is  the 
pledge  or  token  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 
other.  By  faith  in  God  we  may  rejoice  in 
hope  of  the  coming  glory  ;  and  it  will  be 
the  confirmation  of  our  hope,  if  we  find 
in  ourselves  a  present  holiness.  He  who 
hath  promised  to  translate  us  into  a  new 
heaven  hereafter,  has  also  promised  to 
confer  on  us  a  new  heart  here.  Directly 
appended  to  our  belief  in  God's  testimony, 
may  we  hope  for  both  these  fulfilments ; 
but  should  the  earlier  fulfilment  not  take 
place,  this  ought  to  convince  us,  that  we 
are  not  the  subjects  of  the  latter  fulfil- 
ment. A  true  faith  would  ensure  to  us 
both  ;  but  as  the  one  has  not  cast  up  at 
its  proper  time,  neither  will  the  other  cast 
up  at  its  time — and,  having  no  part  nor 
lot  in  the  present  grace,  we  can  have  as 
little  in  the  future  inheritance. 

Let  us  therefore  not  be  deceived.  You 
hear  people  talk  of  their  peace  with  God, 
while  art  and  malignity  and  selfishness 
are  at  full  work  in  their  unregenerate  bo- 
soms— while  no  one  evidence  is  apparent 
of  any  gracious  influence  at  all  having 
been  shed  abroad  in  their  hearts — while 
the  nearer  promise  has  had  no  fulfilment 
upon  them,  though  guaranteed  by  the 


LECTURE   XVm.— CHAPTER,   V,    3 — 5. 


95 


same  truth  with  the  more  remote  and  ul- 
terior one,  and  though  the  same  God  who 
ordains  life  everlasting  also  ordains  all 
the  heirs  of  it  to  be  conformed  to  the  im- 
age of  His  son  ;  and  no  one  enters  upon 
the  inheritance  on  the  other  side  of  death, 
without  the  Spirit  being  given  to  him  as 
the  earnest  of  his  inheritance  on  this  side 
of  ieath.  By  this  test  then  let  us  exam- 
ine ourselves  ;  and  have  done,  conclusively 
done,  with  that  odious  and  hypocritical 
slang,  into  which  the  terms  of  orthodoxy 
and  all  the  phrases  of  commonplace  pro- 
fessorship enter  so  abundantly — at  the 
very  time  perhaps  when  the  heart  rankles 
with  purposes  of  mischief;  or,  in  the 
contest  between  faith  and  sense,  the  latter 
has  gained  a  wretched  ascendancy  over 
liim.  Should  this  be  the  melancholy  con- 
dition of  any  professor  who  now  hears  us, 
let  him  rest  assured  that  he  has  lost  the 
things  that  he  has  wrought,  that  he  has 
the  whole  of  his  original  distance  from 
God  to  recover  anew,  that  he  has  to  lay 
again  the  foundation,  and  has  in  short  to 
do  all  over  again.  The  promi.se  of  life 
eternal  is  still  addrest  to  him,  hut  the 
promise  of  meetness  for  it  in  a  holy  and 
renewed  character  goes  along  with  it ; 
and  this  present  world  is  the  pface  where 
it  must  be  realized  :  and  it  is  only  by  mak- 
ing himself  sure  of  repentance  here,  and 
of  the  clean  heart  here,  and  of  the  right 
spirit  here,  that  he  can  make  himself  sure 
of  his  calling  and  election  hereafter.  In 
the  language  of  the  apostle  then — work 
out  your  salvation,  and  labour  with  all 
diligence  unto  the  full  assurance  of  hope 
unto  the  end. 

We  shall  be  happy,  if  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  impressing  a  clear  distinction 


upon  your  minds  between  the  hope  of 
faith  and  the  hope  of  experience  ;  and 
how  if  the  latter  is  wanting,  the  former  on 
that  account  may  come  to  be  darkened 
and  extinguished  altogether.  But  remem- 
ber you  are  not  to  wait  for  the  second 
hope,  till  you  conceive  the  first.  It  is  the 
first,  in  fact,  which  draws  the  second  in 
its  train.  It  is  the  first  which  originates  a 
purifying  influence  upon  the  soul.  It  is  in 
proportion  to  the  strength  and  habitual  as- 
cendancy of  the  first  over  the  soul,  that 
such  a^character  is  formed  as  may  furnish 
the  second  with  a  solid  basis  to  rest  upon. 
It  is  the  hope  of  the  second  verse  which 
germinated  the  whole  of  that  process,  that 
led  at  length  to  the  hope  of  the  fourth  verse. 
You  cannot  be  too  sure  of  the  truth  of 
God's  sayings.  You  cannot  have  too  much 
peace  and  joy  in  thinking  that  the  remis- 
sion of  sins  is  preached  unto  all,  and  that 
you  are  one  of  them  all.  There  is  a  hope 
here  which  ought  to  arise,  on  the  instant 
of  belief  arising  in  the  mind ;  and,  so  far 
is  this  from  superseding  the  hope  of  ex- 
perience, that  it  will  in  fact  bring  the  very 
feelings  and  raise  the  very  fruits  upon  the 
character  of  the  believer,  as  will  cause 
the  hope  of  experience  to  come  surely 
and  in  succession  to  the  hope  of  faith. 
Our  best  advice  for  brightening  the  sec- 
ond hope  to  the  uttermost,  is  that  you 
keep  alive  the  first  hope  to  the  uttermost. 
Your  experience  will  be  bright,  just  in 
proportion  as  your  faith  is  bright,  and  it 
is  just  if  ye  continue  in  the  fiiith  grounded 
and  settled,  and  if  ye  be  not  moved  away 
from  the  hope  of  the  gospel  which  ye 
have  heard,  that  you  will  at  length  be 
presented  holy  and  unblamable  and  unre- 
provable  in  the  sight  of  God. 


LECTURE  XIX. 


Romans  v,  5. 


"  And  hope  maketh  not  ashamed  ;  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is 

given  unto  us." 


You  are  already,  we  trust,  enough  fa- 
miliarised to  the  distinction  that  has  been 
offered  between  the  hope  of  faith  and  the 
hope  of  experience.  God  promises  to  all 
who  trust  in  Him,  that  He  will  give  them 
an  inheritance  on  the  other  side  of  death  ; 
and  that  He  will  also  give  them,  in  the 
shape  of  certain  personal  graces  and  en- 
dowments, an  earnest  of  the  inheritance 
on  this  side  of  it.  On  the  very  first  mo- 
ment that  you  hear  these  promises,  if  you 
Delieve  in  the  honesty  of  both,  you  will 
hope  for  the  fulfilment  of  both  ;  and  this 


is  the  hope  of  faith.  Should  the  promise 
that  is  of  earlier  fulfilment  come  to  pass 
at  its  proper  time,  this  will  be  to  you  a  sat- 
isfactory confirmation  of  your  first  belief, 
and  of  the  hope  that  comes  out  of  it ;  and 
you  will  look  forward  with  surer  antici- 
pation than  ever,  to  the  latter  of  the  two 
fulfilments.  This  is  the  hope  of  experi- 
ence— a  hope  that  brightens  with  the 
growth  of  grace  on  the  person  of  the  be- 
liever ;  and  with  every  new  finding  with- 
in himself  of  the  working  of  that  Spirit  of 
holiness,  by  which  he  is  made  meet  for 


% 


LECTURE   XIX. CHAPTER   V,    D. 


the  everlasting  abodes  of  holiness.  In 
this  way,  there  is  formed  a  distinct  and 
subsequent  ground  of  hope,  additional  to 
the  original  one.  The  original  ground 
was  your  faith  in  the  honesty  of  the  pro- 
mist;r,  that  He  would  fulfil  all  His  engage- 
ments. The  additional  ground  is  your 
actual  expe^'ienee  ol'  His  punctuality,  in 
having  liquidated  those  of  His  engage- 
ments which  had  become  due.  It  operates 
like  a  tirst  instalment,  which,  when  paid 
with  perfect  readiness  and  sufficiency, 
certainly  brightens  all  the  hope  of  a 
thorough  fullilment  of  the  various  articles 
of  agreement,  which  you  had  when  it  was 
first  entered  upon.  And  thus  it  is  that, 
though  there  is  a  hope  in  the  second  verse 
that  is  appended  inmiediately  to  your  faith 
in  God — there^s  also  a  hope  in  the  fourth 
verse,  that  has  been  wrought  in  you  by 
experience. 

You  must  also  be  sensible  what  the  ef- 
fect would  have  been,  had  there  been  a 
failure  instead  of  a  fulfilment  of  that  pro- 
mise, which  falls  to  be  accomplished  first. 
It  would  have  darkened  and  overthrown, 
not  merely  your  hope  of  the  near,  but  also 
your  hope  of  all  the  ulterior  good  things 
that  you  had  been  led  to  depend  upon. 
There  is  nothing  which  brings  the  feeling 
of  .shame  more  directly  into  the  mind,  than 
the  failure  of  some  confident  or  too  fondly 
indulged  expectation.  "They  shall  be 
greatly  ashamed  that  trust  in  graven  im- 
ages." "  They  shall  not  be  ashamed  that 
wait  for  me."  "And  lest,"  says  the  apos- 
tle, "  we  should  be  ashamed  in  this  same 
confident  boasting." 

'  Because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad 
in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is 
given  unto  us.'  The  love  of  God  may  sig- 
nify either  our  love  to  God,  as  in  the  pas- 
sage— '  this  is  the  love  of  God  that  ye  keep 
His  commandfjients ;'  or  it  may  signify 
God's  love  to  us,  as  in  the  passage — 'In 
this  was  manifested  the  love  of  God  to- 
wards us,  because  that  God  sent  His  only 
begotten  Son  into  the  world,  that  we  might 
live  through  Him.'  In  the  verse  under 
consideration,  we  apprehend  that  the  love 
of  God  must  be  taken  according  to  the  lat- 
ter signification.  It  is  thus  that,  speaking 
strictly  and  literally,  one  being  when  kind 
to  another,  sheds  upon  him  the  fruits  of 
that  kindness,  rather  than  the  kindness 
jtself  But  the  use  of  language  has  been 
so  far  extended,  as  to  admit  of  the  latter 
expression.  It  is  quite  according  to  es- 
tablished usage  to  say,  'I  have  received 
much  kindness  from  another,'  though  I 
have  properly  received  nothing  but  his 
money  or  his  attentions  or  his  patronage. 
And  in  like  manner,  do  I  receive  love  from 
God  when  I  receive  the  Holy  Ghost.  And 
as  a  beneficent  proprietor  is  said  to  shed 
abroad  of  his  liberality  among  the  habi- 


tations of  the  poor,  when  he  causes  food 
or  raiment  or  fuel  to  enter  into  their 
houses — so  does  God  shed  abroad  of  His 
love  in  our  hearts,  when  He  sends  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  take  up  His  residence,  and 
there  to  rule  by  His  influence. 

It  is  through  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  the 
spirit  of  man  is  borne  up  in  the  mid.st  of 
adversities.  It  is  He  who  upholds  the  per- 
severance of  a  disciple,  when  all  that  is 
around  him  lours  and  looks  dismal.  It  is 
He  who  causes  a  luminousness  to  rest  on 
those  eternal  prospects,  which  are  seen 
afar,  through  the  dark  vista  of  a  pilgrim- 
age which  is  lined  on  the  ri^ht  hand  and 
on  the  left,  with  sorrows  innumerable.  It 
is  when  a  bitterness  comes  upon  man 
which  is  only  known  to  his  own  heart, 
that  a  secret  balm  is  often  infused  along 
with  it,  with  the  joy  of  which  a  stranger 
does  not  intermeddle.  There  is  a  history 
of  the  soul  that  is  unseen  by  every  eye, 
but  intimately  known  and  felt  by  its  con- 
scious proprietor;  and  often  can  he  tes- 
tify of  a  tribulation  that  would  have  over- 
whelmed him  to  the  death,  had  not  a 
powerful  influence  from  on  high  support- 
ed him  under  it.  And  when  the  season  (>f 
it  at  length  passes  over  his  agitated  spirit, 
and  leaves  the  fruit  of  a  solid  peace,  and 
an  augmented  righteousness  behind  it — 
you  perceive,  how  in  him  the  process  is 
exemplified,  of  tribulation  working  in  him 
a  more  strenuous  perseverance;  in  all  the 
habits  and  principles  of  Christianity ;  and 
of  perseverance  working  in  him  such  an 
experience  of  himself,  as  argues  his  state 
of  discipline  and  preparation  for  another 
world  ;  and  of  this  experience  working  in 
him  the  hope  that  He  who  thus  fulfils  upon 
him,  the  guidance  in  time  that  He  has  pro- 
mised, will  finally  bestow  upon  him  the 
glory  Pie  has  promised  in  eternity. 

He,  says  the  apostle,  who  hath  wrought 
us  for  immortality  is  God,  who  hath  al.so 
given  to  us  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit,  and 
therefore  we  are  confident. 

It  is  very  true,  that  an  early  fulfilment 
is  often  the  satisfying  token  of  some  later 
fulfilment ;  and  that  grace  imparted  to  us 
on  this  side  of  death,  is  a  pledge  of  glory 
being  conferred  upon  us  on  the  other  side 
of  death  ;  and,  in  particular,  that  the  Holy 
Ghost,  bestowed  upon  us  so  as  to  work  a 
meetness  for  the  inheritance,  is  .sympto- 
matic of  our  future  translation  into  the 
inheritance  itself,  and  thus  superadds  the 
hope  of  experience  to  the  hope  of  faith. 
But  you  must  remark,  that  the  very  hope 
of  faith,  the  hope  which  you  conceive  at 
the  outset  of  your  belief  in  the  gospel,  is 
wrought  in  you  by  the  same  Holy  Ghost. 
It  is  not  of  yourself— it  is  the  gift  of  God. 
It  was  by  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  that 
your  eyes  were  opened  at  the  first  to  per- 
ceive the  truth  of  the  promises  ;  and  by 


LECTURE   XIX. — CHAPTER   V,    5. 


97 


«.  fuller  demonstration  He  can  make  you 
see  this  still  more  clearly,  and  rejoice  in 
it  still  more  confidently  than  before.    The 
effect  then  of  an  additional  and  subsequent 
supply  of  this  divine  influence,  i?,  not 
merely  to  furnish  you  with  a  pledge  upon 
earth  of  the  preferment  that  awaits  you 
in  heaven,  and  so  to  furnish  you  with  a 
new  ground  of  hope   upon   the   subject, 
even  the  ground  of  experience  ;  but  it  is 
also  to  brighten  the  ground  upon  which 
all  your  hope  rested  originally,  even  the 
ground  of  faith.     It  is  to  give  you  a  more 
full  and   satisfying  manifestation  of  the 
direct  truth  of  God  in  the  gospel  than  be- 
f(jre.     The  Holy  Ghost  does  not  merely 
put  into  your  h;ind  another  and  a  distinct 
hold,  by  giving  you  in  the  performance 
of  an  earlier  promise,  a  proof  of  the  sure- 
ness  with  which  the  later  promise  shall 
be   performed  also;    but  He  strengthens 
the  hold  which  you  had  by  faith  upon  the 
promises,  prior  to  all  experimental  confir- 
mation of  them  in  your  own  personal  his- 
tory.    He  does  not  merely  supply  that  evi- 
dence for  the  truth  of  the  gospel  promise 
which   is  seen  by  the  eye  of  experience  ; 
but  He  also  casts  an  additional  light  on 
the  evidence  that  you  had  at  the  first,  and 
which   is  only  seen  by  the  eye  of  faith. 
Never,  in  the  course  of  the  believer's  pil- 
grimage, never  does  the  hope  of  experi- 
ence supersede  the  hope  of  faith.     So  far 
from  this,  in  the  very  proportion  that  ex- 
perience grows  in  breadth,  does  faith  grow- 
in    brightness.     And  it  is  this  last  which 
still   constitutes  the   sheet-anchor  of  his 
soul,  and  forms  the   main  aliment  of  its 
peace  and  joy  and  righteousness.     It   is 
well,  that,  on  looking  inwardly  to  himself, 
he  sees  the  growing  lineaments  of  such  a 
grace  and  such  a  character  forming  upon 
his   person,  as  vouch  him  to  be  ripening 
for  eternity.     But,  along  with  this  proce.ss, 
will  he  also  loot*  outwardly  upon  God  in 
Christ,  and  theie  see,   in  constantly  in- 
creasing manifestation,  the  truth  and  the 
mercy  and   the  unchangeableness  of  his 
reconciled  Father,  as   by  far  the  firmest 
and  staijlcst  guarantees  of  his  future  des- 
tiny.    The  same  agent,  in  fact,  who  brings 
about  the  one  effect,    brings  about   the 
other.     He  causes  you  not  merely  to  see 
yourself  to  be  an  epistle  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  to  read  thereon  the  marks  of 
your   personal    interest  in  the  promi-ses ; 
but  He  also  causes  you  to  .see  these  pro- 
mises as  .standing  in  the  outward  record, 
invested  with  a  light  and  an  honesty  and 
a  frveness,  which   you  did   not  see  at  the 
first  revelation  of  them — so  that  it  is  not 
only  the  hope  of  experi(;nce  which  is  fur- 
nished you  anew,  as  you  proceed  on  the 
carecir  <;f  actual  Christianity  ;  but,  in  pro- 
portion to  your  advancement  on  this  ca- 
reer, are  you  also  made  to  abound  more 
13 


and  more  in  the  hope  of  faith,  through  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Thus  we  trust,  you  perceive,  that  the 
good  works  and  the  graces  of  personal 
religion,  not  merely  supply  you  with  fresh 
evidences  for  your  hope,  but  also  brighten 
your  original  ones.  They  cast  backwards 
as  it  were  a  good  reflex  influence  on  the 
faith  from  which  they  emanated.  It  is 
said  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  He  is  given 
to  those  who  obey  Him.  Follow  out  the 
impulse  of  a  conscience  which  He  hath 
enlightened  in  every  practical  business 
that  you  have  on  hand  ;  and  you  will  find, 
as  the  result  of  it,  a  larger  supply  of  that 
light  which  makes  clearer  than  before,  all 
those  truths  and  promi.«!es  of  Christianity, 
on  which  a  firm  dependence  may  be  laid 
by  an  act  of  believing.  It  is  thus  too 
that,  if  you  keep  the  sayings  of  Christ, 
He  will  manifest  Himself;  and  though 
works  are  of  no  value  unless  they  are 
wrought  in  faith,  yet  the  very  doing  of 
them  is  followed  up  by  such  larger  reve- 
lations of  the  truth  and  doctrine  of  God, 
that  by  works  is  your  faith  made  perfect. 

Give  us  a  man  walking  in  darkness,  and 
having   no  light,  from  whose   mind  the 
comfort  of  the  promises  is  fading  away, 
and  whose  fits  of  thought  and  pensiveness 
speak  him  to  be  on  the  borders  of  some 
deep  approaching  melancholy.     It  is  sin 
in  all  probability  that  has  conducted  him 
onwards   to  this   mental  dejection;   and 
that  not  merely  by  its  having  obliterated 
those  traces  of  personal  character,  the  ob- 
servation   of    which,    had    at    one    lime 
wrought   the  hope   of  experience  in  his 
bosom — bftt    by  its   having  grieved  and 
exiled  the  Holy  Spirit  for  a  season,  whose 
office  as  a  revealer  and  as  a  remembran- 
cer of  all  truth,  is  therefore  suspended ; 
and  who  has  therefore  left  the  tenement 
of  his  heart  desolate  and  uncheered  by 
that  hope  of  faith,  which  shone  in  a  beam 
of  gladness   on   the   very    outset   of  his 
Christianity.    For  the  treatment  of  such  a 
spiritual  patient,  we  are  often  bidden  tell 
him  of  the  fulness  that  there  is  in  Christ; 
and  tell  him  of  the  power  which  lies  in 
His  blood,  for  turning  guilt  of  the  most 
crimson  dye  into  the  snow-white  of  purest 
innocence  ;  and  to  tell  him  of  the  perfect 
willingness  that  there  is  in  God,  to  hold 
out  to  him  over  the  mercy-seat  the  sceptre 
of  forgiveness,  by  the  touching  of  which 
it  is,  that  he  enters  anew  into  reconcilia- 
tion  before   Him.     And   it  is  right,  it  is 
indispensably  right,  to  tell  him  of  all  this; 
but  we  would  tell  him  more.     The  voice 
of  man,  if  the  visitations  of  the  Spirit  do 
not  go  along  with  it,  will   not  force  an 
entrance,  even  for  these  welcome  accents 
of  mercy,  into  the  heart  that  He  had  so 
recently    abandoned.     And,   to    win    the 
return  of  this  gracious  and  all-powerful 


96 


LECTURE   XLX. CHAPTER   V,    5. 


monitor,  we  would  bid  him  work  for  it. 
We  would  tell  him,  that  it  is  by  toiling 
and  striving  and  pains-taking,  he  must 
recover  the  distance  which  he  has  lost, 
and  call  the  departed  light  and  departed 
influence  back  again.  Jf  there  be  a  re- 
maining sense  of  duty  in  his  heart,  we  bid 
him  work  with  all  his  might  to  prosecute 
its  suggestions;  and  never  cease  to  ply 
his  labours  of  obedience  till  He,  who  still 
it  appears  is  whispering  through  the  organ 
of  conscience  what  he  ought  to  do,  shall 
be  so  far  satisfied  with  the  probation,  as 
again  to  shed  a  sufficient  manifestation  on 
the  doctrines  which  he  must  never  cease 
to  contemplate.  And  this  not  merely  to 
restore  to  him  the  hope  of  experience,  but 
to  revive  in  him  the  hope  of  faith  ;  and, 
full  of  penitential  labour  as  well  as  of 
penitential  meditation,  to  make  his  light 
break  forth  again  on  the  morning,  and  his 
health  to  spring  forth  speedily. 

This  holds  out  to  us  another  view  of 
the  indissoluble  alliance,  tiiat  obtains 
between  the  faith  of  Christianity  and  the 
obedience  of  Christianity.  It  is  not  say- 
ing all  for  this,  to  say  that  the  former 
originates  the  latter.  It  is  saying  still 
more  to  say  that  the  latter  strengthens 
and  irradiates  the  former.  The  genuine 
faith  of  the  gospel  never  can  encourage 
sin  ;  for  sin  expels  that  Spirit  from  our 
hearts,  who  perpetuates  and  keeps  alive 
faith  in  them.  And  by  every  act  of  diso- 
bedience, there  is  a  wound  inflicted  on 
the  peace  and  joy,  which  a  belief  in  the 
gospel  ministers  to  the  soul.  It  is  by 
practically  walking  up  to  the  suggestions 
of  this  heavenly  monitor,  that  we  brighten 
within  us  all  His  influences;  and  thus,  as 
the  result  of  a  strict  and  holy  practice,  is 
there  a  clearer  and  fuller  light  reflected 
back  again,  on  the  very  first  principles 
from  which  it  emanated — so  that  Antino- 
mianism,  after  all,  is  very  much  an  afl'air 
of  theory,  and  can  only  be  exemplified  in 
the  lives  of  those  who  either  profess  the 
faith,  or  imagine  that  they  possess  it,  when 
they  are  utter  strangers  to  it.  The  real 
faith  which  is  unto  salvation,  not  only 
originates  all  the  virtues  of  the  gospel  ; 
but,  should  these  virtues  decay  into  anni- 
hilation, it  also  would  fall  back  again  to 
non-existence  along  with  them ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  does  it  uniformly  grow 
with  the  growth,  and  strengthen  with  the 
strength  of  a  man's  practical  Christianity. 
On  two  distinct  grounds  therefore,  do 
we  urge  on  every  believer,  a  most  perse- 
vering strenuousness,  under  every  temp- 
tation and  dilfiiculty,  in  all  the  ways  of 


righteousness.  The  first  is,  that  he  may 
brighten  his  personal  evidences,  of  being 
indeed  one  of  those  whom  God  is  enrich- 
ing and  beautifying  with  grace  in  time; 
and  thus  will  he  strengthen  that  basis  oa 
which  the  hope  of  experience  rests,  when 
it  looks  forward  to  a  preferment  of  glory 
in  eternity.  The  second  is,  that  he  may 
strengthen  that  very  faith,  by  which  he 
relied  at  the  first  on  the  promises  both  of 
grace  here,  and  of  glory  hereafter,  for, 
after  all,  it  is  by  faith  he  stands;  and  the 
whole  of  his  spiritual  life  will  forthwith 
go  into  decay,  should  he  only  look  to  the 
nope  reflected  from  himselt',  instead  of 
drawing  it  direct  and  in  chief  abundance 
from  the  Saviour.  An  exuberance  of 
fresh  and  healthy  blossom  upon  a  tree, 
afl'ords  a  cheering  promise  of  the  fruit 
that  may  be  expected  from  it.  But  what 
should  we  think  of  the  soundness  of  that 
man's  anticipations,  who  should  cut  across 
the  stem  because  he  thought  it  in  lependent 
of  the  root,  which  both  sent  forth  this 
beauteous  efllorescencc  and  can  alone 
conduct  it  to  full  and  finished  maturity  1 
And  the  same  of  spiritual  as  of  natural 
husbandry.  Were  there  no  foliage,  no 
fruit  could  be  looked  for — yet  still  it  is 
union  with  the  root,  which  produced  the 
one  and  will  bring  on  the  other.  And,  in 
like  manner,  if  there  be  no  foliage  of 
grace  in  time,  there  will  be  no  fruit  of 
glory  in  eternity.  But  still  it  is  by  abiding 
in  Christ,  that  the  whole  process  is  begun, 
and  carried  forward,  and  will  at  length 
be  perfected.  Give  up  the  hope  of  faith, 
because  you  have  now  the  hope  of  expe- 
rience; and  you  imitate  precisely  the 
man,  whom  the  !eaves  had  made  so  san- 
guine of  his  drest  and  supported  vine 
which  he  had  trained  along  the  wall,  that 
he  cut  asunder  the  stem  and  trusted  to  the 
abundance  of  his  foliage.  And  therefore 
we  reiterate  in  your  hearing,  that  the  hold 
of  faith  is  never  to  be  let  go ;  and  that 
from  Christ,  who  ministers  all  the  nourish- 
ment which  comes  to  the  branches,  you 
are  never  to  sever  yourselves;  and  that 
the  habit  of  believing  prayer,  which  is 
the  great  and  perpetual  aliment  of  all 
virtuous  practice,  is  never  to  be  given  up ; 
and  thus  it  is,  that,  let  the  hope  of  the  4th 
verse  brighten  to  any  conceivable  extent 
upon  you,  from  the  light  which  is  reflected 
by  your  person — yet  still  it  is  the  faith  by 
which  you  are  justified,  and  the  hope  of 
the  2d  verse  directly  emanating  there- 
from, that  form  the  radical  elements  of 
your  sanctification  here,  and  your  meet- 
ness  for  the  inheritance  hereafter. 


LECTURE   XX. CIMPTER    V,    6 — 11. 


99 


LECTURE  XX. 


Romans  v,  0 — 11. 


"For  when  we  were  yet  without  strength  in  due  time  Clirist  died  for  the  ungodly.  For  scarcely  for  a  righteous  man 
w'll  one  die  ;  yet  peradventure  for  a  good  man  some  would  even  dare  to  die.  But  God  commendeth  his  love  to- 
wards us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us  Much  more  then,  being  now  justified  by  his  blood, 
we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through  him  For  if,  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the 
death  of  his  Son  ;  much  more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  also  joy  in 
God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  \v*e  have  now  received  the  aioncment." 


From  the  preceding  verses  we  gather, 
th9l  a  believer  at  the  very  outset  of  his 
faith,  may  legitimately  hope  for  the  ful- 
filment of  all  God's  promises.  Some  of 
these  take  elfect  upon  him  in  time,  and 
form  the  pledges  and  the  earnests  of  those 
further  accomplishments,  which  are  to 
take  place  in  eternity — thus  alfording  a 
basis  on  which  to  rest  the  hope  of  expe- 
rience. It  is  true  that  they  are  the  greater 
things  which  are  to  follow.  The  glory 
that  is  hereafter,  will  greatly  exceed  all 
the  glimpses  and  all  the  tokens  of  it  with 
which  we  are  favoured  here  ;  and  it  may 
be  thought  that  because  we  obtain  small 
things  now,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  are 
to  look  for  greater  things  afterwards.  A 
man  may  both  be  able  and  willing,  to 
advance  the  small  sum  which  he  pro- 
mises to  bestow  on  me  to-morrow  ;  but  it 
does  not  certainly  ensue  from  this,  that  he 
will  be  either  able  or  willing,  to  grant  mc 
the  large  sum  promised  on  this  day  twelve- 
month. Did  the  great  things  come  fir.st, 
we  would  have  less  hesitation  in  expect- 
ing the  small  things  that  were  afterwards 
to  be  forth-coming.  But  when  the  order 
is  the  reverse  of  this,  when  the  earlier  in- 
stalments are  but  minute  and  insignificant 
fractions  of  the  entire  and  final  engage- 
ment— it  may  be  allowed  us  perhaps  to 
suspend  our  confidence,  ere  we  can  be 
sure  from  the  puny  samples  on  hand,  of 
that  rich  and  magnificent  sum  of  blessed- 
ness, to  which  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  pointed  our  expectations. 

In  the  succeeding  verses,  we  have  an 
argument  that  is  eminently  fitted  to  over- 
bear this  diffidence  ;  and  which  both  ex- 
plains to  us  why  we  have  received  our 
present  fulfilments,  and  why  we  may  re- 
joice in  the  assured  hope  of  all  our  future 
ones.  On  our  first  acceptance  of  Christ 
by  faith,  all  that  we  obtain  is  peace  with 
God,  who  ceases  to  be  our  enemy ;  and 
lifts  away  from  us  that  hand  of  threat- 
ened vengeance,  which  has  already  been 
laid  upon  Him  who  for  us  hath  borne  tlie 
whole  burden  of  it.  It  is  a  great  thing. 
no  doubt,  thus  to  be  delivered  from  wrath 
and  hostility.  But  you  can  conceive  the 
work  of  reconciliation  to  go  no  farther 
than  this.  It  might  have  been  nothing 
more  than  the  reconciliation  of  the  judge 


with  the  prisoner,  when  he  acquits  and 
dismisses  him.  It  may  be  the  simple  let- 
ting off  of  a  criminal  from  punishment, 
or  the  mere  ceasing  to  be  an  adversary, 
without  passing  onwards  to  the  new  cha- 
racter of  a  benefactor  and  a  patron.  But 
when  God  in  ceasing  to  be  an  enemy  be- 
comes a  friend — when,  instead  of  being 
dealt  with  as  the  objects  of  His  displeas- 
ure, we  are  dealt  with  as  the  objects  of 
His  love — when  we  get  not  only  forbear- 
ance, but  positive  favour  from  His  hands 
— This  is  something  higher  than  the  peace 
which  accrues  to  us  on  the  outset  of  our 
Christianity.  There  is  an  advance  made 
in  the  scale  of  privilege  ;  and,  if  to  be  at 
peace  with  God  through  Jesu  \Jhrist  our 
Lord  is  in  itself  a  great  privilege,  to  re- 
ceive the  Holy  Gho.st  from  Him  as  the 
evidence  of  His  love  is  a  still  greater  one. 
And,  looking  onward  from  this  to  futurity, 
it  is  not  till  we  are  refined  into  the  con- 
summate holiness,  and  raised  into  the  pure 
and  perfect  happiness  of  Heaven,  that  we 
shall  reach  the  acme  of  that  enjoyment, 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  the  faithful 
disciples  of  His  Son. 

Now  according  to  this  process,  the 
smaller  things  you  will  observe  come 
first,  and  the  greater  things  follow.  There 
is  a  gradation  and  an  ascent  of  privilege, 
as  you  move  forward  in  history — but  then, 
to  get  what  is  less  docs  not  so  warrant  the 
expectation  of  getting  what  is  more,  as  to 
get  what  is  much,  warrants  the  expecta- 
tion of  getting  what  is  less.  Surely  the 
man  who  has  given  me  the  trifle  which 
he  promfsed,  will  not  withhold  from  me 
the  treasures  that  he  has  also  promised,  is 
not  so  sound  a  conclusion — as  surely  the 
man  who  promised  me  a  magnificent  do- 
nation, and  hath  now  actually  made  it 
good,  will  not  break  his  word  and  pro- 
mise, when  they  are  merely  staked  on 
some  paltry  fulfilment,  that  is  still  in  re- 
.scrve  for  me.  If  the  Ics-ser  comes  in  the 
order  of  time  before  the  greater,  then  the 
non-performance  of  the  le.sser  would  blast 
all  our  expectations  of  the  greater,  and 
make  us  ashamed  of  the  confidence  with 
which  we  cherished  them.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  performance  of  the  lesser 
does  not  so  warrant  our  expectations  of 
the  greater,  as  if  the  order  of  the  two  ful- 


100 


LECTURE   XX. ClLVrTER    V,    6 11. 


filments  had  been  reversed.  We  might 
well  be  ashamed  of  our  hope  in  the  latter 
of  the  two,  if  disappointed  in  the  earlier 
of  the  two.  But  if  the  earlier  be  at  the 
same  time  the  less  of  the  two,  we  cannot 
from  this  comparison  alone  say  with  the 
apostle,  as  the  less  has  turned  out  agree- 
ably to  our  first  hopes,  how  much  more 
will  the  greater  so  turn  out  likewise  J 

Now  it  can  be  conceived,  that,  though 
one  present  be  smaller  for  us  to  receive 
than  another — yet  it  may  have  been  given 
in  such  circumstances  of  difficulty  or 
provocation,  as  to  argue  a  higher  degree 
of  generosity  or  good-will;  and  be  alto- 
gether, a  greater  and  more  substantial 
token  of  the  giver's  regard,  than  the  larger 
present  will  be,  which  is  promised  to  be 
conferred  on  us  afterwards.  The  fellow- 
captive  in  some  hostile  prison,  whom  I 
had  perhaps  insulted  and  reviled,  and  who 
in  justice  might  have  dealt  with  me  as  an 
adversary — should  he,  to  save  me  from 
the  agonies  of  thirst,  make  over  his  scanty 
allowance  of  water,  and  so  entail  these 
agonies  upon  himself,  telling  me  at  the 
same  time,  that  in  spite  of  all  the  insolence 
he  had  gotten  from  my  hands,  he  could 
not  help  feeling  an  unquenchable  love  for 
my  person,  and  a  no  less  unquenchable 
desire  after  my  interests,  and  that  if  ever 
a  happier  time  should  restore  us  to  liberty, 
»  and  to  our  native  land,  he  would  contribute 
of  his  influence  and  his  wealth  to  the 
rising  interests  of  my  family — who  does 
not  see  that  even  a  single  cup  of  cold 
water,  given  in  such  circumstances,  and 
with  such  assurances  as  these,  may  well 
warrant  the  highest  hopes  that  can  be 
entertained  of  his  kindness  1  And  should 
I,  touched  and  overpowered  by  so  striking 
a  demonstration  of  it,  and  ashamed  of  all 
my  former  perverseness,  henceforth  bind 
myself  in  gratitude  and  duty  to  this  bene- 
factor— may  I  not  well  argue,  that  surely 
the  man  who  ministered  to  me,  though  in 
the  .smaller,  and  did  so  at  such  an  expense 
of  suffering  to  himself,  and  also  in  the  face 
of  all  the  injury  I  had  done  unto  him,  will 
now  acquit  himself  to  the  full  of  the 
larger  bounties  which  he  held  out  in  ex- 
pectation, should  I  now  return  with  him 
his  devoted  friend  to  the  country  of  his 
fathers ;  and  he,  replaced  in  the  ample 
sufficiency  that  belongs  to  him,  should 
have  it  in  his  power,  by  an  ea.sy  and  a 
willing  sacrifice,  to  translate  me  into  all 
the  comfort  and  all  the  independence 
which  he   engaged  to  render  me. 

There  is  a  parallel  to  this  in  the  gospel. 
Forgiveness  is  a  smaller  boon  than  posi- 
tive favour:  and  all  the  tokens  of  this  fa- 
vour which  are  bestowed  upon  us  in  time, 
are  smaller  than  that  rich  and  full  and 
ever-iiuring  expression  of  it  which  awaits 
us  in  eternity.    Should  the  promise  of 


the  smaller  not  be  fulfilled,  when  it  be- 
comes due,  this  would  make  us  ashamed 
of  all  the  expectations  we  had  cherished 
of  the  larger.  And  accordingly,  the  apos- 
tle, from  having  received  the  Holy  Ghost 
here  as  a  kind  of  earnest  or  first  fruits,  is 
not  ashamed  of  his  hope  for  the  glory  of 
God  which  is  to  be  revealed  hereafter. 
But  though  this  might  .save  him  from  be- 
ing ashamed  of  his  high  hopes  in  futurity 
it  is  aot  enough  to  warrant  the  argument 
of,  how  much  more,  that  he  comes  for- 
ward with  in  the  following  verses.  It  is 
not  a  very  conclusive  way  of  reasoning 
to  say — I  have  got  a  smaller  thing  accord- 
ing to  promise,  how  much  more  then  may 
I  expect  a  greater  thing?  It  would  have 
applied  better  had  the  greater  thing  come 
first,  and  then  you  might  have  said.  How 
much  more,  as  he  has  given  me  the  greater 
boon  that  he  stood  engaged  to  render,  may 
I  not  hope  for  his  punctuality  with  regard 
to  the  smaller  ]  But,  just  as  in  the  case 
of  human  illustration  that  we  have  al- 
ready quoted,  the  first  act  of  kindnes.s, 
though  smaller  in  the  matter  of  it,  may 
have  been  done  in  such  circumstances  of 
difficulty  and  provocation,  as  to  be  a  far 
more  unquestionable  evidence  of  regard 
than  any  future  act  of  goodness  possibly 
can  be,  however  great  in  the  matter  of  it 
— because  done  in  circumstances  of  ease 
and  good  agreement.  And  these  prepara- 
tory remarks  will  enable  us  to  enter  into 
the  spirit  and  to  estimate  aright  the 
strength  and  conclusiveness  of  the  argu- 
ment which  follows. 

V.  6.  We  were  not  able  to  extricate 
ourselves  from  the  prison-house  of  God's 
righteous  condemnation.  We  had  not 
strength  for  that  perfect  obedience,  which 
a  relentless  and  insurmountable  law  has 
laid  upon  all  its  subjects ;  and  even 
though  we  had,  such  obedience  could 
only  satisfy  for  itself,  and  at  its  own  sea- 
son. It  could  not  cancel  the  guilt  of 
another  season.  But  the  truth  is,  that  we 
could  neither  do  away  the  guilt  of  our 
pa.st,  nor  the  pollution  of  our  present  his- 
tory. We  were  in  bondage  to  the  power 
of  corruption,  as  well  as  to  the  fears  of 
condemnation — living  as  totally  without 
God,  as  without  hope — abandoned  to  the 
counsel  of  our  own  heart.s,  and  taking  no 
counsel  and  no  reproof  from  Him  whose 
right  hand  was  upholding  us  continually. 
It  was  in  these  circumstances  of  provoca- 
tion, that  Chri.st  undertook  for  us.  He 
stretched  out  His  mediatorial  hand,  for 
the  purpose  of  extending  the  boon  of  for- 
giveness— a  smaller  boon  than  favour 
certainly:  but  remember  it  was  a  boon  to 
the  ungodly.  It  was  a  movement  of  kind- 
ness, forcing  its  way  through  an  obstacle 
that  might  well  have  stifled  and  repressed 
it.    It  was  an  expression  of  love  so  ar- 


LECTURE   XX. — CllAPTEK.   V,    6 11. 


101 


dent,  that  even  impiety,  in  full  and  open 
and  determined  career,  could  not  extin- 
guish it.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  world's 
greatest  wickedness,  that  He  descended 
from  on  high,  not  to  condemn  but  to  save 
it.  It  is  true  that  the  first  effect  of  this 
benevolent  undertaking,  was  simply  an 
acquittal  to  those  who  had  been  guilty ; 
and  this  was  but  the  prelude  of  greater 
things  to  follow.  But  this  first  thing  was 
wrought  out  in  the  face  of  greatest  prov- 
ocalion,  and  at  the  expense  of  most  pain- 
ful endurance.  It  was  rendered  unto  men 
at  the  time  when  men  were  rioting  at 
large,  both  against  the  law  of  conscience 
and  the  law  of  revelation.  It  was  when 
every  man  had  turned  to  his  own  way, 
that  God  laid  upon  Ilis  Son  the  iniquities 
of  us  ail.  Our  time  of  greatest  regard- 
lessness  was  His  time  of  greatest  regard. 
And  estimating  the  intensity  of  afi'ection, 
not  by  the  magnitude  of  its  positive  dis- 
pensations, but  by  the  magnitude  of  resist- 
ance it  must  overcome,  and  of  the  suffer- 
ings it  must  undergo — it  was  at  the  outset 
of  our  redemption  :  it  was  at  that  due  time 
when  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly  ;  it  was 
in  the  act  of  making  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  the  people,  out  of  which  act  the 
first  though  the  smallest  benefit  that 
emerged  was  the  forgiveness  of  the  peo- 
ple— it  was  then  nevertheless,  that  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ,  bearing  all  the  con- 
demnation of  our  unthankful  species,  and 
pouring  out  His  soul  unto  the  death  for 
them — it  was  then  that  this  love  sent  forth 
its  most  wondrous  and  most  convincing 
manifestation. 

V.  7.  The  point  insisted  on  by  the  apos- 
tle here,  is  that  Christ  died  for  us  when 
we  were  yet  enemies  in  our  heart  toward 
Him.  But  it  should  also  be  kept  in  mind, 
that  His  was  no  ordinary  death  ;  that  they 
were  not  the  pangs  of  a  common  dissolu- 
tion which  extorted  such  agonies  of  fear, 
and  such  cries  of  bitter  suffering,  and 
drew  out  on  the  person  of  our  Redeemer 
both  in  the  garden  and  upon  the  cross 
such  mysterious  symptoms  of  distress  too 
exquisite  for  human  imagination,  of  an 
endurance  far  deeper  than  we  have  any 
conception  of.  It  is  evident  from  tlie 
■whole  history  of  the  hour  and  the  power 
of  darkness,  that,  though  He  had  the 
whole  stre4igth  of  the  Divinity  to  uphold 
Him,  there  was  a  struggle  to  be  made,  and 
a  hostility  to  be  baffled,  and  an  awful  en- 
terprise of  toil  and  of  strenuousness  to  be 
gone  through,  under  the  severity  of  which 
our  Saviour  had  well  nigh  given  way — 
that  ere  the  victory  was  His,  He  had  to 
travel  in  His  strength,  and  to  put  fijrth  all 
the  greatness  of  it;  and,  warring  with 
principalities  and  powers,  had,  in  the 
words  of  Isaiah,  to  tread  in  the  wine-press 
alone,  and  trample  on  his  enemies  with 


fury,  and  to  stain  His  raiment,  and  to 
wield  the  arm  of  His  supernatural  might, 
ere  He  brought  down  to  the  earth  the 
strength  that  was  opposed  to  Him.  It 
should  be  recollected,  that  the  death  of 
Christ  was  not  in  semblance  merely,  but 
in  real  and  substantial  amount,  an  atone- 
ment for  the  sins  of  the  world — that  He 
lasted  death  not  as  an  individual,  but  tast- 
ed it  for  every  man — that  on  Him  was 
laid  the  accumulated  weight  of  all  that 
wrath,  which  an  eternity  would  not  have 
expended  on  the  millions  for  which  He 
died— that  there  was  the  actual  transfer- 
ence of  God's  avenging  hand  from  the 
heads  of  the  countless  guilty  He  has  re- 
deemed, to  the  head  of  this  one  innocent 
suft'erei" — and  that  from  the  moment  He 
was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  to  the 
moment  of  his  crying,  It  is  finished,  and 
when  He  gave  up  the  Ghost,  there  was 
discharged  upon  the  head  of  this  great 
Sacrifice  all  the  vials  of  a  wrath  which 
the  misery  everlasting,  and  that  of  a  mul- 
titude which  no  man  could  number,  could 
not  have  exhausted  ;  there  wore  condensed 
upon  His  soul  all  the  agonies  which  but 
for  Him  the  vast  family  of  the  redeemed 
would  have  borne. 

But  it  is  not  here  on  the  kind  of  death 
which  our  Saviour  endured  that  the  apos- 
tle founds  his  argument  of  God's  love  to 
us — It  is  on  the  kind  of  people  whom  He 
died  for — even  sinners.  This  peculiarizes 
and  exalts  the  benevolence  of  Christ 
above  all  human  benevolence.  There  is 
a  devotedness  of  affection  here,  of  which 
there  is  no  example  in  the  history  of  our 
species.  For  a  righteous  man,  that  is  a 
man  free  from  blame  or  criminality,  for 
a  simply  innocent  man  there  is  scarcely 
any  that  would  die  ;  for  a  good  man,  one 
who  rises  above  the  level  of  mere  inno- 
cence, one  who  is  signalized  by  achieve- 
ments of  positive  benevolence  or  heroic 
patriotism,  some  might  die — like  some  dis- 
ciples of  Paul,  who  for  his  life  would  lay 
down  their  own  necks — or  like  the  mem- 
bers of  some  gallant  band,  who  would 
rally  in  defence  of  the  worth  and  friend- 
ship that  they  revered — or  like  the  mar- 
tyrs of  Christianity  who  died  for  the  hon- 
ours of  its  founder,  but  not  till  He  had 
evinced  the  highest  sublime  of  goodness 
by  dying  for  the  worst  and  most  worth- 
less of  mankind.  It  is  on  this  that  the 
apostle  lays  the  stress  of  his  argument ; 
and  from  this  he  infers,  that,  even  at  the 
outset  of  our  redemption  and  when  we 
had  got  nothing  more  than  forgiveness, 
there  was  such  a  demons+'-'iiion  of  God's 
affection  for  sinners,  as  warranted  the 
fullest  expectation  of  all  the  higher  bless- 
ings that  we  are  to  receive  from  His  hand 

For  observe,  that  though  favour  may  be 
higher  in  the  scale  of  privilege  than  for- 


102 


LECTURE   XX. CHATTER    V,    6 11. 


giveness,  and  glory  through  eternity  higher 
than  grace  in  time — yet  it  was  at  the  point 
when  forgiveness  was  secured  for  the 
guilty — it  was  then  that  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ  made  its  most  decisive  exhibition — 
It  was  then  that  it  triumphed  over  difficul- 
ties whicli  no  longer  exist — It  was  then 
that  it  leaped  over  a  barrier  which  is  now 
levelled  into  an  open  way  of  access  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven — It  was  then  that 
human  sinfulness  rose  in  a  smoke  of  abom- 
ination before  the  throne  of  God,  unaccom- 
panied as  yet  w  ith  that  incense  of  a  sweet- 
smelling  savour  which  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  has  since  infused  into  it — It  was 
then  that  the  awful  death  of  the  atone- 
ment, a  death  never  now  to  be  repeated, 
had  still  to  be  endured.  All  these  stood  in 
the  way  of  reconciliation ;  and  though  this 
be  the  first  and  the  smallest  boon  that  is 
conferred  upon  the  sinner,  yet  conferred 
as  it  was  in  the  midst  of  obstacles  which 
no  longer  exist,  and  of  sins  that  arc  now 
blotted  out  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  so 
that  God  remembers  them  no  more — this 
smallest  boon,  viewed  as  a  demonstration 
of  love  and  a  pledge  of  future  kindness, 
more  than  overpasses  all  the  subsequent 
boons  that  can  be  rendered  in  circum- 
stances where  there  is  nothing  to  struggle 
with,  and  no  bai'ricr  in  the  way  of  their 
accomplishment.  So  that  the  apostle  is 
warranted  in  all  his  larger  expectations 
after  this.  Much  more  then,  being  justified 
by  His  blood,  we  shall  be  translated  into 
all  the  blessings  of  a  positive  salvation. 

The  love  of  a  benefactor  is  not  to  be  es- 
timated by  the  magnitude  of  His  gift,  but 
by  the  exposure  and  the  suffering  that  he 
incurred  in  rendering  it.  The  gifts  of 
God  may  go  on  progressively  increasing 
through  all  eternity ;  but  it  was  the  first 
gift  of  reconciliation  which  had  to  force 
its  way  through  the  host  of  impediments, 
that  stood  between  a  holy  Lawgiver  and 
a  sinful  world.  After  these  were  removed, 
the  following  gifts  came  spontaneously 
and  without  interruption,  out  of  the  exu- 
berant wealth  and  liberality  of  the  God- 
head. So  that,  from  the  very  first,  we  have 
the  argument  in  all  its  entireness,  If  God 
spared  not  His  own  Son  to  reconcile  a 
world  that  had  nothing  but  guilt  and  de- 
pravity to  offer  to  His  contemplation — 
how  much  more,  now  that  atonement  is 
made,  will  He  bless  and  enrich  all  those 
who  have  fled  to  it  for  refuge,  and  whom  He 
now  beholds  in  the  face  of  His  anointed. 

This  then  is  an  argument  altogether  ad- 
dressed to  the  hope  of  faith,  and  may  be 
seized  upon  and  felt  in  the  whole  force  of 
it,  ere  there  is  time  for  the  hope  of  expe- 
rience. The  moment  that  one  looks  with 
a  believing  eye  to  the  work  of  redemption, 
he  may  gather  from  it  all  the  materials 
which  make  up  this  argument.    He  may 


there  see,  that  Christ  at  that  time  died  for 
the  sinful,  to  bring  about  their  agreement 
with  God;  and  that,  at  the  present  time, 
Christ  has  not  to  die  any  more,  and  that 
in  Him  the  guilt  of  sinfulness  has  been 
done  11  way.  '  If  when  enemies  we  were 
reconciled,  by  His  death — how  much  more, 
now  that  we  are  reconciled,  shall  all  the 
blessings  that  He  died  to  purchase  be  lav- 
ished upon  us  abundantly.'  If,  when  so 
many  difliculties  stood  betwixt  us,  He- 
forced  His  way  through  them,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  reaching  forgiveness  to  the  con 
demned — how  nuich  more,  now  that  all  is 
open  and  level  and  free  in  the  road  of  com- 
munication between  earth  and  heaven, 
will  He,  out  of  the  treasury  of  His  fulness, 
shed  upon  u-s  all  the  needful  grace  here, 
and  translate  us  into  all  the  promised  glory 
hereafter.  True,  if  the  grace  did  not  come, 
this  might  well  blast  and  annihilate  these 
fond  anticipations.  We  cannot  gel  to 
heaven  without  such  a  stepping-stone  ; 
and  when  we  have  reached  this  length, 
we  can  see  more  clearly  and  hope  more 
confidently  for  the  promised  inheritance 
than  before.  But  still  the  main  light  which 
rests  upon  this  glorious  futurity,  radiates 
upon  it,  from  the  great  and  primary  work 
of  Christ's  undei-taking  as  lie  did,  and 
Christ's  doing  as  He  did,  for  the  guilty. 
And  the  reason  why  we  have  obtained  the 
grace,  and  still  the  chief  reason  why  we 
may  look  fov  the  glory,  is  that  seeing  He 
did  so  much  to  reconcile  and  to  justify — 
how  much  mon;,  now  that  the  iieat  and 
difficulty  and  stronuousness  of  the  contest 
are  all  over,  how  much  more  may  we  not 
anticipate  all  the  blessings  of  a  positive 
salvation  from  His  hand. 

Finally,  let  it  be  observed  of  the  9th 
verse,  that  Paul  speaks  of  himself  and 
others  in  the  character  of  believers,  and 
as  being  already  justified  by  the  blood  of 
Jesus.  The  force  of  the  consideration  lies 
in  this — that  seeing  He  shed  His  blood  to 
justify  us,  at  the  time  that  we  were  unre- 
pentant and  unreconciled,  and  thus  to  save 
us  from  the  wrath  that  abideth  on  all  who 
believe  not — how  much  more,  now  that 
this  is  done,  and  that,  instead  of  dying  any 
more.  He  has  only  to  give,  in  large  and 
easy  liberality,  out  of  His  fulness — how 
much  more,  by  the  supplies  of  His  grace 
and  strength,  will  He  save  us  from  the 
wrath  of  those  who  shall  finally  fall  away. 
The  tribulations  in  which  he  gloried  might 
not  have  wrought  a  more  strenuous  per- 
severance in  the  Christian  course;  but, 
like  certain  hearers  in  the  parable  of  the 
sower,  he  might  have  been  offended  when 
persecution  came,  and  actually  fallen 
away.  Instead  of  patience  working  such 
an  experience,  as  made  him  hopeful  that 
he  was  indeed  a  Christian,  the  defect  and 
overthrow  of  his  constancy,  might  have 


LECTURE   XX. CHAPTER   V,    6 — 11. 


103 


given  him  the  melancholy  and  convincing 
experience,  that  he  had  indeed  no  lot  or 
part  in  the  matter.  Instead  of  a  thriving 
process,  it  might  have  been  a  ruinous  one  ; 
but  grace,  it  appears  from  the  result,  was 
given  to  uphold  him  in  a  course  of  spirit- 
ual prosperity,  under  all  his  outward  trib- 
ulations ;  and  he  now  hoped  more  than 
ever  that  God  had  manifested  the  special 
love  that  He  bore,  by  the  Holy  Ghost  that 
was  given  to  him.  And  how  could  it  be 
otherwise,  he  goes  on  to  argue,  than  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  should  be  given'!  Would 
not  He  who  did  so  much  to  justify,  and  at 
such  an  expense  of  sufi'ering  to  Himself, 
would  not  He  also  sanctify  when  there 
was  no  sufi'ering  incurred  by  the  process? 
Will  not  He  who  saved  us  by  His  blood 
then,  much  more  save  us  by  His  Spirit 
now  !  Will  not  He  who  at  that  time  de- 
livered us,  by  dying,  from  the  wrath  due 
to  the  impenitent  and  ungodly — at  this 
time,  when  we  are  cleaving  to  Him  in  de- 
pendence and  desire,  deliver  us  by  His 
grace,  from  the  sorer  punishment  of  those 
who  draw  back  to  the  perdition  of  tlie 
soul  ■?  There  may  be  fatherly  chastise- 
ments. There  may  be  the  infliction  of  a 
severe  and  salutary  discipline.  Should  a 
professor  sin  the  sin  that  is  unto  death,  it 
will  then  beimpossibie  to  renew  him  again 
unto  repentance.  But  if,  instead  of  a  hol- 
low-hearted and  hypocritical  dissembler, 
there  was  really  a  sound  principle  of  ad- 
herence and  honest  faith  with  him  who 


has  been  overtaken  in  a  fault — then  that 
man  will  be  saved,  yet  so  perhaps  as  by 
fire.  He  will  not  escape  the  hand  of  chas- 
tisement in  time,  though  he  will  escape 
the  hand  of  vengeance  in  eternity.  He 
will  be  cast  down  yet  not  destroyed.  God 
will  forgive  the  iniquity  of  his  sin,  but  at 
the  same  time  take  vengeance  upon  him 
for  his  inventions.  He  will  make  him 
taste  the  bitterness  of  transgression  ;  and 
give  him  the  experimental  demonstration 
of  His  own  abhorrence  to  it ;  and  render 
it  manifest  as  day,  that  there  is  an  utter 
and  irrevex-sible  opposition,  between  the 
indulgence  of  a  sinner,  and  the  hope  of  a 
believer  ;  and,  rather  than  that  he  should 
miss  the  lesson,  He  will  force  it  upon  him 
with  the  authoritative  severity  of  a  master, 
who  has  determined  that  He  will  not  let 
him  alone  till  he  learn  it ;  and  if  one  cor- 
rective ministration  will  not  serve  the  pur- 
pose. He  will  come  forward  with  another 
and  another — still  ringing  this  prophetic 
knell  into  the  ear  of  him  who  is  under 
discipline,  that  "for  all  this  mine  anger  is- 
not  turned  away,  but  my  hand  is  stretched 
out  still."  It  is  not  from  such  wrath  that 
a  disciple  is  saved — But  let  it  work  him 
into  the  process  of  tribulation,  and  pa- 
tience, and  experience,  and  hope ;  and 
from  the  wrath  of  eternity  he  will  be 
saved — saved  as  if  by  fire — and  verifying 
this  word  in  his  own  person,  that  it  is 
through  manifold  tribulation  we  shall  en- 
ter into  the  kingdom  of  God. 


LECTURE  XXI. 


Romans  v,   10. 


^For  if,  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son ;  much  more,  being  reconciled, 

we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life." 


St.  Paul,  who,  by  the  way,  is  by  far 
the  most  argumentative  of  all  the  apostles 
— and  who,  from  being  the  most  success- 
ful of  them  all,  proves  that  argument  is 
both  a  legitimate  and  a  powerful  weapon 
in  the  work  of  making  Christians,  some- 
times undertakes  to  reason  upon  one  set 
of  premises,  and  then  to  demonstrate,  how 
much  more  valid  and  irresistible  is  the 
conclusion  which  he  tries  to  establish, 
when  he  is  in  actual  possession  of  another 
and  more  favourable  set  of  premises.  In 
this  way  a  great  additional  strength  is 
made  to  accrue  to  his  argument — and  the 
•how  much  more'  with  which  he  finishes, 
causes  it  to  come  with  greater  power  and 
assurance  upon  his  readers — and  it  is  this 
which  gives  him  the  advantage  of  what 
is  well  known,  both  in  law  and  in  logic, 


under  the  phrase  of  argumenhim  afortiore^ 
or,  an  argument  which  affirms  a  thing  to 
be  true  in  adverse  and  unpromising  cir- 
cumstances, and  therefore  far  more  wor- 
thy of  being  held  true  in  likelier  circum- 
stances. It  is  quite  a  familiar  mode  of 
reasoning  in  common  discourse.  If  a 
neighbour  be  bound  to  sympathise  with 
the  distresses  of  an  unfortunate  family, 
how  much  more,  when  that  neighbour  is 
a  relative.  If  I  obtained  an  offer  of  friend- 
ship from  a  man  in  dilTiculues,  how  much 
more  may  I  count  upon  it  should  he  now 
be  translated  into  a  state  of  sufficiency 
and  ease.  If  in  the  very  heal  of  our 
quarrel,  and  under  the  discouragement  of 
all  my  provoking  insolence  towards  him, 
my  enemy  forbear  the  vengeance  which 
he  had  the  power  to  inflict,  how  much 


104 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAPTER    V,    10. 


more,  should  the  quarrel  be  made  up,  and 
I  have  been  long  in  terms  of  reconciliation 
with  him,  may  I  feel  myself  secure  from 
the  effects  of  his  indignation.  Such  also 
is  the  argument  of  my  text.  There  is  one 
state  of  matters  in  which  God  sets  forth  a 
demonstration  of  friendship  to  the  world, 
and  this  is  compared  with  the  present 
and  actual  state  of  matters,  more  favour- 
able than  the  former,  and  from  which 
therefore,  the  friendship  of  God  may  be 
still  more  surely  inferred,  and  still  more 
firmly  confided  in.  But  it  will  be  further 
seen,  that  in  this  short  sentence  of  the 
apostle,  there  lies  a  compound  argument 
which  admits  of  being  separated  into 
distinct  parts.  There  is  a  reference  made 
to  a  twofold  state  of  matters,  which,  by 
being  resolved  into  its  two  particulars, 
brings  out  two  accessions  of  strength  to 
the  conclusion  of  our  apostle,  which  are 
independent  of  each  other.  He,  in  fact, 
holds  forth  a  double  claim  upon  our  un- 
derstanding, and  wo  propose  to  view 
successively  the  two  particulars  of  which 
it  is  made  up. 

There  is  first  then  a  comparison  made 
between  one  state  of  matter.s,  and  another 
state  of  matters  which  obtain  in  our  earth 
— and  there  is  at  the  same  time  a  compa- 
rison made  between  one  state  of  matters, 
and  another  state  of  matters  which  obtain 
in  heaven — and  from  each  of  these  there 
may  be  educed  an  argument  for  strength- 
ening the  assurance  of  every  Christian,  in 
that  salvation  which  the  gospel  has  made 
known  to  us. 

Let  us  first  look  then  to  the  two  states 
upon  earth — and  this  may  be  done  either 
with  a  reference  to  this  world's  history, 
or  it  may  be  done  with  a  reference  to  the 
personal  history  of  every  one  man  who  is 
now  a  believer. 

That  point  of  time  in  the  series  of  gene- 
ral history  at  which  reconciliation  was 
made,  was  when  our  Saviour  said  that  it 
is  finished,  and  gave  up  the  ghost.  God 
may  be  said  to  have  then  become  recon- 
ciled to  the  world,  in  as  far  as  He  was 
ready  to  enter  into  agreement  with  all 
who  drew  nigh  in  the  name  of  this  great 
propitiation.  Now  think  of  the  state  of 
matters  upon  earth,  previous  to  the  time 
when  reconciliation  in  this  view  was  en- 
tered upon.  Think  of  the  strength  of  that 
moving  principle  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Deity,  which  so  inclined  Him  towards  a 
world  then  Iving  in  the  depths  of  ungod- 
liness— ana  iiom  one  end  to  another  of  it. 
lifting  the  cry  of  rebellion  against  Him. 
There  was  no  movement  on  the  part  of 
the  world  towards  God — no  returning 
sense  of  allegiance  towiirds  Him  from 
whom  they  had  revolted  so  deeply — no 
abatement  of  that  protligacy  which  .so 
rioted  at  large  over  a  wide  scene  of  law- 


less and  thankless  and  careless  abandon- 
ment— no    mitigation    of   that   foul   and 
audacious  insolence  by  which  the  throne 
of  heaven  was  assailed  ;  and  a  spectacle 
so  full  of  offence  to  the  unfallen  was  held 
forth,  of  a  whole  province  in  arms  against 
the  lawful  Monarch  of  creation.     Had  the 
world  thrown  down  its  weapons  of  diso- 
bedience— had   a   contrite   and  relenting 
spirit   gone   previously   forth   among   its 
generations — had   the   light   which    even 
then  glimmered  in  the  veriest  wilds  of 
Paganism,  just  up  to  the  strength  and  de- 
gree of  its  influence,  told  aright  on  the 
moral   sensibilities  of   the    deluded   and 
licentious  worshippers — had  they,  whose 
conscience  was  a   law  unto  themselves, 
just  acted  and  followed  on  as  they  might 
under  the  guidance  of  its  compunctious 
visitations — had  there  been  any  thing  like 
the  forthgoing  of  a  general  desire,  how- 
ever faint,  towards  that   unknown  Being, 
the  sense  and  impression  of  whom  were 
never  wholly  obliterated — then  it  might 
have  been  less  decisive  of  God's  will  for 
reconciliation,  that  He  gave  way  to  these 
returning  demonstrations  on  the  part  of 
His    alienated    creatures,   and   reared    a 
pathway  of  communication  by  which  sin- 
ners may  draw  nigh   unto  God.     But  for 
God  to  have  done  this  very  thing,  when 
these  sinners  were  persisting  in  the  full 
spirit  and  determination  of  their  unholy 
warfare — for  Him  to  have  done  so,  when, 
instead   of  any  returning  loyalty  rising 
up  to  Him  like  the  incense   of  a  sweet- 
smelling  savour,  the  exhalations  of  idola- 
try and  vice  blackened  the  whole  canopy 
of  heaven,  and  ascended  in  a  smoke  of 
abomination  before  Him — for  Him  to  have 
done  so  at  the  very  time  that  all  flesh  had 
corrupted  its  ways,  and  when,  either  with 
or  without  the  law  of  revelation,  God  saw 
that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in 
the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination   of 
the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil 
continually — in   these   circumstances  of 
deep  and   unalleviated  provocation,  and 
when  God  might  have  eased  Him  of  His 
adversaries,  by   sweeping   the   whole  of 
this  moral  nui.sance  away  from  the  face 
of  the  universe   which   it   deformed — for 
such  a  time  to  have  been  a  time  of  love, 
when   majesty  seemed  to  call  for  some 
solemn  vindication,  but  mercy  could  not 
let  us  go — surely,  if  through  such  a  bar- 
rier between   God  and  the  guilty.  He,  in 
the   longings   of  His   desire   after   them, 
forced  a   pathway   of  reconciliation.  He 
never  will  turn   Himself  away  from  any, 
who,  cheered  forward   by   His   own  en- 
treaties, are  walking  upon  that  path.    But 
if,  when  enemies  He  Himself  found  out  an 
approach    by    which    He    might    beckon 
them  to  enter  into  peace  with   Him,  how 
much  more,  when  they  are  so  approach'- 


LECTtTRE   XXI. CHAPTER   V,    10. 


105 


ing,  will  He  meet  them  with  the  light  of 
His  countenance,  and  bless  them  with  the 
joys  of  His  salvation. 

Bui  this  argument  may  be  looked  to  in 
another  way.  Instead  of  fixing  our  re- 
gards upon  that  point  in  the  general  his- 
tory of  the  world,  when  the  avenue  was 
struck  out  between  our  species  and  their 
offended  Lawgiver  ;  and  through  the  rent 
veil  of  a  Saviour's  flesh,  a  free  and  conse- 
crated way  of  access  was  opened  for  tlie 
guiltiest  of  them  all — let  a  believer  in 
Christ  fix  his  regards  upon  that  passage 
in  his  own  personal  history  at  which  he 
was  drawn  in  his  desires  and  in  his  con- 
fidence to  this  great  Mediator,  and  entered 
upon  the  grace  wherein  he  now  stands, 
and  gave  up  his  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  and 
made  his  transition  out  of  darkness  to  the 
marvellous  light  of  the  gospel.  Let  him 
compare  what  he  was,  when  an  alien  from 
God,  through  wicked  works  of  his  own, 
with  what  he  is  when  a  humble  but  con- 
fiding expectant  of  God's  mercy  through 
the  righteousness  of  another.  Who  trans- 
lated him  into  the  condition  which  he  now 
occupies?  Who  put  into  his  heart  the 
faith  of  the  gospel  1  Who  awakened  him 
from  the  dormancy  and  unconcern  of 
nature  1  Who  stirred  up  that  restless  but 
salutary  alarm  which  at  length  issued  in 
the  secure  feeling  of  reconciliation  7 
There  was  a  time  of  his  past  life  when  the 
whole  doctrine  of  salvation  was  an  ort'ence 
to  him  ;  when  its  preaching  was  foolish- 
ness to  his  ears;  when  its  phraseology 
tired  and  disgusted  him;  when,  in  light 
and  lawless  companionship,  he  put  the 
warnings  of  religious  counsel,  and  the  ur- 
gency of  menacing  sermons  away  from 
his  bosom — a  time  when  the  world  was 
his  all,  and  when  he  was  wholly  given 
over  to  the  idolatry  of  its  pursuits  and 
pleasures  and  projects  of  aggrandisement 
—a  time  when  his  heart  was  unvisited 
with  any  permanent  seriousness  about 
God,  of  whom  his  conscience  sometimes 
reminded  him,  but  whom  he  soon  dis- 
missed from  his  earnest  contemplation — a 
time  when  he  may  have  occasionally 
heard  of  a  judgment,  but  without  one 
practical  movement  of  his  soul  towards 
the  task  of  preparation — a  time  when  the 
overtures  of  peace  met  him  on  his  way, 
but  which  he,  in  the  impetuous  prosecu- 
tion of  his  own  objects,  utterly  disregarded 
— a  time  wh'^'>  death  plied  liim  with  its 
ever-recurring  mementoes,  but  which  he, 
overlooking  the  short  and  summary  arith- 
metic of  the  few  little  years  that  lay  be- 
tween him  and  the  last  messenger,  placed 
so  far  on  the  back  ground  of  his  anticipa- 
tion, that  this  earth,  this  passing  and  per- 
ishable earth,  formed  the  scene  of  all  his 
solicitudes. 

Is  there  none  here  present  who  remem- 
14 


bers  such  a  time  of  his  bygone  history, 
and  with  such  a  character  of  alienation 
from  God  and  from  His  Christ,  as  we  have 
now  given  to  it?  And  who,  we  ask,  re- 
called him  from  this  alienation]  By 
whose  guidance  was  he  conducted  to  that 
demonstration  either  of  the  press  or  of 
the  pulpit,  which  awakened  him?  Who 
sent  that  afflictive  visitation  to  his  door,, 
which  weaned  his  spirit  from  the  world, 
and  wooed  it  to  the  deathless  friendships, 
and  the  ever-during  felicities  of  heaven  I 
Who  made  known  to  him  the  extent  of 
his  guilt,  with  the  overpassing  extent  of 
the  redemption  that  is  provided  for  it?  It 
was  not  he  himself  who  originated  the 
process  of  his  own  salvation.  God  might 
have  abandoned  him  to  his  own  courses  ; 
and  said  of  him,  as  He  has  done  of  many 
others,  "I  will  let  him  alone,  since  he  will 
have  it  so  ;"  and  given  him  up  to  that  ju- 
dicial blindness,  under  which  the  vast 
majority  of  the  world  are  now  sleeping  in 
profoundest  lethargy  ;  and  withheld  alto- 
gether that  light  of  the  Spirit,  which  he 
had  done  so  much  to  extinguish.  But  if, 
instead  of  all  this,  God  kept  by  him  in  the 
midst  of  his  thankless  provocations — and, 
while  he  was  yet  a  regardless  enemy,, 
made  His  designs  of  grace  to  bear  upon 
him — and,  throughout  all  the  mazes  of  his 
checkered  history,  conducted  him  to  the 
knowledge  of  Himself  as  a  reconciling 
God — and  so  softened  his  heart  with  fa- 
mily bereavements,  or  so  tore  it  from  all 
its  worldly  dependencies  by  the  disasters 
of  business,  or  so  shook  it  with  frightful 
agitation  by  the  terrors  of  the  law,  or  so 
shone  upon  it  with  the  light  of  His  free 
Spirit,  as  made  it  glad  to  escape  from  the 
treachery  of  nature's  joys  and  nature's 
promises,  into  a  relying  faith  on  the  offers 
and  assurances  of  the  gospel — why,  just 
let  him  think  of  the  time  when  God  did 
so  much  for  him — and  then  think  of  the 
impossibility  that  God  will  recede  from 
him  now ;  or  that  He  will  cease  from  the 
prosecution  of  that  work  in  circumstances 
of  earnest  and  desirous  concurrence  on 
the  part  of  the  believer,  which  He  Him- 
self begun  in  the  circumstances  either  of 
his  torpid  unconcern,  or  of  his  active  and 
haughty  defiance.  The  God  who  moved 
towards  him  in  his  days  of  forgetful ness, 
will  not  move  away  from  him  in  his  days 
of  hourly  and  habitual  remembrance— 
and  He  who  intercepted  him  in  his  career 
of  rebellion,  will  not  withdraw  from  him 
in  his  career  of  new  obedience — and  He 
who  first  knocked  at  the  door  of  his  con- 
science, and  that  too  in  a  prayerless  and 
thankless  and  regardless  season  of  his  his- 
tory, will  not,  now  that  he  prays  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  now  that  his  heart  is 
set  upon  salvation,  and  now  that  the  doc- 
trine of  grace  forms  all  his  joy  and  all 


lOG 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAl»TER   V,    10. 


his  dependence  ;  lie  who  thus  found  him 
a  distant  and  exiled  rebel,  will  not  aban- 
don him  now  that  his  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  and  with  the  Son.  It  is  thus, 
that  the  believer  may  shield  his  misgiving 
heart  from  all  its  despondencies.  It  is 
thus,  that  the  argument  of  the  text  goes 
to  fortify  his  faith,  and  to  perfect  that 
which  is  lacking  in  it.  It  is  thus  that  the 
'  how  much  more'  of  the  apostle  should 
cause  him  to  abound  more  and  more  in  the 
peace  and  the  joy  of  believing — and  should 
encourage  every  man  who  has  laid  hold 
on  the  hope  set  before  us,  to  steady  and 
confirm  his  hold  still  more  tenaciously 
than  before,  so  as  to  keep  it  fast  and  sure 
even  unto  the  end. 

With  a  man  who  knows  himself  to  be 
a  believer,  this  argument  is  quite  irresis- 
tible; and  it  will  go  to  establish  his  faith, 
and  to  strengthen  it,  and  to  settle  it,  and 
to  make  it  perfect.  But  it  ie  possible  for 
a  man  really  to  believe,  and  yet  to  be  in 
ignorance  for  a  time  whether  he  does  so 
or  not — and  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  be 
in  earnest  about  his  soul,  and  yet  not  to 
have  received  that  truth  which  is  unto  sal- 
vation—and it  is  possible  for  him  to  be 
actuated  by  a  strong  general  desire  to  be 
right,  and  yet  to  be  walking  among  the 
elements  of  uncertainty — and  it  is  possi- 
ble for  him  to  be  looking  to  that  quarter 
whence  the  truths  of  the  gospel  are  offer- 
ed to  his  contemplation,  and  yet  not  to 
have  attained  the  distinct  or  satisfying 
perception  of  them — ihoroughly  engaged 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  peace  with  God  ; 
determinedly  bent  on  this  subject  as  the 
highest  interest  he  can  possibly  aspire 
after  ;  labouring  after  a  settlement  ;  and, 
under  all  the  agonies  of  a  fierce  internal 
war,  seeking  and  toiling  and  praying  for 
his  deliverance.  It  is  at  the  point  of  time 
when  faith  enters  the  heart,  that  reconci- 
liation is  entered  upon — nor  can  we  say  of 
this  man,  that  he  is  yet  a  believer,  or,  that 
he  has  passed  from  the  condition  of  an 
enemy  to  that  of  a  friend.  And  yet  upon 
him  the  argument  of  the  text  should  not 
be  without  its  efficacy.  It  is  such  an  ar- 
gument as  may  be  employed  not  merely 
to  confirm  the  faith  which  already  exists, 
but  to  help  on  to  its  formation  that  faith 
which  is  struggling  for  an  establishment 
in  the  heart  of  an  inquirer.  It  falls,  no 
doubt,  with  fullest  and  most  satisfying 
light  upon  the  heart  of  a  conscious  be- 
liever— and  yet  it  may  be  addressed,  and 
with  pertinency  ton,  to  men  under  their 
first  and  earliest  visitations  of  seriousness. 
For  give  me  an  acquaintance  of  whom  I 
know  nothing  more  than  that  his  face  is 
towards  Zion — give  me  one  arrested  by  a 
sense  of  guilt  and  of  danger,  and  merely 
groping  his  way  to  a  place  of  enlarge- 
ment-r-give  me  a  soul  not  in  peace,  but  in 


perplexity,  and  in  the  midst  of  all  those 
initial  difficulties  which  beset  the  awak- 
ened sinner,  ere  Christ  shall  give  him 
light — give  me  a  labouring  and  heavy- 
laden  sinner,  haunted  by  the  reflection,  as 
if  by  an  arrow  sticking  fast,  that  the 
mighty  question  of  his  eternity  is  yet  un- 
resolved. There  are  many  we  fear 
amongst  you  to  whom  this  tremendous  un- 
certainty gives  no  concern — but  give  me 
one  who  has  newly  taken  it  up,  and  who, 
in  the  minglings  of  doubt  and  despon- 
dency, has  not  yet  found  his  way  to  any 
consolation — and  even  with  him  may  it  be 
found,  that  the  same  reason  which  strength- 
ens the  hope  of  an  advanced  Christian, 
may  well  inspire  the  hope  of  him  who  has 
.still  his  Christianity  to  find,  and  thus  cast 
a  cheering  and  a  comforting  influence  on 
the  very  infancy  of  his  progress.  For  if 
it  was  in  behalf  of  a  careless  world  that 
the  costly  apparatus  of  redemption  was 
reared — if  it  was  in  the  full  front  and  au- 
dacity of  their  most  determined  rebellion 
that  God  laid  the  plan  of  reconciliation — 
if  it  was  for  the  sake  of  men  sunk  in  the 
very  depths  of  ungodliness,  that  He  con- 
structed His  overtures  of  peace,  and  sent 
forth  His  Son  with  them  amongst  our 
loathsome  and  polluted  dwelling-places — • 
if,  to  get  at  His  strayed  children.  He  had 
thus  to  find  His  way  through  all  those  ele- 
ments of  impiety  and  ungodliness,  which 
are  most  abhorrent  to  the  sanctity  of  His 
nature,  think  you,  that  the  God  who  made 
such  an  advancing  movement  towards  the 
men  whose  faces  were  utterly  away  from 
Him — is  this  a  God  who  will  turn  His  own 
face  away  from  the  man  who  is  moving 
towards  God,  and  earnestly  seeking  after 
Him  if  haply  he  may  find  Him] 

This  argument  obtains  great  additional 
force,  when  wo  look  to  the  state  of  matters 
in  heaven  at  the  time  that  we  upon  earth 
were  enemies,  and  compare  it  with  the 
state  of  matters  in  heaven,  now  that  we 
are  actually  reconciled,  or  are  beginning 
to  entertain  the  offers  of  reconciliation. 
Before  the  work  of  our  redemption,  Jesus 
Christ  was  in  primeval  glory — and  though 
a  place  of  mystery  to  us,  it  was  a  place 
of  secure  and  ineffable  enjoyment — inso- 
much, that  the  fondest  prayer  He  could 
utter  in  the  depths  of  His  humiliation, 
was  to  be  taken  back  again  to  the  Ancient 
of  days,  and  there  to  be  restored  to  the 
glory  which  He  had  with  Him  before  the 
world  was.  It  was  from  the  heights  of 
celestial  security  and  blessedness  that  He 
looked  with  an  eye  of  pity  on  our  sinful 
habitation — it  was  from  a  scene  where 
beings  of  a  holy  nature  surrounded  Him, 
and  the  full  homage  of  the  Divinity  was 
rendered  to  Him,  and,  in  the  ecstacies  of 
His  fellowship  with  God  the  Father,  all 
was  peace  and  purity  and  excellence — it 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAPTER   V,    10. 


107 


was  from  this  that  He  took  His  voluntary 
departure,  and  went  out  on  His  errand  to 
seek  and  to  save  us.  And  it  was  not  the 
parade  of  an  unreal  suffering  that  He  had 
to  encounter  ;  but  a  deep  and  a  dreadful 
endurance — it  was  not  a  triumphant  pro- 
menade through  this  lower  world,  made 
easy  over  all  its  obstacles  by  the  energies 
of  His  Godhead ;  but  a  conflict  of  toil 
and  of  strenuousness — it  was  not  an  egress 
from  heaven  on  a  journey  brightened 
through  all  its  stages  by  the  hope  of  a 
smooth  and  gentle  return  ;  but  it  was  such 
an  exile  from  heaven  as  made  His  ascent 
and  His  readmittance  there  the  fruit  of  a 
hard-won  victory.  We  have  nothing  but 
the  facts  of  revelation  to  guide  or  to  in- 
form us;  and  yet  from  tiiese  wc  most  as- 
suredly gather,  that  the  Saviour,  in  step- 
ping down  from  the  elevation  of  His  past 
eternity,  incurred  a  substantial  degrada- 
tion— that  when  He  wrapped  Himself  in 
the  humanity  of  our  nature.  He  put  on  the 
Avhole  of  its  infirmities  and  its  sorrows — 
that,  for  the  Joy  which  He  renounced,  He 
became  acquainted  with  grief,  and  a  grief 
too  commensurate  to  the  whole  burden  of 
our  world's  atonement — that  the  hidings 
of  His  Father's  countenance  were  terrify- 
ing to  His  soul — and  when  the  offended 
justice  of  the  Godhead  was  laid  upon  His 
person,  it  required  the  whole  strength  of 
the  Gfodhead  to  sustain  it.  What  mean 
the  agonies  of  the  garden  ]  What  mean 
the  bitter  cries  and  complainings  of  aban- 
donment upon  the  cross  ]  What  meaneth 
the  prayer  that  the  cup  might  pass  away 
from  Him  ;  and  the  struggle  of  a  lofty 
resolution  with  the  agonies  of  a  mighty 
and  unknown  distress,  and  the  evident 
symptoms  of  a  great  and,toilsome  achieve- 
ment throughout  the  whole  progress  of 
this  undertaking ;  and  angels  looking 
down  from  their  eminencies,  as  on  a  field 
of  contest,  where  a  great  Captain  had  to 
put  forth  the  travailing  of  His  strength, 
and  to  spoil  principalities  and  powers, 
and  to  make  a  show  of  them  openly  ] 
Was  there  nothing  in  all  this,  do  you  thinly, 
but  the  mockery  of  a  humiliation  that 
was  never  felt — the  mockery  of  a  pain 
that  was  never  suffered — the  mockery  of 
a  battle  that  was  never  fought?  No,  be 
assured  that  there  was,  on  that  day,  a  real 
vindication  of  God's  insulted  majesty.  On 
that  day  there  was  the  real  transference 
of  an  avenging  hand,  from  the  heads  of 
the  guilty  to  the  head  of  the  innocent. 
On  that  day  one  man  died  for  the  people, 
and  there  was  an  actual  laying  on  of  the 
iniquities  of  us  all.  It  was  a  war  of 
strength  and  of  suffering  in  highest  possi- 
ble aggravation,  because  the  war  of  ele- 
ments which  were  infinite.  The  wrath 
which  millions  should  have  borne,  was  all 
of  it  discharged.     Nor  do  we  estimate. 


aright  what  we  owe  of  love  and  obliga- 
tion to  the  Saviour,  till  we  believe,  that 
the  whole  of  that  fury,  which  if  poured 
out  upon  the  world,  would  have  served  its 
guilty  generations  through  eternity — that 
all  of  it  was  poured  into  the  cup  of  ex 
piation. 

A  more  adequate  sense  of  this  might 
not  only  serve  to  awaken  the  gratitude 
which  slumbers  within  us,  and  is  dead — 
it  might  also,  through  the  aid  of  the  argu- 
ment in  our  text,  awaken  and  assure  your 
confidence.  If  when  we  were  enemies, 
Christ  ventured  on  an  enterprise  so  pain- 
ful— if,  when  loathsome  outcasts  from  the 
sacred  territory  of  heaven.  He  left  the 
abode  of  His  Father,  and  exchanged  love, 
and  adoration,  and  congenial  felicity 
among  angels,  for  the  hatred  and  perse- 
cution of  men — if,  when  the  agonies  of 
the  coming  vengeance  were  still  before 
Him,  and  the  dark  and  dreary  vale  of 
suffering  had  yet  to  be  entered  upon,  and 
He  had  to  pass  under  the  inflic*:<>ns  of 
that  sword  which  the  Eternal  ^  .^d  awak- 
ened against  His  fellow,  an  He  had  still 
to  give  Himself  up  to  a  ueath  equivalent 
in  the  amount  of  its  soreness  to  the  de- 
vouring fire,  and  the  everlasting  burnings, 
which  but  for  him  believers  would  have 
borne — if,  when  all  this  had  yet  to  be 
travelled  through.  He  nevertheless,  in  His 
compassionate  longing  for  the  souls  of 
men,  went  forth  upon  the  errand  of  win- 
ning them  to  Himself, — let  us  just  look  to 
the  state  of  matters  then,  and  compare  it 
with  the  state  of  matters  now.  Christ  has 
there  ascended  on  the  wings  of  victoi-y — 
and  He  is  now  sitting  at  God's  right  hand 
amid  all  the  purchased  triumphs  of  His 
obedience — and  the  toil,  and  the  conflict, 
and  the  agony,  are  now  over — and  from 
that  throne  of  mediatorship  to  which  He 
has  been  exalted,  is  it  His  present  office 
to  welcome  the  approaches  of  all  who 
come,  and  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who 
put  their  trust  in  Him.  And  is  it  possible, 
we  would  ask,  is  it  possible  that  He  who 
died  to  atone,  now  that  He  lives,  will  not 
live  to  make  intercession  for  us  1  Can 
the  love  for  men  which  bore  Him  through 
a  mighty  and  a  painful  sacrifice,  not  be 
strong  enough  to  carry  Him  onwards  in 
peace  and  in  triumph  to  its  final  consunti- 
mation'?  Will  He  now  abandon  that  work 
which  His  own  hands  have  so  laboriously 
reared  1 — or  leave  the  cause  for  which  He 
has  already  sustained  the  weight  of  such 
an  endurance,  in  the  embryo  and  unfin- 
ished state  of  an  abortive  undertaking! 
Will  He  cast  away  from  Him  the  spoils 
of  that  victory  for  which  He  bled  ;  and 
how  can  it  be  imagined  for  a  moment,  but 
by  such  dark  and  misgiving  hearts  as 
ours,  that  He  whose  love  for  a  thankl^'ss 
world  carried  Him  through  the  heat  and 


108 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAPTER    V,    10. 


the  severity  of  a  contest  that  is  now  end- 
ed, will  ever,  with  the  cold  and  forbidding 
glance  of  an  altered  countenance,  spurn 
an  enquiring  world  away  from  Ilim  ? 

The  death  of  a  crucified  Saviour,  when 
beheld  under  such  a  view,  is  the  firm 
stepping-stone  to  confidence  in  a  risscn 
Saviour.  You  may  learn  from  it,  that  His 
desire  and  your  salvation  are  most  tho- 
roughly at  one.  Of  His  good-will  to  have 
you  into  heaven.  He  has  given  the  strong- 
est pledge  and  demonstration,  by  conse- 
crating, with  His  own  blood,  a  way  of 
access,  through  which  sinners  may  draw 
nigh.  And  now  tha%  as  our  forerunner, 
He  is  already  there — now  that  He  has 
cone  up  again  to  the  place  from  which 
He  arose — now  that,  to  the.  very  place 
which  He  left  to  die,  and  that,  that  the 
barrier  to  its  entrance  from  our  world  may 
be  moved  away.  He  has  ascended  alive 
and  in  glory,  without  another  death  to  en- 
dure, for  death  has  no  more  the  dominion 
over  H-m — will  ever  He  do  any  thing  to 
close  tdi.  "entrance  which  it  has  cost  llim 
so  much  to  '»en?  Will  He  thus  throw 
away  the  toil  and  the  travail  of  His  own 
soul,  and  reduce  to  impotency  that  appa- 
ratus of  reconciliation  which  He  Himself 
has  reared,  and  at  an  expense  too,  equal 
to  the  penance  of  many  millions  through 
eternity  !  What  He  died  to  begin,  will 
He  not  now  live  to  carry  forward;  and 
will  not  the  love  which  could  force  a  way 
through  the  grave  to  its  accomplishments 
— now  that  it  has  reached  the  summit  of 
triumph  and  of  elevation  which  He  at 
present  occupies,  burst  forth  and  around 
the  field  of  that  mighty  enterprise,  which 
was  begun  in  deepest  suffering,  and  will 
end  in  full  and  finished  glory  1 

This  is  a  good  argument  in  all  the  sta- 
ges of  a  man's  Christianity.  Whether  he 
has  found,  or  is  only  seeking — whether  he 
be  in  a  state  of  faith,  or  in  a  state  of  in- 
quiry— whether  a  believer,  like  Paul  and 
many  of  the  disciples  that  he  was  address- 
ing, or  an  earnest  and  convinced  sinner 
groping  the  way  of  deliverance,  and  la- 
bouring to  be  at  rest,  there  may  be  made 
to  emanate  from  the  present  circumstan- 
ces of  our  Saviour,  and  the  position  tliat 
He  now  occupies,  an  argument  either  to 
perpetuate  the  confidence  where  it  is,  or 
to  inspire  it  where  it  is  not.  If  when  an 
enemy  I  was  reconciled,  and  that  too  by 
His  death — if  He  laid  down  His  life  to 
remove  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  my  sal- 
vation, how  much  more,  now  that  He  has 
taken  it  up,  will  He  not  accomi)lish  Ihat 
salvation  ?  It  is  just  fulfilling  His  own 
desire.  It  is  just  prospering  forward  the 
very  cause  that  His  heart  is  set  upon.  It 
is  Just  following  out  the  facilities  which 
H^  Himself  has  opened — and  marching 
onward  in  glorious  procession,  to  the  con- 


summation of  those  triumphs  for  which 
He  had  to  struggle  His  way  through  a 
season  of  difficulties  that  are  now  over. 
It  is  thus  that  the  believer  reasons  himself 
into  a  steadier  assurance  than  before — 
and  peace  may  be  made  to  flow  through 
his  heart  like  a  mighty  river — and,  rest- 
ing on  the  foundation  of  Christ,  he  comes 
to  feel  himself  in  a  sure  and  wealthy 
place — and  the  good-will  of  the  Saviour 
rises  into  an  undoubted  axiom — so  as  to 
chase  away  all  his  distrust,  and  cause 
him  to  delight  himself  greatly  in  the  rich- 
es of  his  present  grace,  and  in  the  bright- 
ening certainty  of  his  coming  salvation. 

And  this  view  of  the  matter  is  not  only 
fitted  to  heighten  the  confidence  that  is 
already  formed — but  also  to  originate  the 
confidence  that  needs  to  be  inspired.  It 
places  the  herald  of  salvation  on  a  secure 
and  lofty  vantage-ground.  It  seals  and 
authenticates  the  offer  with  which  he  is 
entrusted — and  with  which  he  may  go 
round  among  the  guiltiest  of  this  world's 
population.  It  enables  him  to  say,  that 
for  guilt  even  in  the  season  of  its  most 
proud  and  unrepentant  defiance,  did 
Christ  give  Himself  up  unto  the  death — 
and  that  to  guilt  even  in  this  state  of  har- 
dihood, Christ  in  prosecution  of  Hi>!  own 
work  has  commissioned  him  to  go  with  the 
overtures  of  purchased  mercy — and  should 
the  guilt  which  has  stood  its  ground 
against  the  threatenings  of  power,  feel 
softened  and  arrested  by  pity's  prevent- 
ing call,  may  the  preacher  of  forgiveness 
affirm,  in  his  Master's  name,  that  He,  who 
for  the  chief  of  sinners  bowed  Himself 
down  unto  the  sacrifice,  will  not  now,  that 
He  has  arisen  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour, 
stamp  a  nullity  upon  that  contest,  the  tri- 
umph of  which  is  awaiting  Him;  but  the 
bitterness  of  which  has  passed  away.  He 
will  not  turn  with  indifference  and  dis- 
taste from  the  very  fruit  which  He  Him- 
self has  fought  for.  But  if  for  guilt  in 
its  full  impenitency,  He  dyed  Ilis  gar- 
ments, and  waded  through  the  arena  of 
contest  and  of  blood — then  should  the 
most  abandoned  of  her  children  begin  a 
contrite  movement  towards  Him,  it  is  not 
He  who  will  either  break  the  prop  for 
which  He  feels,  or  quench  his  infant  aspi- 
ration. He  will  look  to  him  as  the  travail 
of  His  own  soul,  and  in  him  He  will  be 
satisfied. 

We  know  not  what  the  measure  of  the 
sinfulness  is  of  any  who  now  hear  us. 
But  we  know,  that  however  foul  his  de- 
pravity, and  however  deep  the  crimson 
dye  of  his  manifold  iniquities  m:>y  be,  the 
m  lasure  of  the  gospel  warrant  roaches 
even  unto  him.  It  was  to  make  an  inroad 
on  the  territory  of  Satan,  .-md  reclaim 
from  it  a  kingdom  unto  himself,  that  Christ 
died — ^and  we  speak  to  the  farthest  off  in 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAPTER   V,    10. 


109 


guilt  and  alienation  amongst  you — take 
the  overture  of  peace  tliat  is  now  brought 
to  your  door,  and  you  will  add  to  that 
kingdom  which  He  came  to  establish,  imd 
take  away  from  that  kingdom  which  He 
came  to  destroy.  The  freeness  of  this 
gospel  has  the  honour  of  Him  who  livetli 
and  was  dead  for  its  guarantee.  The  se- 
curity of  the  sinner  and  the  glory  of  the 
Saviour  are  at  one.  And,  with  the  spiiit 
of  a  monarch  who  had  to  fight  his  way  t(j 
the  dominion  which  was  rightfully  his 
own,  will  He  hail  the  returning  allegiance 
of  every  rebel,  as  a  new  accession  to  His 
triumphs,  as  another  trophy  to  the  might 
and  the  glor}'  nf  His  great  undertaking- 

But,  arnid  ail  this  liililude  of  call  and 
of  invitation,  let  me  press  upon  you  that 
alternative  character  of  the  gospel,  to 
which  we  have  often  adverted.  We  have 
tried  to  make  known  to  you,  how  its  en- 
coura<iements  rise  the  one  above  the  other 
to  him  who  moves  towards  it.  But  it  has 
its  corresponding  terrors  and  severities, 
which  also  rise  the  one  above  the  other 
t(j  him  who  moves  away  from  it.  If  the 
transgressor  will  not  be  recalled  by  the 
invitation  which  we  have  now  made 
known  to  him,  he  will  be  rivetted  thereby 
into  deeper  and  more  hopeless  condemna- 
tion. If  the  offer  of  peace  be  not  enter- 
tained by  him;  then,  in  the  very  propor- 
tion of  its  largeness  and  generosity,  will 
the  provocation  be  of  his  insulting  treat- 
ment in  having  rejected  it.  Out  of  the 
mtjuth  of  the  Son  of  man  there  cometh  a 
two-edged  sword.  There  is  pardon  free 
as  the  light  of  heaven  to  ail  who  will. 
'J'here  is  wrath,  accumulated  and  irre- 
trie\able  wrath,  to  all  who  will  not.  "Kiss 
liie  Son,  therefore,  lest  He  be  angry,  and 
ye  p<;rish  from  the  way  :  when  His  wrath 
is  kindled  but  a  little,  blessed  only  are 
they  who.  put  their  trust  in  Him." 

It  is  the  most  delusive  of  all  calcula- 
tions to  put  off  thi!  acceptance  of  the 
gosjiel,  because  of  its  freeness — and  be- 
cause it  is  free  at  all  times — and  because 
the  present  you  think  may  be  the  time  of 
your  unconcern  and  liberty,  and  some 
distant  future  be  the  time  of  your  return 
through  that  door  which  will  still  be  open 
for  you.  The  door  of  Christ's  mediator- 
ship  is  ever  open,  till  death  put  its  un- 
clianifeable  seal  upon  your  eternity.  But 
the  door  of  yourown  heart,  if  you  are  not 
rec'iving  Him,  is  shut  at  this  mom'^ni, 
and  every  day  is  it  fixing  and  fastening 
mere  closely — and  long  ere  death  sum- 
mon you  away,  may  it  at  length  .sf;1tl(; 
immovi-ahly  upon  its  hinges,  and  the  voice 
<if  liim  who  standeth  without  and  knock- 
<^th,  mav  he  unheard  by  the  spiritual  ear 
— and,  therefore,  yoi:  arc  not  made  to  feel 
too  nujch,  thoiigii  you  feel  as  earnestly  as 
if  'now  or  never'  was  the  alternative  on 


which  you  were  suspended.  It  is  not 
enough,  that  the  word  of  God,  compared 
to  a  hammer,  be  weighty  and  powerful. 
The  material  on  which  it  works  must  be 
capable  of  an  impression.  It  is  not 
enuugh,  that  there  be  a  free  and  forcible 
application.  There  must  be  a  willing  sub- 
ject. You  are  unwilling  now,  and  there- 
fore it  is  that  conversion  does  not  follow, 
ro-morrow,  the  probability  is,  that  you 
will  be  still  more  unwilling — and  there- 
fore, though  the  application  be  the  same, 
I  lie  conversion  is  still  at  a  greater  distance 
av»ay  from  you.  And  thus,  while  the  ap- 
plicatioa  continues  the  same,  the  subject 
hardens,  and  a  good  result  is  ever  becom- 
ing more  and  more  unlikely — and  thus 
may  it  go  on  till  you  arrive,  upon  the  bed 
ui'  your  last  sickness,  at  the'  confines  of 
eternity — and  what,  we  would  ask,  is  the 
kind  of  willingness  that  comes  upon  you 
then  !  Willing  to  escape  the  pain  of  hell 
— this  you  are  now,  but  yet  not  willing  to 
be  a  Christian.  Willing  that  the  fire  and 
your  bodily  sensations  be  kept  at  a  dis- 
tance from  each  other — this  you  are  now, 
for  who  of  you  at  present  would  thrust  his 
hand  among  the  flames?  Willing  that 
the  frame  of  your  animal  sensibilities 
shall  meet  with  nothing  to  wound  or  to 
torture  it — this  is  willingness  of  which  the 
lower  animals,  incapable  of  religion,  are 
yet  as  capable  as  yourself.  You  will  be 
as  willing  then  for  deliverance  from  mate- 
rial torments  as  you  can  be  now — but  there 
is  a  willingness  which  you  want  now,  and 
which,  in  all  likelihood  will  then  be  still 
more  beyond  the  reach  of  your  attain- 
ment. If  the  free  gospel  do  not  meet  with 
your  willingness  now  to  accept  and  to  sub- 
mit to  it,  neither  may  it  then.  And  we 
know  not,  my  brethren,  what  has  been 
your  experience  in  death-beds;  but  sure 
we  are,  that  both  among  the 'agonies  of 
mortal  disease,  and  the  terrors  of  the  mal- 
efactor's cell,  Christ  may  be  oflered,  and 
the  offer  be  sadly  and  sullenly  put  away. 
The  free  proclamation  is  heard  without 
one  accompanying  charm — and  the  man 
who  refused  to  lay  hold  of  it  through  life, 
(inds  that,  in  the  impotency  of  his  expir- 
ing grasp,  he  cannot  apprehend  it.  And 
oh,  if  you  but  knew  how  often  the  word 
of  faith  may  fall  from  the  minister,  and 
the  work  of  faith  be  left  undone  upon  the 
dying  man,  never  would  you  so  postpone 
thepurposesof  seriousness, or  look  forward 
to  the  last  week  of  your  abode  upon  earth 
as  to  the  convenient  season  for  winding 
up  the  concerns  of  a  neglected  eternity. 

If  you  look  attentively  to  the  text,  you 
will  find,  that  tliere  is  something  more  than 
a  shnde  of  (iilllreiice  between  being  recon- 
ciled and  being  saved.  Reconciliation  is 
spoken  of  as  an  event  that  has  already 
happened — salvation  as  an  event  that  is  to 


110 


LECTURE   XXI. CHAPTER   V,    10. 


come.  The  one  event  may  lead  to  the 
other;  but  there  is  a  real  distinction  be- 
tween them.  It  is  true,  that  the  salvation 
instanced  in  the  preceding  verse,  is  salva- 
tion from  wrath.  But  it  is  the  wrath  which 
is  incurred  l)y  those  who  have  sinned  wil- 
fully, after  they  had  come  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  truth — "when  there  remaineth 
no  more  .sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  certain 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery 
indignation,  which  shall  devour  the  adver- 
saries." Jesus  Christ  will  save  us  from 
this  by  saving  us  from  sin.  He  who  hath 
reconciled  us  by  Ilis  death,  will,  by  His 
life,  accomplish  for  us  this  salvation.  Re- 
conciliation is  not  salvation.  It  is  only 
the  portal  to  it.  Justification  is  not  the 
end  of  Christ's  coming — it  is  only  the 
means  to  an  ultimate  attainment.  By  His 
death  He  pacified  the  Lawgiver.  By  His 
life  He  purifies  the  sinner.  The  one  work 
is  finished.  The  other  is  not  so,  but  is 
only  going  on  unto  perfection.  And  this 
is  the  secret  of  that  unwillingness  which 
we  have  already  touched  upon.  There  is 
a  willingness  that  God  would  liftoff  from 
their  persons  the  hand  of  an  avenger. 
But  there  is  not  a  willingness  that  Christ 
would  lay  upon  their  persons  the  hand  of 
a  sanctifier.  The  motive  for  Him  to  ap- 
prehend them  is  to  make  them  holy.  But 
they  care  not  to  apprehend  that  for  which 


they  are  apprehended.  They  see  not  that 
the  use  of  the  new  dispensation,  is  for 
them  to  be  restored  to  the  image  they  have 
lost,  and,  for  this  purpose,  to  be  purged 
from  their  old  sins.  This  is  the  point  on 
which  they  are  in  darkness — "and  they 
love  the  darkness  rather  than  the  light, 
because  their  deeds  are  evil.'  They  are 
at  all  times  willing  for  the  reward  without 
the  service.  But  they  are  not  willing  for 
the  reward  and  the  service  together.  The 
willingness  for  the  one  they  always  have. 
But  the  willingness  for  both  they  never 
have.  They  have  it  not  to-day — and  it  is 
not  the  operation  of  time  that  will  put  it 
in  them  to-morrow.  Nor  will  disease  put 
it  in.  Nor  will  age  put  it  in.  Nor  will 
the  tokens  of  death  put  it  in.  Nor  will  the 
near  and  terrific  view  of  eternity  put  it  in. 
It  may  call  out  into  a  livelier  sensation 
than  before,  a  willingness  for  the  reward. 
But  it  will  neither  inspire  a  taste  nor  a 
willingness  for  the  service.  A  distaste  for 
God  and  godliness,  as  it  was  the  reigning 
and  paramount  principle  of  his  life,  so  it 
may  be  the  reigning  and  paramount  prin- 
ciple of  his  death-bed.  As  it  envenomed 
every  breath  which  he  drew,  so  it  may  en- 
venom his  last — and  the  spirit  going  forth 
to  the  God  who  gave  it,  with  all  the  en- 
mity that  it  ever  had,  God  will  deal  with 
it  as  an  enemy. 


LECTURE   XXII. 


Romans  v,  11. 


"And  not  only  so,  but  we  also  joy  in  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have  now  received  th* 

atonement."' 


In  the  whole  passage  from  the  com- 
mencement of  this  chapter,  we  have  an 
account  of  the  new  feelings  that  are  in- 
troduced by  faith  into  the  heart  of  a  be- 
liever. The  first  is  a  feeling  of  peace  with 
God,  of  whom  we  could  never  think  for- 
merly, if  we  thought  of  Him  aright,  but 
with  the  sensations  of  disquietude  and  ter- 
ror. The  second  is  a  feeling  of  exultation 
in  the  hope  of  some  glory  and  enlarge- 
ment that  are  yet  unrevealed — whereby 
we  shall  attain  such  an  enjoyment  in  His 
presence,  and  in  the  view  of  His  perfi-c- 
tions,  as  we  can  never  reach  in  this  world. 
The  third  is  a  feeling  of  e.\ultation,  even 
in  the  very  crosses  and  tribulations  of  our 
earthly  pilgrimage,  from  the  proces.s 
which  they  give  ri.se  to  in  our  own  charac- 
ters— a  process  that  manifests  a  work  of 
grace  here,  and  so  serves  to  confirm  all 
our  expectations  of  a  harvest  of  glory  and 
blessedness  hereafter.    And  indeed  how 


can  it  be  otherwise,  the  apostle  reasons. 
He  hath  already  givejj  us  His  Son,  will 
He  not  with  Him  freely  give  us  all  things! 
He  hath  already  evinced  His  regard  by 
sparing  not  His  well-beloved — but  .surren- 
dering Him  to  the  death  of  a  sore  and 
heavy  atonement  for  us,  at  the  time  that 
we  were  adversari(}s.  And  now  that  He 
has  done  so  much  in  circumstances  so  un- 
likely, will  He  not  carry  on  the  work  of 
doliverance  to  its  final  accomplishment 
when  circum.stanccs  have  changed  1 — ■ 
when  we  who  at  one  lime  .stood  afar  off 
have  now  drawn  nigh  ;  and  wheji  He,  v\  ho 
at  one  time  shuddered  with  very  appre- 
hension at  the  dark  vale  of  agony  before 
Him,  has  now  burst  loo.se  from  His  im- 
prisonment, and  finally  escaped  from  the 
grief  that  was  put  upon  His  soul — has  now 
a  work  of  grace  and  of  gladness  to  carry 
onwards  to  its  full  consummation  ?  It  is 
thus  that  the  believer  persuades  himself 


LECTURE   XXII. CHAPTER 


V,    11. 


Ill 


into  a  still  more  settled  assurance  of  the 
love  of  God  to  him  than  before;  and 
whereas,  in  the  second  verse  he  only  re- 
joiced in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God  as 
it  will  be  revealed  to  him  in  future — he, 
in  this  eleventh  verse,  expresses  a  present 
rejoicing  in  this  same  God — delighting 
himself  even  now  in  the  assurance  of  His 
present  regard  ;  and  approaching  Him 
with  atfectionate  confidence  even  now, 
under  the  sen.se  of  a  present  reconciliation. 

The  apostle  in  this  passage  makes  use 
of  such  terms,  as  are  expressive  of  a  gra- 
dation in  tlie  feelings  of  him  who  has  ad- 
mitted the  faith  of  the  gospel  into  his  mind 
— each  rising  above  tlie  other,  and  mark- 
ing an  advance  and  a  progress  in  Chris- 
tian experience.  It  is  well,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, to  be  set  at  rest  from  all  that  tur- 
bulence and  alarm  which  conviction  stirs 
up  in  the  sinner's  restless  bosom — so  as 
that  he  has  "  peace  with  God  through  Je- 
sus Christ  our  Lord."  But  it  is  better  still, 
when  he  can  not  only  look  at  God  as  dis- 
armed of  all  enmity  towards  him — but 
draws  near  unto  Him,  in  the  confidence 
of  a  positive  favour  and  friendship  towards 
him,  which  will  afterwards  appear  in  some 
glorious  manifestation.  "By  whom  also 
we  have  access  by  faith  into  tiiis  grace 
wherein  we  stand,  and  rejoice  in  hope  of 
the  glory  of  God."  And  it  argues  a  still 
higher  strength  and  steadfastness  of  feel- 
ing, when  it  can  maintain  itself  under  vis- 
itations, which,  to  flesh  and  blood,  would 
be  otherwise  overpowering.  "And  not 
only  so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulation  also." 
And  lastly,  when  there  is  both  the  positive 
experience  of  a  gift  in  hand,  even  the 
Holy  Ghost  shed  abroad  upon  us  ;  and  the 
resistless  consideration  that  He  who  recon- 
ciled sinners  by  death,  will,  now  surely 
that  they  are  reconciled,  fully  and  conclu- 
sively save  them,  seeing  that  He  is  alive 
again— does  the  apostle,  upon  the  strength 
of  these,  carry  forward  the  believer  to  a 
still  higher  eminence  in  the  divine  life, 
where  he  can  not  only  see  afar  off"  to  the 
glorious  regions  of  immortality  and  be 
glad  ;  but  where,  in  foretaste  as  it  were 
of  the  joy  of  these  regions  felt  by  him 
now,  he  is  glad  in  a  sense  of  the  already 
possessed  friendship  of  God,  glad  in  the 
intercourse  of  love  and  confidence  with  a 
present  Deity. 

There  is  much,  we  think,  to  be  gathered 
from  the  consideration,  that  joy  in  God 
forms  one  of  the  exercises  of  a  Christian 
mind — a  habit  or  condition  of  the  soul 
into  which  every  believer  is  or  ought  to 
be  translated — a  spiritual  eminence  that 
may  be  gained,  even  in  this  world,  and 
where  the  heart  of  man  may  experience 
a  relish,  and  imbibe  a  rapture,  which  the 
world  most  assuredly  knoweth  not.  To 
feel  as  if  you  were  in  the  company  of 


God — to  have  delight  in  this  feeling — to 
triumph  in  God  as  you  would  do  in  a 
treasure  that  had  come  into  your  posses- 
sion— to  dwell  upon  Him  in  fancy  and 
with  fondness,  just  as  one  friend  dwells 
on  the  pleasing  remembrance  of  another 
— to  reach  the  extacies  of  devotion,  and 
find  that  the  minutes  spent  in  communion 
with  the  heavenly  and  unseen  witness,  are 
far  the  sweetest  and  the  sunniest  intervals 
of  your  earthly  pilgrimage — to  have  a 
sense  of  God  all  the  day  long,  and  that 
sense  of  Him  in  every  way  so  delicious  as 
to  make  the  creature  seem  vain  and  taste- 
less in  the  comparison — to  have  His  can- 
dle shining  in  your  heart,  and  a  secret 
beatitude  in  Him  of  which  other  men 
have  no  comprehension — to  bear  about 
with  you  that  cheerful  trust  in  Him,  and 
that  cherished  regard  to  Him,  which  chil- 
dren do  to  a  father  whose  love  they  rejoice 
in,  and  of  whose  good-will  they  are  most 
thoroughly  assured — to  prize  the  peaceful 
sabbaths  and  the  sacred  retirements,  whea 
your  soul  can  wing  its  contemplation 
toward  His  sanctuary,  and  there  behold 
the  glories  of  His  character,  at  the  very 
time  that  you  can  exult  in  confidence 
before  Him — thus  to  be  artected  towards 
God,  and  thus  to  glory  and  be  glad  in 
Him,  is  certainly  not  a  common  attain- 
ment ;  and  yet  we  do  not  see  how  any 
true  saint,  any  genuine  disciple  can  bo 
altogether  a  stranger  to  it.  "Rejoice 
evermore,"  says  the  apostle  of  the  New 
Testament;  and  "the  Lord  reigneth,  let 
the  earth  rejoice,"  says  the  venerable 
patriarch  of  the  Old.  It  is  easy  to  walk 
in  the  rounds  of  a  mechanical  observa- 
tion. It  is  easy  to  compel  the  hand  to 
obedience,  against  the  grain  and  inclina- 
tion of  the  heart.  It  is  very  easy  to  bear 
towards  God  the  homage  of  respect,  or 
fearfulness,  or  solemn  emotion  ;  and  to 
render  Him  the  outward  obeisance,  and 
even  something  of  the  inward  awe  of 
worshippers.  It  is  somewhat  natural  to 
feel  the  dread  of  His  majesty,  or  to  be 
visited  by  a  sense  of  His  terrors,  or  to  be 
checked'  by  the  thought  of  His  authority 
and  power.  And,  under  the  weight  of  all 
this  impressive  seriousness,  it  is  even 
somewhat  natural  and  easy  to  pray.  But 
it  has  been  well  remarked,  that  praise  is 
not  so  natural,  nor  so  common,  nor  withal 
so  easy  as  prayer — that  delight  in  God  is 
a  rarer  and  a  loftier  condition  of  the  soul, 
than  devoutness  of  feeling  to  God — that 
the  sigh  of  repentance  may  be  heard  to 
ascend  towards  Him  in  many  cases,  while 
the  singing  of  the  heart  towards  Him  may 
only  break  forth  in  very  few — that  to  cul- 
tivate with  God  as  a  matter  of  duty,  is  a 
habit  of  far  greater  frequency,  than  to  do 
it  as  if  by  the  impulse  of  a  spontaneous 
feeling — So  that  to  serve  Him  as  a  master 


112 


LECTURE  XXII. CHAPTER  V,  11. 


to  whom  you  are  bound  in  the  way  of 
obligation,  is  more  the  tendency  of  nature, 
than  to  serve  Ilim  as  a  friend  to  whom 
you  are  bound  by  the  willing  affecti(jns 
of  a  heart  that  freely  and  fully  and  fear- 
lessly loves  Ilim.  Is  not  the  latter  the  far 
more  enviable  habit  of  the  soul,  the  one 
to  which  you  would  like  best  to  be  trans- 
lated ? — to  have  the  spirit  of  adoption  and 
cry  out  Abba,  P\Uher,  rather  than  to  drivel 
before  Him  among  the  restraints  and  tht; 
reluctancies  of  a  slave? — to  do  His  will 
here  upon  earth,  just  as  it  is  in  heaven, 
that  is,  not  as  il"  by  the  force  of  a  compul- 
sory law,  or  as  if  under  the  stipulation  to 
discharge  the  articles  of  a  bond,  or  as  if 
pursued  by  the  unrelenting  jealousy  of  a 
task-master,  who  exacts  from  you  work, 
just  as  one  man  exacts  from  another  the 
square  and  punctual  fulfilment  of  a  bar- 
gain ■?  This  is  the  way  in  which  God's  will 
is  apt  to  be  done,  or  attempted  to  be  done, 
on  earth ;  but  it  is  really  not  the  way  in 
heaven — where  He  receives  a  willing 
homage  from  beings  of  a  nature  congenial 
with  His  own — where  the  doing  of  His 
pleasure  is  not  a  drudgery  for  the  per- 
formance of  which  they  get  their  meat 
and  their  drink,  but  where  their  meat  and 
drink  itself  is  to  do  the  will  of  God — 
where,  instead  of  a  duty  from  which  they 
would  like  to  stand  acquitted,  it  is  their 
very  heart's  desire  to  be  thus  employed, 
and  that  without  respite  and  without  ter- 
mination— above  all,  where  the  presence 
of  God  ever  enlivens  them,  and  their  own 
pleasure  is  just  His  pleasure  reflected  b;ick 
again.  To  carry  onward  the  soul,  from 
the  cares  and  the  exercises  and  the  mani- 
fold observations  of  an  outward  godli- 
nes.s,  to  such  an  inward  and  angelic  god- 
liness as  we  now  speak  of,  were  to  work 
upon  it  a  greater  transformation — than  to 
recall  it  from  abandoned  profligacy,  to 
the  punctiliousness  and  the  painstakings 
and  all  the  decencies  of  a  mere  external 
reformation.  And  we  again  ask,  whether 
you  would  not  like  to  break  forth  upon 
this  scene  of  spiritual  enlargement;  and 
be  preferred  to  this  nobler  and  freer  ele- 
vation of  character ;  and  to  walk  before 
God  as  an  attached  and  rejoicing  friend, 
rather  than  as  the  slave  of  His  tyranny 
and  of  your  own  terrors — in  a  word,  to 
joy  in  the  light  of  His  benignant  counte- 
nance, rather  than  to  tremble  under  the 
apprehension  of  His  frown  ;  and,  instead 
of  submissively  toiling  at  what  you  feel 
to  be  a  task,  to  spring  forth  on  the  career 
of  obedience  with  the  alacrity  of  one 
whose  heart  is  glad  in  God,  and  who 
takes  pleasure  in  all  Ilis  will  and  in  all 
His  ways'? 

You  all  see  the  one  style  of  godlinoss 
to  be  of  a  far  higher  and  more  celestial 
pitch  than  the  other ;   and  therefore,  of 


course,  at  a  greater  distance  from  that 
state  of  alienation  which  you  all  occupy 
by  nature.  The  very  descripticm  of  such 
a  godliness  may  serve  to  convince  us,  how 
wide  the  disparity  is  between  the  moral 
elctment  of  earth,  and  the  moral  element 
of  heaven  ;  and  this  is  a  lesson  which  we 
should  like  to  urge  on  two  classes  of 
hearers — t-ndea venting  to  sum  up  the 
whole  by  a  practical  conclusion,  ere  we 
bid  a  final  adieu  to  a  passage  on  which 
for  so  many  sabbaths  we  have  detained 
you. 

The  first  class  consists  of  those  who 
care  little  about  the  matters  of  the  soul 
and  of  eternity  ;  who  have  never  with  any 
degree  of  seriousness  entertained  the  ques- 
tion ;  who  have  been  acting  all  along,  not 
on  the  computation  of  those  elements  into 
which  sin  and  .salvation  and  death  and 
immortality  enter — but  have  ju.st  lived  and 
are  continuing  to  live,  as  if  the  visible 
theatre  which  surrounds  them  were  their 
all ;  and  the  platform  of  mortality  where- 
on they  walk,  and  underneath  the  surface 
of  which  they  see  acquaintances  sinking 
and  disappearing  every  day,  were  to 
hold  them  up  and  that  firmly  and  pros- 
perously for  ever.  We  are  sure  we  speak 
to  their  experience  when  we  say,  that  all 
they  mind  is  earthly  things,  and  that  their 
conversation  is  not  in  heaven  ;  that  joy  in 
God  through  Jesus  Christ  is  a  feeling 
which  they  never  had,  and  of  which  they 
have  no  comprehension;  that  the  exta- 
cies  of  those,  who  arc  so  inspired  and  so 
actuated,  are  beyond  the  range  of  their 
sympathy  and  understanding  altogeilK;r. 
And  give  them  a  warm  hal  itation  in  time, 
and  stock  it  well  with  this  world's  com- 
forts and  accommodations,  and  surround 
them  with  a  thrivinj;  circle  of  relations 
and  a  merry  companionship,  and  bt  the 
animating  gam(!  of  a  vvell-doing  business 
abroad  be  varied  liy  the  flow  of  kindness 
and  the  songs  of  festivity  at  home — and 
they  would  hnve  no  objection,  if,  thus 
compassed  about  and  thus  upholden,  to  be 
done  with  God  and  done  with  eternity  for 
ever.  When  the  preac-her  tries  to  demon- 
strate the  utter  wofulness  and  woithless- 
ness  of  their  spiritual  condition,  we  know 
what  the  kind  of  question  is  with  which 
they  are  prepared  to  assail  him.  We  pay 
our  debts;  w<'  can  lift  an  open  and  un- 
abashed visage  in  .society  ;  we  folb  w  the 
occasional  impulses  of  <i  compassionate 
feeling  towards  the  necessitous  ;  we  love 
our  children  ;  there  is  nothing  monstrous 
about  us,  possessed  as  we  ar«'  of  all  tin 
instincts  of  humanity,  and  maintjiiniii', 
the  full  averag*^  of  its  equities  and  i's  de- 
cencies and  its  kiiulness(>.s.  What  then  is 
the  charge,  on  which  you  would  stamp  a 
sort  of  moral  hidetiusness  upon  our  cha- 
racters ;   and  <m  which   j  ou    pronounce 


LECTURE   XXII. — CHAPTER   V,    11. 


113 


against  us  the  awful  doom  of  an  angry 
God  and  an  undone  eternity  1  The  charge 
is  that  you  joy  in  the  creature,  and  not  at 
all  in  the  Creator ;  and,  to  verify  the  doom, 
we  have  only  to  read  in  your  hearing,  the 
future  history  of  this  world,  in  as  far  as 
it  is  made  known  to  us  by  experience  and 
revelation.  That  scene,  on  which  you 
bave  fastened  your  affections  so  closely 
.hat  you  cannot  tear  them  away  from  it, 
will  soon  be  torn  away  from  you ;  and 
this  world,  on  whose  fair  surface  it  is  that 
sense  and  time  have  spread  out  their  be- 
witching allurements,  and  decked  them 
forth  in  colours  of  fascination,  will  soon 
be  broken  up  ;  and  your  hold,  as  well  as 
that  of  all  our  species  on  the  present  sys- 
tem of  things,  with  all  its  pleasures  and 
all  its  interests,  will  be  everlastingly  dis- 
solved. It  is  then  that  God  will  step  in 
between  your  soul  and  those  creatures 
after  which  it  has  ever  longed,  but  which 
are  now  swept  away.  And  had  your  joy 
been  in  Him,  then  the  heaven  where  He 
dwells  would  have  been  your  fit  because 
your  joyful  habitation.  But  as  the  tree 
falleth  so  it  lies ;  and  you  rise  from  the 
grave  with  the  taste,  and  the  character, 
and  the  feelings  which  you  had  when  you 
breathed  your  last  upon  your  death-bed  ; 
and  so  all  that  is  in  your  heart,  carrying 
upon  it  a  recoil  from  Him  with  whom 
alone  you  have  to  do,  will  meet  with  no- 
thing there  but  that  which  must  give 
dread  and  disturbance  to  your  carnal  af- 
fections ;  and  these  affections  will  wander 
in  vain  for  the  objects  which  solaced  them 
upon  earth.  This  intermediate  place  be- 
tween heaven  and  hell  will  no  longer  be 
found ;  and  the  unhappy  exile  from  the 
one,  will  meet  with  the  other  alternative 
as  his  portion  for  evermore.  It  is  thus 
that  he  who  soweth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of 
the  flesh  reap  corruption.  The  materials 
of  his  gratification  will  be  withheld  ;  and 
the  sordid  appetite  remain  unsated  and 
restless  and  ever  pursuing  him  throughout 
all  eternity :  And  whatever  the  outward 
inflictions  may  be  which  a  God  of  ven- 
geance will  lay  upon  him — there  will,  in 
the  heats  and  the  passions  and  the  dis- 
appointed feelings  of  his  own  unregene- 
rate  bosom,  be  element  enough  to  consti- 
tute a  worm  within  that  cannot  die,  and 
a  fire  within  that  never  can  be  quenched. 
This  may  perhaps  convince  the  first 
class  of  hearers  of  their  exceeding  dis- 
tance from  a  right  habit  of  soul  for  death 
and  the  eternity  beyond  it ;  and  give  them 
some  understanding  of  the  greatness  of 
that  transition  which  there  is  from  the 
carnal  to  the  spiritual ;  and  bring  even 
their  own  experience  to  testify  for  this  an- 
nouncement of  the  Bible,  that  unless  they 
are  born  again  they  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  And  it  may  lead  some 
15 


such  to  bestir  themselves  ;  and  to  beat  as 
it  were  upon  the  confines  of  that  spiritual 
region,  the  occupiers  of  which  have  a 
taste  for  God,  and  so  a  foretaste  of  heaven 
in  their  souls ;  and  many  a  weary  strug- 
gle may  they  make  after  this  regenera- 
tion ;  and  perhaps,  baffled  in  all  their  at- 
tempts, have  the  same  distaste  for  God  and 
godliness  as  ever.  For  how  can  that 
which  is  bitter  become  sweet  unto  me? 
How  can  this  religion  which  is  a  weari- 
ness become  a  delight "?  How  can  I  attain 
a  relish  and  a  capacity  for  its  spiritual 
exercises  1  or  share  in  a  joy  which  I  have 
never  yet  felt,  and  which  certainly  no 
method  of  compulsion  can  establish  with- 
in me  ■? 

Now  this  leads  us  to  a  second  class  of 
hearers,  who,  instead  of  being  careless, 
are  making  the  interest  of  their  soul  a 
topic  of  great  care  and  great  cogitation  ; 
who  have  recourse  to  active  measures  in 
the  prosecution  of  this  interest ;  and  are 
all  alive,  to  the  great  object  of  being  right 
with  God.  It  is  indeed  a  most  natural 
forth-setting  of  the  whole  man  on  such  an 
occasion,  to  proceed  on  the  principle  of 
'  work  and  win  ;'  and  thus  do  they  strive 
to  establish  a  righteousness  of  their  own, 
and  by  much  labour  to  lay  up  a  claim  for 
wages  on  the  day  of  reckoning;  and  in  so 
labouring,  they  just  feel  as  an  ordinary 
workman  does.  It  is  not  his  work  that 
gives  him  pleasure.  It  is  only  the  receipt 
of  his  wages  that  gives  him  pleasure.  He 
has  no  rejoicing  in  his  master  or  in  his 
service.  His  only  rejoicing  is  in  the  re- 
ward that  he  is  to  get  from  him,  and  which 
is  distinct  from  his  service.  And  in  like 
manner,  is  there  many  a  seeker  after  life 
eternal,  toiling  with  all  his  might,  in  the 
spirit  of  bondage  and  of  much  careful- 
ness, who  has  no  joy  in  God — satisfied  if 
he  can  escape  hell  and  reach  the  un- 
defined blessedness  of  heaven  ;  but  who 
does  not  reflect,  that  it  is  altogether  essen- 
tial to  this  blessedness,  to  have  such  a 
taste  for  the  divine  character  as  to  be  glad 
in  the  contemplation  of  it — to  have  such 
a  liking  for  the  divine  life,  as  that  the  life 
itself,  Avith  the  necessary  pleasure  annex- 
ed to  it,  shall  be  reward  enough  for  him — 
to  have  such  a  delight  in  the  Being  who 
made  him,  that  he  counts  himself  rich  in 
the  simple  possession  of  His  friendship, 
and  in  the  breathings  of  a  heart  that  glows 
with  regard  and  gratitude  to  the  person 
of  the  Divinity.  Without  this,  all  he  can 
do  is  but  the  bodily  exercise  that  profiteth 
little ;  and  that,  instead  of  heightening 
his  affection  for  God,  may  only  exasperate 
the  impatience,  and  aggravate  the  weari- 
ness and  distaste  that  he  feels  in  His  ser- 
vice. And  the  question  recurs — how  shall 
he  be  translated  into  this  right  spiritual 
temperament  1    It  is  not  by  the  laborious- 


114 


LECTURE   XXII. — CHAPTER    V,    11. 


ness  of  the  service,  that  he  will  ever  work 
himself  into  the  habit  of  rejoicing  in  that 
master  who  appoints  the  service,  and  yet 
without  the  rejoicing  there  is  no  adapta- 
tion of  the  soul  for  paradise — no  kindred 
quality  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  upper 
regions — none  of  that  cordial  delight  in 
God  which  gives  to  heaven  all  its  free- 
nejss  and  all  its  felicity — and,  with  all  the 
drudgeries  of  outward  obedience,  no  grow- 
ing meetness  whatever  for  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light. 

Now  what  is  the  sum  and  practical 
conclusion  of  this  whole  matter!  We 
trust  you  all  perceive  how  it  leaves  you 
no  other  alternative,  than  that  of  just 
shutting  you  up  unto  the  faith.  There  is 
a  high  ground  of  spiritual  atTection,  and 
of  joy  in  God,  and  of  celestial  delight  in 
the  sense  of  His  presence  and  fellowship, 
to  which  you  would  like  to  be  elevated. 
But  you  see  nothing  between  you  and  that 
lofty  region,  saving  a  range  of  precipice 
that  you  cannot  scale,  and  against  which 
you  vainly  wreak  all  the  native  energies 
that  belong  to  you.  Let  one  door  hitherto 
unobserved  be  pointed  out,  open  to  all 
who  knock  at  it,  and  through  which  an 
easy  and  before  unseen  ascent  conducts 
you  to  the  light  and  purity  and  enjoyment 
of  those  upper  regions  after  which  you 
aspire  ;  and  what  other  f)ractical  effect 
should  all  the  obstacles  and  impossibili- 
ties j'ou  have  before  encountered  have 
upon  you,  than  just  to  guide  your  foot- 
steps to  the  alone  way  of  access  that  is  at 
all  practicable  1  And  this  is  just  the  con- 
clusion you  should  come  to  on  the  matter 
under  consideration.  Strive  as  painfully 
as  you  may  to  work  out  a  righteousness 
of  your  own,  and  you  will  ever  work 
among  stumbling-blocks  ;  and  peace  he 
at  as  great  a  distance  from  you  as  ever ; 
and,  so  far  from  joy  in  God  being  attained 
by  such  a  process,  it  is  far  the  likeliest 
way  of  accumulating  upon  your  souls  a 
distaste  both  for  Him  and  for  His  service  ; 
and,  in  these  circumstances,  we  know  of 
nothing  through  which  to  ensure  your 
translation  to  this  desirable  habit  of  the 
soul,  than  just  the  open  door  of  Christ's 
mediatorship.  It  has  been  objected  to  the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  that  it  exacts  from 
its  disciples  an  unnatural  and  unattaina- 
ble elevation  of  character  ;  and  this  is  a 
most  likely  objection  to  proceed  from  him 
who  looks  at  this  economy  with  half  an 
eye.  The  very  same  people  may  also,  on 
looking  at  another  side  of  this  dipensa- 
tion,  be  heard  to  object  to  the  freeness  of 
the  gospel ;  to  the  immediate  way  in 
which  any  sinner  may  strike,  even  now, 
an  act  of  reconciliation  with  the  God 
whom  he  has  offended  ;  to  the  method  of 
his  justification  by  faith,  and  not  by  the 
works  of  the  law ;  and,  in  a  word,  to  the 


whole  character  of  his  ministration;?,  by 
which  it  is  reduced  to  a  matter  of  giving 
upon  the  one  side,  and  of  confident  re- 
ceiving and  relying  upon  the  other.  Now 
the  two  parts' which  are  thus  objected  to 
singly,  arc  those  which  give  consistent 
support  and  stability  to  each  other.  It  is 
just  by  faith,  and  in  no  other  possible 
way,  that  you  enter  upon  peace  and  hope 
and  love  and  joy.  It  is  just  through  Je- 
sus Christ,  not  by  working  for  the  atone- 
ment, but  simply  by  receiving  the  atone- 
ment, that  you  are  translated  into  this  de-  . 
sirable  habit  of  the  soul.  It  is  just  the 
freeness  of  the  gospel,  which  conducts  its 
disciples  to  all  the  peculiar  affections  of 
the  gospel.  If  you  remain  on  the  ground 
of  legality  where  '  work  and  win  '  is  the 
order  of  the  day,  you  never  will  win  the 
length  of  firmly  confiding  in  God  as  your 
friend,  or  of  rejoicing  in  Him  as  the  life 
and  the  dearest  treasure  of  your  existence. 
It  is  only  by  walking  in  that  open  way  of 
access  to  which  j'ou  are  invited  ;  and 
proceeding  on  the  words  of  Christ,  that 
"by  Him  if  any  man  enter  in  he  shall  be 
saved  ;"  and  laying  hold  of  that  covenant 
of  peace  on  which  He  is  desirous,  that  all 
of  you  should  laj'^  a  full  and  a  sure  reli- 
ance. It  is  only  thus  that  the  tastes  and 
affections  of  the  heart,  will  be  led  freely 
out  to  the  God  who  thus  calls  and  thus 
manifests  Himself.  Let  us  therefore  sound 
in  your  hearing  the  invitations  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  and  make  it  known  to  you,  that  your 
only  chance  for  b(nng  translated  into  that 
angelic  love  of  God  and  joy  in  Him  which 
obtains  in  paradise,  is  simply  by  believ- 
ing in  their  honesty  and  trusting  and  tri- 
umphing and  hoping  and  rejoicing  ac- 
cordingly. You  can  never  be  too  sure  of 
God's  truth.  You  can  never  be  too  sure 
of  the  saving  eificacy  of  the  blood  of  His 
Son.  You  can  never  be  too  sure  of  your 
having  received  such  an  abundance  of 
grace,  as  will  exceed  the  measure  of  all 
your  abounding  iniquities.  You  can  never 
be  too  sure  of  the  faithfulness  and  infinite 
compassion  of  your  Creator  who  is  in 
heaven  ;  and,  the  more  you  cherish  all 
this  sureness,  the  more  will  you  rejoice  in 
Him,  the  shield  of  whose  protection  is 
over  you,  and  the  arms  of  whose  ever- 
lasting love  are  round  about  you.  This 
sureness  is,  in  fact,  the  high  road  to  all 
that  enlargement  of  sacred  and  spiritual 
delight,  which  in  ever)^  other  way  is  to- 
tally inaccessible.  And  we  are  not  afraid 
of  spoiling  you  into  indolence  by  all  this 
proclamation  ;  or  of  lulling  you  into  a 
habit  of  remissness  in  the  exertions  of 
duty  by  it ;  or  of  gendering  a  deceitful 
Antinomianism  in  your  hearts  ;  or  of  turn- 
ing any  one  of  you  into  the  disgusting 
spectacle  of  one  who  can  talk  of  peace 
with  God,  while  purity  and  principle  and 


LECTURE  XXn. — CHAPTER   V,    11. 


115 


real  piety  are  utter  strangers  to  his  unre- 
penerated  bosom.  It  is  this  freeness,  and 
this  alone  in  fact,  which  will  make  new 
creatures  of  you ;  which  will  usher  tlie 
love  of  God  into  your  hearts  ;  which  will 
bring  down  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  you  from 
heaven ;    which  will  inspire  a  taste  for 


spiritual  delight  that  you  never  before 
felt;  and  furnish  motive  and  impulse  and 
affection  for  bearing  you  onward  in  the 
way  of  active  and  persevering  duty,  on 
the  career  of  moral  and  spiritual  excel- 
lence. 


LECTURE  XXIII. 

Romans  v,  12 — 21. 

*  Wherefore,  as  by  one  rnai?  sin  entered  into  tkc  world,  and  death  by  sin  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  thai 
all  have  sinned.  (For  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world  :  but  sin  is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law.  Never- 
theless death  reif;ned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression,  who  is  the  figure  of  him  that  was  to  come.  But  not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift.  For  if 
through  the  offence  of  one  many  be  dead;  much  more  the  grace  of  God.  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is  by  one  man, 
Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many  And  not  as  it  was  by  one  that  sinned,  so  is  the  gift;  for  the  iudgment 
was  by  one  to  condemnation,  but  the  free  gift  is  of  many  offences  unto  justification.  For  if  by  one  man's  offence 
death  reigned  by  one  ;  much  more  they  \vhich  receive  abundance  of  grace,  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  shall 
reign  in  life  by  one,  Jesus  Christ.)  Therefore,  as  by  the  offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  nien  to  condemna- 
tion ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life.  For  as  by  one 
man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners  ;  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous.  Mort>- 
over,  the  law  entered,  that  the  offence  might  abound  :  but  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound  :  that 
as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord." 


Ere  we  proceed  to  the.detailed  explana- 
tion of  these  verses,  it  may  be  right  to 
premi.se  a  few  general  remarks,  on  the 
way  in  which  sin  found  entrance  into  our 
world  ;  on  the  precise  doctrinal  amount 
of  our  informations  from  Scripture  rela- 
tive to  this  subject ;  and  on  the  degree  in 
which  these  informations  are  met  by  the 
experience  of  man,  and  the  natural  sense 
that  is  in  his  bosom,  respecting  guilt  or 
demerit  and  condemnation. 

We  do  feel  this  to  be  an  enterprise  of 
some  difficulty  and  magnitude  ;  and  we 
fear,  a  little  too  unwieldly,  for  its  being 
brought  to  a  satisfying  termination  within 
the  limits  of  one  address.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, a  suitable  introduction  to  the  task 
of  expounding  the  passage  that  is  now 
before  us  ;  and,  however  formidable  the 
attempt  of  grappling  with  a  doctrine  so 
mysterious  to  some  and  so  repulsive  to 
others,  as  that  of  original  sin — we  do 
think  it  right,  frankly  to  state  to  you  all 
that  we  think,  and  all  that  we  know  about 
it. 

This  doctrine,  then,  may  be  regarded 
in  two  diiferent  aspects — first  as  it  respects 
the  disposition  to  sin,  and  secondly  as  it 
respects  the  guilt  of  it.  These  two  par- 
ticulars, you  will  observe,  are  distinct 
from  one  another.  To  say  that  a  man 
has  a  tendency  by  nature  to  run  into  the 
commission  of  sin,  is  to  say  one  thing — 
to  say  that  by  nature  he  is  in  a  state  of 
guilt  or  condemnation,  is  to  say  another. 
The  act  of  sin  is  distinct  from  the  punish- 
CJcrl  of  sin.     T'le  d'.'T^.'i':;'n   1o  i*  i.^-^a 


thing  separate  and  apart  from  the  desert 
of  it.  The  corruption  of  human  natures 
means  its  tendency  to  sin.  The  guilt  of 
them  who  wear  that  nature,  means  their 
evil  desert  on  account  of  sin  ;  and  for 
which,  when  reckoned  with,  a  penal  sen- 
tence may  justly  be  laid  upon  them.  The 
one  is  a  matter  of  fact  which  may  be  af- 
firmed in  the  word  of  God  ;  but  which 
may  also  be  verified  by  the  experience  of 
man.  The  other  is  a  matter  of  principle, 
which  may  also  be. affirmed  in  Scrip- 
ture ;  but  which  may  also  be  taken  cog- 
nizance of.  by  the  moral  sense  that  resides 
and  operates  in  the  human  bosom. 

Now  as  to  the  fact  of  the  sinful  disposi- 
tion in  the  nature  of  man,  it  can  onlv  be 
gathered — either  from  the  sinful  doings 
that  appear  in  the  history  of  man  ;  or 
from  the  sinful  desires,  to  the  existence 
of  which  in  his  own  heart,  he  has  access 
by  the  light  of  consciousness,  and  in  the 
hearts  of  others  by  the  light  of  their  tes- 
timony. Even  though  we  had  outward 
exhibition  alone,  we  often  have  enough  to 
infer  and  ascertain  the  inward  tendency, 
We  do  not  need  to  dig  into  a  spring  to  as- 
certain the  quality  of  its  water,  but  to  ex- 
amine the  quality  of  the  stream  whica 
flows  from  it.  We  have  no  access,  cithet 
by  our  own  consciousness  or  by  their 
communications,  to  the  hearts  in  the  infe- 
rior animals  ;  and  yet  we  can  pronounce 
with  the  utmost  confidence,  from  their  do- 
ings and  their  doings  alone,  on  the  char- 
acteristic disposition  which  belongs  to 
f'Dch  nf  them.     And  so  we  talk  of  the 


116 


LECTURE   XXm.— CHAPTER    V,    12 21. 


faithfulness  of  the  dog,  and  the  ferocity 
of  the  tiger,  and  the  gentleness  of  the 
dove, — ascribing  to  each  a  prior  tendency 
of  nature,  from  which  there  emanates  the 
style  of  action  that  stands  visibly  forth  in 
their  outward  histories. 

Now  this  may  lead  us  to  understand  in 
part,  what  is  meant  by  the  term  original, 
as  applied  to  the  doctrine  now  under  con- 
sideration. It  is  quite  a  current  mode  of 
expression,  when  one  says  that  there  is 
an  original  ferocity  in  the  tiger.  It  means 
that,  as  the  fountain  on  the  hill-side  is 
formed  and  filled  up,  before  it  sends  forth 
the  rills  which  proceed  from  it — so  a  fe- 
rocious quality  of  nature  exists  in  the  ti- 
ger, before  it  vents  itself  forth  in  deeds 
of  ferocity ;  and  it  is  a  quality  not  in- 
duced upon  the  animal  by  education ;  for, 
however  left  to  itself,  all  of  them  evince 
it.  Neither  is  it  the  fruit  of  any  harsh  or 
provoking  treatment  to  which  it  is  ex- 
posed ;  for,  under  every  variety  of  treat- 
ment, or  with  no  treatment  at  all,  still  is 
this  the  unfailing  disposition  of  each  indi- 
vidual belonging  to  the  tribe.  As  little 
can  it  be  ascribed  to  climate,  or  to  acci- 
dent, or  to  any  thing  posterior  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  animal  itself;  for,  under  all 
these  differences,  we  still  behold  the  forth- 
putting  of  that  characteristic  fierceness 
that  we  are  now  speaking  of.  It  may  well 
be  called  original ;  for  it  would  appear, 
both  from  the  universality  of  this  attribute 
and  from  the  unconquerable  strength  of 
it,  that  it  belongs  essentially  to  the  crea- 
ture ;  that  fi'om  the  very  way  in  which  it  is 
put  together  at  the  first,  from  the  very  way 
in  which  the  elements  of  its  constitution 
are  compounded,  this  fierce  and  fiery  dis- 
position is  made  to  evolve  itself.  And 
just  as  the  structure  of  the  stomach  neces- 
sarily gives  rise  to  sensations  of  hunger, 
and  hunger  impels  to  deeds  of  voracious- 
ness—so in  the  original  frame  of  the  ani- 
mal, may  there  be  an  inherent  temper  of 
cruelty,  which,  ere  it  proceeds  to  devour 
its  victim,  leads  it  with  savage  delight  to 
aggravate  and  prolong  its  sufferings. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
here,  what  is  meant  by  the  difference  be- 
tween the  original  and  the  actual.  Could 
the  cruelties  of  a  tiger  be  denominated 
sins,  then  all  the  cruelties  that  were  in 
deed  inflicted  by  it  on  the  various  animals 
which  it  had  seized  during  the  course  of 
its  whole  life — then  would  these  be  the 
actual  sins  of  its  history  in  the  world.  It 
is  evident  that  these  might  vary  in  num- 
ber and  in  circumstances,  with  different 
individuals  of  the  same  tribe ;  and  yet 
both  of  them  have  the  same  strength  of 
native  disposition  towards  cruelty.  Each 
in  this  case  has  an  original  tendency  to 
sinning— a  tendency  that  cometh  direct 
out  of  the  very  frame  and  composition  of 


the  animal — So  that  if  the  fountain  can 
be  regarded  separately  from  the  rivulet — 
if  the  kind  of  tree  can  be  considered  as 
one  thing,  and  the  kind  of  fruit  which  it 
bears  be  considered  as  another — if  a  qual- 
ity of  inward  temper,  be  a  thing  distinct 
from  and  antecedent  to  the  ebullitions  of 
it  in  deed  and  in  performance ;  and  this 
quality  be  diffused  through  a  whole  spe- 
cies, and  as  much  born  with  each  of  its 
individuals  as  is  the  shape  or  are  the 
members  of  its  body — There  may  then  be 
a  real  and  philosophical  foundation  for 
that  distinction  between  original  and  ac- 
tual sin,  which  has  been  so  much  resisted 
by  the  disciples  of  our  modern  literature, 
and  so  much  decried  as  the  fiction  of  a 
barbarous  theology. 

It  is  thus  that  we  verify  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin  by  experience.  Should  it  be 
found  true  of  every  man,  that  he  is  actu- 
ally a  sinner — should  this  hold  unexpect- 
edly true  with  each  individual  of  the  hu- 
man family — if  in  every  country  of  the 
world,  and  in  every  age  of  the  world's 
history,  all  who  had  grown  old  enough  to 
be  capable  of  showing  themselves  were 
transgressors  against  the  law  of  God — 
and  if  among  all  the  accidents  and  varie- 
ties of  condition  to  which  humanity  is 
liable,  each  member  of  humanity  still  be- 
took himself  to  his  own  wayward  devia- 
tions from  the  rule  of  right — Then  he 
sins,  not  because  of  the  mere  perversity 
of  his  education — he  sins,  not  solely  be- 
cause of  the  peculiar  excitements  to  evil 
that  have  crossed  his  path — he  sins,  not 
only  because  of  the  noxious  atmosphere 
he  breathes,  or  the  vitiating  example  that 
is  on  every  side  of  him.  But  he  sins, 
purely  in  virtue  of  his  being  a  man. 
There  is  something  in  the  very  make  and 
mechanism  of  his  nature,  which  causes 
him  to  be  a  sinner — a  moral  virus  infused 
into  the  first  formation  of  each  individual 
who  is  now  born  into  our  world.  The  in- 
nate and  original  disposition  of  man  to 
sin,  is  just  as  firmly  established  by  the 
sinful  doings  of  all  and  each  of  the  spe- 
cies— as  the  innate  ferocity  of  the  tiger  is, 
by  the  way  in  which  this  quality  breaks 
forth  into  actual  exemplification  on  each 
individual  of  the  tribe.  If  each  man  is  a 
sinner,  this  is  because  of  a  pervading  ten- 
dency to  sin,  that  so  taints  and  over- 
spreads the  whole  nature,  as  to  be  present 
with  every  separate  portion  of  it.  And 
to  assert  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  in 
these  circumstances,  is  to  do  no  more 
than  to  assert  the  reigning  quality  of  any 
species,  whether  in  the  animal  or  vegeta- 
ble kingdom.  It  is  to  do  no  more  than  to 
affirm  the  ferocious  nature  of  the  tiger,  or 
the  odorous  nature  of  the  rose,  or  the  poi- 
sonous nature  of  the  foxglove.  It  is  to 
rej^uce  that  which  is  true  of  every  single 


LECTURE   XXIII. CHAPTER    V,    12 — 21. 


117 


specimen  of  our  nature,  into  a  general 
expression  that  we  make  applicable  to 
the  whole  nature.  And  to  talk  of  the  ori- 
ginal sin  of  our  species,  thereby  intending 
to  signify  the  existence  of  a  prior  and 
universal  disposition  to  sin,  is  just  as  war- 
rantable as  to  affirm  the  most  certain 
laws,  or  the  soundest  classifications  in 
Natural  History. 

Could  another  planet  offer  to  our  notice 
another  family  of  rational  beings,  in  form 
and  in  features  and  in  faculties  like  our 
own — Did  we  see  there  the  same  accom- 
modations which  we  occupy,  and  the  same 
scenery  that  enriq^es  our  globe,  with  only 
this  difference  between  the  two  tribes 
which  each  peopled  its  own  world — that 
whereas  in  every  single  instance  the  for- 
mer were  all  actually  sinners,  the  latter 
were  all  actually  righteous — Who  would 
not  infer  an  original  difference  of  consti- 
tution, from  this  universal  difference  of 
conduct]  Who  would  not  infer  a  some- 
thing that  distinguished  the  nature  of  the 
one  species  from  the  nature  of  the  other — 
the  virulence  of  an  evil  principle  spread 
over  the  whole  of  that  race,  in  every  sin- 
gle member  of  which  you  saw  the  out- 
breakings  of  evil ;  and  an  exemption  from 
this  deleterious  principle  in  that  race,  in 
no  one  member  of  which  you  could  notice 
a  single  deviation  from  the  law  of  upright- 
ness] Now  this  evil  principle  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  original  sin,  and  actual 
sin  is  but  the  produce  of  if.  And  we  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  ascertain  that  actual 
sin  is  universal,  in  order  to  infer  the  origi- 
nal sin  of  mankind — or  such  an  unex- 
cepted  proneness  of  desire  to  sin  in  the 
human  constitution,  that  no  individual 
who  wears  that  constitution  is  ever  found 
in  deed  to  abstain  from  it. 

When  one  sees  a  delight  in  cruelty,  on 
the  part  of  every  individual  among  a  par- 
ticular tribe  of  animals — who  would  ever 
hesitate  to  affirm,  that  cruelty  was  the  na- 
tive and  universal  characteristic  of  the 
tribe  1 — that  this  entered  into  the  primary 
composition  of  that  kind  of  living  creature, 
insomuch,  that  it  may  be  safely  predicted 
of  every  future  specimen  which  shall  be 
brought  into  the  world,  that  this  hateful 
quality  will  be  found  to  adhere  to  if?  By 
ascribing  to  the  whole  species  an  original 
propensity  to  cruelty,  you  are  only  stating 
a  general  fact  by  a  general  expression. 
And  you  do  no  more,  when  you  ascribe  to 
our  species  an  original  propensity  to  sin — 
inferring  from  the  general  fact,  that  all 
men  have  sinned,  such  a  constitutional 
tendency  to  evil  as  makes  you  confidently 
aver,  not  merely  of  the  past  but  also  of  all 
the  future  individuals  of  our  race,  that  all 
men  will  sin.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  origi- 
nal sin,  in  as  far  as  it  affirms  the  exist- 
ence of  a  prior  tendency  to  sin,  among  all 


the  members  of  the  great  family  of  man- 
kind — a  doctrine  afiirmed  in  the  Bible; 
and  confirmed  by  human  experience,  if  the 
fact  is  made  out,  that  there  is  not  a  man 
in  our  world  who  liveth  and  sinneth  not. 
There  is  not  enough,  it  may  be  thought, 
of  evidence  for  this  fact,  in  the  record  of 
those  more  glaring  enormities,  which  "give  ■ 
to  the  general  history  of  the  world  so 
broad  an  aspect  of  wicked  and  unprinci- 
pled violence.  It  is  all  true,  that,  in  the 
conspicuous  movement  of  nations,  justice 
is  often  thrown  aside,  and  robbery  spreads 
its  cruel  excesses  over  the  families  of  a 
land,  and  revenge  satiates  her  thirst  in  the 
blood  of  provinces  ;  so  that  man,  when 
let  loose  from  the  restraints  of  earthly  law, 
proves  how  slender  a  hold  the  law  of  God 
has  in  his  heart,  or  the  law  of  revelation 
has  upon  his  conscience.  Still  the  actors 
in  the  great  national  drama  of  the  world 
are  comparatively  few ;  and  though  satis- 
tied,  from  the  style  of  their  performances, 
that  many  more  would  just  feel  alike  and 
do  alike  in  the  same  circumstances — there 
is  yet  room  for  affirming,  that,  in  the  un- 
seen privacies  of  social  and  domestic  life, 
there  may  arise  many  a  beauteous  speci- 
men of  unstained  worth  and  unblemished 
piety;  and  that,  among  the  descendants 
of  our  arraigned  species,  some  are  to  be 
found,  who  pass  a  guileless  and  a  perfect 
life  in  this  world ;  and  in  whose  characters 
even  the  Judge  who  sitteth  above  cannot 
detect  a  single  flaw,  upon  which  to  exclude 
them  from  the  sinless  abodes  of  paradise. 
It  is  quite  impossible,  you  will  perceive, 
to  meet  this  affirmation,  by  successively 
passing  all  the  individuals  of  our  race  be- 
fore you  ;  and  pointing  to  the  eye  of  your 
observation,  the  actual  iniquity  of  the 
heart  or  life,  which  proves  their  relation- 
ship as  the  corrupt  members  of  a  corrupt 
family.  But  there  is  another  way  of  meet- 
ing it.  .You  cannot  make  all  men  mani- 
fest to  each  man,  but  you  may  make  each 
man  manifest  to  himself.  You  may  make 
an  appeal  to  his  own  conscience,  and  put 
him  to  his  defence,  if  he  is  able  for  it, 
against  the  imputation  that  he  too  is  a  sin- 
ner. In  defect  of  evidence  for  this  upon 
his  outward  history,  you  may  accompany 
him  to  that  place  where  the  emanating 
fountain  of  sin  is  situated.  You  may  en- 
ter along  with  him  into  the  recesses  of  his 
own  heart,  and  there  detect  the  unfailing 
preference  that  is  given  by  it  to  its  own 
will — the  constant  tendency  it  has,  to  im- 
pel its  possessor  to  walk  in  his  own  way — 
the  slight  and  rarely  occasional  hold  that 
the  authority  of  God  has  over  it — its  al- 
most utter  emptiness  of  desire  towards 
Him,  insomuch  that  His  law  is  dethroned 
from  its  habitual  ascendancy,  and  the 
sense  of  Him  is  banished  from  our  habit- 
ual recollections.    He  may  spurn  at  injus- 


118 


LECTURE  XXin. CHAPTER  V,  12 — 21. 


tice,  and  blush  at  indelicacy,  and  recoil 
from  open  profanation,  and  weep  at  hu- 
man suffering ;  and  yet,  withal,  he  may 
forget  and  disown  God.  Not  one  hour  of 
his  life,  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  it, 
may  have  been  filled  with  any  one  busi- 
ness which  God  had  set  him  to,  just  as  a 
master  sets  his  servant  to  a  task,  lie  may 
Have  been  some  hours  at  church  ;  but  cus- 
tom set  him  to  it.  Or  he  may  have  been 
ofliciating  as  long  in  the  services  of  a  fel- 
low-creature ;  but  native  humanity  set 
him  to  it.  Or  he  may  labour  all  week 
long  for  the  subsistence  of  his  family ; 
but  instinctive  aflfection  set  him  to  it.  Or 
he  may  engage  in  many  a  right  and  use- 
ful enterprise  ;  but  a  feeling  of  propriety, 
or  a  constitutional  love  of  employment, 
or  a  tenderness  for  his  own  reputation  set 
him  to  it. 

We  dispute  not,  as  we  have  often  told 
you,  the  power  and  the  reality  of  many 
principles  in  the  heart  of  man,  most 
amiable  in  their  character,  most  salutary 
in  their  operation,  but  which  work  at  the 
same  time  their  whole  influence  upon  his 
conduct — without  the  reverence,  and  with- 
out the  recognition  of  God.  It  is  this 
which  can  be  fastened,  we  affirm,  on  every 
son  and  daughter  of  Adam.  It  is,  that 
the  Being  who  made  us  is  unminded  by 
us.  It  is,  that  the  element  of  human 
nature  is  an  element  of  ungodliness.  It 
is,  that  though  the  wayward  heart  of  man 
goes  forth  by  many  different  ways  to  the 
object  it  is  most  set  upon — yet  in  no  one 
of  them,  is  its  habitual  tendency  heaven- 
ward or  Godward.  From  such  a  foun- 
tain, innumerable  are  the  streams  of  dis- 
obedience which  will  issue;  and  though 
many  of  them  may  not  be  so  deeply 
tinged  with  the  hue  of  disobedience  as 
others — yet  still  in  the  fountain  itself  there 
is  the  principle  of  independence  upon 
God,  of  unconcern  about  God.  Put  our 
planet  with  its  rational  inhabitants  by  the 
side  of  another,  where  all  felt  the  same 
delight  in  God  that  angels  feel,  and  in 
every  movement  they  made  caught  their 
impulse  from  a  full  sense  of  God  as  the 
bidder  of  it ;  and,  though  each  business 
on  which  they  set  out  was  a  task  put  into 
their  hands,  gave  their  intense  prosecution 
to  it,  not  with  the  feeling  of  its  being  a 
drudgery,  but  with  a  feeling  of  delight. 
Let  a  diflerence  so  palpable  between  the 
two  human  generations  of  the  two  worlds 
be  exhibited — as  that  in  the  one,  God  is 
out  of  the  eye  and  out  of  the  remembrance 
of  His  creatures  ;  and  in  the  other,  God  is 
ever  felt  to  be  present,  and  the  will  of  all 
whom  He  has  there  made  is  the  will  of 
Him  who  made  them.  Are  you  to  say  of 
such  a  difference  that  it  has  no  cause  ?  Is 
it  merely  a  fortuitous  thing,  that  all  with- 
out exception  in  the  one  place  should 


walk  in  the  counsel  of  their  own  ungoJlf 
hearts,  and  in  the  other  should  walk  aj 
the  devoted  subjects  of  a  Divine  and  Al- 
mighty Sovereign  1  Are  we  to  be  so  un- 
philosophical  as  to  affirm,  that  such  a 
distinction  as  this  is  but  a  random  con- 
tingency, which  can  be  traced  to  no  origin, 
and  is  referable  to  no  principle  whatever  ? 
Must  there  not  be  a  something  in  the 
original  make  and  constitution  of  the  two 
families,  to  account  for  such  a  total  and 
unexcepted  diversity  as  has  been  noticed 
by  the  eye  of  observation  1  Where  is  the 
error  of  saying  that  there  is  a  prior  corrupt 
tendency  in  the  one  wo^ld,  which  does 
not  exist  in  the  other  ?  And  so  far  havo 
we  explained  what  is  meant  by  the  origi- 
nal sin  that  is  charged  upon  mankind, 
when  we  affirmed  it  to  be  that  constitu- 
tional proneness  to  evil  in  virtue  of  which 
all  men  are  sinners. 

We  are  quite  aware,  that  the  principle, 
on  which  we  would  convince  the  whole 
world  of  sin,  is  but  faintly  recognised,  and 
therefore  feebly  felt,  by  many  of  the  most 
eloquent  expounders  of  human  virtue ; 
that,  indignant  as  they  are  against  the 
vices  which  bear  injuriously  upon  them- 
selves, they  have  no  sense  of  the  injury 
done  to  God  by  the  disregard  and  the 
forgetfulness  of  His  own  creatures;  that 
they  would  tolerate  all  the  impiety  there 
is  in  the  world,  if  there  was  only  force 
enough  in  the  moral  vehemence  of  their 
own  powerful  and  pathetic  appeals,  to 
school  away  all  its  cruelty  and  selfishness 
and  fraud.  And  therefore  it  is,  that  we 
hold  it  indeed  a  most  valid  testimony  in 
behalf  of  our  doctrine — when  those  very 
men  who  undertake  to  tutor  the  species 
in  virtue  apart  from  godliness,  and  apart 
from  the  niethodism  of  the  gospel,  are 
rendered  heartless  by  disappointment ; 
and  take  revenge  upon  their  disciples  by 
pouring  forth  the  effusions  of  bitterest 
misanthropy  against  them.  It  would  look 
as  if  even  on  their  own  ground,  the  tenet 
of  original  sin  might  find  enough  of  argu- 
ment and  countenance  to  make  it  respect- 
able. Rousseau  was  one  of  those  to 
whom  we  allude.  He  may  be  regarded 
as  having,  in  effect,  abjured  Christianity, 
and  betaken  himself  to  the  enterprise  qf 
humanizing  the  world  on  other  principles ; 
and  from  the  bower  of  romance  and  sen- 
sibility, did  he  send  forth  the  lessons,  that 
were  to  rccal  our  wandering  race  to  the 
primitive  innocence,  from  which  art  and 
science  and  society  had  seduced  them  ; 
and,  year  after  year,  did  he  ply  all  Eu- 
rope with  the  spells  of  a  most  magical 
and  captivating  eloquence.  Nor  were 
there  wanting  many  admirers  who  wor- 
shipped him  while  he  lived;  and  who, 
when  he  died,  went  like  devotees  on  a 
pilgrimage  to   his  tomb.    And  they  too 


LECTURE   XXIII. CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


119 


had  the  fondness  to  imagine,  that  the 
conceptions  of  his  wondrous  mind  were 
the  germs  of  a  great  moral  revolution, 
that  was  awaiting  our  species.  But  the 
ill-fated  Rousseau  himself,  lived  long 
enough  to  mourn  over  the  vanity  of  his 
own  beauteous  speculations ;  and  was 
neard  to  curse  the  very  nature  he  had  so 
long  idolized  ;  and,  instead  of  humanity 
capable  of  being  raised  to  the  elevation 
of  a  godlilfe  virtue,  did  he  himself  pro- 
nounce of  humanity,  that  it  was  deeply 
tainted  with  some  sore  and  irrecoverable 
disease.  And  it  is  indeed  a  striliing  attes- 
tation from  him  to  the  depravity  of  our 
race,  that,  ere  he  ended  his  career,  he 
became  sick  of  that  very  world  which  he 
had  vainly  tried  to  regenerate — renounc- 
ing all  brothei:hood  with  his  own  species, 
and  loudly  proclaiming  to  all  his  fellows 
how  much  he  hated  and  execrated  and 
abjured  them. 

What  Rousseau  is  in  prose,  Lord  Byron 
is  in  poetry.  Only  he  never  aimed  to 
better  a  world,  of  which  he  seldom  spoke 
but  in  the  deep  and  bitter  derision  of  a 
heart  that  utterly  despised  it — not  because 
of  its  ungodliness,  for  it  is  not  this  which 
calls  forth  the  vindictiveness  of  his  most 
appalling  abjurations.  But  it  is  obviously 
his  feeling  of  humanity,  that  its  whole 
heart  is  sick  and  its  whole  head  is  sore ; 
that  some  virus  of  deep  and  deadly  infu- 
sion pervades  the  whole  extent  of  it :  and 
never  is  he  more  in  his  own  favourite 
element,  than  when  giving  back  to  the 
world  from  his  own  pages,  the  reflected 
image  of  that  guilt  which  troubles  and 
deforms  it.  One  should  have  liked  to  see 
a  mind  so  powerful  as  his,  led  to  that 
secret  of  this  world's  depravity,  which  is 
only  revealed  unto  babes,  while  hid  in  a 
veil  of  apparent  mysticism  from  the  wise 
and  the  prudent.  And  yet  even  as  it  is, 
does  he,  in  the  wild  and  frenzied  career 
of  his  own  imagination,  catch  a  passing 
glimpse  of  the  truth  that  he  had  not  yet 
apprehended- 

"  Our  life  is  a  false  nature — 'tis  not  in 

The  harmony  of  things — this  hard  decree, 

Tliis  uneradicable  taint  of  sin, 

This  boundless  Upas,  this  all-blasting  tree, 

Whose  root  is  earth,  whose  leaves  and  branches  be 

The  skies,  which  rain  their  plagues  on  man  like  dew, 

Disease,  death,  bondage,  all  the  woes  we  see. 

And  even  the  woes  we  see  not,  which  throb  through 

The  immedicable  soul,  with  heart-aches  ever  new.  " 

Tt  has  turned  out  as  we  apprehended. 
We  have  said  enough  for  one  address  ; 
and  yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  pass 
away  from  the  tirst  branch  of  the  subject 
of  original  sin,  even  the  sinful  tendency 
which  exists,  as  a  native  and  constitu- 
tional attribute  of  our  species,  and  has 
been  o^pnominated  the  corruption  of  our 
species.  We  cannot  at  present  afford  so 
much  as  one  sentence  on  the  other  branch 
of  the  subject,  which  is  original  sin  in 


respect  of  the  guilt  of  it ;  and  under  which 
we  may  have  to  advance  a  few  remarks, 
for  elucidating  what  has  been  termed  the 
imputation  of  Adam's  sin  to  all  his  pos- 
terity. It  is  evident  that  the  two  topics 
of  the  existence  of  original  sin  and  the 
guilt  of  it,  are  distinct  from  one  another  ; 
and  they  lead  to  distinct  practical  conse- 
quences. The  only  one  we  shall  urge 
upon  you  just  now,  is,  that,  however 
much  poetry  and  philosophy  and  elo- 
quence may  have  failed  in  their  attempts 
to  extirpate  the  moral  disorders  of  our 
world, — this  is  the  very  enterprise  which 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  has  embarked 
upon  ;  and  on  the  success  of  which,  in  the 
case  of  all  who  truly  submit  to  its  lessons, 
it  has  adventured  the  whole  credit  of  its 
divinity  and  its  truth.  We  mistake  Chris- 
tianity, if  we  think  that  it  only  provides 
an  expiation,  to  do  away  the  guilt  of  our 
original  depravity.  It  provides  a  regene- 
rating inlluence,  to  do  away  its  existence. 
It  does  something  more  than  demonstrate 
the  evil  malady  of  our  nature.  It  will  not 
be  satisfied  with  any  thing  short  of  de- 
stroying it.  For  this  purpose  it  brings  a 
new  and  a  powerful  element  into  living 
play  with  the  original  elements  of  our 
constitution  ;  and  with  these  it  sustains  a 
combat  ihat  may  well  be  denominated  a 
war  of  extermination.  The  moralists  of 
our  age,  whether  in  lessons  from  the  aca- 
demic chair,  or  by  the  insinuating  address 
of  fiction  and  poetry — while  they  try  to 
mend  and  to  embellish  human  life,  have 
never  struck  one  effective  blow  at  that 
ungodliness  of  the  heart,  which  is  the 
germ  of  all  the  distempers  in  human  so- 
ciety. It  is  against  this  that  the  gospel 
aims  its  decisive  thrust,  as  at  the  very  seed 
and  principle  of  the  mischief  It  com- 
bats the  disease  in  its  original  elements; 
and,  instead  of  idly  attempting  to  inter- 
cept or  tui'n  aside  the  stream  of  this  sore 
corruption,  its  makes  head  against  that 
fortress  where  the  emanating  fountain  of 
the  distemper  lies.  For  this  purpose,  the 
truths  which  it  reveals,  and  the  weapons 
which  it  employs,  and  the  expedients 
which  it  puts  into  operation' — nay,  the 
very  terms  of  that  vocabulary  which  it 
uses,  are  all  most  strikingly  contrasted 
both  with  the  conceptions  and  the  phrase- 
ology of  general  literature.  There  is 
nothing,  there  is  positively  nothing,  in 
that  general  literature,  the  profcst  object 
of  which  too  is  to  moralize  our  species — 
about  the  blood  of  an  everlasting  cove- 
nant ;  or  the  path  of  reconciliation  with 
God,  by  an  offered  and  appointed  media- 
torship  ;  or  the  provision  of  a  sanctifying 
Spirit,  by  which  there  is  infused  into  our 
nature,  a  counteracting  virtue  to  all  the 
sinfulness  that  abounds  in  it.  We  have 
already  had  proof  for  the  utter  impotency 


120 


LECTURE   XXm. CHAPTER   V,    12 21. 


of  all  that  has  issued  from  the  schools  of 
sentiment  and  philosophy.  Should  not 
this  shut  us  up,  at  least  to  the  experiment 
of  this  very  peculiar  gospel,  which  offers 
to  guide  the  world  to  a  consummation  that 
hitherto  has  been  so  very  hopeless  1  Let 
each,  at  all  events,  try  it  for  himself.  Let 
each  here  present,  whose  conscience  has 
responded  to  the  charge  of  ungodliness, 
feel  himself  drawn  to  an  expedient,  by 
which  this  most  obstinate  of  all  tendencies 
may  at  length  be  overcome.  And  for 
your  encouragement  at  the  outset,  let  us 
announce  to  you,  that  this  said  gospel  jus- 
tifies the  ungodly.  Even  now  acceptance 
is  offered  to  you.  Even  now  reconcilia- 
tion may  be  entered  on,  and  that  without 


waiting  till  the  heart  has  given  up  Its 
practical  and  deep-rooted  atheism.  The 
lirst  act  to  which  you  are  called,  is  an  act 
of  agreement  with  the  God  whom  you 
have  so  totally  renounced,  iij  the  habit 
and  history  of  your  past  life.  The  blood 
of  Christ,  if  you  will  only  take  heart  and 
believe  in  it,  washes  away  the  guilt  of  all 
this  sinfulness  ;  and  the  promise  that  He 
gives  to  those  who  trust  in  Him  is,  that 
He  will  turn  away  ungodliness  from 
Jacob — sealing  those  who  believe  with  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  and  thus  causing  them  to 
love  and  honour  and  serve  the  God,  from 
whom  they  were  aforetime  so  widely  and 
so  wretchedly  aliejiated. 


LECTURE   XXIV. 


Romans  v,  12 — 21. 

"  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  tha* 
all  have  sinned.  (For  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world  :  but  sin  is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law.  Never 
theless  death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression,  wlio  is  the  figure  of  him  that  was  to  come.  But  not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift.  For  if 
through  the  otfence  of  one  many  be  dead  ;  much  more  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is  by  one  man, 
Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many.  And  not  as  it  was  by  one  that  sinned,  so  is  the  gift ;  for  the  judgment 
was  by  one  to  condemnation,  but  the  free  gift  is  of  many  offences  unto  justification.  For  if  by  one  man's  olfencr 
death  reigned  by  one ;  much  more  they  which  receive  abundance  of  grace,  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  shall 
leign  in  life  by  one,  Jesus  Christ.)  Therefore,  as  by  the  offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condcnina 
tion  ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life.  For  as  by  on"* 
man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners  ;  so  By  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous  More- 
over, the  law  entered,  that  the  offence  might  abound  :  but  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound  :  that 
as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord." 


In  our  last  discourse,  we  attempted  to 
show  in  how  far  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible, 
respecting  the  existence  of  a  corrupt  ten- 
dency in  our  race,  met  and  was  at  one 
with  human  observation.  This  is  clearly 
a  question  that  may  be  brought  to  such 
a  tribunal.  Whether  a  sinful  disposition 
exists  and  is  universal  among  men,  is  mat- 
ter of  experience  as  well  as  of  divine  re- 
velation. That  this  corruption  exists  in 
the  world,  is  matter  of  experience.  But 
how  it  entered  into  the  world  is  altogether 
a  matter  of  testimony.  It  is  an  historical 
fact,  which  must  be  exhibited  to  us  in  a 
credible  record,  ere  we  can  come  to  the 
knowledge  or  belief  of  it.  We  cannot 
confront  it  with  any  thing  that  now  passes 
before  our  eyes — it  being  a  solitary  event 
of  great  antiquity,  and  which  has  no  pro- 
per evidence  to  rest  upon  save  the  infor- 
mations of  history. 

"  By  one  man,*^"  says  our  text,  "  sin  en- 
tered "into  the  world."  He  came  out  pure 
and  righteous  froin  the  hand  of  God ;  but 
Adam,  after  he  had  yielded  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  the  garden,  was  a  changed  man, 
from  Adam  in  his  days  of  innocence  in 
Paradise.    He  gathered  a  different  hue  in 


consequence ;  and  that  hue  was  perma- 
nent ;  and  while  we  are  told  that  God 
made  man  at  first  after  His  own  image, 
we  are  further  told  that  the  very  first  per- 
son who  was  born  into  the  world,  came  to 
it  in  the  image  of  his  parent — not  in  the 
original,  but  in  the  transformed  image, 
that  is,  with  the  whole  of  that  tendency 
to  sin,  which,  on  the  first  act  of  sin,  was 
formed  in  the  character  of  Adam,  and  was 
transmitted  through  him  to  all  his  poster- 
ity. 

This  is  the  simple  statement ;  and  we 
are  not  able  to  give  the  explanation.  The 
first  tree  of  a  particular  species,  may  be 
conceived  to  have  come  from  the  Creator's 
hand,  with  the  property  of  bearing  fruit, 
of  the  sweetest  taste,  and  most  exquisite 
flavour.  A  pestilential  gust  may  have 
passed  over  it,  and  so  changed  its  nature, 
that  all  the  fruit  it  was  afterwards  to  bear 
should  be  sour  and  unsavoury.  After  this 
change,  it  may  be  conceived  to  have  dropt 
its  seeds  or  its  acorns  ;  and  such  may  the 
virulence  of  the  transformation  hav^been, 
that  all  the  future  trees  which  arc  to  be 
propagated  from  the  parent  stock,  rise  not 
in  the  original'but  transformed  likeness 


LECTURE  XXIV. — CHAPTER  V,  12 21. 


121 


of  the  tree  from  which  they  sprung.  If 
this  were  credibly  attested  as  a  fact,  we 
are  certainly  not  prepared  to  resist  it.  We 
have  no  such  acquaintance  with  the  phy- 
siology of  the  vegetable  world,  as  to  affirm, 
in  the  face  of  good  historical  testimony, 
that  this  is  impossible;  and  as  little  are 
we  entitled,  from  any  acquaintance  with 
the  law  of  transmission  from  father  to  son, 
in  the  department  of  ^imal  and  intelli- 
gent nature,  to  set  ourselves  in  opposition 
to  that  bible  narrative,  by  which  we  are 
given  to  understand,  that  a  moral  blight 
came  over  the  character  of  our  great  pro- 
genitor ;  and  that,  when  so  reduced  and 
deteriorated  in  his  better  qualities,  a  race 
of  descendants  proceeded  from  him,  with 
that  very  taint  of  degeneracy  that  he  had 
taken  on  ;  that  the  evil  thus  superinduced 
on  the  nature  of  the  first  man,  was  trans- 
mitted to  all  the  men  whom  he  originated 
— who,  of  course,  instead  of  being  fruitful 
in  righteousness,  yielded  in  their  lives  the 
bitter  produce  of  many  actual  transgres- 
sions, of  much  visible  and  abounding  ini- 
quity. 

There  is  another  fact  announced  to  us 
in  this  passage,  and  that  is,  the  connection 
between  the  corruption  of<iur  nature,  and 
its  mortality.  Sin  brought  death  into  the 
world  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men, 
for  that  all  have  sinned.  This  brings  out 
to  view  in  another  way,  the  distinction  that 
we  have  endeavoured  to  impress  between 
actual  and  original  sin.  All  have  not 
sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  trans- 
gression ;  and  yet  death  reigneth  too  over 
them.  All  have  not  sinned  by  a  positive 
deed  of  disobedience.  Infants  have  not 
thus  sinned ;  and  yet  infants  die.  The 
death  that  they  undergo  is  not  the  fruit  of 
any  actual  iniquity  of  theirs  ;  but  the  fruit 
of  that  moral  virus,  which  has  descended 
from  the  common  fountain  of  our  species, 
and  which  taints  and  vilifies,  and  trans- 
mits the  elements  of  decay  and  destructi- 
bleness,  among  all  the  members  of  it. 
They  have  never  done  what  is  sinful ;  and 
yet  they  have  that  of  sin  in  them  which 
carries  death  in  its  train.  And  what  is 
this  but  the  corrupt  tendency  that  we  have 
all  along  insisted  on  ;  the  original  and 
constitutional  aptitude  that  there  is  to  sin- 
ning, in  virtue  of  which  we  may  compute, 
with  all  the  firmness  of  certainty,  that, 
when  the  time  of  bringing  forth  cometh, 
transgression  is  the  fruit  that  they  will 
bear — a  disposition  that  only  yet  exists  in 
embryo,  but  which  will  come  out  into  deed 
and  development,  so  soon  as  powers  and 
opportunities  are  expanded.  The  infant 
tiger  has  not  yet  performed  one  act  of 
ferocity  ;  but  we  are  sure  that  all  the  rudi- 
ments of  ferocity  exist  in  its  native  con- 
stitution ;  and  that  the  original  principle 
af  this  quality,  long  before  it  ha:-  been  un- 
16 


folded  into  actual  development,  lurks  in  it 
from  its  birth,  and  only  waits  its  growth 
and  its  maturity  till  it  come  out  into  ex- 
hibition. The  tender  sapling  of  the  crab- 
tree,  has  not  yet  yielded  one  sour  apple  ; 
but  we  most  certainly  know,  that  there  is 
even  from  the  minutest  germ  of  its  exist- 
ence, an  organic  necessity  for  its  produc- 
ing this  kind  ©f  fruit,  when  time  has  con- 
ducted it  onward  to  this  period  of  its  his- 
tory. And,  in  like  manner,  the  infant  of 
a  week  old  has  not  broken  one  of  the  com- 
mandments ;  but  well  may  we  infer,  from 
the  universality  of  sin  in  our  species,  that, 
should  it  rise  to  boyhood,  there  is  that  in 
its  disposition  now,  which  will  advance 
and  ripen  into  disobedience  then.  And 
should  the  hand  of  death  arrest  it  in  its 
career,  and  by  its  preventing  stroke  snatch 
it  away  from  the  possibility  of  ever  com- 
mitting one  action  of  iniquity  ;  and  it  be 
asked,  how  it  is  that  the  connection  be- 
tween sin  and  the  suffering  of  death  is  ex- 
emplified in  the  fate  of  this  poor  innocent 
— we  would  reply,  that  though  the  mis- 
chief had  not  exploded  in  its  history,  yet 
the  whole  elements  of  the  mischief  lay 
slumbering  in  its  heart ;  and,  though  it 
could  not  be  said  to  die  because  of  actual 
transgression,  yet  it  shared  in  the  common 
calamity  with  the  rest  of  the  species,  be- 
cause, with  the  rest  of  the  species,  it  had 
its  full  share  of  the  original  tendency  to 
evil. 

One  knows  not  how  soon  it  is,  that  this 
tendency  breaks  forth  into  open  exhibi- 
tion. One  never  saw,  and  hardly  can 
conceive,  how  a  babe  of  unspotted  de- 
scent, would  have  proved  from  the  first 
day  which  ushered  it  into  being,  that  it 
had  no  fellowship  in  that  corrupt  princi- 
ple, which  taints  from  very  infancy  all 
the  families  of  our  earthly  generation.  In 
a  very  few  years,  the  difference  would  be 
palpable — even  as  the  Saviour,  both  in 
boyhood  and  in  manhood,  stood  distin- 
guished from  all  the  partakers  of  that 
nature,  whose  sufferings  He  bore  but 
whose  sins  He  had  no  share  in.  We  have 
a  full  record  of  His  bright  example,  when 
He  reached  the  maturity  of  His  human 
powers  ;  but  it  must  be  matter  of  curiosity, 
and  not  of  edification,  that  we  have  no 
record  of  His  tone  and  habit  and  charac- 
ter in  infancy.  One  would  like  if  he 
could,  to  lift  the  veil  which  hangs  over 
the  experience  of  Mary  ;  and  to  learn 
of  her,  who  had  the  maternal  care  and 
guidance  of  the  holy  child  Jesus  ;  and  to 
know  what  was  the  precise  complexion 
of  that  moral  dawn,  which  preceded  the 
pure  and  perfect  effulgence  that  shone 
forth  on  the  history  of  His  riper  years; 
and  to  be  told  how  richly  all  her  tender- 
ness was  repaid,  by  smiles  more  lovely 
than  ever  before  had  played  on  the  infant 


122 


LECTURE   XXIV. CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


countenance — and,  in  Ilis  hours  of  arN 
guish,  by  such  a  cahn  and  unrutiled 
serene  as  not  one  cry  of  impatience,  and 
not  one  movement  of  fretfulncss  or  wrath 
ever  broke  in  upon.  But  it  is  vain  to  pry 
into  the  secret  of  that  alone  sinless  infancy 
which  the  world  ever  saw  ;  and  we  have 
only  to  assure  ourselves  of  all  other  cliil- 
dren,  that,  helpless  as  they  arc  in  person, 
and  dear  to  a  parent's  fondest  regards 
from  that  very  helplessness — the  germ  of 
depravity  is  already  in  their  hearts.  And 
whether  or  not  we  should  put  to  the 
account  of  this,  the  boisterous  outcry  of 
an  infant,  and  the  ever-recurring  turmoil 
wherewith  it  clamours  abroad  all  its 
desires  and  all  its  disappointments,  and 
the  constant  exactions  it  makes  of  every 
thing  it  sees  to  its  own  wayward  appetite 
for  indulgence,  and  its  spurning  impa- 
tience of  all  resistance  and  control ;  so  as 
in  fact  to  subordinate  the  whole  household 
to  its  caprices,  and  bo  the  little  tyrant  to 
whose  brief  but  most  effective  authority 
the  entire  circle  of  relationship  must  bend 
— whether  these  be  symptomatic  or  not 
of  that  disease  wherewith  humanity  is 
infected  in  all  its  members,  still  we  must 
admit,  that  the  disease  is  radically  there ; 
and  however  it  may  brood  for  a  season, 
inasort  of  ambiguous  concealment,  among 
the  inscrutable  and  uiu-evcaled  mysteries 
of  an  infant's  spirit — yet  soon  do  the 
selfishness  and  the  sensuality  and  the 
ungodliness  come  out  at  length  into  such 
open  declaration,  as  indeed  to  prove  to 
every  calm  and  philosophic  observer  of 
our  nature,  that  one  and  all  of  us  are 
born  in  sin,  and  all  of  us  are  shapen  in 
iniquity. 

You  will  be  at  no  loss  then  to  conceive 
the  distinction  between  original  and  actual 
sin.  The  one  is  the  tendency  to  sin  in  the 
constitution — the  other  is  the  outbreaking 
of  that  tendency  in  the  conduct;  and  if 
sinful  conduct  be  universal,  we  infer  a 
sinful  constitution  to  be  universal  also. 
And  you  will  be  as  little  at  a  loss  to  per- 
ceive, how  the  original  sin  of  every  human 
creature  is  coeval  with  the  first  moment 
of  his  existence,  and  enters  as  much 
among  the  elements  of  his  formation — as 
the  tendency  to  bear  a  particular  kind  of 
fruit,  lies  incorporated  with  the  very  acorn 
from  which  the  tree  has  germinated.  We 
know  not  whether,  upon  the  introduction 
of  sin,  the  sentence  of  mortality  was  made 
to  pass  on  the  vegetable,  as  well  as  on 
the  animal  creation  ;  or  whether,  had  we 
lived  in  an  unfallen  world,  its  plants  as 
well  as  its  people  would  have  been  im- 
mortal. But  such  is  in  fact  the  organic 
structure  of  both,  that  both  are  liable  to 
dissolution ;  and  whether  they  die  ere  the 
one  has  come  forth  with  its  fruit  of  palpa- 
ble iniquity,  and  the  other  with  its  apple 


of  discernible  flavour — whether  nipped  in 
infancy,  or  withered  into  final  extinction 
after  having  passed  through  all  the  stages 
of  growth  and  of  decay — we  never  think 
of  ascribing  this  sweeping  and  universal 
destruction  to  any  other  cause,  than  to  a 
universal  something  in  the  original  frame 
of  all  the  individuals  that  are  subject  to 
this  sore  fatality  :  And  whether  it  be  the 
grandfather  bowed  down  under  the  weight 
of  years,  or  the  babe  of  a  week  old  that 
breathes  its  last,  it  is  the  same  deadly 
virus  that  carries  off  them  both — the  poison 
of  an  accursed  nature,  that  only  needs  the 
scope  of  opportunity  for  the  development 
of  all  the  plagues  and  all  the  perversities 
which  belong  to  it. 

We  trust,  then,  that  we  may  have  made 
it  clear  to  your  apprehension,  how  there 
exists  in  the  human  constitution  fi'om  the 
very  first,  a  tendency  to  sin  ;  and  that  this 
tendency  has  a  forthcoming  in  sinful  ac- 
tions, with  every  individual  of  our  race, 
who  lives  a  few  years  in  the  world — just 
as  the  tendency  in  the  crab-free  to  pro- 
duce sour  apples,  has  its  forthcoming  in 
the  appearance  of  this  very  fruit,  after  the 
time  of  bearing:  has  arrived.  The  ten- 
dency in  both  ms  come  down,  through  a 
long  series  of  intermediate  parents ;  and 
may  be  traced  in  each,  to  the  tendency  of 
one  great  progenitor,  whether  of  the  hu- 
man or  of  the  vegetable  species.  Thus 
far  then  have  we  got  in  our  argument — 
even  that  original  sin,  as  it  respects  the 
inborn  depravity  of  our  race,  is  at  one 
with  the  actual  experience  of  mankind. 
And  we  should  further  proceed  to  show, 
in  how  far  original  sin,  as  it  respects  not 
its  actual  existence  in  our  frames,  but  as 
it  respects  the  imputation  of  guilt  to  all 
who  are  under  it,  is  at  one  with  the  moral 
sense  of  mankind.  And  then  would  we 
propose  to  finish  all  our  preliminaries  to 
the  exposition  of  the  passage  before  us, 
by  replying  to  the  invectives  which  have 
been  founded  upon  this  doctrine  against 
the  character  of  God.  But  we  have  already 
consumed  too  much  of  your  time  for  en- 
tering at  present  on  topics  so  unwieldy ; 
and  we  shall  therefore  contine  the  remain- 
der  of  the  address  to  such  practical  en- 
forcements, as  may  be  educed  from  the 
explanation  that  we  have  already  attempt- 
ed in  your  hearing. 

The  first  consideration  we  shall  address 
to  you  is,  what  a  testimony  to  God's  irre- 
concilable antipathy  against  sin,  that  he 
has  made  death  to  follow  invariably  in  its 
train — that  because  there  is  in  these  bo- 
dies of  ours  a  tendency  to  moral  evil, 
these  bodies  must  therefore  be  dissolved 
— that  such  is  the  blasting  influence  of 
this  sore  contagion,  as  to  wither  and  sick- 
en every  individual  whom  it  touches,  and 
be  unto  him  the  unfailing  poison,  under 


LECTURE  XXIV. CHAPTER  V,  12 — 21. 


123 


the  virulence  of  which  he  sooner  or  later 
must  expire — that  though  it  was  by  the 
narrow  inlet  of  one  temptation,  that  sin 
found  entrance  into  our  world  at  the  first, 
and  was  thence  diffused  as  if  by  pesti- 
lence throughout  the  whole  extent  of  our 
putrescent  nature,  yet,  widely  as  it  has 
ranged  abroad  over  the  entire  domain  of 
humanity,  and  unsparingly  as  it  has  at- 
tacked every  single  member  of  it,  yet  it 
goes  nowhere,  wifhout  carrying  the  ourse 
of  mortality  along  with  it ;  and  on  ac- 
count of  this  does  each  successive  genera- 
tion, but  moulder  back  again  into  the  dust 
out  of  which  it  had  arisen.  It  would  look, 
that,  as  if  to  detach  this  leprosy  from  our 
constitution,  the  old  materials  of  the  old 
frame-work  must  be  beaten  into  powder, 
and  be  made  to  pass  through  some  purify- 
ing ordeal  in  the  sepulchre.  And  it  is  in- 
deed an  impressive  exhibition  of  the  ma- 
lignity of  sin,  to  think  that  because  of  it 
and  of  it  alone,  all  nature  is  suffering  vio- 
lence— when  we  see  death  thus  making 
its  relentless  sweep  among  all  ages ;  and 
even  before  it  be  possible  to  evince  sin  in 
the  conduct,  as  with  the  infant  of  a  day 
old,  yet  it  is  enough  that  there  be  sin  in 
the  constitution,  to  bring  this  almost  un- 
conscious babe  within  the  operation  of  a 
sentence,  which  grants  no  reprieve,  which 
knows  no  exception. 

But  secondly,  this  deep  view  of  our  dis- 
ease, however  much  it  may  look  an  in- 
applicable speculation  in  the  eyes  of 
many,  yet,  if  rightly  improved,  would  lead 
in  fact  to  a  deep  view  of  the  remedy  that 
was  suited  to  it.  The  man  who  looks 
upon  sin  as  a  mere  affair  of  accident  or 
education,  may  think,  that,  by  the  putting 
forth  a  more  strenuous  determination 
against  it — by  bringing  the  energies  of  the 
inward  will  to  bear  upon  the  outward 
walk — he  may  suppress  the  moral  evil  at 
least  of  his  own  character,  and  achieve 
for  himself  an  exemption  and  a  victory. 
But  the  man  who  looks  upon  this  sin  as  a 
constitutional  taint,  fixgd  upon  him  from 
very  infancy,  and  pervading  all  the  re- 
cesses of  his  frame — who  recognizes  the 
\vill  itself  to  be  corrupt,  and  that  when  it 
comes  to  be  a  question  between  God  and 
His  gifts,  it  is  only  to  the  latter,  and  not 
at  all  to  the  former  that  he  has  any  incli- 
nation— wlien  he  finds  that  the  dark  hue 
of  an  original  and  inborn  sinfulness  ad- 
heres to  him,  just  as  the  spots  do  to  the 
leopard,  and  the  tawny  skin  which  no  su- 
perficial operation  can  do  away,  does  to 
the  Ethiopian — Then,  if  he  have  any  depth 
of  reflection,  he  will  conclude,  that,  in 
such  circumstances,  he  is  really  not  war- 
ranted to  turn  away  from  that  remedy 
which  the  gospel  proposes,  as  the  grand 
specific  for  all  our  moral  and  all  our  spi- 
ritual disorders.     The  whole  range  of  hu- 


man power  and  human  experience  sup- 
plies him  with  nothing,  that  can  purge 
away  the  foul  inveteracy  wherewith  his 
nature  is  stained  ;  and  he  just  follows  in 
the  legitimate  track  of  a  rightly  exercised 
and  rightly  discerning  judgment,  when  he 
is  shut  up  unto  the  faith.  More  particu- 
larly, will  such  a  man  hold  it  to  be  indeed 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  when  he  reads 
of  a  new  birth  being  indispensable  ;  nor 
will  he  recoil,  as  many  do,  with  sensitive 
dislike  from  the  doctrine  of  regeneration  ; 
nor  will  he  look  upon  it  in  any  other  light, 
than  as  the  prescription  of  a  wise  phy- 
sician, who  has  probed  the  patient's  dis- 
ease to  its  bottom,  and  finds  it  to  be  indeed 
engrained  among  the  first  elements  of  the 
constitution  of  our  nature.  He  will  rather 
do  homage  to  the  penetration  of  this  phy- 
sician when  he  aflirms,  that  the  fruit  is 
corrupt,  just  because  the  tree  is  corrupt ; 
and  that  an  operation  must  be  gone 
through,  far  more  radical  than  any  which 
lies  within  the  compass  of  unaided  huma- 
nity ;  that  a  new  creation  must  issue  forth 
from  Him,  who  holds  the  creative  faculty 
altogether  in  His  own  hands  ;  that  ere  the 
fruit  can  be  made  good,  the  tree  must  be 
made  good.  And  thus  it  is,  that  the  man 
who  ^looks  to  the  fall  in  all  its  con- 
sequences ;  and  to  the  transmitted  depra- 
vity of  nature,  runnjng  throughout  all  the 
men  of  all  the  generations  of  our  world  ; 
and  to  the  utter  impossibility  of  this  sore 
corruption  being  dislodged  by  the  deter- 
mining energy  of  man's  will,  because  the 
corruption  has  in  fact  got  hold  of  the  will 
itself,  and  determines  it  only  to  evil  and 
that  continually — such  a  man  no  longer 
marvels  with  the  incredulity  of  Nicode- 
mus,  when  he  is  told  that  flesh  and  blood 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ; 
and  that  unless  he  is  born  again  and 
born  of  the  Spirit,  he  never  can  see  that 
kingdom. 

Lastly,  it  may  be  replied.  What  is  to  be 
done  ]  To  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  is  the  thing  that  is  to  be  done. 
This  is  the  specific,  and  that  not  for  guilt 
merely,  but  also  for  corruption.  You  may 
think  it  too  simple  an  affair  for  landing 
you  in  so  mighty  a  consummation.  Make 
it  a  more  strenuous  affair,  by  putting  your 
own  puny  efforts  to  the  stretch  of  their  ut- 
termost activity,  and  you  never  will  suc- 
ceed. The  Syrian  thought  it  too  simple 
an  afiiiir,  when  asked  to  bathe  in  the 
waters  of  Jordan  for  his  leprosy.  Never- 
theless, he  did  it  and  his  leprosy  left  him. 
You  will  see  God  in  a  new  light,  if  you 
look  to  him  as  reflected  from  the  glass  of 
the  offered  mediatorship.  If  we  can  turn 
you  from  the  hatred  of  God  to  the  love  of 
Him,  this  would  be  to  regenerate  you ; 
and  we  ask  you  to  look  unto  God  as  God 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world,  and  the 


124 


LECTURE   XXIV. CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


change  from  hatred  to  love  is  accom- 
plished. Those  dark  clouds  which  have 
hitherto  loured  upon  you  from  the  pavilion 
of  His  lofty  residence,  will  forthwith  be 
dissipated.  You  will  then  see  that  all  ma- 
jestic as  He  is,  and  awfully  as  that  ma- 
jesty has  been  illustrated  by  the  account 
that  has  been  made  for  sin — yet  there  is  a 
mercy  too,  which  shines  forth  in  the  midst 
of  His  other  attributes,  and  rejoices  over 
them.  You  will  love  the  God  who  first 
loved  you ;  and  that  unfailing  promise, 
that  He  who  gave  His  own  Son,  will  also 
freely  give  us  all  things,  shall  so  invite  the 
prayers  and  the  dependence  of  every  be- 
lieving soul,  that  the  Spirit  given  to  those 
who  ask  it,  will  be  given  unto  him ;  and 
he,  gradually  formed  after  the  lost  image 
of  the  Godhead,  will  become  a  new  crea- 
ture— meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints 
in  light ;  meet  for  the  enjoyment  of  that 
Paradise,  where  sin  and  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ings are  unknown. 

We  have  all  along,  upon  this  subject, 
proceeded  on  the  constitutional  tendency 
that  there  is  to  sin  in  our  nature  being  one 
thing,  and  the  guilt  chargeable  upon  us 
for  having  such  a  tendency  being  another. 
The  question,  how  far  a  native  and  origi- 
nal depravity  exists  among  mankind,  is 
one  thing.  The  question,  how  far  man- 
kind are  justly  liable  to  be  reckoned  with, 
or  to  be  dealt  with  as  responsible  and 
worthy  of  punishment  for  having  such  a 
tendency,  is  another.  We  have  already 
spoken  abundantly  to  the  fact  of  the  ac- 
tual depravity — announced  to  us  most  ex- 
plicitly in  the  Bible,  and  confirmed  to  us 
most  entirely  and  universally  by  personal 
observation.  In  as  far  as  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin  affirms  a  native  disposition  to 
sin,  and  a  disposition  so  strong  in  all  as 
that  all  are  sinners — then  is  the  doctrine 
at  one  with  experience.  But  in  as  far  as 
the  doctrine  affirms,  that  there  is  a  blame 
or  a  demerit  I'ightly  attachable  to  man  for 
having  such  a  disposition,  or  that  he  is  to 
be  held  a  guilty  and  condemned  creature 
on  account  of  it — this  is  a  question  refera- 
ble not  to  the  experience  of  man,  but  to 
the  moral  sense  of  man.  The  experience 
of  man  takes  cognizance  of  the  question 
whether  such  a  thing  is  ;  and  so  is  appli- 
cable to  the  question  whether  a  depraved 
tendency  to  moral  evil  is  or  is  not  in  the 
human  constitution.  The  moral  sense  of 
man  takes  cognizance  of  the  question, 
whether  such  a  thing  ought  to  be  ;  and  is 
therefore  applicable  to  the  question, 
whether  man  ought  to  be  held  and  dealt 
with  as  a  criminal  on  account  of  a  tei»- 
dency  which  came  unbidden  by  him  into 
the  world — which  entered  among  the  first 
elements  of  his  constitution,  without  ever 
consulting  him  or  asking  any  leave  from 
him  upon  the  subject — which  he  derived. 


not  by  choice  but  by  inheritance,  and  over 
which  he  had  no  more  control  than  he  had 
over  the  properties  of  the  air  which  he 
breathed,  or  the  milk  which  nourished 
him.  We  feel  that  we  are  touching  on 
the  borders  of  a  very  profound,  and  what 
to  most  is  a  very  unfathomable  specula- 
tion— But  yet  we  would  not  have  ventured 
so  far — had  we  not  both  conceived  it  due 
to  scriptural  truth,  which  we  think  ought 
to  be'  firmly  and  fearlessly  expounded,  up 
to  the'full  amount  of  all  that  is  revealed 
to  us ;  and  had  we  not  furthermore  con- 
ceived the  whole  exposure  of  our  disease 
and  misery,  to  have  a  deciding  influence 
on  him  who  still  hesitates  about  the  rem- 
edy of  the  gospel — not  very  sure  perhaps, 
whether  he  is  altogether  welcome  to  the 
use  of  it;  not  very  sure  perhaps  whether 
he  altogether  stands  in  urgent  and  indis- 
pensable need  of  it. 

To  determine  the  question  then,  in  how 
far  the  attaching  of  demerit  to  a  sinful  na- 
ture that  man  has  brought  with  him  into 
the  world  is  agreeable  to  the  moral  sense 
of  mankind — we  should  enquire  how  much 
or  how  little  man  requires  to  have  within 
his  view,  ere  his  moral  sense  shall  pro- 
nounce on  the  character  either  of  any  act 
or  of  any  disposition  that  is  submitted  to 
his  notice.  One  may  see  a  dagger  pro- 
jected from  behind  a  curtain,  and  in  the 
firm  grasp  of  a  human  hand,  and  directed 
with  sure  and  deadly  aim  against  the 
bosom  of  an  unconscious  sleeper ;  and, 
seeing  no  more,  he  would  infer  of  the  in- 
dividual who  held  this  mortal  weapon, 
that  he  was  an  assassin,  and  that  he  de- 
served the  death  of  an  assassin.  Had  he 
seen  all,  he  rnight  have  seen  that  this  seem- 
ing agent  of  the  murder  which  had  just 
been  perpetrated,  was  in  fact  a  struggling 
and  overpowered  victim,  in  the  hands  of 
others — that  he,  the  friend  of  the  deceased 
was  pitched  upon,  in  the  spirit  of  diabolic 
cruelty,  as  the  unwilling  instrument  of  the 
deed  which  he  abhorrfed — that  for  this  pur- 
pose, the  fatal  knife  was  clasped  or  fast- 
ened to  his  hand ;  and  his  voice  was  stifled 
by  violence ;  and  he  was  borne  in  deep- 
est silence  to  the  spot  by  the  strength  of 
others  ;  and  there  was  he,  in  most  revolt- 
ing agony  of  heart,  compelled  to  thrust  for- 
ward his  passive  or  rather  his  resisting 
arm,  and  immediately  to  strike  the  exter- 
minating blow  into  the  bosom  of  a  much- 
loved  companion.  Who  does  not  see  that 
the  moral  sense,  when  these  new  circum- 
stances come  into  view,  would  instantly 
amend  or  rather  reverse,  and  that  totally, 
the  former  decision  which  it  had  passed 
upon  the  subject — that  he,  whom  it  deemed 
the  murderer  and  chargeable  with  all  the 
guilt  of  so  foul  an  atrocity,  it  would  most 
readily  absolve  from  all  the  blame  and  all 
the  condemnation — that  it  would  transfer 


LECTURE  XXIV. — CHAPTER  V,  12 21. 


125 


the  charge  to  those  who  were  behind  him, 
and  pronounce  them  to  be  the  murderers 
— that  he  who  held  the  dagger  and  per- 
formed the  deed  was  innocent  of  all  its 
turpitude,  because  the  victim  of  a  neces- 
sity which  he  could  not  help,  and  against 
which  he  had  wrought  and  wrestled  in 
vain  :  and  thus,  ere  it  passes  such  a  sen- 
tence as  it  feels  to  be  righteous,  must  it 
look  not  merely  to  the  act  but  to  the  in- 
tention, not  merely  to  the  work  of  the 
hand  but  to  the  will  of  the  heart  which 
prompted  it. 

Now  if  we  have  any  right  consciousness 
of  our  own  moral  feelings,  or  any  right 
observation  of  the  moral  feelings  of  others, 
the  mind  of  man,  in  order  to  be  made  up 
as  to  the  moral  character  of  any  act  that 
is  submitted  to  its  notice,  needs  to  know 
what  the  intention  was  that  originated  the 
act,  but  needs  no  more.  It  makes  no  in- 
quiry as  to  what  that  was  which  originated 
the  intention.  Give  it  simply  to  under- 
stand, that  such  is  the  intention  of  a  man 
who  is  not  under  derangement,  and  there- 
fore knows  what  he  is  purposing  and  what 
he  is  doing  ;  and  then,  without  looking 
farther,  the  moral  sense  comes  at  once  to 
its  summary  e.'^timate  of  the  moral  charac- 
ter of  that  which  is  under  contemplation. 
Let  us  see  a  man  who  has  done  a  mur- 
derous act,  in  the  circumstances  which  we 
have  just  now  specified  ;  and  we  do  not 
look  upon  him  as  a  criminal,  because  we 
find  that  the  act  originated  in  the  will  of 
others  and  against  his  own  will.  Let  us 
see  a  man  who  has  done  a  murderous  act, 
and  was  instigated  thereto  by  a  murderous 
disposition,  and  we  cannot  help  looking 
upon  him  as  a  criminal — finding  as  we  do 
that  the  act  originated  in  his  own  will. 
An  act  against  the  will  indicates  no  de- 
merit on  the  part  of  him  who  performed  it. 
But  an  act  with  the  will  gives  us  the  full 
impression  of  demerit.  The  philosopher 
mayamuse  himself  with  the  ulterior  query. 
What  was  it  that  originated  the  will  1  But 
the  peasant  has  no  metaphysics  and  no 
speculation  for  entertaining  such  a  topic 
—And  yet  he  has  just  as  fresh  and  just  as 
enlightened  a  sense  of  the  demerit  of  a  bad 
action  coming  from  a  bad  intention,  as  the 
most  curious  and  contemplative  inquirer 
has — whose  restless  appetite  is  ever  carry- 
ing him  upward  among  the  remote  and 
hidden  principles  of  the  phenomena  that 
are  around  him.  To  get  a  right  moral  es- 
timate of  any  given  act,  we  must  carry 
our  view  up  from  the  act  of  the  hand  to 
the  disposition  of  the  heart ;  but  we  need 
to  carry  it  up  no  farther.  The  moment 
that  the  disposition  is  seen,  the  moral  sense 
is  correspondingly  affected  ;  and  rests  its 
whole  estimation,  whether  of  merit  or  of 
demerit,  not  on  the  anterior  cause  which 
gave  origin  to  the  disposition,  but  on  the 


character  which  it  now  bears,  or  the  aspect 
under  which  it  is  now  seen  and  contem- 
plated before  you. 

How  the  disposition  got  there  is  not  the 
question,  which  the  moral  sense  of  man, 
when  he  is  unvitiated  by  a  taste  for  specu- 
lation, takes  any  concern  in.    It  is  enough 
for  the  moral  sense,  that  the  disposition  is 
there.     One  may  conceive,  with  the  Mani- 
cheans  of  old,  two  eternal  Beings — one  of 
whom  was  essentially  wicked  and  malig- 
nant and  impure,  and  the  other  of  whom 
was  essentially  good  and^pright  and  com- 
passionate and  holy  from  everlasting.    We 
could  not  tell  how  these  opposite  disposi- 
tions got  there,  for  there  they  behoved  to 
be  from  the  unfathomable  depths  of  the 
eternity  that  is  behind  us — yet  that  would 
not  hinder  us  from  regarding  the  one  as 
an  object  of  moral  hatefulness  and  dislike, 
and  the  other  as  an  object  of  moral  esteem 
and  moral  approbation.    It  is  enough  that 
the  dispositions  exist;  and  it  matters  not 
how  they  originated,  or  if  ever  they  had 
an  origin  at  all.    And,  in  like  manner,  give 
us  two  human  individuals — one  of  whom 
is  revengeful  and  dishonest  and  profligate' 
and  sensual,  and  the  other  of  whom  is  kind 
and  generous  and  honourable  and  godly — 
Our  moral  sense  on  the  simple  exhibition 
of  thefbe  two  charactei-s,  leads  us  to  regard 
the  one  as,  blameable  and  the  other  as 
praiseworthy — the  one  as  rightly  the  ob- 
ject of  condemnation  and  punishment,  and 
the  other  as  rightly  the  object  of  approval 
and  reward.     And  in  so  doing,  it  does  not 
look  so  far  back,  as  to  the  primary  or 
originating  cause  of  the  distinction  that 
obtains  between  these  two  characters.     It 
looks  as  far  back,  as  to  reach  its  contem- 
plation from  the  act  of  the  outer  man  to 
the  disposition  of  the  inner  man  ;  but  there 
it  stops.     Give  to  its  view  a  wrong  act 
originating  in  a  wrong  intention  ;  and  it 
asks  no  more  to  make  up  its  estimate  of 
the  criminality  of  what  has  been  offered 
to  its  notice.     It  troubles  not  itself  with 
the  metaphysics  of  prior  and  originating 
causes ;  and,  however  the  deed  in  ques- 
tion may  have  originated,  let  it  simply 
have  emanated  from  a  concurring  dispo- 
sition on  the  part  of  him  who  has  per- 
formed it,  and  be  a  deed  of  Avickedness— 
then  does  it  conclude  that  the  man  has 
done  wickedly  and  that  he  should  be  dealt 
with  accordingly. 

We  know  very  well  what  it  is,  that 
stumbles  so  readily  the  speculative  in- 
quirer into  this  mystery.  He  thinks  that 
a  man  born  with  a  sinful  disposition,  is 
born  with  the  necessity  of  sinning ;  and 
that  to  be  under  such  a  necessity,  exempts 
him.from  all  blame,  and  all  imputation  of 
guiltiness  in  having  .sinned.  13ut  so  long 
as  he  is  under  this  feeling,  he  is  in  fact, 
though  not  very  conscious  of  the  delusion, 


126 


LECTURE  XXIV. — CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


he  is  in  fact  confounding  two  things  which 
are  distinct  the  one  from  the  other.  He  is 
confounding  the  necessity  that  is  against 
the  will,  with  the  necessity  that  is  with  the 
will.  The  man  who  struggled  against  the 
external  force,  that  compelled  him  to 
thrust  a  dagger  into  the  bosom  of  his 
friend,  was  operated  upon  by  a  necessity 
that  was  against  his  will ;  and  you  exempt 
him  from  all  charge  of  criminality  in  the 
matter.  But  the  man  who  does  the  very 
same  thing  at  the  spontaneous  bidding  of 
his  own  heart — whose  will  prompted  him 
to  the  act,  and  v/ho  gave  his  consent  and 
his  choice  to  this  deed  of  enormity — this 
is  the  man  whom  you  irresistibly  condemn, 
and  you  irresistibly  recoil  from.  With 
such  a  disposition  as  he  had,  it  was  per- 
haps unavoidable  ;  but  the  very  having  of 
such  a  disposition,  makes  him  in  your  eye 
a  monster  of  moral  deformity.  If  there 
was  a  kind  of  necessity  here,  it  was  a  ne- 
cessity of  an  essentially  different  sort  from 
the  one  we  have  just  now  specidcd,  and 
ought  therefore  not  to  be  confounded  with 
it.  It  is  necessitywith  the  will,  and  not 
against  it ;  and  by  the  law  both  of  God 
and  man,  the  act  he  has  committed  is  a 
crime  and  he  is  treated  as  a  criminal. 

The  only  necessity  which  excuses  aman 
for  doing  what  is  evil,  is  a  necessity  that 
forces  him  by  an  external  violence  to  do 
it,  against  the  bent  of  his  will  struggling 
most  honestly  and  determinedly  to  resist 
it.  But  if  it  be  with  the  bent  of  the  will, 
if  the  necessity  he  lies  under  of  doing  the 
evil  thing  consists  in  this,  that  his  will  is 
strongly  and  determinedly  bent  upon  the 
doing  of  it — then  such  a  necessity  as  this, 
so  far  from  extenuating  the  man's  guilti- 
ness, just  aggravates  it  the  more,  and 
.stamps  upon  it,  in  all  plain  moral  estima- 
tion, a  character  of  fuller  atrocity.  For 
set  before  us  two  murderers,  and  the  one 
of  them  differing  from  the  other  in  the 
keenness  and  intensity  of  his  thirst  fur 
blood.  We  have  already  evinced  to  you, 
howthereisone  species  of  necessity  which 
extinguishes  the  criminality  of  the  act 
altogether — even  that  necessity  which 
operates  with  violence  upon  the  muscles 
of  the  body,  and  overbears  the  moral  de- 
sires and  tendency  of  the  mind.  But  there 
is  another  species  of  necessity,  which 
heightens  the  criminality  of  murder — even 
that  necessity,  which  lies  in  the  taste  and 
tendency  of  the  mind  towards  this  deed 
of  unnatural  violence.  And  if  of  tliese 
two  assassins  of  the  cave  or  of  the  high- 
way, the  one  was  pointed  out  to  us  who 
felt  the  most  uncontrollable  impulse  to- 
wards so  fell  a  perpetration  ;  and  to  Avhom 
the  fears  and  the  cries  and  the  agonies  of 
the  trembhng  victim,  ministered  the  most 
savage  complacency — he  of  the  two,  even 
in  spite  of  the  greater  inward  necessity 


that  lay  upon  him,  he,  in  the  breast  of 
every  plain  and  unsophisticated  man, 
would  raise  the  sensations  of  keenest  in- 
dignancy  ;  and  be  regarded  by  all  as  the 
one,  whom  the  voice  of  justice  most  loudly 
demanded,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  peace  and 
the  protection  of  society. 

It  is  enough  then  that  a  disposition  to 
moral  evil  exists  ;  and  however  it  origi- 
nated', the  disposition  in  itself,  with  all  the 
evil  acts  which  emanate  therefrom,  calls 
forth,  by  the  law  of  our  moral  nature,  a 
sentiment  of  blame  or  reprobation.  It 
may  have  been  acquired  by  education  1 
or  it  may  have  been  infused  into  us  by 
the  force  of  surrounding  example ;  or  it 
may  be  the  fruit,  instead  of  the  principle, 
of  many  wilful  iniquities  of  conduct;  or, 
finally,  it  may,  agreeably  to  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin,  have  been  as  much  trans- 
mitted in  the  shape  of  a  constitutional  bia.s 
from  father  to  son,  as  is  the  ferocity  of  a 
tiger,  or  the  industry  of  an  ant,  or  the 
acidity  of  an  apple,  or  the  odour  and  love- 
liness of  a  rose.  When  we  look  to  the 
beauty  of  a  flower,  we  feel  touched  and  at- 
tracted by  the  mere  exhibition  of  the  ob- 
ject— nor  is  it  necessary  that  we  should 
know  when  this  property  sprung  into  ex- 
istence. When  we  taste  the  sourness  of  a 
particular  fruit,  it  matters  not  to  the  sen- 
sation, whether  this  unpleasant  quality  is 
due  to  the  training  of  the  tree,  or  to  some 
accident  of  exposure  it  has  met  with,  or 
finally  to  some  inherent  universal  ten- 
dency diffused  over  the  whole  species, 
and  derived  through  seeds  and  acorns 
from  the  trees  of  former  generations. 
When  assailed  by  the  fury  of  some  wild 
vindictive  animal,  we  meet  it  with  the 
same  resentment,  and  inflict  upon  it  the 
same  chastisement  or  revenge — whether 
the  malignant  rage  by  which  it  is  actua- 
ted, be  the  sin  of  its  nature  derived  tait 
from  inheritance,  or  the  sin  of  its  educa- 
tion derived  to  it  from  the  perverse  influ- 
ence of  the  circumstances  by  which  it  has 
been  surrounded.  And  lastly,  when  moral 
corruption  is  offered  to  our  notice  in  the 
character  of  man — when  we  see  a  de- 
praved will  venting  itself  forth  in  deeds 
of  depravity — when,  in  every  individual 
we  meet  with,  we  behold  an  ungodliness 
or  a  selfishness  or  a  deceit  or  an  impurity, 
which  altogether  make  the  moral  scenery 
of  earth,  so  widely  different  from  the 
moral  scenery  of  heaven — It  positively 
makes  no  difference  to  A'our  feeling  of 
loathsomeness  and  culpability,  wherewith 
we  regard  it — whether  the  vitiating  taint 
rises  anew  on  every  single  specimen  of 
humanity ;  or  whether  it  has  run  in  one 
descending  current  from  the  progenitor 
of  our  race,  and  thence  spread  the  leprosy 
of  moral  evil  over  all  succeeding  genera- 


tions. 


r'c'.'.v:  :'< 


avca 


LECTURE  XXIV. CHAPTER  V,  12 — 21. 


127 


the  distinction  between  virtue  and  vice 
just  where  it  found  it ;  nor  does  it  afTect 
the  sense  of  moral  approbation  wherewith 
we  regard  the  former,  or  the  moral  dislike 
and  feeling  of  demerit  in  which  the  latter 
ought  to  be  regarded. 

If  it  be  asked  how  this  can  be,  we  re- 
ply that  we  do  not  know — that  so  it  is  we 
know,  but  how  it  is  we  do  not  know.  It 
is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  we  are 
compelled  to  stop  short  at  ultimate  facts  of 
which  we  can  offer  no  other  explanation 
than  that  simply  such  is  the  case  ;  or, 
rather,  it  is  like  in  this  respect  to  every 
other  department  which  nature  and  expe- 
rience offer  to  human  contemplation.  We 
can  no  more  account  for  our  physical,  than 
we  can  account  for  our  moral  sensations. 
When  we  eat  the  fruit  of  the  bitter  orange- 
tree  we  feel  the  bitterness ;  but  we  do  not 
know  how  this  sensation  upon  our  palate, 
stands  connected  with  a  constitutional 
property  in  the  tree,  which  has  descended 
to  it  through  a  long  line  of  ancestry,  from 
the  creation  of  the  world.  And  when  we 
look  to  the  bitter  fruit  of  transgression  on 
the  life  and  character  of  any  individual 
of  the  human  species,  and  feel  upon  our 
moral  sense  a  nauseating  revolt  from  the 
odious  spectacle — we  do  not  know  how 
this  impression  upoa  the  taste  of  the  in- 
ner man,  stands  connected  with  a  natural 
tendency  which  is  exemplified  by  all,  and 
has  been  derived  through  a  series  of  many 
centuries  from  the  parent  stock  of  the 
great  human  family.  But  certain  it  is  that 
the  origin  of  our  depravity  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  sense  and  feeling  of  its 
loathsomeness,  wherewith  .we  regard  it. 
And  let  that  depravity  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  us  from  Adam,  or  be  a  kind  of 
spontaneous  and  independent  production 
on  each  of  his  children — still  we  cannot 
look  to  it  without  moral  censure  and 
moral  condemnation. 

There  is  not  a  more  etfectual  wa)'  of 
bringing  this  to  the  test,  than  by  making 
one  man  the  object  of  injustice  and  of 
provocation  from  another  man.  Let  a 
neighbour  inflict  upon  any  of  you  some 
moral  wrong  or  moral  injury — will  not 
the  quick  and  ready  feeling  of  resentment 
rise  immediately  in  your  hearts?  Will 
you  stop  to  enquire  whence  your  enemy 
has  derived  the  malice,  or  the  selfishness, 
under  which  you  suffer'!  Is  it  not  simply 
enough  that  he  tramples  upon  your  rights 
and  interests,  and  does  so  wilfully — is  not 
this  of  itself  enough  to  call  out  the  sudden 
reaction  of  an  angry  judgment,  and  a 
keen  retaliation  upon  your  part?  If  it  be 
under  some  necessity  which  operates 
against  his  disposition,  this  may  soften 
your  resentment.  But  if  it  be  under  that 
kind  of  necessity,  which  arises  from  the 
strength  of  his  disposition  to  do  you  harm 


— this,  so  far  from  softening,  would  just 
whet  and  stimulate  your  resentment 
against  him.  So  far  from  taking  it  as  an 
apology,  that  he  is  forcibly,  constrained 
by  the  obstinate  tendency  of  his  will  to 
injure  and  oppress  you — this  would  just 
add  to  the  exasperation  of  your  feelings  ; 
and  the  more  hearty  a  good  will  you  saw 
he  had  to  hurt  or  to  traduce  or  to  defraud 
you,  the  more  in  fact  would  you  hold  him 
to  be  the  culpable  subject  of  your  most 
just  and  righteous  indignation.  And 
thinkest  thou,  O  man,  who  judgest  another 
for  his  returns  of  unworthiness  to  you — 
that  thou  wilt  escape  the  judgment  of 
God,  if  thou  makest  the  very  same  returns 
of  unworthiness  to  Him  ?  Out  of  your  own 
mouth  you  will  be  condemned;  and  if, 
out  of  the  sin  of  his  original  nature,  your 
neighbour  has  ever  done  that  which  you 
felt  to  be  injurious  and  at  which  you 
were  offended — then  be  assured  that  the 
plea  of  your  original  nature  will  never 
shield  you  from  the  curse  and  the  con- 
demnation due  to  the  sins,  which  have 
emanated  from  that  nature  against  God. 

These  remarks  may  prepare  the  way 
for  all  that  man  by  his  moral  sense  can 
understand  or  go  along  with,  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin  to 
all  his  posterity.  We  confess  that  we 
are  not  able  to  perceive,  how  one  man  is 
at  all  responsible  for  the  personal  doings 
of  another  whom  he  never  saw,  and  who 
departed  this  life  many  centuries  before 
him.  But  if  the  personal  doings  of  a  dis- 
tant ancestor,  have  in  point  of  fact  cor- 
rupted his  moral  nature;  and  if  this  cor- 
ruption has  been  transmitted  to  his  de- 
scendants— then  we  can  see  how  these 
become  responsible,  not  for  what  their 
forefathers  did,  but  for  what  they  them- 
selves do  under  the  corrupt  disposition 
that  they  have  received  from  their  fore- 
father. And  if  there  be  a  guilt  attachable 
to  evil  desires,  as  well  as  to  evil  doings; 
and  if  the  evil  desire  which  prompted 
Adam  to  his  first  transgression,  enter  into 
the  nature  of  all  his  posterity — then  are 
his  posterity  the  objects  of  moral  blame 
and  moral  aversion,  not  on  account  of  the 
transgression  which  Adam  committed,  but 
on  account  of  such  a  wrong  principle  in 
their  hearts,  as  would  lead  every  one  of 
them  to  the  very  same  transgression  in  the 
very  same  circum-stances.  It  is  thus  that 
Adam  has  transmitted  a  guilt  the  same 
with  his  own,  as  well  as  a  depravity  the 
same  with  his  own,  among  all  the  indi- 
viduals and  families  of  our  species — if  not 
that  each  of  them  is  liable  to  a  separate 
reckoning  on  account  of  the  offence  com- 
mitted in  the  garden  of  Eden,  at  least 
that  each  of  them  is  liable  to  a  separate 
reckoning  on  account  of  his  own  separate 
and    personal    depravity  —  a    depravity 


128 


LECTURE   XXIV. — CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


which  had  its  rise  in  the  offence  that  was 
then  and  there  committed;  and  a  deprav- 
ity which  would  lead  in  every  one  in- 
stance to  the  same  offence  in  the  same 
circumstances  of  temptation.  According 
to  this  explanation,  every  man  still  reap- 
eth  not  what  another  soweth,  but  what  he 
soweth  himself.  Every  man  eateth  the 
fruit  of  his  own  doings.  Every  man 
beareth  the  burden  of  his  own  tainted  and 
accursed  nature.  Every  man  suffereth 
for  his  own  guilt  and  not  for  Adam's 
guilt ;  and  if  he  is  said  to  suffer  for  Adam's 
guilt,  the  meaning  is,  that,  from  Adam  he 
inherits  a  corruption  which  lands  him  in 
a  guilt  equal  to  that  of  Adam. 

It  were  correct  enough  to  say,  that  the 
sin  of  Cataline,  that  great  conspirator 
against  the  state,  is  imputable  to  an  equally 
great  conspirator  of  the  present  day — not 
that  he  is  at  all  responsible  for  what 
Cataline  did,  but  responsible  for  his  own 
sin  that  was  the  same  with  that  of  Cata- 
line. And  it  would  strengthen  the  resem- 
blance, if  it  was  the  recorded  example  of 
Cataline  which  filled  him  with  a  kindred 
disposition,  and  hurried  him  on  to  a  kin- 
dred enterprise.  Then  as  Adam  was  the 
efficient  cause  of  our  corruption,  so  Cata- 
line was  of  his ;  but  each  suffers  for  the 
guilt  of  his  own  sin  nevertheless — a  guilt 
the  same  with  us  as  that  of  Adam's,  and 
the  same  with  him  as  that  of  Cataline's. 

Our  Saviour  cursed  a  fig  tree  because 
of  its  barrenness.  Conceive  a  fig  tree  to 
be  cursed  because  of  the  bitterness  of  its 
fruit.  It  is  for  its  own  bitter  fruit,  and  not 
for  the  bitter  fruit  of  its  first  ancestor,  that 
it  is  laid  under  the  doom  which  has  been 
pronounced  upon  it.  But  still  its  first 
ancestor  may  have  been  a  tree  of  sweetly 
flavoured  fruit  at  its  first  formation  ;  and 
a  pestilential  gust  may  have  passed  over 
and  tainted  it ;  and  it  may,  by  the  laws  of 
physiological  succession  have  sent  down 
its  deteriorated  nature  among  all  its  pos- 
jerity  ;  and  it  may  be  true  of  each  in- 


dividual descendant,  tnat,  while  it  is  for 
its  own  qualities  it  is  so  loathed  and  so 
condemned,  still  was  it  from  its  great 
originating  parent  that  it  inherited  the 
taint  by  which  it  has  been  vitiated,  and 
the  sentence  by  which  it  has  been  ac- 
cursed. 

Many,  we  are  aware,  carry  the  doctrine 
of  imputation  farther  than  this  ;  and  make 
each  of  us  liable  to  answer  at  the  bar  of 
God's  judicature  for  Adam's  individual 
transgression.  We  shall  only  say  of  this 
view  at  present,  that,  whether  it  be  scrip- 
tural or  not,  we  are  very  sure  that  we 
cannot  follow  it  by  any  sense  of  morality 
or  rightfulness  that  is  in  our  own  heart. 
Still,  even  on  this  highest  imagination  of 
the  doctrine,  we  hold  the  way  of  God  to 
man,  in  all  the  bearings  of  this  much  agi- 
tated subject,  to  be  capable  of  a  most  full 
and  triumphant  vindication  ;  and  with  our 
attempt  to  evince  this,  we  trust  we  shall 
be  able  in  one  address  more,  to  finish  all 
that  is  general  and  preliminary  to  the 
passage  that  is  now  before  us.  When  we 
next  resume  this  topic,  we  shall  endeavour 
to  silence  the  rising  murmurs,  which  we 
doubt  not  have  been  alread}^  felt  in  many 
a  heart,  on  the  hearing  of  the  representa- 
tion that  we  have  now  given — to  prove 
that  there  is  not  an  individual  amongst 
us,  who  has  a  right  to  complain  of  the 
hardness  or  severity  of  God's  dealing  with 
us — to  come  forth  with  that  gospel,  in  the 
utterance  of  which  God  may  be  said  to 
wipe  His  hands  of  tjie  blood  of  all  who 
come  within  reach  of  the  hearing  of  it — 
and  to  neutralize  all  your  complaints 
about  the  curse  and  the  corruption  that 
have  been  entailed  upon  us,  by  lifting  the 
welcome  invitation  to  every  man,  of  a 
righteousness  overpassing  all  that  we  have 
lost,  and  of  a  grace  that  will  restore  us  to 
a  higher  state  of  innocence  and  glory 
than  that  from  which  we  are  now  the  sen- 
tenced and  the  exiled  wanderers. 


LECTURE   XXV, CHAPTER   V,    12 21. 


129 


LECTURE   XXV. 

Romans  v,  12—21. 

"  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  tlie  world,  and  death  by  sin  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that 
all  have  siiined.  (For  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world  :  but  sin  is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law.  Never- 
theless death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression,  who  is  tlie  figure  of  him  that  was  to  come.  But  not  as  the  olfence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift.  For  if 
through  the  ofli'nce  of  one  many  be  dead ;  much  more  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is  by  one  man, 
Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many.  And  not  as  it  was  by  one  that  sinned,  so  is  the  gift;  for  the  judgment 
was  by  one  to  condemnation,  but  the  free  gift  is  of  many  olfences  unto  justiticatioji.  For  if  by  one  man's  olfence 
death  reigned  by  one  ;  much  more  they  which  receive  abundance  of  grace,  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  shall 
reign  in  life  by  one,  Jesus  Christ.)  Therefore,  as  by  the  olfence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemna- 
tion ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  j  ustification  of  life.  For  as  by  one 
man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners  ;  so  by  tlie  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous.  More- 
over, the  law  entered,  that  the  oifence  might  abound  :  but  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound  :  that 
as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus  Cluist 
our  Lord." 


We  have  now  disserted  at  very  great 
length  on  the  tenet  of  original  sin,  both  as 
it  includes  the  two  great  articles  of  origi- 
nal depravity  and  original  guilt — under- 
standing by  tlie  one,  that  every  individual 
of  the  human  race  brings  a  corrupt  na- 
ture into  the  world  with  him,  by  which 
he  is  so  inclined  to  what  is  sinful,  that  in 
fact  all  men  are  sinners;  and  understand- 
ing by  the  other,  that  lie  is  justly  respon- 
sible for  sin  thus  emanated  by  his  evil 
nature — even  though  that  nature  came 
down  by  inheritance  from  his  first  parent.-, 
who,  without  being  corrupt  originally, 
corrupted  themselves  and  sent  down  their 
acquired  propensities  to  evil  among  all 
their  descendants.  We  are  aware  that 
the  doctrine  of  a  guilt  transmitted  by 
Adam,  is  commonly  carried  farther  than 
this — affirming,  not  merely  that  all  men 
are  to  blame  for  the  sins  they  personally 
do,  under  the  instigations  of  an  evil  nature 
transmitted  by  Adam  ;  but  that  they  are 
also  to  blame  for  the  proper  and  individ- 
ual act  of  transgression  done  by  Adam 
himself  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  We  have 
not  denied  that  this  may  be  the  doctrine 
of  Scripture.  We  have  only  said  that  our 
own  moral  sense  is  altogether  unable  to 
apprehend  it ;  and  that  while  we  can  per- 
ceive how  man  is  justly  culpable,  for  ev- 
ery iniquitous  deed  of  his  history,  caused 
by  the  iniquitous  tendency  of  his  heart, 
however  that  tendency  may  have  been 
derived — Yet,  we  cannot  perceive,  how  it 
is  that  he  is  justly  culpable,  for  an  iniqui- 
tous deed  done,  not  by  himself,  but  by 
another  who  lived  nearly  six  thousand 
years  ago.  This,  however,  may  be  the 
real  tf'uth  of  the  case — .whether  we  are 
able  or  not  to  comprehend  it.  The  Bible 
tells  us  of  many  things,  of  which,  without 
its  information,  v/e  should  have  been  alto- 
gether ignorant ;  and  of  many  things,  the 
reason  of  which  is  still  a  mystery  to  our 
understanding — though  the  reality  of  them 
has,  by  the  testimony  of  God's  own  mouth 
been  made  perfectly  good  to  our  convic- 
tions :  And,  therefore,  on  this  point  of 
17 


imputation  too,  we  would  lie  open  to  the 
informations  of  the  record — fully  assured 
that  there  is  nothing  there,  either  at  vari- 
ance with  absolute  truth,  or  at  variance 
with  the  character  of  that  Being  who  is 
all  goodness  and  justice  and  holiness  and 
truth. 

It  is  to  the  vindication  of  this  charac- 
ter, that  we  mean  to  devote  the  last  of 
these   preliminary  addresses,    which   we 
have  thought  fit  to  deliver,  ere  we  come 
forward  with  a  detailed  exposition  of  the 
passage  that  we  have  so  repeatedly  read 
out  to  you.     We  have  already  attempted 
to  reconcile  the  doctrine  of  original  sin, 
as  consisting  of  depravity,  with  the  expe- 
rience  of  man  ;  and  we  have  also  attempt- 
ed to  show  in  how  far  this  doctrine,  as 
consisting  of  guilt  and  the  imputation  of 
guilt,  is  reconcilable  with  the  moral  sense 
of  man.     x\nd  let  us  now  proceed  to  meet 
the   charges   and   complaints   that  have 
been   uttered    because  of  it,  against  the 
dealings  of  God  with  His  creatures — as 
if  He  had  carried  Himself  with  unjust 
and  tyrannical  severity  against  them — as 
if  He  had  laid  upon  them  an  inevitable 
doom  of  wretchedness,  against  which  all 
their  struggles  are  unavailing — as  if  He 
had    brought  them   into  the  world,  in  a 
state  of  helpless  captivity  to  the  power 
of  corruption,  and  then  left  them  to  per- 
ish  under   a   load   of  necessity,  that  He 
Himself  had  inflicted — as  if  He  had  made 
that  to  be  the  fault  of  man,  which  in  fact 
was  the  appointment  of  God,  that  no  will- 
ing  and  no  striving  on  the    part  of  the 
creature  could   possibly  overrule :    And 
thus  there  is  a  very  prevalent  feeling  of  its 
being  indeed  a  great  hardship,  that   God 
should  so  have  dealt   with   the   rational 
species  that  He  has  planted  in  our  world 
— permitting  its  tainted  families  to  come 
into  being  at  all ;  and  to  put  forth  their 
successive  generations,   in  a  state  under 
which  they  behove  to  suffer,  and  so  very 
many  of  them  to  suffer  everlastingly. 

We  do  not  want  to  disguise  this  objec- 
tion ;  but,  after  having  presented  it  in  all 


130 


LECTURE   XXV. CHAPTER   V,    12 21. 


its  strength,  we  want  to  dispose  of  it. 
And  in  our  attempt  to  vindicate  the  deal- 
ings of  God  with  the  species,  let  us  just 
begin  with  that  portion  of  the  species  that 
are  now  within  reach  of  our  hearing. 
What  is  it  that  any  one  of  you  has  to 
complain  of?  You  speak  of  hardness — 
how  or  in  what  respect  is  it  that  you  have 
been  hardly  dealt  with  1  You  say,  that, 
without  your  consent,  a  corrupt  nature 
has  been  given  you;  and  so  stuck  on,  as 
it  were,  that  it  cleaves  and  adheres  and 
keeps  by  you  wherever  you  go,  and  that 
with  its  presence  so  urging  and  so  pursu- 
ing you,  sin  is  unavoidable  ;  and  yet  there 
is  a  law  which  denounces  upon  this  sin 
the  torments  of  a  whole  eternity.  Well 
then,  is  this  an  honest  complaint  on  your 
part  "i  Do  you  really  feel  your  corrupt 
nature  to  be  a  curse  and  a  wretchedness, 
and  are  you  accordingly  most  desii'ous  to 
be  rid  of  if?  Would  you  like  a  purifying 
process  to  take  effect  upon  you  which 
shall  at  length  transform  that  vitiated  na- 
ture, that  has  so  annoyed  you,  and  so 
called  forth  your  animadversions  upon 
Godl  Do  you  sincerely  feel  it  to  be  your 
provocation  and  your  plague,  that  such 
an  evil  thing  has  been  attached  to  your 
constitution — for  if  so,  you  would  surely 
like  of  all  things  that  it  were  again  de- 
tached from  you  1  No  man  really  feels 
that  to  be  a  burden,  which  he  does  not 
feel  a  wish  and  a  weariness  to  be  deliv- 
ered from ;  and  is  this  your  wish  and 
your  weariness  respecting  the  depravity 
of  heart,  that  has  so  germinated  from  ve- 
ry infancy,  and  so  grown  through  all  the 
successive  years  of  your  life  in  tlie  world, 
as  to  have  made  all  your  imaginations  in 
the  sight  of  God  to  be  only  evil  and  that 
continually  "?  Do  you  complain  that  God 
should  thus  rate  you  and  reckon  with 
you,  for  a  sinfulness  which  you  got  by 
inheritance,  and  without  your  consent — 
instead  of  getting  it,  as  Adam  did  before 
you,  by  his  own  deliberate  choice,  and 
the  voluntary  surrender  of  himself  to  the 
power  of  temptation  1  Well  then  this  is 
your  complaint  against  God  ;  and  here  is 
the  way  in  which  we  meet  it.  God  is  at 
this  moment  holding  out  to  you  in  offer, 
the  very  relief  which  you  now  tell  us  that 
your  heart  is  set  upon.  He  is  in  perfect 
readiness  for  the  administration  of  an  un- 
failing specific,  against  that  moral  disease 
of  which  you  complain  so  heavily.  If  the 
complaint  be  just  as  honest  in  the  feeling 
of  it  as  severe  in  the  terms  of  it — then  arc 
your  desires  and  God's  desires  most  tho- 
roughly at  one  ;  and  you  are  not  more 
willing  for  being  emancipated  from  the 
power  of  corruption,  than  He  is  willing 
to  set  you  at  large  and  translate  you  into 
the  pure  element  of  holiness.  Does  not 
God  wipe  His  hands  of  the  foul  charge 


that  His  sinful  creatures  would  prefer 
against  Him,  when  He  says,  and  says 
honestly  to  us  all — turn  unto  me,  and  I 
will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  you  1  You 
are  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  if  in  iniquity 
you  descend  to  the  grave,  you  will  arise 
from  it  to  an  unrelenting  judgment-seat, 
and  to  a  then  unescapable  condemnation. 
But,  ere  that  happens,  God  meets  you  up- 
on your  way  ;  and  positively  offers  to 
make  new  creatures  of  you;  and  in  the 
washing  of  regeneration  ready  to  be 
poured  forth,  if  you  only  want  it,  is  He 
willing  even  now  to  sweep  away  the 
whole  burden  of  the  fancied  injustice, 
which  causes  you  to  murmur.  And,  so 
near  does  He  bring  Himself  to  you,  that 
He  stands  pledged  to  grant  the  clean  heart 
and  the  right  spirit,  if  you  will  only  care 
so  much  about  them  as  to  enquire  for 
them  at  His  hand  ;  and  promises  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  all  who  ask  it.  Do  you  indeed 
feel  it  a  hardship,  that  your  heart  is  natu- 
rally so  sinful  ?  Come  with  the  grievance, 
and  come  with  an  honest  desire  to  be  rid 
of  it  before  God.  Say  to  Him,  and  say  it 
in  good  faith,  take  this  heart  of  mme  such 
as  it  is,  and  make  it  such  as  it  should  be  ; 
and  if  this  be  the  honest  aspiration  of  a 
heart  that  is  really  desirous  of  what  it 
pretends  to  be — there  will  be  nothing 
wanting  on  God's  part,  to  renew,  and  to 
purify,  and  at  length  to  wash  most  tho- 
roughly away  that  original  taint,  over 
which  you  appear  to  mourn,  as  if  it  were 
indeed  so  much  the  bane  of  your  exist- 
ence, that  your  existence  is  not  worth  the 
having.  God  bids  you  only  put  Him  to 
the  proof  by  your  petitions,  and  then  see 
whether  He  will  not  pour  out  a  blessing 
upon  you  ;  and  is  it  the  Being  who  has 
descended  so  far,  and  testified  His  will- 
ingness to  grant  you  a  present  deliverance 
fi'om  the  power  of  sin,  and  a  future  ever- 
lasting translation  from  all  its  allure- 
ments— is  it  He,  we  ask,  whom  you  would 
thus  challenge  and  upbraid  for  the  undo- 
ing of  your  eternity  ? 

That  the  creature  should  complain  of  a 
corruption  which  he  loves,  and  wilfully 
perseveres  in — that  he  should  reproach 
the  Creator  for  it,  who  is  pointing  out  to 
him  the  way  by  which  he  can  escape,  and 
offers  him  all  strength  and  aid  to  accom- 
plish it — that  he  should  lift  an  accusing 
voice  against  God,  for  having  brought  him 
within  the  limits  of  so  foul  a  moral  domain 
as  the  one  he  occupies ;  and  at  the  same 
time  turn  away  from  the  beseeching  voice 
of  the  same  God,  stretching  forth  His 
hand  for  the  purpose  of  taking  him  out 
of  that  domain  if  he  will,  and  ushering 
him  among  the  glories  of  a  pure  and 
spiritual  region — that  he  should  murmur 
because  of  a  sinfulness  in  his  nature, 
which  he  at  the  same  time  wilfully  cher- 


LECTURE   XXV. — CHAPTER   V,    12 21. 


13£ 


ishes  and  retains,  and  obstinately  refuses 
to  let  it  go — that  he  should  affect  either  to 
mourn  or  to  be  indignant  on  account  of 
an  inborn  depravity,  and  that  too  at  the 
moment  when  he  spurns  the  pi'opositiou 
which  God  makes  to  him  of  an  inborn 
grace,  whei-eby  he  will  cease  to  be  that 
old  creature,  of  whom  he  says  it  is  hard 
that  he  should  have  been  so  formed,  and 
become  that  new  creature,  respecting 
whom  he  taxes  God  for  injustice,  that  He 
had  not  so  made  him — Who  does  not  see 
that  every  possible  objection,  which  can 
be  raised  against  the  Creator,  on  account 
of  what  man  is  by  nature,  is  most  fully 
and  fairly  disarmed  by  what  God  ofters 
to  man  in  the  gospel!  And  if  he  will 
persist  in  charging  upon  God,  a  depravity 
that  He  both  asks  and  enables  us  to  give 
up,  did  not  we  firmly  retain  it  by  the 
wilful  grasp  of  our  own  inclinations — is  it 
not  plain  that  on  the  day  of  reckoning  it 
will  be  clear  to  the  intelligent  morality  of 
all  the  assembled  witnesses,  that  the  com- 
plaints of  man,  because  of  his  coiTuption, 
have  been  those  of  a  hypocrite,  Avho 
secretly  loved  the  very  thing  he  so  openly 
complained  of;  and  that  God  who  will  be 
justified  when  He  speaketh,  and  clear 
when  He  judgeth,  has,  by  the  offer  of  a 
Spirit,  that  would  both  quell  the  corrup- 
tion and  quicken  man  from  his  death  in 
trespasses  and  sins  unto  holiness,  has 
indeed  manifested  Himself  a  God  both  of 
love  and  of  righteousness,  and  poured 
over  all  His  ways  to  the  world  in  which 
we  live,  the  lustre  of  a  most  full  and 
resistless  vindication  ] 

We  may  conceive  a  human  being  to  be 
born  upon  a  territory,  over  which  there 
is  spread  a  foul  and  turbid  atmosphere — 
charged  with  all  the  elements  of  discom- 
fort and  disease  ;  and  at  length  in  a  given 
time,  made  known  to  all  who  breathe  it, 
to  be  wrapped  in  some  devouring  flame 
which  would  burn  up  and  destroy  every 
creature  that  should  abide  within  its 
vortex.  And  we  may  further  conceive 
him  to  murmur  against  the  God,  who  thus 
had  placed  him  within  the  bounds  of  such 
a  habitation.  But  let  God  point  his  way 
to  another  country,  where  freshness  was 
in  every  breeze,  and  the  whole  air  shed 
health  and  fertility  and  joy  over  the  land 
that  it  encompassed — let  Him  offer  all  the 
means  and  facilities  of  conveyance,  so  as 
to  make  it  turn  simply  upon  the  man's 
will,  whether  he  should  continue  in  the 
accursed  region  where  he  is,  or  be  trans- 
ported to  another  region  which  teems 
with  all  the  enjoyments  that  he  complains 
he  has  not : — And  will  not  the  worthless 
choice  to  abide  rather  than  to  move, 
acquit  God  of  the  severity  wherewith  He 
has  been  charged,  and  unmask  the  hypo- 
crisy of  all  the  reproaches  which  man 


has  uttered  against  Him  1  Will  it  not  lay 
the  blood  of  the  coming  destruction  upon 
his  own  head  ;  and  though  while  he  lives 
it  be  in  disquietude,  and  when  he  dies  it 
be  in  the  volcanic  whirl  of  the  fierce  and 
fiery  element  by  which  he  is  surrounded 
— is  not  the  man  the  author  of  his  own 
undoing;  and  can  the  blame  or  the  exe- 
cration of  it  be  laid  on  that  Being,  who 
offered  to  bear  him  away  from  the  terri- 
tory of  disease  and  danger,  and  securely 
put  him  down  in  the  midst  of  a  smiling 
and  happy  land] 

Many  may  think  this  speculative ;  but 
we  trust  that  there  are  some  here  present 
who  feel  it  most  closely  and  urgently  and 
immediately  practical.  We  stand  with 
the  offer  of  transporting  you  from  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  of  nature,  charged 
as  it  is  with  all  that  is  foul  and  turbulent 
and  rebellious,  and  to  bear  you  across  the 
limits  of  conversion,  to  an  atmosphere  of 
peace  and  purity  and  holiness.  We  de- 
clare this  gospel  unto  you.  We  preach 
that  Jesus  who  is  ready,  even  now,  to 
bless  every  one  of  you  by  turning  you 
from  your  iniquities ;  and  through  the 
channel  of  whose  mediatorship  it  is,  that 
the  washing  of  regeneration  and  the  re- 
newing of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  shed  abun- 
dantly on  all  who  believe.  If  you  refuse 
to  come,  it  is  because  you  are  not  willing 
to  come.  God  will  make  this  clear  on  the 
great  day  of  manifestation  ;  and  when  He 
passes  the  condemnatory  sentence  on 
those  who  reject  the  Saviour,  He  will 
prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  assembled, 
that  those  who  did  not  pass  from  darkness 
to  light,  abode  in  the  region  of  darkness, 
just  because  they  loved  the  darkness  ;  and 
persisted  in  the  condition  of  evil,  just 
because  their  deeds  were  evil.  It  is  thus 
that  He  will  vindicate  Himself,  and  carry 
the  consent  of  an  observing  universe 
along  with  Him,  when  He  rebukes  away 
from  His  preserce,  all  of  you  who  have 
neglected  the  great  salvation.  And  there- 
fore it  is  a  salvation  which  we  bid  your 
acceptance  of  at  this  moment.  Open 
your  hearts  that  Christ  may  enter  in ; 
and,  under  the  power  of  His  grace,  their 
hardness  and  vileness  and  depravity  will 
melt  away.  We  do  not  promise  you  an 
immediate  transition  from  the  spiritual 
element  of  earth,  to  the  spiritual  element 
of  heaven.  It  is  gradual.  It  is  by  a  la- 
borious ascent  of  fatigue  and  difficulty 
and  strenuousness,  that  we  at  length  attain 
those  heights  where  all  is  serene  and 
unspotted  holiness.  The  portal  of  death 
must  be  passed,  ere  we  reach  the  cloud- 
less and  ethereal  expanse  of  that  eternity, 
where  freed  from  the  last  dregs  of  our 
vitiated  nature,  we  can  serve  God  without 
frailty  and  without  a  flaw.  There  is  in 
these  vile  bodies  of  ours,  some  mysterious 


132 


LECTURE   XXV. CHAPTER   V,    12 — 21. 


necessity  for  dying— There  is  an  original 
taint  which  so  imbues  the  whole  of  our 
natural  constitution,  that  the  whole  fabric 
must  be  taken  down  ;  and  after  its  mate- 
rials have  been  filtered  and  refined  by  the 
putrefaction  of  the  grave,  a  new  fabric 
will  be  made  out  of  them ;  and  the  be- 
liever will  then  arise  in  all  the  first  inno- 
cence of  Adf.m,  and  compassed  about  with 
a  security  that  shall  be  everlasting.  Yet 
here  the  work  must  be  begun,  though 
there  and  there  alone  it  is  consummated. 
Here  we  must  make  head  against  the 
prevalence  of  sin,  though  there  and  there 
alone  we  shall  be  delivered  from  the  pre- 
sence of  it.  Here  the  struggle  must  be 
made,  and  the  victory  be  decided — though 
there  and  there  alone  we  shall  have  tlie 
triumph  and  the  repose  of  victory.  Here 
the  grace  which  calls  upon  you  to  accept, 
must  enter  into  contest  with  the  corrup- 
tion that  so  burdens  and  distresses  you  ; 
but  there  and  there  alone  grace  will  reign 
without  a  rival,  and  the  principle  of  cor- 
ruption that  now  is  only  kept  in  check 
will  there  be  utterly  and  conclusively 
extirpated. 

What  is  true  of  the  original  corruption, 
is  also  true  of  the  original  guilt.  Do  you 
complain  of  that  debt,  under  the  weight 
and  oppression  of  which  you  came  into 
the  world!  What  ground  we  ask  is  there 
for  complaining,  when  the  offer  is  fairly 
put  within  your  reach,  of  a  most  free  and 
ample  discharge — and  that  not  merely  fur 
the  guilt  of  original,  but  also  for  the  whole 
guilt  of  your  proper  and  personal  sinful- 
ness ■?  It  is  indeed  a  very  heavy  burden 
that  has  been  entailed  upon  you  by  the 
first  Adam  ;  but  here  we  stand  with  the 
offer  of  a  deliverance  both  from  it,  andi 
from  all  the  additions  you  have  made  to  it 
by  actual  transgression — wrought  out  and 
made  good  for  you  by  the  suretiship  and 
the  ability  of  the  second  Adam.  Your 
rescue  from  corruption  is  not  instantane- 
ous, but  your  rescue  from  guilt  is.  The 
offer  of  a  free  and  full  forgiveness  is  even 
now  unto  you  all ;  and  why  do  you  mur- 
mur at  the  grievousness  of  the  reckoning 
which  is  out  against  you,  when  there  is 
out  along  with  it  the  loudly  sounding  pro- 
clamaiion  of  remission  to  all  who  will, 
and  acceptance  without  money  or  without 
price  to  all  who  will  1  The  relief  granted 
in  the  gospel,  is  at  least  an  adequate  coun- 
terpart to  all  the  wretchedness  which  na- 
ture has  entailed  upon  you  ;  and  even 
now  are  you  invited  by  union  with  Christ, 
to  be  freed  from  the  whole  weight  of  all 
the  responsibility  that  may  have  been  in- 
curred by  your  descent  from  Adam.  What 
you  have  lost  because  of  Adam's  sin,  is 
more  than  made  up  to  you  by  Christ's 
righteousness  ;  and  we  repeat  it,  that  if 


there  be  any  hardship  in  your  suffering 
because  of  a  fault  which  you  did  not  com- 
mit— the  hardship  is  greatly  atoned  for, 
by  your  enjoying  favour  and  reward,  be- 
cause of  an  obedience  that  you  did  not 
I'ender.  It  is  thus  again  that  the  gospel 
vindicates  God  from  all  the  aspersions 
which  have  been  cast  upon  His  govern- 
ment ;  and  there  is  not  a  man  who  honestly 
complains  that  favour  has  been  lost  be- 
cause of  another's  demerits,  that  we  can- 
not silence  and  even  satisfy,  by  telling 
him  that  all  this  favour  may  be  regained 
becau.se  of  another's  deservings.  We  in- 
terpose the  gt)spel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the 
decisive  reply  to  all  the  murmurs  of  those 
who  revolt  at  the  apparent  severity  of  the 
divine  administration  ;  and  affirm,  upon 
the  strength  of  its  blessed  overtures,  that 
it  depends  upon  man's  own  choice  whether 
the  discharge  is  not  at  least  equal  to  the 
debt,  and  the  recovery  of  our  nature  is  not 
at  least  equal  to  the  ruin  of  it. 

We  now  hold  ourselves  prepared  for 
vindicating  the  doctrine  of  the  imputation 
of  Adam's  sin,  even  in  the  farthest  extent 
of  it,  when  it  goes  beyond  the  apprehen- 
sion and  acknowledgment  of  our  moral 
sense  altogether.  We  see  how  the  blame 
lies  upon  us,  of  such  personal  sins  as  we 
connnit — even  though  we  have  been  led  to 
the  performance  of  these  by  a  corrupt  ten- 
dency of  nature  inherited  from  Adam. 
But  we  do  not  see  how  the  blame  lies  upon 
us,  of  that  proper  and  personal  sin  which 
rendered  Adam  an  outcast  from  paradise. 
It  may  be  so  though  we  see  it  not ;  and 
that  it  is  so,  is  in  beautiful  and  consenting 
harmony  with  what  we  are  explicitly  as- 
sured to  be  the  effect  of  our  union  with 
the  Saviour.  From  Him  we  derive,  not 
merely  a  new  nature  which  inclines  us  to 
righteousness  and  holiness,  even  as  we  de- 
rived from  Adam  our  old  nnture  which  in- 
clines us  to  all  that  is  wicked  and  ungodly. 
But  from  Him  we  also  derive  an  imputed 
righteousness,  so  as  that  we  are  reckoned 
with  by  God  as  if  we  were  positively  de- 
serving creatures.  The  merit  of  Christ's 
obedience  is  transferred  to  us,  as  well  as 
His  holy  and  «upright  nature  transferred 
to  us;  and  from  the  very  circumstance  of 
His  being  called  in  Scripture  the  second 
Adam,  from  the  very  way  in  which  He  is 
there  designed  as  a  counterpart  to  the  first 
Adam,  would  we  be  inclined  to  think  that 
the  guilt  of  Adam's  disobedience  was  trans- 
ferred to  us,  even  as  his  corrupt  and 
vitiated  nature  has  also  been  transferred 
to  us — In  other  words,  that  Adam  is  not 
merely  the  corrupt  parent  of  a  corrupt  off- 
spring, who  sin  because  of  the  depravity 
wherewith  he  has  tainted  all  the  families 
of  the  earth  ;  but  who  have  sinned  in  him, 
to  use  the  language  of  our  old  divines,  in 


LECTURE   XXV. — CHAPTER.   V,    12 21. 


133 


.heir  federal  head — as  the  representative 
of  a  covenant  which  God  made  with  him, 
and  through  him  with  all  his  posterity. 

Certain  it  is,  that,  to  screen  a  believer 
from  the  vengeance  of  an  immutable  law, 
something  more  is  necessary  than  the 
atonement  of  his  past  offences,  and  the 
derivation  of  a  holy  nature  from  the  Sa- 
viour. Even  after  the  principle  of  grace 
has  been  implanted,  there  are  the  out- 
breakings  of  sin  which  serve  to  humble 
and  to  remind  him,  that  never  till  death 
has  pulverized  his  body  into  atoms,  and 
the  resurrection  has  again  assembled  them 
into  a  pure  and  holy  structure — will  he  be 
wholly  freed  from  that  sore  corruption, 
which  so  adheres,  and  so  strives  to  obtain 
the  victory  over  him.  Still,  and  at  any 
time  after  his  conversion  while  he  lives  in 
the  world,  were  he  treated  according  to 
his  own  deservings  would  he  be  an  out- 
cast from  the  favour  of  that  God  whose 
justice  is  inflexible;  and  to  meet  this  jus- 
tice on  the  ground  of  acceptance,  he  must 
stand  before  it  in  another  merit  than  his 
own,  and  be  clothed  upon  with  another 
righteousness  than  his  own.  Or,  to  be  in 
favour  with  God,  he  stands  in  need  of  an 
imputed  as  well  as  of  an  infused  right- 
eousnes  ;  and  the  merit  of  Christ  must  be 
laid  to  his  account,  as  well  as  the  nature 
of  Christ  be  laid  upon  his  person.  You 
have  no  title  to  cast  out  with  the  sin  of 
Adam  being  imputed  to  you,  if  you  do  not 
cast  out  with  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
being  imputed  to  you.  The  latter  screens 
you  from  the  former,  and  it  screens  you 
also  from  the  guilt  of  your  own  positive 
offences.  Without  it,  even  the  holiest 
man  upon  earth,  would  stand  before  a 
God  of  perfect  holiness,  on  a  basis  of  ut- 
ter insecurity  ;  and  with  it  the  greatest 
sinner  upon  earth  stands  on  a  firmer  and 
a  higher  'vantage-ground,  than  even  had 
all  the  innocence  and  virtue  of  Adam 
been  both  transmitted  and  ascribed  to 
him.  And  I  willingly  consent  to  have  the 
guilt  of  Adam  charged  upon  me,  if,  along 
with  it,  the  overpassing  righteousness  of 
Christ  shall  be  reckoned  to  me  ;  and  let 
the  severities  be  what  they  may  which  lie 
upon  me  under  the  economy  of  nature  and 
of  the  law — I  see  in  the  corresponding  priv- 
ileges which  are  freely  offered  to  me  under 
the  economy  of  the  gospel,  I  see  in  them 
the  fullest  and  the  noblest  compensation. 

The  question  of  original  sin  is  allied 
with  that  of  the  origin  of  evil ;  and  a  very 
deep  and  unyielding  obscurity  hangs 
over  it — how  in  a  universe  framed  and  up- 
held by  a  Being,  of  whom  we  are  taught 
to  believe  that  He  has  an  arm  of  mfinite 
power  and  a  heart  of  infinite  goodness — 
how  under  His  administration,  such  a 
monster  as  evil,  whether  moral  or  physi- 
cal, should  even  be  permitted  to  exist,  is 


indeed  a  mystery,  seated  too  far  back 
among  the  depths  of  primeval  creation 
and  of  the  eternity  behind  it,  for  us  the 
puny  insects  of  a  day  to  explore  or  to  de- 
cide upon.  One  would  think  of  God,  that 
He  would,  if  He  could,  banish  all  sin  and 
wretchedness  from  that  system  of  things, 
over  which  we  have  always  been  in  the 
habit  of  thinking  that  He  has  the  entire 
and  undivided  ascendancy ;  nor  can  we 
at  all  imagine,  how  with  both  the  will 
and  the  ability  of  Omnipotence  leagued 
against  it,  sin  should  ever  have  found  an 
entrance,  or  obtained  a  footing  in  any  of 
those  fair  worlds  that  surround  the  throne 
of  the  universal  Father.  Yet  so  it  is  ;  and 
man  with  all  the  tone  of  an  indignant  suf- 
ferer is  heard  to  lift  his  remonstrances 
against  it — as  if  he  bore  the  whole  weight 
of  an  injury,  laid  upon  him  at  the  plea- 
sure of  an  arbitrary  tyrant,  who  has  laid 
open  his  dominions  to  the  cruel  inroads 
of  a  spoiler,  who  but  for  Him  would  have 
neither  had  the  power  nor  the  liberty  of 
mischief  But  without  making  so  much 
as  an  attempt  to  solve  the  difficulties  of  a 
topic  so  inscrutable,  we  may  at  least  say, 
that  one  thought  has  occurred,  which, 
more  than  any  other,  melts  us  into  ac- 
quiescence ;  and  disposes  us  to  look  on  the 
rise  and  continuance  of  evil,  as  being  in- 
deed some  dire  though  mysterious  neces- 
sity which  overhangs  creation — and  that 
is,  that,  after  all,  it  is  not  man  who  bears 
the  whole  burden  of  this  dark  and  awful 
visitation — Neither  is  it  any  other  creature 
beside  man.  It  is  the  Creator  in  fact  who 
offers  to  take  upon  Himself,  the  whole 
burden  of  it ;  or  at  least  to  relieve  our 
species  of  it  altogether.  It  is  at  His  cost, 
and  not  at  ours,  unless  we  so  choose  it, 
that  sin  has  invaded  the  world  we  tread 
upon.  It  is  He,  the  Eternal  Son,  who 
went  forth  to  the  battle  against  this  Hy- 
dra ;  and  who  in  the  soreness  of  His  con- 
flict, bore  what  millions  through  eternity 
could  not  have  borne ;  and  who,  though 
He  had  all  the  energies  of  the  Godhead 
to  sustain  Him,  yet  well  nigh  gave  way 
under  the  pressure  of  a  deep  and  dreadful 
endurance ;  and  who,  by  His  tears  and 
agonies  and  cries,  gave  proof  to  the  might 
of  that  mysterious  adversary  over  whom 
He  triumphed.  Yes  we  murmur  because 
of  the  origin  of  evil.  But  Christ  was  the 
mighty  sufferer  Avho  hath  borne  it  away 
from  us ;  and  let  us  hazard  what  reflec- 
tions we  may  on  those  who  die  in  ignor- 
ance, or  who  die  in  infancy — yet,  in  re- 
gard to  you  who  are  hearing  us,  every 
ground  of  complaint  is  annihilated.  Christ 
is  offered  ;  and  you  by  confidence  in  Him, 
and  cleaving  unto  Him,  will  reach  those 
happy  shores  of  peace  and  light  and  joy, 
where  all  sin  is  for  ever  banished,  and  all 
evil  is  unknown. 


134 


LECTURE  XXVI. CHAPTER  V,  12 14. 


LECTURE   XXVI. 


Romans  v,  12 — 14. 


'•  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that 
all  have  sinned  :  (for  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world  :  but  sin  is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law.  Never 
theless  death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  them  tlial  had  not  simied  after  tlie  similitude  of  Adam'* 
transgression,  who  is  the  figure  of  him  that  was  to  come." 


After  these  lengthened  preliminary  re- 
marks on  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  we 
now  proceed  to  the  exposition  of  the  verses 
of  this  remarkable  passage  in  detail. 

V.  12.  The  death  which  entered  into  the 
world  by  sin,  includes  in  it  a  great  deal 
more  than  that  temporal  death,  to  which 
in  common  language  the  term  is  restricted. 
It  is  very  true  that  death,  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  word,  formed  part  of  the  pun- 
ishment laid  upon  our  first  parents  and 
their  posterity.  But  there  was  a  sentence 
of  death  executed  on  the  very  day  of  the 
transgression.  "  In  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die" — And  yet 
Adam  survived  his  expulsion  from  Para- 
dise several  hundred  years  ;  and  the  way 
in  which  the  truth  of  the  threatening  was 
accomplished,  was  by  the  infliction  of 
spiritual  death.  By  the  fall  he  lost  that, 
which  Christ  by  his  salvation  restores  to 
our  species.  If  a  title  to  eternal  life  here- 
after, and  spiritual  life  here,  came  by 
Christ — it  is  because  they  went  away  from 
us  by  Adam.  He  on  that  day  lost  the  light 
of  the  divine  countenance.  A  sense  of 
God's  favour  died  away  from  his  heart ; 
and  it  was  this  which  cheered  and  sus- 
tained him  in  all  the  joys  of  existence. 
Hope,  that  sunshine  of  the  soul,  took  its 
departure ;  and  left  the  blackness  of  deso- 
lation behind  it.  The  death  in  trespasses 
and  sins,  began  with  the  commission  of 
the  first  sin.  It  was  tlien  that  trust  gave 
place  to  terror.  It  was  then  that  jealousy 
of  God  put  out  from  the  bosom  its  wonted 
joy  in  God.  It  was  then  that  the  righte- 
ousness of  the  soul  expired,  because  it  was 
left  without  a  principle  and  without  an  ob- 
ject— alike  unable  to  recover  the  accept- 
ance that  had  been  lost ;  and  unwilling 
for  the  labours  of  a  service,  when  all  love 
for  the  master  had  been  extinguished, 
among  the  fears  and  the  suspicions  and 
the  chilling  alienation  of  guilt.  This  was 
a  death  which  took  place  long  before  the 
dissolution  of  the  body ;  and  when  the 
body  falls  into  dust,  this  is  a  death  which 
the  soul  carries  with  it  into  the  place  of 
its  separate  habitation.  The  literal  death 
is  only  a  stepping-stone  to  the  full  accom- 
plishment of  that  sentence — the  operation 
of  which  began  on  Adam,  with  the  very 
first  hour  of  his  history  as  a  sinner.  It 
was  then  that  he  became  dead  unto  God ; 
Bind  that  his  soul  was  driven  into  exile, 


from  all  the  joys  and  communications  of 
the  divine  life — just  as  surely  as  in  person, 
he  was  exiled  from  the  scenes  of  loveliness 
and  delight  that  were  in  the  garden  of  para- 
dise. It  is  this  character  of  the  soul  which 
forms  its  own  punishment  in  the  place  of 
condemnation ;  and  here  in  every  unre-  ' 
generate  bosom,  is  the  germ  of  that,  which 
ministers  to  the  second  death  on  the  other 
side  of  the  grave  all  its  agony  and  all  its 
bitterness. 

It  is  a  matter  of  experience,  as  we  have 
already  amply  endeavoured  to  demon- 
strate, that  this  death  of  the  soul  has  passed 
upon  all  men,  just  as  surely  and  as  univer- 
sally as  the  dissolution  of  the  body.  There 
is  one  species  of  life  or  of  vivacity,  that 
remains  to  us — vivacity  to  the  things  of 
sense,  so  that  they  form  the  world  in  which 
we  move,  and  to  the  objects  of  which  alone 
it  is  that  we  are  feelingly  alive.  There  is 
another  species  of  life  or  of  vivacity  that 
is  extinguished — vivacity  to  the  things  of 
faith,  so  as  that  God  and  eternity  and  the 
un.seen  realities  of  another  world  have  no 
more  power  to  excite  or  to  interest  us, 
than  if  we  were  inanimate  beings.  It  is 
the  reawakening  of  this  vivacity  in  the 
soul  which  is  stated  in  the  Bible,  as  an 
event  equally  miraculous  with  a  resurrec- 
tion from  literal  death.  It  takes  effect 
upon  us  on  our  truly  receiving  Christ.  He 
who  believeth  on  me,  though  he  were  dead, 
yet  shall  he  live.  He  who  believeth  hath 
passed  from  death  unto  life  :  a  death,  on  the 
one  hand,  in  which  we  may  be  most  pro- 
foundly immersed,  at  the  very  time  that  we 
are  bustling  with  eager  and  intense  desire 
among  this  world's  affairs  :  and  a  life,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  which  we  may  be  raised 
long  before  our  bodies  have  dissolved — a 
life  which  begins  with  conversion  ;  which 
matures  and  makes  progress  along  the 
course  of  our  sanctification  ;  which,  so  far 
from  being  arrested  by  the  death  of  the 
body,  IS  thereby  released  into  a  scene  of 
enlargement,  and  will  at  length,  by  the 
reunion  which  takes  place  on  the  day  of 
judgment,  be  brought  to  that  state  of  final 
accommodation,  in  which  all  its  powers 
and  all  its  sensibilities  will  be  for  ever  con- 
secrated to  the  full  enjoyment  of  God. 

Think  then,  ye  hearers,  whether  in  this 
sense  of  the  terms,  you  are  indeed  dead  or 
alive.  You  may  surely  be  sensible,  if  God 
be  practically  seen  and  recognised  by 


LECTURE  XXVI. CHAPTER  V,  12 — 14. 


135 


you  ;  or  if,  stopping  short  at  the  visions  of 
carnality,  you  only  move  in  a  pictured 
world  of  atheism.  Then  know  that  Christ 
is  knocking  at  the  door  of  every  sleeper's 
heart,  for  the  purpose  of  awakening  him. 
He  employs  the  hope  and  the  offer  of  His 
gospel  as  the  instruments  of  reviving  you  : 
and,  should  you  close  with  the  proposition 
of  being  reconciled  through  Him  unto  God, 
He  will  cause  the  breath  of  another  life  to 
animate  your  powers — and,  instead  of  liv- 
ing as  you  have  done  heretofore,  without 
God,  you  will  know  what  it  is,  under  the 
light  of  His  countenance  and  the  influences 
of  His  Spirit,  to  live  with  Him  in  the  world. 

This  death  then,  both  te'mporal  and 
spiritual,  is  the  judicial  sentence  inflicted 
on  all  who  have  incurred  it.  On  whatever 
subject  we  see  it  taking  effect,  we  may 
infer  of  him,  that  he  is  reckoned  a  sinner 
and  dealt  with  accordingly.  And  if  we 
see  that,  in  point  of  fact,  this  death  hath 
passed  upon  all  men,  it  proves  that  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Judge  all  men  have 
sinned. 

V.  13.  This  sentence,  it  may  be  remark- 
ed, was  in  full  operation  anterior  to  the 
promulgation  of  the  Mosaic  law.  The 
death  of  the  soul  in  trespasses  and  sins, 
was  as  much  the  doom  and  the  character- 
istic of  nature  in  the  antediluvian  and 
patriarchal  ages,  as  it  is  now ;  and  that 
more  visible  mortality,  which  sweeps  suc- 
cessive generations  from  the  face  of  the 
world,  was  as  relentless  and  universal  in 
its  ravages.  The  men  of  that  period  were 
treated  as  men  under  guilt,  and  all  shared 
in  the  very  sentence  that  was  passed  and 
fulfilled  on  our  one  common  progenitor. 
Death  was  dealt  out  to  them  all,  and  just 
because  sin  was  reckoned  to  them  all. 
And  yet  sin  is  not  imputed  where  there  is 
no  law.  Under  what  law  then  was  i1, 
that,  between  the  creation  and  the  deli- 
very of  the  commandments  from  mount 
Sinai,  men  were  counted  as  transgressors  ] 
Not  the  Jewish  law  which  then  did  not 
exist ;  but  some  prior  law  which  extended 
over  the  whole  world,  and  involved  all 
the  men  of  it  in  one  common  condemna- 
tion. 

The  truth  is,  that  Paul  never  lost  sight 
of  the  main  purpose  of  his  argument, 
which  was  to  reduce  Jews  and  Gentiles  to 
the  same  footing;  and  bring  the  former  to 
a  thankful  acquiescence  in  that  same  sal- 
vation, of  which  he  welcomed  the  latter  to 
an  equal  participation.  The  Jews  were 
constantly  building  a  superiority  to  them- 
selves upon  their  law.  They  fancied  that 
they  stood  out,  in  point  of  immunity  and 
favour  with  God,  from  all  the  rest  of  the 
species — in  virtue  of  the  relationship  they 
held  with  Abraham  as  their  father.  The 
apostle  reasons  with  them  on  their  prior 
relationship  to  Adam  as  their  father — a 


relationship  through  which  sin,  and  death 
the  sentence  of  sin,  found  a  like  way 
among  all  the  families  of  the  earth  ;  and 
from  which  Abraham  himself,  the  imme- 
diate founder  of  their  own  nation  was  not 
exempted.  He  thus  confounds  the  dis- 
tinction, on  which  the  children  of  Israel 
were  disposed  to  hold  out  against  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  demonstra- 
ting all  to  be  under  the  virulence  of  that 
disease  which  issued  in  sin  and  death, 
from  the  common  fountain-head  of  our 
species,  he  demonstrates  all  to  be  in  need 
of  the  same  remedy,  and  befitting  patients 
for  the  same  healing  application. 

V.  14.  If  death  reigned  from  Adam  to 
Moses,  it  could  not  be  in  the  shape  of  a 
penalty  for  the  violations  of  the  Mosaic 
law ;  and  yet  it  was  in  the  shape  of  a 
penalty  rendered  to  men  for  the  violation 
of  some  law  or  other.  What  could  that 
law  be]  What  but  either  the  law  of  the 
heart,  or  the  representative  law  made 
with  Adam,  by  which  he  stood  to  God  in 
the  relation  of  federal  head  of  all  his 
posterity ;  by  which,  had  he  kept  it,  he 
would  have  transmitted  the  right  which 
he  had  earned  for  himself  as  a  privilege 
won  and  wrought  for  by  him  on  behalf 
of  his  descendants,  but  by  which,  as  he 
broke  it,  he  brought  down  a  forfeiture  on 
his  own  head,  and  in  which,  all  who  spring 
from  him  do  share.  In  Adam  all  died, 
because  in  Adam  all  are  held  to  have 
sinned.  Such  is  the  economy  under  which 
we  sit,  an  economy  which  we  shall  not 
stop  any-further  to  explain  or  vindicate 
at  present,  having  already  endeavoured 
to  acquit  God  of  all  alleged  severity 
against  you  on  the  score  of  your  guilt 
and  helplessness  by  nature — and  that,  by 
directing  your  eye  to  the  amplitude  of  the 
compensations  which  are  so  fully  provi- 
ded and  so  freely  offered  to  you  in  the 
gospel. 

Death  reigned  universally  from  Adam 
to  Moses ;  and  the  term  even  directs  our 
attention  to  a  class  more  unlikely  than 
the  others  to  be  made  partakers  of  this 
fatality,  and  therefore  serving  still  more 
effectually  to  mark  how  far  the  effect  of 
Adam's  sin  was  carried  among  the  great 
human  family.  The  death  of  those  who 
arrived  at  maturity  may  have  been  as- 
cribed to  their  own  wilful  transgressions 
against  the  law  of  conscience.  Each  per- 
sonally sinned  against  the  light  of  a  known 
duty.  Each  transgressed  the  prohibition 
of  an  inward  voice,  just  as  effectually  as 
Adam  transgressed  the  prohibition  of  that 
voice  which  was  uttered  from  without. 
And  each  therefore  may  have  been  con- 
ceived to  die  in  the  way  of  retribution  for 
his  own  personal  and  particular  offences. 
But  to  preclude  this  inference  altogether, 
and  to  make  manifest  the  law  of  Adam 


136 


LECTURE  XXVI. CHAPTER  V,  12 14. 


incurring  the  guilt  of  a  sin  unto  death 
for  himself  and  for  all  his  posterity,  we 
see  that  this  penalty  of  death  is  laid  over 
upon  those,  who  could  not  sin  after  the 
similitude  of  Adam's  transgression — who 
could  not,  by  any  voluntary  and  deliber- 
ate choice,  put  forth  their  hand  to  any 
actual  violation — or,  in  other  words,  as  it 
is  generally  understood — Death  reigned 
even  over  infants,  who  were  incapable  of 
sinning  as  Adam  did,  when  appetite  pre- 
vailed in  its  contest  with  the  sense  of 
known  duty,  and  with  the  fear  of  known 
and  threatened  consequences.  There  is 
no  internal  war  of  the  soul  in  the  heart 
of  an  unconscious  babe;  and  yet  it  too 
may  share  in  that  sad  penalty  of  death 
which  was  pronounced  upon  Adam,  and 
falls  without  exception  on  his  posterity 
of  all  classes  and  all  ages. 

In  our  former  illustrations  we  have 
attempted  to  show,  how  the  elements  of 
the  corrupt  nature  may  all  enter  into  the 
composition  of  infancy — how  as  surely, 
as  the  ferocity  of  the  tiger  exists  as  an 
embryo  disposition  at  the  very  first  breath 
of  the  animal,  so  surely  may  the  unfail- 
ing geum  of  a  sinful  tendency  lie  incor- 
porated in  the  heart  of  a  babe  among  the 
other  ingredients  of  its  moral  nature  ;  and 
which  only  needs  time  for  growth,  that  it 
may  break  out  into  the  development  of 
actual  and  committed  sin — that  thus,  in 
fact,  every  child  is  born  in  spiritual  death  ; 
and  brings  into  the  world  with  him  that 
character  of  the  soul,  which,  if  not  regene- 
rated and  made  anew,  will  be  his  charac- 
ter through  time  and  his  course  in  eternity 
— So  that  though  this  native  sinfulness  may 
not  be  apparent,  till  it  come  forth  at  a 
more  advanced  period  in  sinful  perform- 
ance— yet  it  has  just  as  firm  and  solid  an 
existence  in  the  frame  of  an  infant,  as  the 
tendency  to  bring  forth  sour  fruit  in  a 
particular  tree,  was  a  tendency  which 
adhered  to  the  sapling  many  years  before 
the  period  of  bearing,  and  was  even 
infused  into  the  very  seed  or  acorn  from 
which  it  has  germinated.  But  should  the 
spiritual  death  of  infants  not  be  palpable, 
the  literal  death  which  forms  part  of  the 
sentence  is  exemplified  on  many  of  them; 
and,  just  as  the  order  to  burn  thorns  and 
briers  would  be  carried  into  effect  on  the 
youngest  as  well  as  on  tiie  oldest  specimens 
of  a  produce  so  obnoxious,  so  death  goes 
forth  the  executioner  of  an  unsparing 
sentence  upon  all  ages — and  the  babe  of  a 
week  old,  sinless  though  he  may  be  in 
respect  of  his  outward  history,  yet,  with  a 
soul  tainted  by  corruption  and  a  body  on 
which  the  curse  of  mortality  may  at  any 
time  be  realised,  does  he  share  alike  with 
the  hoary  offender  in  that  sentence,  of 
■which,  as  it  respects  the  infant,  no  other 


account  can  be  given  than  that,  as  in 
Adam  he  sinned  so  in  Adam  he  dies. 

'  Who  is  the  figure  of  Him  that  was  to 
come.'  Adam  is  here  stated  to  be  the 
figure  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  this  statement 
completes  our  information  respecting  the 
whole  amount  of  the  mischief  entailed 
upon  his  posterity.  Experience  tells  us 
that  from  him  we  inherit  a  depraved  ten- 
dency to  evil.  The  moral  sense  tells  us, 
that  we  justly  incur  guilt  for  the  sins  of 
our  corrupt  nature.  But  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other,  do  we  think,  tells  us  that  we 
are  responsible  for  the  sin  done  by  Adam 
in  paradise.  The  information  however, 
which  we  cannot  get  from  either  of  these 
two  sources,  we  get  from  Scripture — when 
it  announces  to  us  that  Adam  is  the  figure 
of  Christ ;  and  that  what  of  righteousness 
we  derive  from  the  one,  we  derive  of  guilt 
and  condemnation  from  the  other.  Now 
we  know,  that  it  is  not  enough  to  derive 
from  Christ  the  cancelment  of  all  the  debt 
that  we  have  already  incurred — neither  is 
it  enough  to  derive  from  him  a  new  and  a 
holy  nature,  under  the  workings  of  which, 
we  aspire  after  a  heavenly  character,  and 
at  length  reach  it.  In  the  midst  of  all  our 
aspirings,  there  is  a  mingling  of  sin  so 
long  as  we  are  compassed  about  with 
these  vile  bodies ;  and  as  God  will  not 
look  upon  us  with  regard,  unless  we  offer 
ourselves  to  Him  in  a  righteousness  that 
is  worthy  of  that  regard,  we  need  to  have 
the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ  imputed 
to  us,  just  as  much  as  we  need  His  sancti- 
fying grace  to  be  infused  into  us.  And 
accordingly  we  are  told  in  express  terms, 
that  the  merit  of  Christ's  good  actions  is 
ascribed  to  us  ;  and,  if  Adam  be  the  figure 
of  Christ,  this  benefit  that  we  obtain  from 
the  latter  has  a  counterpart  bane  that  has 
descended  upon  us  from  the  former — or, 
in  other  words,  the  demerit  of  Adam's  bad 
action  is  ascribed  to  us.  And  as,  under 
the  second  economy,  we  are  held  to  be  re- 
wardable  for  the  obedience  of  the  one — 
so,  to  complete  the  figurative  resemblance, 
we,  under  the  first  economy,  are  held  to 
be  responsible  for  the  disobedience  of  the 
other. 

This  part  of  the  doctrine  of  original 
sin  we  hold  to  be  matter  of  pure  revela- 
lion — a  portion  of  God's  jurisprudence, 
the  whole  rationale  of  which  we  cannot 
comprehend  ;  but  not,  as  we  have  endea- 
voured to  show,  in  any  way  at  war  with 
tenderness  and  love  to  the  children  of  men. 
For,  leaving  the  two  cases  of  heathenism 
and  infancy  to  Himself,  what  have  we  who 
are  neither  heathen  nor  infants  to  com- 
plain of!  Is  it  that  our  estate  by  nature 
has  been  left  so  heavily  entailed  by  our 
lirst  progenitor — then  there  is  a  surety 
provided,  to  the  benefit  of  which  we  are 


LECTURE  XXVI. — CHAPTER.  V,  15 19. 


137 


all  most  abundantly  welcome  ;  and  by 
the  acceptance  of  which,  the  estate  is  dis- 
burdened, and  fully  restored  to  all  the 
value  it  ever  had.  I  am  glad  to  have  been 
a  sharer  in  all  the  miseries  of  Adam's  re- 
bellion, as  that  is  the  very  circumstance 
which  has  marked  me  out  as  a  welcome 
sharer  in  all  the  privileges  of  Christ's 
mediation.  I  am  glad  to  have  incurred 
all  the  forfeitures  which  were  laid  upon 
Adam  and  his  degenerate  offspring,  as  this 
is  the  very  thing  which  has  brought  me 
within  the  scope  of  a  most  glorious  am- 
nesty and*  a  most  ample  restoration.  I 
will  not  quarrel  with  the  doctrine  of  ori- 
ginal sin,  but  hold  it  a  kindness  to  have 
had  it  laid  before  me — as  to  me  it  is  the 
very  finger-post  which  points  my  way  of 
access  and  of  triumph,  to  that  righteous- 
ness which  is  unto  all  and  upon  all  who 
believe.  It  is  a  singular  dealing  of  God, 
that  He  should  rate  me  for  another's  sin, 
and  evinces  His  ways  to  be  not  as  men's 
ways ;  but  I  will  not  complain  of  it,  as  I 
have  a  most  secure  and  honourable  refuge 
in  another  dealing  of  God's,  equally  sin- 
gular, but  in  which  it  is  my  chiefest  in- 
terest and  will  at  length  be  my  most  ex- 
alted felicity  to  acquiesce — even  that  He 
should  reward  me  for  another's  obedience  ; 


and  that,  instead  of  looking  to  me  as  I  am 
in  myself,  or  looking  to  me  as  I  am  in 
Adam,  He  should  look  unto  me  as  I  am  in 
Christ,  and  lavish  upon  me  all  that  be- 
nignity which  He  feels  towards  His  only 
beloved  Son  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased. 
In  the  three  verses  that  follow,  we  have 
such  a  parallel  drawn  between  the  evil 
entailed  upon  us  by  the  first  Adam,  and 
the  good  purchased  and  procured  for  us 
by  the  second  Adam,  as  to  evince  that 
there  is  something  more  than  compensa- 
tion— but  such  an  overbalance  of  blessed- 
ness provided  to  us  by  the  gospel,  as  may 
well  serve  to  reconcile  us  to  the  whole  of 
this  wondrous  administration — V.  15 — 17. 
"  But  not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free 
gift.  For  if  through  the  offence  of  one, 
many  be  dead  ;  much  more  the  grace  of 
God,  and  the  gift  of  grace,  which  is  by 
one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded 
unto  many.  And  not  as  it  was  by  one 
that  sinned,  so  is  the  gift :  for  the  judg- 
ment was  by  one  to  condemnation,  but  the 
free  gift  is  of  many  offences  unto  justifi- 
cation. For  if  by  one  man's  offence  death 
reigned  by  one ;  much  more  they  which 
received  abundance  of  grace,  and  of  the 
gift  of  righteousness,  shall  reign  in  life  by 
one  Jesus  Christ." 


LECTURE  XXVII. 


Romans  v,  15 — 19. 


"But  not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift.  For  if  througli  the  offence  of  one  many  be  dead;  much  more  the 
grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is  by  one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many.  And  not  as  it 
was  by  one  that  sinued,  so  is  the  gift ;  for  tlie  judgment  was  by  one  to  condemuation,  but  the  free  gift  is  of  many 
offences  unto  justification.  For  if  by  one  man's  ofleure  death  reigned  by  one ;  much  more  they  which  receive 
abundance  of  grace,  aud  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  shall  reigu  in  life  by  oue  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore,  as  by  the 
offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation  ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift 
came  upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life.  For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners  ;  so  by 
the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous." 


We  do  feel  that  there  is  a  considerable 
difficulty  in  this  short  passage  ;  and  the 
following  is  the  only  explanation  that  we 
are  able  to  give  of  it.  You  will  observe 
that  in  the  14th  verse,  the  effect  of  Adam's 
sin  in  bringing  death  upon  his  posterity, 
is  demonstrated  by  this  circumstance  that 
the  sentence  had  full  execution,  even  up- 
on those  who  had  not  in  their  own  per- 
sons sinned  as  he  did.  Death  reigned 
even  over  them  ;  and  it  made  Adam  to  be 
the  figure  of  Christ,  that,  what  the  one 
brought  upon  mankind  by  his  disobedi- 
ence, tiie  other  by  his  obedience  did 
away. 

But  Christ  did  more  than  do  away  the 
sentence  which  lay  upon  mankind,  be- 
cause of  the  sin  of  Adam  being  imputed 
18 


to  them.  This  and  no  other  sentence  was 
all  that  could  be  inflicted  on  infants,  or 
those  who  had  not  sinned  actually.  But, 
in  addition  to  the  guilt  that  we  have  by 
inheritance,  there  is  also  a  guilt  which  all 
who  live  a  few  years  in  the  world  incur 
by  practice.  The  one  offence  of  Adam 
landed  us  in  guilt ;  but  the  many  offences 
of  the  heart  and  life  of  us  all,  have  wo- 
fully  accumulated  that  guilt :  And  we 
stand  in  need,  not  merely  of  as  much 
grace  as  might  redeem  us  from  the  for- 
feiture that  was  passed  on  the  whole  hu- 
man family  in  consequence  of  the  trans- 
gression of  their  first  parent,  but  also  of 
as  much  new  grace  as  might  redeem  us 
from  the  curse  and  the  condemnation  of 
our  own  iniquities — as  might  redeem  us 


i38 


LECTURE    XXVU. CHAPTER,   V,    15 — 19. 


not  merely  from  the  debt  that  has  been 
entailed  upon  us,  but  from  the  additional 
debt  that  has  been  incurred  by  us. 

And  thus  it  is,  that  not  as  the  offence  so 
also  is  the  gift.  For  the  gift  by  Christ 
compensates  for  more  evil,  than  the  of- 
fence by  Adam  has  entailed.  Through 
that  one  offence  the  penalty  of  death 
passed  upon  many — even  upon  all  whom 
Adam  represented.  But  the  grace  of  God, 
and  the  gift  which  emanated  therefrom 
tmd  was  won  for  us  by  the  one  man  Je- 
sus Christ,  greatly  exceeds  in  its  amount 
the  recalment  of  this  penalty  from  the 
many  whom  Christ  represented.  The 
condemnation  we  derive  from  Adam  was 
passed  upon  us  because  of  his  one  of- 
fence. The  free  gift  of  justification  we 
receive  from  Christ,  not  merely  reverses 
that  condition  of  guilt  in  which  Adam  has 
placed  us,  but  that  still  more  aggravated 
condition  of  guilt  in  which  we  have  been 
placed  by  the  multitude  of  our  own  offen- 
ces. We  obtain  not  only  justification 
from  the  guilt  of  Adam's  one  oflFence,  but 
justification  from  the  guilt  of  our  own 
many  offences.  Such  was  the  virulent 
mischief  even  of  the  one  offence,  that, 
through  it  and  it  alone,  even  when  sepa- 
rated from  all  actual  guilt  as  in  the  case 
of  infants,  death  reigned  in  the  world. 
There  was  more  grace  needed  however, 
than  would  suffice  merely  to  counteract 
this  virulence — for  greatly  had  it  been 
aggravated  by  the  abundance  of  actual 
iniquity  among  men ;  and  for  this  there 
was  an  abundance,  or  as  it  might  have 
been  translated,  a  surplus  of  grace  pro- 
vided, so  that  while  the  effect  of  Adam's 
single  offence  was  to  make  death  reign, 
greatly  must  the  power  of  the  restorative 
administered  by  the  second  Adam,  exceed 
the  malignity  of  the  sin  that  has  been 
transmitted  to  us  by  the  first  Adam — inas- 
much as  it  heals  not  merely  the  heredita- 
ry, but  all  the  superinduced  diseases  of 
our  spiritual  constitution ;  and  causes 
those  over  whom  death  reigned,  solely  on 
account  of  Adam's  guilt,  to  reign  in  life, 
though  for  their  own  guilt  as  well  as 
Adam's  they  had  rightfully  to  die. 

This  is  all  the  length  at  which  we  can 
penetrate  into  this  passage.  We  see  af- 
firmed in  it  the  superiority  of  that  good 
which  Christ  has  done  for  us,  over  that 
evil  which  Adam  has  entailed  upon  us. 
We  see  in  it  enough  to  stop  the  mouth  of 
any  gainsayer,  who  complains  that  he  has 
been  made  chargeable  for  the  guilt  which 
he  never  contracted — for  we  there  see  an- 
nounced to  us,  not  merely  release  from 
this  one  charge,  but  from  all  the  addi- 
tional charges  which  by  our  own  wilful 
disobedience  we  have  brought  upon  our- 
selves. The  heir  of  a  burdened  property 
who  curses  the  memory  of  his  father  and 


complains  of  the  weight  and  hardship  of 
the  mortgages  he  has  left  behind  him, 
ought  in  all  justice  to  be  appeased — when 
his  father's  friend,  moved  by  regard  to 
his  family,  not  only  offers  to  liquidate  the 
debts  that  were  transmitted  to  him  by  in- 
heritance, but  also  the  perhaps  heavier 
debts  of  his  own  extravagance  and  folly. 
From  the  mouth  of  a  wilful  and  obstinate 
sinner,  may  we  often  hear  the  reproach 
of  God  for  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin 
to  his  blameless  and  unoffending  posteri- 
ty ;  and  were  he  indeed  a  blameless  indi- 
vidual who  was  so  dealt  with,  there  might 
be  reason  for  the  outcry  of  felt  and  fan- 
cied injustice.  But,  seeing  that  in  har- 
dened impiety  or  at  least  in  careless  indif- 
ference he  spends  his  days,  living  without 
God  in  the  world  and  accumulating  vol- 
untarily upon  his  own  head  the  very  guilt 
against  which  he  protests  so  loudly  when 
laid  upon  him  by  the  misconduct  of  ano- 
ther— this  ought  at  least  to  mitigate  a  lit- 
tle the  severity  of  his  invective ;  and  it 
ought  wholly  to  disarm  and  to  turn  it, 
when  a  covering  so  ample  is  stretched 
forth,  if  he  will  only  have  it,  both  for  the 
guilt  at  which  he  murmurs  and  for  the 
guilt  of  his  own  misdoings.  Nor  has  he 
any  right  to  protest  against  the  share  that 
has  been  assigned  to  him  in  the  doom  of 
Adam's  disobedience,  when,  wilfully  as 
he  has  aggravated  that  doom  upon  him- 
self, there  is  a  grace  held  out  to  him,  and 
a  gift  by  grace,  which  so  nobly  overpas- 
ses  all  the  misery  of  man's  unregenerate 
nature,  and  all  its  condemnation. 

Perhaps  there  is  a  great  deal  more  in 
this  passage  than  we  have  been  able  to 
bring  out  of  it.  It  is  likely  enough  that 
the  apostle  may  have  had  in  his  mind,  the 
state  of  the  redeemed  when  they  are 
made  to  reign  in  life  by  Jesus  Christ — as 
contrasted  with  what  the  state  of  man 
would  have  been  had  Adam  persisted  in 
innocency,  and  bequeathed  all  the  privi- 
leges of  innocence  to  a  pure  and  untaint- 
ed posterity.  In  this  latter  case,  our  spe- 
cies would  have  kept  their  place  in  God's 
unfallen  creation,  and  maintained  that 
position  in  the  scale  of  order  and  dignity 
which  was  at  first  assigned  to  them  ;  and, 
though  lower  than  the  angels,  would  at 
least  have  shone  with  an  unpolluted 
though  a  humbler  glory,  and  have  either 
remained  upon  earth,  or  perhaps  have 
been  transplanted  to  heaven,  with  the  in- 
signia of  all  those  virtues  which  they  had 
kept  untainted  and  entire  upon  their  own 
characters.  Now  certain  it  is,  that  the 
redeemed  in  heaven  will  be  made  to  re- 
cover all  that  personal  worth  and  accom- 
plishment which  was  lost  by  the  fall,  and, 
in  point  of  moral  lustre,  will  shine  forth 
at  least  with  all  that  original  brightness 
in  which  humanity  was  formed  ;  and,  in 


LECTURE  XXVII. — CHAPTER  V,  15 — 19. 


139 


the  songs  of  their  joyful  eternity,  will 
there  be  ingredients  of  transport  and  of 
grateful  emotion,  which,  but  for  a  Re- 
deemer to  wash  them  from  their  sins  in 
his  blood,  could  never  have  been  fell ; 
and,  what  perhaps  is  more  than  all,  they 
are  invested  with  an  order  of  merit  which 
no  prowess  of  archangel  could  ever  win 
— they  are  clothed  with  a  rigliteousness, 
purer  than  those  heavens  which  are  not 
clean  in  the  sight  of  infinite  and  unspot- 
ted holiness — they  are  seen  in  the  face  of 
Him  who  takes  precedency  over  all  that 
is  created  ;  and,  besides  being  admitted 
into  the  honour  of  that  more  special  and 
intimate  relationship  which  subsists  be- 
tween the  divine  Messiah,  and  those  who 
are  the  fruit  and  travail  of  his  soul,  it  is 
indeed  a  wondrous  distinction,  that  the 
Son  of  God,  by  descending  to  the  fellow- 
ship of  our  nature,  has  ennobled  and 
brought  up  the  nature  of  man  to  a  pre- 
eminence so  singularly  glorious. 

Verses  18,  19.  "  Therefore,  as  by  the 
offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all 
men  to  condemnation ;  even  so  by  the 
righteousness  of  one,  the  free  gift  came 
upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life. 
For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many 
were  made  sinners  ;  so  by  the  obedience 
of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous." 

The  three  last  verses  state  the  disparity 
between  the  two  Adams,  in  respect  of  the 
amount  of  good  and  evil  conveyed  by 
them.  The  two  before  us  state  the  simi- 
larity between  them,  in  respect  of  the 
mode  of  conveyance  of  this  good  and  this 
evil.  They  contain  in  fact  the  strength 
of  the  argument  for  the  imputation  of 
Adam's  sin.  As  the  condemnation  of 
Adam  comes  to  us,  even  so  does  the  justi- 
fication by  Christ  come  to  us.  Now  we 
know  that  the  merit  of  the  Saviour  is 
ascribed  to  us — else  no  atonement  for  the 
past,  and  no  renovation  of  heart  or  of  life 
that  is  ever  exemplified  in  this  world  for 
the  future,  will  suffice  for  our  acceptance 
with  God.  Even  so  then  must  the  demerit 
of  Adam  have  been  ascribed  to  us.  The 
analogy  affirmed  in  these  verses  leads 
irresistibly  to  this  conclusion.  The  judg- 
ment that  we  are  guilty,  is  transferred  to 
us  from  the  actual  guilt  of  the  one  repre- 
sentative— even  as  the  judgment  that  we 
are  righteous,  is  transferred  to  us  from 
the  actual  righteousness  of  the  other 
representative.  We  are  sinners  in  virtue 
of  one  man's  disobedience,  independently 
of  our  own  personal  sins;  and  we  are 
righteous  in  virtue  of  another's  obedience, 
independently  of  our  own  personal  quali- 
fications. We  do  not  say  but  that  through 
Adam  we  become  personally  sinful — 
inheriting  as  we  do  his  corrupt  nature. 
Neither  do  we  say  but  that  through  Christ 
we  become  personally  holy — deriving  out 


of  His  fulness,  the  very  graces  which 
adorned  His  own  character.  But,  as  it  is 
at  best  a  tainted  holiness  that  we  have  on 
this  side  of  death,  we  must  have  some- 
thing more  than  it  in  which  to  appear 
before  God ;  and  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  reckoned  unto  us  and  rewarded  in 
us,  is  that  something.  The  something 
which  corresponds  to  this  in  Adam,  is  his 
guilt  reckoned  unto  us  and  punished  in 
us — so  that,  to  complete  the  analogy,  as 
from  him  we  get  the  infusion  of  his  de- 
pravity, so  from  him  also  do  we  get  the 
imputation  of  his  demerit. 

One  may  suppose  from  the  18th  verse, 
that  the  number  who  are  justified  in 
Christ  is  equal  to  the  number  who  are 
condemned  in  Adam;  and  that  this  com- 
prehends the  whole  human  race.  But  by 
the  term  '  all,'  we  are  merely  to  understand, 
all  on  the  one  hand  who  are  in  that  rela- 
tion to  Adam,  which  infers  the  descent  of 
his  guilt  upon  them — and  that  is  certainly 
the  whole  family  of  mankind ;  and  thus 
'air  on  the  other  hand,  who  are  in  that 
relation  to  Christ  which  infers  the  descent 
of  His  righteousness  upon  them — and  that 
is  only  the  family  of  believers.  As  in 
Adam,  it  is  said,  all  die — even  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive.  But  the  all  does 
not  refer  to  the  same  body  of  people. 
The  first  who  die  in  Adam,  evidently 
refer  to  the  whole  human  race.  But  the 
second  who  live  in  Christ  are  restricted 
by  the  apostle  to  those  who  are  Christ's, 
and  will  be  made  alive  by  Him  at  His 
coming.  All  men  have  not  faith,  and  all 
men  therefore  will  not  reign  in  life  by 
Christ  Jesus. 

For  any  thing  we  hnow,  the  mediation 
of  Christ  may  have  affected,  in  a  most 
essential  way,  the  general  state  of  hu- 
manity ;  and,  by  some  mode  unexplained 
and  inexplicable,  may  it  have  bettered 
the  condition  of  those  who  die  in  infancy, 
or  who  die  in  unreached  heathenism  ;  and 
aggravated  the  condition  of  none,  but 
those  who  bring  upon  themselves  the 
curse  and  the  severity  of  a  rejected  gospel. 
But  the  matter  which  concerns  you  is, 
that,  unless  you  receive  Christ  in  time, 
you  will  never  reign  with  Him  in  eternity. 
You  will  not  be  admitted  into  the  number 
of  those  all,  who,  though  they  compre- 
hend the  entire  family  of  believers,  do 
not  comprehend  any  that  obey  not  the 
gospel ;  and  it  is  at  your  peril,  if,  when 
the  offer  of  an  interest  in  the  righteousness 
of  Christ  is  placed  within  your  reach,  you 
turn  in  indifference  away  from  it 

And  it  is  of  vital  importance  for  you 
to  know,  that  the  free  gift,  though  it 
comes  not  upon  you  all  in  the  way  of 
absolute  convej^ance,  it  at  least  comes 
upon  you  all  in  the  way  of  offer.  It  is 
yours  if  you  will.    The  offer  is  unto  all 


140 


LECTURE   XXVII. CHAPTER.   V,    15 — 19. 


and  upon  all  who  now  hear  us — though 
the  thing  offered  is  only  unto  all  and 
upon  all  who  believe.  We  ask  each  indi- 
vidual among  you  to  isolate  himself  from 
the  rest  of  the  species — to  conceive  for  a 
moment  that  he  is  the  only  sinner  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth,  that  none  but  he 
stands  in  need  of  an  atoning  sacrifice,  and 
none  but  he  of  an  everlasting  righteous- 
ness brought  in  by  another  and  that  might 
avail  for  his  justification  before  God.  Let 
him  imagine,  that  for  him  the  one  and 
solitary  offender,  Christ  came  on  the 
express  errand  to  seek  and  to  save — that 
for  him  He  poured  out  His  soul  unto  the 
death — that  for  him  the  costly  apparatus 
of  redemption  was  raised — that  for  him 
and  for  him  alone,  the  Bible  was  written  ; 
and  a  messenger  from  heaven  sent  to 
entreat  that  he  will  enter  into  reconcilia- 
tion with  God,  through  that  way  of  me- 
diatorship  which  God  in  His  love  had 
devised,  for  the  express  accommodation 
of  this  single  wanderer,  who  had  strayed, 
an  outcast  and  an  alien  from  the  habita- 
tions of  the  unfallen :  And  that  it  now 
turns  upon  his  own  choice,  whether  iie 
will  abide  among  the  paths  of  destruction, 
or  be  readmitted  to  all  the  honours  and 
felicities  of  the  place  from  which  he  had 
departed.  There  is  nothing  surely  want- 
ing to  complete  the  warrant  of  such  an 
individual,  for  entering  into  hope  and 
happiness  ;  and  yet,  ye  hearers,  it  is  posi- 
tively not  more  complete  than  the  war- 
rant which  each  and  which  all  of  you 
have  at  this  moment.  To  you,  individually 
to  you,  God  is  holding  out  this  gift  for 
your  acceptance — you  is  He  beseeching 
to  come  again  into  friendship  with  Him. 
With  you  is  He  expostulating  the  cause 
of  your  life  and  your  death ;  and  bidding 
you  choose  between  the  welcome  offer  of 
the  one,  and  the  sure  altei'native  of  the 
other  if  the  offer  is  rejected.  He  is  now 
parleying  the  matter  with  every  hearer ; 
and  just  as  effectually,  as  if  that  hearer 
were  the  only  creature  in  the  world,  to 
whom  the  errand  of  redemption  was  at  all 
applicable.  There  is  nothing  in  the  mul- 
titude of  hearers  by  whom  you  are  sur- 
rounded, that  should  at  all  deaden  the 
point  of  its  sure  and  specific  application 
to  yourself. 

The  message  of  the  gospel  does  not  suf- 
fer, in  respect  of  its  appropriateness  to 
you,  by  the  ranging  abroad  of  its  calls 
and  its  entreaties  over  the  face  of  the 
whole  congregation.  The  commission  is 
to  preach  the  gospcd  to  every  ;  and  surely 
that  is  the  same  with  preaching  the  gos- 
pel to  each.  It  does  not  become  less  point- 
edly personal  in  its  invitation,  by  its  be- 
ing made  more  widely  diffusive.  The 
dispersion  of  the  gospel  embassy  over  the 
face  of  the  whole  world,  does  not  abate, 


by  one  single  iota,  either  the  loudness  or 
the  urgency  of  the  knock  which  it  is 
making  at  your  door.  This  is  a  property 
which  no  extension  of  the  message  can 
ever  dissipate.  It  cannot  be  shipped  off, 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  the  mission- 
ary vessel  which  carries  the  news  and  the 
offers  of  salvation  to  other  hinds.  Your 
minister  speaks  with  no  less  authority 
though  thousands  and  thousands  more  are 
preaching  at  the  same  moment  along  with 
him.  Your  Bible  carries  no  less  emphatic 
intimation  to  you,  though  Bibles  are  cir- 
culating by  millions  over  the  mighty  am- 
plitudes of  population  that  are  on  every 
side  of  you.  God,  through  the  medium  of 
these  conveyances,  is  holding  out  as  dis- 
tinct an  overture  to  you,  and  pledging 
Himself  to  as  distinct  a  fulfilment,  as  if 
you  were  the  only  sinner  He  had  to  deal 
with  ;  and  whether  He  beseeches  you  to 
be  reconciled,  or  bids  you  come  unto 
Christ  on  the  faith  that  you  will  not  bf 
cast  out,  or  invites  you  weary  and  heavv" 
laden  to  cast  your  burden  upon  Him  and 
He  will  sustain  it,  or  sets  forth  to  you  a 
propitiation  and  tells  you  that  your  re- 
liance upon  its  efficacy  is  all  that  is  need- 
ed to  make  it  effectual  to  you — be  very 
sure  that  all  this  is  addrest  as  especially 
to  yourself,  as  if  you  heard  it  face  to  face 
by  the  lips  of  a  special  messenger  from 
heaven — that  God  is  bringing  Himself  as 
near,  as  if  He  named  you  by  a  voice  from 
the  skies — So  that  if  you,  arrested  by  all 
this  power  and  closeness  of  application, 
shall  venture  your  case  on  the  calls  and 
the  promises  of  the  gospel,  there  is  not  one 
call  that  will  not  be  followed  up,  nor  one 
promise  that  will  not  be  fully  and  per- 
fectly accomplished. 

The  thing  offered  in  this  passage  is,  that 
you  shall  be  instated  in  the  righteousness 
of  Christ.  Let  me  crave  your  attention  to 
the  substantial  meaning  and  effect  of  such 
an  overture.  The  technicals  of  theology 
are  so  familiar  to  the  ear,  that  they  fail  to 
arouse  the  understanding  ;  and  the  think- 
ing principle  often  lies  in  complete  dor- 
mancy, while  there  is  a  kind  of  indolent 
satisfaction  felt  by  the  mind,  at  the  utter- 
ance and  the  cadency  of  sounds  to  which 
it  has  been  long  accustomed.  The  propo- 
sal that  Christ's  righteousness  shall  be- 
come your  righteousness  in  such  a  way, 
as  that  you  will  be  honoured  and  rewarded 
and  loved  and  dealt  with  by  God,  just  as 
you  would  have  been,  had  this  righteous- 
ness been  yielded  in  your  own  person  and 
by  your  own  performances — this,  ye 
liearers,  is  the  very  jet  and  essence  of  the 
gospel ;  and  could  we  only  prevail  on  you 
to  entertain  the  wondrous  proposal  and  to 
close  with  it,  like  a  man  translated  from 
beggary  to  some  exalted  order  of  merit 
that  had  been  won  for  him  by  another. 


LECTURE   XXVll. CHAPTER    V,    15 19. 


141 


might  you  instantly  be  clothed  in  the 
glories  of  a  high  and  splendid  investiture 
— recognised  by  God  Himself,  and  by  all 
the  subject  ranks  of  His  administration,  as 
the  occupiers  of  a  dignity  and  a  constitu- 
tional standing,  to  which  all  the  homage 
due  to  worth  and  excellence  and  lofty 
prospects  may  rightfully  be  paid.  You 
would  become  kings  and  priests  unto 
God  ;  and,  like  many  of  those  sublimities 
of  nature  where  the  noblest  efforts  often 
spring  from  the  simplest  of  causes,  is  this 
princely  elevation  of  guilty  and  degraded 
man  brought  about  by  the  simple  credence 
which  he  renders  to  the  testimony  of  God 
respecting  His  Son — on  which  it  is  that  he 
passes  from  death  unto  life,  and  accord- 
ing to  his  faith  so  is  it  done  unto  him. 

This  is  the  way  of  being  translated  into 
a  condition  of  righteousness  with  God,  and 
there  is  no  other.  We  are  aware  of  the 
tendency  of  nature  to  try  another ;  and 
that,  in  the  obstinate  spirit  of  legality,  it  is 
her  constant  forth-putting  to  establish  a 
righteousness  of  her  own — an  object,  in 
the  prosecution  of  which,  she  is  ever  sure, 
either  to  dissipate  her  strength  in  a  fatigue 
that  is  unavailing,  or  at  length  to  sink 
down  into  the  repose  of  a  formality  that 
is  altogether  lifeless  and  unfruitful.  This 
positively  is  not  the  way.  The  way  is  to 
lay  your  confident  hold  on  the  merit  of 
Christ  as  your  plea  of  acceptance  with 
God.  It  is  to  take  your  determined  stand 
on  the  basis  of  His  obedience,  all  the  re- 


wards and  all  the  reckonings  of  which, 
are  held  out  to  you  in  the  gospel.  It  is  to 
go  at  once  to  the  justification  that  Christ 
hath  wrought  out  for  all  who  believe  in 
Him ;  and,  entering  upon  that  region 
which  is  lighted  up  by  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness, there  to  offer  yourself  to  the  no- 
tice of  the  Divinity,  not  in  that  tiny  lustre 
which  is  created  by  the' feeble  sparks  of 
your  own  kindling,  but  in  that  full  irra- 
diation which  is  caught  from  the  beams 
of  a  luminary  so  glorious.  God,  to  see 
you  with  complacency,  must  see  you  not 
as  shining  in  any  native  splendour  of  your 
own  ;  but  as  shone  upon  by  the  splendour 
of  Him  who  is  full  of  grace  and  truth.  It 
is  only  when  surrounded  with  this  ele- 
ment, that  a  holy  God  can  regard  you 
with  complacency ;  and,  to  complete  the 
triumphs  of  the  gospel  administration,  it 
is  only  when  breathing  in  this  atmosphere, 
that  you  inhale  the  delights  of  an  affec- 
tionate and  confiding  piety — that  the  soul 
breaks  forth  in  the  full  triumph  of  hev 
own  emancipated  powers,  on  the  career 
of  devoted  and  aspiring  obedience — that 
life  and  happiness  shed  the  very  air  of 
heaven  around  a  believer's  heart — and 
make  the  service  of  God,  before  a  drudgery, 
its  most  congenial  employment — Evin- 
cing, that,  as  to  be  in  Christ  is  to  have  no 
condemnation,  so  to  be  in  Christ  is  to  be- 
come a  new  creature  with  whom  all  old 
things  are  done  away,  and  all  things  have 
become  new. 


LECTURE  XXVIII. 


Romans  v,  20,  21. 

"  Moreover,  the  law  entered,  that  the  offence  might  abound  :  but  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound : 
that  as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life,  by  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord." 


It  is  good  to  mark,  how,  at  certain  in- 
tervals in  the  course  of  the  apostle's  argu- 
ment, there  is  often  the  recurrence  of  some 
particular  term,  by  which  there  may  not 
only  be  evinced  some  reigning  principle, 
which  it  is  good  for  the  reader  to  seize  upon, 
but  by  which  he  may  obtain  a  more  con- 
nected view  of  the  whole  demonstration. 
In  some  former  verses,  the  apostle  insists 
on  the  mischief  that  was  entailed  upon  our 
species,  by  the  one  offence  of  one  indi- 
vidual— a  mischief  which  fell  even  upon 
the  heads  of  those  who  in  their  own  per- 
sons violated  no  express  commandment, 
as  did  Adam  ;  and  he  now  intimates  to  us 
the  effect  which  an  authoritative  law,  sub- 
sequently imposed  upon  mankind,  had  in 


turning  the  one  offence  into  many  offences, 
or  in  making  the  offence  to  abound — so 
that  the  power  which  restores  us,  must 
not  only  be  offeree  enough  to  counteract 
the  guilt  of  Adam's  transgression,  but  be 
of  force  to  counteract  the  guilt  of  all  those 
innumerable  actual  transgressions,  which 
are  committed  by  those  who  sin  against 
the  known  enactments  of  a  rightfully  pro- 
claimed authority. 

It  sounds  harsh  to  say  of  God,  that  He 
brought  in  a  law,  for  the  direct  purpose  of 
adding  to  the  quantity  of  sin  in  the  world  ; 
and  it  would  soften  this  harshness,  could 
we  make  it  out  to  be  the  meaning  of  the 
apostle,  not  that  there  was  any  such  de- 
sign on  the  part  of  God — but  simply  that 


142 


LECTtniE   XXVm. CHAPTER    V,    20,    21. 


such  was  the  effect  of  the  law  having  been 
introduced  among  men.  Moreover,  the 
law  entered,  not  with  the  intention  by  the 
Lawgiver  of  causing  sin  to  abound,  but 
with  the  consequence  certainly  among  its 
subjects  that  sin  did  more  abound.  The 
law  entered,  and  so  sin  became  more 
abundant.  In  the  Gospels  we  often  read 
of  a  particular  thing  having  been  done, 
that  it  might  be  fuUilled  what  was  spoken 
by  some  old  prophet.  It  looks  strange  for 
the  Saviour,  to  have  gone  out  of  Ilis  way, 
on  purpose  to  bring  about  an  adjustment 
of  this  kind,  between  the  prophet  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  historian  in  the 
New,  and  therefore  some  translate  the 
phrase  thus — such  a  thing  was  done,  and 
so  was  fulfilled  what  had  been  said  by  one 
of  the  prophets.  In  like  manner,  and  to 
save  the  conclusion  that  God  is  the  wilful 
author  of  sin,  we  would  so  render  the  pas- 
sage before  us — as  that  the  law  was 
bi'ought  in,  not  with  the  previous  view  of 
making  sin  abound,  but  only  with  this  as 
the  subsequent  effect — "  Moreover  the  law 
entered  and  thus  sin  did  abound." 

But  it  has  also  been  alleged  respecting 
the  sense  of  this  passage,  that  the  law  has 
made  sin  to  abound,  not  by  acting  as  a 
stimulant  to  sin,  but  merely  as  the  revealer 
of  sin---not   that   it   has  made  sin  more 
abundan'./j  to  exist,  but  that  it  has  made 
it  more  abundantly  manifest.    It  has  served 
as  a  miri'or  to  set  forth  the  deformity  of 
sin.     Paul   was   <;ovetous,  before  he  ob- 
tained such  an  apjvehension  of  God's  law 
as  to  make  him  feel  that  it  was  sinful  to 
be  so ;  but  when  the  law  came,  sin  re- 
vived, not  that  the  law  made  Paul  covet- 
ous, but  made  him  sens\ble  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  being  so,  he  was  indeed  a 
sinner.     It  is  not  the  tendency,  say  some, 
to  raake  "^  man  sinful,  but  to  show  him  to 
be  sinful     It  discovers  the  tinge  of  guilti- 
ness where  no  such  tinge  was  seen  or  sus- 
pected  before.     The  effect  of  the   com- 
mandment is  net  to  create  sin,  but  to  con- 
vince of  sin ;  and  to  make  it  evident  to  the 
conscience,  that  it  is  indeed  exceedingly 
sinful.    And  we  have  no  doubt,  that  this 
is  one  great  purpose  which  has  been  served 
by  the  entering  in  of  the  law.    It  has  shed 
a  much  stronger  light  on   that  contrast 
or  diversity,  which  obtains  between  the 
character  of  God  and  the  character  of 
man.    It  has  given  a  more  plentiful  de- 
monstration of  human  guilt  and  human 
ungodliness.    It  has  brought  home  with 
greater  effect  upon  the  conscience   that 
great  initiatory  lesson — the   learning   of 
which  is  of  such   importance   in  Chris- 
tianity, that  the  law  which  furnishes  this 
lesson  has  been  called  a  schoolmaster  to 
bring  us  unto  Christ.    And  this  is  certainly 
a  most  valuable  purpose  that  is  accom- 
plished by  the  law.    The  application  of 


an  even  rule  to  any  line  or  surface,  may 
not  create  the  inequalities  ;  but  it  will 
make  known  the  inequalities.  And,  in 
like  manner,  whether  or  not  the  law  is  in 
any  way  the  cause  of  those  crooked  de- 
viations from  the  even  rule  of  rectitude 
which  so  abound  in  the  character  of  man, 
it  certainly  is  the  discoverer  of  those  de- 
viations ;  and  makes  known  to  those,  who 
are  acquainted  with  the  exceeding  length 
and  breadth  and  constancy  of  its  obliga- 
tions, how  much  more  iniquities  abound 
in  the  world,  than  men  of  unenlightened 
conscience  and  no  moral  delicacy  are  at 
all  sensible  of. 

At  the  same  time,  we  do  think  that  the 
law  has  done  more  than  reveal  sin  to  the 
conscience.  It  has  positively  added  to  the 
amount  and  the  aggravation  of  sin  upon 
the  character.  It  has  laid  a  heavier  re- 
sponsibility on  those  to  whom  it  made 
known  its  enactments  ;  and.  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  "to  whom  much  is  given  of  them 
shall  much  be  required,"  has  a  deeper 
guilt  been  incurred  by  those  transgressors 
who  do  sin  in  the  face  of  clear  and  im- 
pressive remonstrances  from  a  distinct  law, 
than  by  those  who  do  it  ignorantly  and  in 
unbelief.  "  Father  forgive  them,"  says 
the  Saviour,  "  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  The  man  who  lives  under  the  light 
of  a  proclaimed  commandment,  has  no 
benefit  from  such  an  intercession.  They 
sin  with  their  eyes  open  ;  and  after  having 
fought  a  pitched,  and  a  determined,  and 
perhaps  a  long  sustained  battle,  with  a 
conscience  well  informed.  They  may  do 
the  very  same  things  and  no  more,  than 
he  who  has  nothing  but  the  feeble  guid- 
ance of  nature  to  regulate  his  footsteps  ; 
and  yet  their  sin  may  abound  a  hundred- 
fold, and  that  just  because  the  law  has  en- 
tei-ed  with  its  precepts  and  its  requisitions 
among  them.  And  beside  all  this,  we  do 
further  think,  that  the  law  may  cause  sin 
actually  to  abound  in  the  world — not 
merely  by  investing  forbidden  crimes 
with  a  deeper  hue  of  sinfulness  than  they 
would  otherwise  have  had,  but  by  posi- 
tively and  substantially  deepening  the 
atrocity  of  these  crimes,  and  adding  to 
the  frequency  and  the  amount  of  them. 
This  is  perhaps  an  eflect  unknown,  or  not 
easily  conceived  by  those,  who  possess 
no  tenderness  of  conscience  ;  and  are  not 
feelingly  alive  to  the  guilt  which  attaches, 
even  to  the  slighter  violations  of  principle 
and  propriety.  But  give  us  a  man,  into 
whose  heart  there  has  entered  such  a  sense 
of  the  law,  as  to  feel  the  discomfort  even 
of  a  minutest  aberration — whose  force,  or 
whose  delicacy  of  conscience,  are  such, 
that  what  would  bring  no  compunction 
into  the  hearts  of  other  men,  is  sure  to 
overwhelm  his  with  a  conviction  of  guilt 
in  its  darkest  imagery,  and  its  most  brood- 


LECTURE   XXVIII. — CHAPTER   V,    20,    21. 


143 


ing  and  fearful  anticipations — who  figures 
himself  to  have  fallen,  and  perhaps  irre- 
coverably fallen ;  and  that  by  a  slip, 
which,  giving  no  concern  to  the  feelings 
of  ordinary  mortals,  would  still  leave  them 
in  possession  of  all  the  complacency  and 
all  the  conscious  uprightness  that  they 
ever  had,  or  that  they  ever  care  for — We 
say  of  such  a  man,  that,  if  without  help 
and  comfort  from  the  gospel,  the  law,  in 
all  the  strictness  he  sees  to  be  in  it,  is  all 
he  has  to  deal  with — he  is  positively  in 
greater  danger  from  the  lesser  delin- 
quency into  which  he  has  fallen,  than  the 
other  is  from  his  transgression  of  tenfold 
enormity.  For  to  him  so  sensitive  of 
guilt,  it  has  been  a  more  grievous  surren- 
der of  principle  ;  and  to  him  so  tender  of 
character,  has  there  been  the  infliction  of 
a  sorer  and  more  mortifying  wound  ;  and 
to  him  so  conversant  in  the  sanctions  and 
obligations  of  righteousness,  does  it  look 
a  more  desperate  overthrow,  that  he  ever 
came  to  have  forgotten  them  ;  and  to  him 
so  unhackneyed  in  the  ways  of  trans- 
gression, will  one  distinct  instance  of  it, 
however  venial  it  may  have  looked  to 
others,  look  to  him  as  a  vile  and  virulent 
apostacy.  And  thus,  till  the  blood  of 
Christ  be  felt  in  its  cleansing  and  its 
peace-speaking  power,  may  the  man,  from 
his  very  scrupulosity,  be  in  hazard  of 
abandoning  himself,  in  utter  regardless- 
ness,  to  the  habit  of  living  forthwith  with- 
out God,  even  as  he  now  lives  without 
hope  in  the  world.  The  very  exquisite- 
ness  of  his  moral  sense,  furnishes  sin  with 
more  frequent  opportunities  for  inflicting 
upon  him  the  humiliation  of  a  defeat ; 
and,  in  the  agony  of  that  humiliation,  may 
he  the  more  readily  be  led  to  give  up  the 
contest  in  despondency  ;  and  thus,  such  is 
the  sad  fatality  of  our  condition  under  the 
law,  that,  failing  as  we  are  sure  to  do  of  a 
perfect  obedience  to  its  requisitions,  the 
more  tremblingly  alive  we  are  to  a  sense 
of  its  obligations,  the  greater  may  be  the 
advantage  that  sin  has  for  plunging  us 
into  total  and  irretrievable  discomfiture 
— thus  turning  the  law  into  a  provocative 
of  sin,  and,  through  the  weakness  of  our 
flesh,  causing  that  to  abound  against 
which  it  has  passed  its  most  solemn  and 
severe  denunciations. 

And  even  after  the  gospel  has  come  in 
with  its  hopes  and  its  assistances — this  is 
a  fact  in  our  moral  nature  which  may  be 
turned  to  most  important  account,  in  the 
great  work  of  our  sanctification.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  that,  as  that  work  pros- 
pers and  makes  progress,  the  soul  will 
become  more  delicately  alive  to  the  evil 
of  sin  ;  and  so  more  liable  to  the  paraly- 
sing influences  of  humiliation  and  dis- 
couragement, when  sin  in  hovrvcr  slight 
a  degree  has  obtained  some    idvantage 


over  It.  Nothing  will  save  it  from  apos- 
tacy, unless,  with  the  growing  delicacy  of 
its  principles  there  be  also  a  growing 
strength  of  performance  —  a  growing 
watchfulness  among  the  temptations  which 
beset  and  may  baffle  it — a  growing  jea- 
lousy of  itself,  under  the  well-founded 
conviction,  that  without  Christ  it  can  do 
nothing — a  growing  habit  of  dependence 
upon  Him,  that  He,  meeting  its  faith  by  a 
stream  of  influences  and  spiritual  nourish- 
ment out  of  His  fulness,  may  indeed  ena- 
ble it  to  do  all  things.  It  is  when  the  de- 
licacy of  moral  and  sacred  feeling  out- 
strips the  efficacy  of  these  practical  expe- 
dients, that  a  foundation  is  laid  for  dis- 
tress inconceivable,  and  perhaps  the 
backslidings  of  a  final  and  irretrievable 
apostacy;  and  hence  it  is,  that,  instead 
of  walking  in  presumptuous  security,  it  is 
the  part  of  every  honest  and  aspiring 
Christian,  who  thinketh  that  he  standeth, 
to  take  heed  lest  he  fall ;  and  never  ought 
he,  even  to  the  last  half-hour  of  his  life, 
while  it  is  his  part  to  be  ever  on  the  alert 
in  working  out  his  salvation — never  ought 
he  to  work  it  out  in  any  other  way  than 
with  fear  and  trembling. 

While  therefore  we  cannot  evade  the 
fact,  that  the  promulgation  of  a  law  has 
added  to  the  world's  guilt,  and  so  afforded 
place  for  this  reflection  against  God,  that 
by  a  thing  of  His  doing,  even  the  delivery 
of  this  law,  sin  has  been  aggravated  in 
the  character  and  increased  in  the  amount 
of  it — Yet  how  completely,  we  ask  you  to 
attend,  is  the  imputed  severity  of  this  pro- 
ceeding, in  as  far  as  you  at  least  are  con- 
cerned, done  away,  by  the  express  affir- 
mation of  the  verse  before  us — that  where 
sin  abounded  grace  did  much  more  abound. 
The  antidote  is  an  overmatch  for  the 
bane ;  and,  virulent  as  the  disease  may 
be,  there  is  a  remedy  provided,  which,  is 
not  merely  competent  for  its  utter  extirpa- 
tion ;  but,  by  the  applying  of  which  there 
is  obtained  all  the  security  of  friendship 
with  God,  and  all  the  joy  of  moral  and 
spiritual  healthfulness.  It  is  indeed  a 
sore  tyranny  of  evil ;  under  which  we  lie 
oppressed.  Sin  is  held  forth  as  reigning 
— as  seated  on  a  throne — as  fulfilling  the 
will  of  a  sovereign,  in  accomplishing  the 
work  of  destruction  ;  for  he  reigneth  unto 
death,  and  this  is  the  final  eflect  of  his 
administration.  What  a  wide  and  what  a 
paramount  authority  th  n  is  he  invested 
with — seeing  that  the  individuals  of  each 
generation,  and  all  the  generations  of  the 
world,  are  the  trophies  of  his  power.  One 
would  think  that  the  bodies  which  we 
wear  might  be  borne  up,  even  as  they 
are,  into  heaven  ;  and  there  have  inmnor- 
tality  stamped  upon  them.  But  no — Sin 
has  gotten  an  ascendancy  over  them ; 
and  the  certainty  while,  under  this,  of 


LECTURE   XXVm. CHAPTER    V,    20,    21. 


their  sinning,  brings  along  with  it  the 
necessity  of  their  dying.  There  is  no 
other  way,  it  would  appear,  in  which  this 
foul  leprosy  can  be  detached  from  that 
material  constitution,  under  vthich  we  lie 
cumbered  and  heavy-laden ;  and  so  the 
law  of  sin  and  of  death  is  irreversible. 
There  may  from  another  quarter  a  good 
and  gracious  principle  descend  upon  us, 
by  the  operation  of  which,  the  sin  that 
dwelleth  in  these  bodies  is  kept  in  check, 
and  not  suflered  to  have  the  dominion. 
But  in  the  bodies  themselves,  there  is 
nought  but  corruption.  'In  me  that  is  in 
my  flesh  thei*e  dwelleth  no  good  thing.' 
Its  natural  tendencies  are  all  away  from 
God  and  from  goodness.  Sin  may  not 
reign  over  the  whole  man,  if  there  has 
been  the  accession  to  him  by  grace  of 
that  influence,  under  which  he  is  regene- 
rated ;  but,  in  that  ingredient  of  the  old 
man  which  is  denominated  Flesh — in  all 
that  he  is  by  nature,  or  in  all  that  mere 
nature  ever  can  make  of  him,  there  is 
unmixed  sinfulness:  And  therefore  it  is, 
that,  while  the  great  object  of  contest  on 
earth  is  to  keep  nature  under  subordina- 
tion to  the  higher  and  the  better  principle 
that  we  I'eceive  by  union  with  Christ 
Jesus,  the  repose  of  heaven  will  consist  in 
our  having  got  rid  of  this  enemy  by  his 
utter  dissolution — in  our  having  been 
emancipated  from  that  old  framework, 
which  so  encompassed  us  about  with  evil 
desires  and  evil  tendencies — in  our  being 
conclusively  delivered  of  a  system,  on 
which  Death  had  to  lay  his  hand  and 
'  resolve  it  into  dust,  ere  the  soul,  translated 
into  a  glorious  body,  could,  without  im- 
pediment and  without  a  struggle,  expa- 
tiate in  the  full  enlargement  of  its  new 
and  its  holy  nature. 

Meanwhile  Death  reigns,  and  reigns 
universally.  It  has  both  a  first  and  a 
second  portion  in  all  who  obey  not  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  even  with 
those  who  do  obey,  the  body  is  all  its 
own.  So  that  in  respect  of  that  more 
visible  and  immediate  sovereignty,  which 
addresses  itself  to  the  eye  of  the  senses,  it 
revels  in  all  the  glories  of  an  undivided 
monarchy.  And  if  Death  be  the  mandate 
of  Sin — if  he  be  the  executioner  of  this 
despot's  will ;  and,  wherever  he  is  seen  to 
enter,  it  is  upon  an  errand  of  subserviency 
to  one  in  whose  hands  the  power  of  death 
is — Then  what  a  universal  lordship  has 
he  gotten,  that  not  one  family  on  earth  is 
to  be  found,  but  has  to  weep  under  the 
bondage  of  this  sore  oppressor ;  and  not 
a  man  who  breathes  on  the  face  of  our 
world,  however  lirm  his  step  and  proud 
his  attitude,  who  will  not  fall  in  prostrate 
helplessness  under  a  doom  from  which 
there  is  no  escaping.  What  a  voucher 
for  the  holiness  of  God,  and  for  the  malig- 


nity of  that  sin  which  He  hateth,  that, 
wherever  it  exists.  Death  and  Destruction 
go  along  with  it — that  on  those  men  over 
whom  sin  prevails,  death  both  temporal 
and  eternal  is  laid  as  a  penalty ;  and  that 
to  those  men  with  whom  sin  is  present  in 
their  vile  bodies  though  it  has  not  the 
dominion,  death  comes  to  release  them 
from  the  plague — to  strip  them  of  their 
bodies,  as  they  would  do  of  a  garment 
spotted  with  infection,  and  cause  them  to 
undergo  a  cleansing  process  in  their 
sepulchre :  And  it  is  indeed  a  striking 
testimony  to  the  regal  power  and  state  of 
Sin,  that  he  carries  this  sore  fatality  over 
the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  our 
species ;  and,  sitting  enthroned  over  the 
destinies  of  man,  makes  universal  spoil 
of  our  dying  nature,  and  holds  it  forth  as 
the  trophy  of  his  greatness. 

The  honour  of  a  king  is  concerned  in 
upholding  the  integrity  of  his  dominions, 
and  in  the  keeping  up  of  an  unbroken 
authority  over  them ;  and  hence  may  we 
conclude,  from  the  expression  of  sin  reign- 
ing, that,  if  this  imply  regal  power  vested 
in  a  conscious  and  intelligent  being,  there 
is  indeed  a  busy  and  an  active  interest  at 
work  against  our  species.  And  taking 
the  Bible  for  our  guide,  there  is  such  a 
being,  who  is  said  to  have  the  power  of 
death ;  and  who  is  styled  from  the  high 
ascendancy  to  which  he  has  arisen,  the 
god  of  this  world ;  and  whom  we  recog- 
nise to  be  him  whom  we  read  of  as  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  and  as  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  darkness;  and 
who,  seated  as  he  is  upon  a  throne,  must 
feel  that  his  glory  is  at  stake  on  the  per- 
petuity of  that  peculiar  empire  over  which 
he  is  exalted  :  And  hence  the  undoubted 
truth,  that  the  might  and  the  strenousness 
and  the  ambitious  desires  of  one  most 
daring  in  enterprise,  and  most  subtle  in 
design,  and  most  formidable  in  power  and 
in  resources,  are  all  embarked  on  the 
object  of  our  subjugation.  The  instru- 
ment of  our  overthrow  is  sin ;  and  the 
result  of  it  is,  that  second  and  everlasting 
death,  the  reign  of  which  forms  the  domain 
of  his  rule  and  monarchy — and,  from  the 
very  expression  of  sin  reigning,  may  we 
infer  that  a  thirst  for  power,  and  the  dread 
or  the  shame  of  a  fallen  majesty,  are  all 
at  work  in  the  heart  of  one  who  is  busy 
in  the  plying  of  his  devices,  and  most 
assiduous  in  the  prosecution  of  them  for 
the  purpose  of  destroying  us. 

This  looks  abundantly  menacing  to- 
wards our  helpless  and  degenerate  race  • 
but  by  the  side  of  the  expression  that  sin 
reigneth  unto  death,  let  us  point  your  re- 
gards to  the'  counterpart  expression  ot 
grace  reigning  unto  eternal  life.  And 
thi.s,  as  in  the  former  case,  implies  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  personification. 


LECTURE   XXVIII. CHAPTER    V,    20,    21. 


145 


It  implies  a  living  monarch — one  who  sits 
upon  a  rival  throne — and  who  is  intent 
upon  an  object,  directly  and  diametrically 
the  reverse  of  that  of  his  antagonist.  In 
other  words,  if  there  be  a  kingly  ambition 
which  is  against  us,  there  is  a  kingly  am- 
bition that  is  also  upon  our  side.  If  it  be 
the  pijxle  of  one  monarch  to  enslave  our 
race,  iris  the  dignity  of  another  monarch 
to  deliver  us;  and  ihe  desire  of  mighty 
potentates  is  thus  embarked  on  a  contest, 
the  issues  of  which  are  death  or  life  to  our 
species.  We  read  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a 
King  in  Zion,  and  of  His  having  come  to 
destroy  the  works  of  the  devil — even  of 
him  who  has  the  power  of  death  ;  and  the 
glory  of  His  character  is  surely  linked 
with  the  success  of  His  undertaking  ;  and 
thus  is  our  lower  world  the  arena,  as  it 
were,  of  a  contest,  which  involves  in  it,  not 
merely,  the  future  condition  of  those  who 
live  in  it — but  the  renown  of  mighty  com- 
batants, who,  arrayed  in  hostility  against 
each  other,  are  striving  for  the  renown  of 
victory. 

Now  it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  regaling 
your  imaginations  that  we  thus  speak,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  assuring  and  strengthen- 
ing your  faith.  We  want  you  to  see,  how 
the  majesty  is  as  much  concerned  as  the 
mercy  of  God,  in  the  work  of  your  Re- 
demption. We  want  you  to  feel  how 
manifold  the  guarantees  of  your  deliver- 
ance are,  if  you  will  only  flee  for  refuge 
to  the  hope  set  before  you  in  the  gospel. 
We  want  you  to  perceive  how  your  safety 
and  the  honour  of  the  great  Mediator  are 
most  thoroughly  at  one.  Do  you  think, 
that,  warring  as  He  does  with  the  great 
adversary  of  human  souls,  He  will  ever 
permit  him  the  triumph  of  a  final  victory 
over  those,  who,  cheered  forward  by  His 
own  invitation,  are  now  trusting  to  His 
grace,  and  looking  onward  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  His  promises.  He  hath  graven 
upon  an  open  and  indelible  record  these 
memorable  words,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  shall  be  saved.  Can  you  figure  it 
then,  that,  on  the  great  day  of  the  wind- 
ing up  of  the  gospel  economy — Satan  will 
have  it  in  his  power  to  revile  either  the 
truth  or  ability  of  the  Saviour ;  or  to  fasten 
upon  an  individual  who  believed  in  the 
Son  of  God,  and  yet  whom  the  Son  of  God 
hath  not  rescued  from  the  grasp  of  this 
destroyer  ]  Jesus  Christ  hath  embarked 
His  own  credit  upon  your  salvation. 
Should  any  have  faith  in  Him,  and  yet 
not  be  saved.  He  will  not  only  fail  in  that 
which  His  heart  is  most  assuredly  set 
upon  ;  but  He  will  be  foiled  in  His  own 
enterprise,  and  that  too  by  a  most  hateful 
and  hated  antagonist.  The  destruction  of 
one  who  has  faith,  were  the  degradation 
of  Him  who  is  the  author  and  the  finisher 
of  faith  ;  and  hence  an  argument  for  your 
19 


security  in  believing — for  the  perfect  re- 
pose of  that  acquiescence,  wherewith  you 
may  lie  down  among  the  promises  of  the 
gospel — for  keeping  firm  and  fast,  that 
confidence  in  which  you  have  begun — 
Seeing  that  grace  has  not  only  set  out  on 
a  warfare  against  sin, — but  that  grace  is 
seated  on  a  throne,  and  the  salvation  of 
those  who  have  been  obedient  to  Heaven's 
call  is  essential  to  the  truth  of  Heaven's 
voice  and  the  triumph  of  Heaven's  monar- 
chy. 

And  a  similar  argument  may  be  drawn 
from  the  clause  of  grace  reigning  through 
righteousness.  It  is  this  which  forms  the 
leading  peculiarity  of  the  evangelical  dis- 
pensation. It'  is  a  dispensation  of  mercy 
no  doubt,  but  not  of  simple  and  unaccom- 
panied mercy.  It  has  more  upon  its 
aspect  and  character  than  the  one  expres- 
sion of  tenderness.  There  was  compas- 
sion in  the  movement  which  then  took 
place  from  Heaven  to  Earth  ;  but  this  does 
not  complete  the  history  of  the  move- 
ment. It  was  compassion  towards  sinners ; 
and  God's  righteous  abhorrence  of  sin, 
was  mixed  up  with  the  forthgoings  of  His 
benevolent  desire  towards  those  who  had 
been  guilty  of  it.  The  boon  of  reconcilia- 
tion descended  upon  the  world  ;  but  it 
found  its  way  through  a  peculiar  medium, 
and  that  was  a  medium  of  righteousness — 
and,  to  meet  on  our  part  this  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Godhead,  it  is  not  enough  that 
we  regard  it  in  the  light  of  mercy  and 
nothing  else — it  will  not  be  accepted  that 
we  rely  on  the  general  kindness  and  good- 
will of  the  Deity  ;  but  it  is  altogether  in 
dispensable  to  our  safety,  that,  while  we 
rejoice  in  His  grace,  we  should  receive  it 
as  a  grace  which  has  come  to  us  through 
righteousness  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

So  that  the  sinner  on  entering  into  peace 
with  God,  does  reverence  to  the  purity  of 
God.  And  when  he  draws  upon  the  com- 
passion of  the  divine  nature,  he  renders 
homage  to  the  holiness  of  the  divine  na- 
ture. Did  he  hold  singly  upon  His  com- 
passion— then  the  truth  which  stood  com- 
mitted to  the  fulfilmentof  its  denunciations, 
and  the  justice  that  had  been  offended  by 
sin,  would  have  been  left  without  provi- 
sion and  without  a  safeguard.  But  the 
great  Sacrifice  has  resolved  all  these  diffi- 
culties ;  and  you  by  depending,  not  on 
the  general  attribute  of  mercy,  but  on  the 
redemption  that  is  through  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  can,  consistently  with  all  the 
honours  of  the  Divinity,  obtain  the  for- 
giveness of  all  your  trespasses.  Out  of 
the  way  of  this  consecrated  mediatorship, 
you  will  never  meet  the  mercy  of  the  God- 
head— and  in  this  way  you  will  never 
miss  it. 

But  such  an  economy  is  not  only  essen- 
tial to  the  dignity  of  the  Lawgiver.    It 


146 


LECTURE   XXVIII. CHAPTER   V,    20,    21. 


serves  to  complete  the  security  of  the  sin- 
ner. It  makes  known  to  him,  how  God 
can  be  just  while  the  justifier  of  those 
who  believe  in  Jesus.  It  enables  him  to 
meet  without  dismay  the  whole  aspect  and 
character  of  God,  in  the  full  expression 
of  all  the  attributes  which  belong  to  Him. 
It  harmonises  thd  sterner  with  the  gentler 
perfections  of  that  Being,  with  whom  we 
have  to  do ;  and  the  sinner  can  now  de- 
light himself  in  the  abundance  of  his 
peace — when  ho  thinks  that  the  very 
equity  and  unchangeableness  of  the  God- 
head are  now  upon  his  side.  It  does  add 
to  his  confidence  in  the  grace  of  the  gos- 
pel, when  he  views  it  as  seated  on  a 
throne  ;  and  thus,  in  all  its  manifestations, 
holding  forth  the  sovereignty  of  the  Su- 
preme Eeing.  But  it  adds  still  more  to 
his  confidence,  when  he  views  it  as  grace 
through  righteousness ;  and  thus  holding 
forth  the  sacredness  of  the  Supreme  Be- 
ing. He  then  sees  no  obstruction  in  the 
way  of  its  reaching  even  unto  him.  The 
terrors  of  his  guilty  conscience  give  way, 
when  he  perceives  that  the  very  attributes, 
which,  without  an  atonement,  would  have 
stood  leagued  in  hostility  against  him — 
with  an  atonement,  form  the  best  guaran- 
tees of  his  hope  and  safety.  God  now  is 
not  only  merciful  to  forgive — He  is  faith- 
ful and  just  to  forgive.  lie  will  not  draw 
upon  the  surety,  and  upon  the  debtor 
both.  He  will  have  a  full  reckoning  with 
guilt ;  but  Ho  will  not  have  more  than  a 
full  reckoning  by  exacting  both  a  penalty 
and  a  propitiation  :  And  the  man  who 
trusts  to  the  propitiation,  may  be  very 
sure  that  the  penalty  will  never  reach 
him.  The  destroying  angel,  on  finding 
him  marked  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  will 
pass  him  by  ;  and  the  agitated  sinner 
who  sought  in  vain  for  rest  to  the  sole  of 
his  foot,  so  long  as  the  great  peace-otfer- 
^  ing  stood  unrevealed  to  his  conscience, 
and  the  tidings  of  an  accepted  sacrifice 
fell  upon  his  ear  without  conviction  and 
without  efficacy,  may,  on  the  moment  of 
his  believing  in  the  word  of  the  testimony, 
feel  how  firm  the  transition  is  which  he 
maketh  from  death  unto  life. — when, 
through  Him  who  died  the  just  for  the 
unjust,  he  now  draws  near  unto  God. 

it  finishes  our  exposition  of  this  pas- 
sage, when  we  point  your  eye  to  the  great 
agent  in  the  work  of  mediation.  Grace 
reigns  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    He  by  his 


death  bore  the  punishment  that  you 
should  have  borne.  He  by  his  obedience 
won  a  righteousness,  the  reckoning  and 
the  reward  of  which  are  transferred  unto 
you  ;  and  you,  by  giving  credit  to  the 
good  news,  are  deemed  by  God  as  having 
accepted  of  all  these  benefits  and  will  be 
dealt  with  accordingly.  You  cann%t  trust 
too  simply  to  the  Saviour.  You  cannot 
place  too  strong  a  reliance  on  His  death 
as  your  discharge.  Y'ou  are  making  the 
very  use  of  Him  that  was  intended,  and 
do  Him  that  honour  wherewith  He  is  most 
pleased,  when  you  venture  your  all  upon 
Him  both  fur  time  and  for  eternity.  We 
do  not  bid  you  earn  a  place  in  heaven. 
We  do  not  bid  you  work  for  your  forgive- 
ness. We  bid  you  receive  it.  We  bid 
you  hope  for  it.  And  eternal  life  will  be 
the  sure  result  of  your  thus  receiving  and 
thus  hoping.  Could  we  get  you  truly  to 
rely,  we  are  not  afraid  of  licentiousness. 
Many  see  a  lurking  antinomianism  in  the 
doctrine  of  faith.  But  where  there  is  a 
true  faith  there  is  no  antinomianism.  It 
has  its  fruit  unto  holiness  here,  and  then 
everlasting  life  hereafter.  But  do  try,  ere 
you  embark  on  that  course  of  new  obedi- 
ence which  leadeth  to  the  final  abode  of 
holy  and  happy  creatures — do  try  to  have 
peace  in  your  conscience  with  God.  Do 
dwell  on  the  simple  affirmation  which  you 
meet  with  in  the  New  Testament,  of  a 
Saviour  who  welcomes  all  sinners,  and  of 
a  blood  which  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  Do 
let  the  terrors  and  the  suspicion  of  guilt 
take  their  departure  from  your  labouring 
bosom  ;  and  then  emptied  of  all  that  kept 
God  at  a  distance  from  you,  will  there  be 
room  for  those  feelings  and  those  princi- 
ples which  form  the  rudiments  of  the  new 
creature  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Love 
will  cast  out  fear.  Delight  in  God  will  tako 
the  place  of  dismay.  The  heart  emanci- 
pated from  bondage,  will  rise  freely  and 
gratefully  to  Him,  in  all  the  buoyancy  pf 
its  new-felt  enlargement.  It  will  be  found 
that  the  legal  spirit,  with  its  accompany- 
ing sensations  of  jealousy  and  disquietude 
and  distrust,  that  this  in  fact  is  the  mighty 
drag  which  keeps  back  the  only  obedi- 
ence that  is  at  all  acceptable — the  obedi- 
ence of  good  will.  And  the  faith  which 
we  now  urge  upon  you  in  all  its  strength 
and  in  all  its  simplicity,  is  not  more  the 
harbinger  of  peace  to  a  sinner's  heart, 
than  it  is  the  sure  and  unfailing  germ  of 
his  progressive  holiness. 


LECTURE  XXIX. — CHAPTER  VI,  1,  2. 


147 


LECTURE  XXIX. 


Romans  vi,  1,  2. 

"  What  shall  we  say  then  t  shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  1    God  forbid.    How  shall  we,  that  aro 

dead  to  sin,  live  any  longer  tiierein  1 


We  have  ever  been  in  the  habit  of  re- 
garding this  chapter  as  the  passage  of 
greatest  interest  in  the  Bible — -as  that  in 
which  the  greatest  quantity  of  scriptural 
light  is  thrown  on  what  to  the  eye  of  the 
general  world  is  a  depth  and  a  mystery — 
even  on  that  path  of  transition  which 
leads  from  the  imputed  righteousness  that 
is  by  faith,  to  the  personal  righteousness 
that  is  by  new  and  spiritual  obedience. 
We  know  not  a  single  theme  in  the  whole 
compass  of  Christianity,  on  which  there 
rests  to  the  natural  discernment  a  cloud 
of  thicker  obscurity,  than  that  which  re- 
lates to  the  origin  and  grov/th  of  a  believ- 
er's holiness — nor  is  it  seen  how,  after  an 
immunity  so  ample  for  sin  has  been  pro- 
vided by  an  atonement  of  which  the  pow- 
er is  infinite  as  the  Divinity  Himself,  there 
remaineth  any  inducement  to  obedience 
so  distinct  and  palpable  and  certain  of 
operation,  as  that  which  is  offered  by  the 
law  of  'Do  this  and  live' — a  law  that  we 
are  given  to  understand  is  now  superseded 
by  the  gospel  terms  of  'Believe  and  ye 
shall  be  saved.'  It  is  of  importance  to 
know  surely  what  were  the  first  sugges- 
tions which  arose  in  the  apostolical  mind, 
when  met  by  what  appears  to  be  a  most 
plausible  and  pertinent  objection  taken  to 
tiie  doctrine  of  grace,  as  if  it  led  to  licen- 
tiousness ;  or  to  the  doctrine  of  a  free  and 
full  remission  of  sin,  as  if  it  encouraged 
the  disciple  to  a  secure  and  Vi'anton  per- 
severance in  all  its  practices.  In  the 
apostle's  reply  to  this,  we  might  expect 
those  ligaments  to  be  made  bare  to  our 
view,  by  which  justification  and  sanctiti- 
cation  are  bound  together  in  constant  and 
inseparable  alliance ;  and  in  virtue  of 
which  it  is,  that  a  sinner  both  feels  him- 
.self  secure  from  the  penalty  of  sin,  and 
keeps  himself  most  strenuously  and  fear- 
fully aloof  from  the  performance  of  it. 

We  have  already  said  that  it  was  of 
use  to  mark  the  recurrence  of  similar 
phrases  in  the  train  of  the  apostle's  rea- 
soning, as  it  may  serve  to  mark  the  con- 
nection of  its  distant  parts,  and  thus  to 
afford  a  more  commanding  view  of  his 
whole  argument.  We  have  no  doubt  that 
the  question  of  this  verse  "Shall  we  con- 
tinue in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  1" — 
was  prompted  by  a  recently  written  sen- 
tence in  the  preceding  chapter,  the  very 
cadence  of  which  seemed  to  be  still  alive 
in  the  apostle's  memory — "Where   sin 


abounded  grace  did  much  more  abound." 
— It  is  well  to  trace  the  continuity  of 
Scripture,  broken  and  disjointed  as  it  is 
by  the  artificial  division  that  has  been 
made  of  it  into  chapters  and  verses — to 
read  the  letter  of  an  inspired  writer,  as 
you  would  i-ead  the  letter  of  an  ordinary 
acquaintance,  not  in  sheets,  but  as  an  en- 
tire composition,  through  which  there 
possibly  runs  the  drift  of  one  prevailing 
conception  which  he  aims  to  establish  ; 
and  thus  it  is  that  we  think  to  have  pro- 
fited, by  the  perusal  of  those  editions  of 
the  Bible,  which  vary  from  the  one  thai* 
is  current,  by  the  simple  device  of  omiU 
ting  the  verses,  and  casting  it  like  any 
ordinary  book  into  sections  and  para- 
graphs. But  the  possession  of  the  Bible 
in  such  a  form  is  by  no  means  indispensa- 
ble. In  reading  the  bibles  that  you  have, 
be  aware  of  the  concatenation  that  we 
now  speak  of;  and  let  it  not  be  frittered 
away  on  yotu'  minds,  by  those  mechani- 
cal breaks  through  which,  to  a  listless 
peruser  of  Holy  Writ,  the  sense  is  oflen 
interrupted.  In  guarding  against  the  dis- 
advantage which  has  just  been  specified, 
you  willbe  led  to  tlie  habit  of  comparing 
scripture  with  scripture — a  habit,  which, 
if  accompanied  by  that  divine  ifiumina- 
tion  without  which  even  the  Bible  itself  is 
made  up  of  bare  and  barren  literalities, 
will  be  altogether  tantamount  to  that  habit 
of  the  apostle,  through  which  he  became 
a  proficient  in  the  wisdom  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  teacheth — even  the  habit  of  com- 
parinsc  spiritual  things  with  spiritual. 

V.  2.  "  God  forbid  "—Let  us  here  bid 
you  remark  the  prompt  decisive  and  un- 
hesitating reply  of  the  apostle,  to  the 
question  wherew.ith  he  introduces  this 
chapter.  Paul  has  by  way  of  eminence 
been  called  the  apostle  of  justification. 
By  no  other  has  the  doctrine  of  pardon  ;is 
held  out  in  fi-ee  dispensation  on  the  one 
hand,  and  as  received  by  simple  trust 
upon  the  other,  been  more  fully  and  zeal- 
ously vindicated.  Heaven,  instead  of 
coming  to  the  sinner  through  the  medium 
of  wages  and  work,  is  made  to  come  to 
him  through  the  medium  of  a  gift  and  an 
acceptance.  One  would  think  from  his 
representation  of  the  matter,  that  salva- 
tion was  brought  to  the  door  of  a  sinner's 
bosom,  nay  even  pressing  against  it  for 
admittance ;  and  that  you  have  simply  to 
open  the  do'or,  and  by  an  act  of  suffer- 


148 


LECTURE   XXIX. CHAPTER   VI,    1,    2. 


ance  to  allow  its  ingress,  and  thus  to  feed 
upon  it  and  rejoice.  God,  the  offended 
party,  beseeches  the  transgressor  to  be 
reconciled  ;  and  it  is  when  the  transgres- 
sor pleases  consent  and  compliance  with 
this  entreaty,  that  the  act  of  reconcilia- 
tion is  struck,  and  an  agreement  is  en- 
tered upon.  All  this  is  implied  in  the 
preceding  argament  of  the  apostle,  and 
in  the  terms  of  constant  recurrence  that 
he  employs  during  the  prosecution  of  it. 
The  tenure  upon  which  eternal  life  is 
given,  and  upon  which  it  is  held  under 
the  economy  of  the  gospel — is  made 
abundantly  manifest  by  such  phrases  as 
•grace,'  and  'free  grace,'  and  'justifica- 
tion of  faith  and  not  of  works,'  and  the 
'  gift  of  righteousness '  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  '  receiving  of  the  atonement '  on 
the  other.  And  yet  the  apostle,  warm 
from  the  delivery  of  these  intimations,, 
and  just  discharged  of  the  tidings  of  a 
sinner's  impunity  if  he  will,  and  within  a 
single  breath  of  having  uttered  that  where 
there  was  abundance  of  guilt  there  was  a 
superabundance  of  grace  in  store  for  it — 
when  met  by  the  question  of  What  then  1 
shall  we  do  more  of  this  sin,  that  we  may 
draw  more  of  this  grace  1  is  ready  at  the 
warning  of  a  single  moment,  with  a  most 
clear  and  emphatic  negative.  And  he 
gives  his  affirmation,  before  he  gives  his 
argument  upon  the  subject.  On  his  sim- 
ple authority  as  a  messenger  from  God, 
he  enters  his  solemn  caveat  against  the 
continuance  of  sin — so  that  should  you 
understand  not  his  reasoning,  you  may  at 
least  be  fully  assured  of  the  truth,  that, 
lavish  and  liberal  as  the  gospel  is  of  its 
forgiveness  for  the  past,  it  has  no  tolera- 
tion either  for  the  purposes  or  for  the 
practices  of  sin  in  future. 

Couple  this  verse  with  the  one  that  we 
have  recently  alluded  to  ;  and  you  make 
out,  from  the  simple  change  of  tense,  as 
you  pass  from  the  one  to  the  other,  two 
of  the  most  important  lessons  of  Chris- 
tianity. By  the  first  verse  we  are  told  that 
where  sin  abounded  grace  did  much  more 
abound.  By  the  second  we  are  resolved 
as  to  the  question.  "Shall  I  continue  in 
sin  that  grace  may  abound  1"  with  the  de- 
cisive and  unqualified  answer  of,  No  most 
assuredly.  With  the  first  of  these  verses 
we  feel  ourselves  warranted,  to  offer  the 
fullest  indemnity  to  the  worst  and  most 
worthless  among  you,  for  all  the  offences, 
however  many  and  however  aggravated 
of  your  past  history.  We  know  not  what 
the  measure  of  your  iniquity  may  have 
been.  We  are  not  privy  to  the  scenes  of 
profligacy  and  lawless  abandonment, 
through  which  you  may  have  passed. 
We  are  not  in  the  secret  of  any  of  those 
foul  atrocities,  wherewith  the  perhaps  now 
agonised  memory  of  some  hearer  is  charg- 


ing him.  We  cannot  take  the  dimensions 
of  the  crime  and  the  carelessness  and  the 
ungodliness,  of  those  years  that  have  now 
rolled  over  you — But  whatever  these  di- 
mensions may  be,  we  are  entitled  to  pro- 
claim an  element  of  surpassing  magnitude, 
that  will  pluck  the  sting  out  of  this  sore 
moral  distemper,  and  most  effectually  neu- 
tralise it.  Your  sin  has  abounded,  and  if 
you  feel  aright  your  conscience  will  re- 
echo our  affirmation  ;  but  the  grace  of 
God  has  much  more  abounded.  Be  as- 
sured every  one  who  is  now  present,  that 
there  is  no  sin  into  which  he  has  ever 
fallen,  that  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
great  gospel  atonement — no  guilt  of  so 
deep  and  inveterate  a  die,  that  the  blood 
of  a  crucified  Saviour  cannot  wash  away. 
It  is  thus  that  we  would  cheer  and  brighten 
the  retrospect  of  every  sinner's  contem- 
plations. It  is  thus  that  we  would  cast 
the  offer  and  assurance  of  pardon  over  the 
whole  extent  of  the  life  that  has  passed 
away  ;  and,  arresting  you  at  this  point  of 
your  personal  history,  at  which  we  are 
pouring  forth  our  present  utterance  in 
your  hearing — I  would  say,  "  Come  now 
and  let  us  reason  together,  though  your 
sins  were  as  scarlet  they  shall  become  as 
wool,  though  they  were  as  crimson  they 
shall  be  made  white  as  snow." 

But  the  sinner,  from  the  station  that  he 
at  this  moment  occupies,  has  not  merely 
to  look  back — he  should  also  look  for- 
ward, and  hold  up  the  light  of  the  gospel, 
not  merely  to  the  region  of  memory  which 
he  has  already  travelled,  but  also  to  the 
region  of  anticipation  on  which  he  is  en- 
tering. And  let  it  never  be  forgotten  by 
you,  ye  men  who  are  now  in  earnestness 
and  thoughtful  inquiry,  and  for  aught  we 
know  may  be  at  the  very  turning  point  of 
your  eternal  salvation — forget  not  we  say 
that  the  same  gospel  which  sheds  an  obli- 
vion over  all  the  sinfulness  of  your  past 
lives,  enters  upon  a  war  of  extermination 
against  all  your  future  sinfulness.  You 
have  not  yet  come  under  its  economy  a' 
all,  if  you  have  not  embarked  on  the  strug- 
gle of  all  your  powers  and  all  your  pur- 
poses with  the  power  of  iniquity  over  you 
— nor  would  we  say  of  you  on  the  one 
hand  that  grace  has  abounded  unto  the 
forgiveness  of  sin,  unless  we  saw  of  5'ou 
on  the  other  an  honest  and  determined 
habit  of  exertion  against  the  continuance 
of  sin.  We  may  not  be  able  to  follow  the 
apostle  in  his  argument;  but  we  may  at 
least  take  up  his  affirmation.  Whether 
or  not  we  shall  see  the  intermediate  steps 
of  that  process,  through  which  a  sinner  is 
conducted  from  the  sense  of  his  reconcilia- 
tion with  God  to  the  strenuousness  of  a 
conflict  that  is  unremitting  against  all 
iniquity — yet  may  we  be  very  sure,  from 
the  averment  before  us,  that  such  actually 


LECTURE   XXIX. CHAPTER,    VI,    1,    2. 


149 


is  the  process ;  and  that  such,  in  the  case 
of  every  real  believer,  is  the  personal  and 
the  practical  result  of  it.  And — not  more 
surely  doe.s  the  gospel  cast  a  veil  over  the 
transgressions  by  which  the  retrospect  of 
your  history  is  deformed,  than,  in  some 
way  or  other,  it  sends _forth  a  sanative  in- 
fluence by  which  to  restrain  transgression 
throughout  the  remainder  of  your  pilgrim- 
age in  the  world. 

V.  2.  Yet  we  should  like  to  know  the 
intervening  steps  by  which  a  sinner  is  led 
onwards  from  his  justification  to  his  sanc- 
tification ;  and  more  especially  when  we 
find  that  curiosity  in  this  matter,  is  war- 
ranted by  the  apostle  himself  leading  the 
way,  in  a  train  of  argumentation  which 
he  presents  throughout  the  whole  line  of 
the  chapter  before  us.  To  follow  the 
apostle  with  a  view  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand his  reasoning  upon  this  subject,  is 
not  surely  any  attempt  on  our  part  to  be 
wise  above  that  which  is  written,  but 
rather  the  altogether  fair  and  legitimate 
attempt  to  be  wise  up  to  that  which  is 
written.  And  we  repeat  that  we  know  of 
no  track  in  the  field  of  Christianity  more 
hidden  from  the  general  eye,  and  yet  of 
more  big  and  eventful  importance  in  the 
history  of  every  believer,  than  that  by 
which  he  is  carried  onward  from  the  re- 
mission of  his  sin  to  the  renewal  of  his 
soul — and  so  is  made  to  exemplify  the 
walk  of  one,  who  feels  himself  to  be  se- 
cure against  the  punishment  of  sin,  and 
yet  sets  himself  in  the  attitude  of  deter- 
mined and  unsparing  warfare  against  its 
power. 

It  is  altogether  essential  to  our  under- 
standing the  sense  of  the  apostle's  argu- 
ment, that  we  find  the  import  of  the  phrase 
"dead  unto  sin  ;"  and  it  so  happens  that 
it  admits  of  a  twofold  interpretation,  which 
might  serve  to  bewilder  us,  did  not  each 
of  them  suggest  an  argument  against  our 
continuance  in  sin,  that  is  in  every  way 
accordant  with  some  of  the  plainest  and 
most  unambiguous  passages  in  the  New 
Testament. 

The  term  'dead,'  in  the  phrase  'dead 
unto  sin,'  may  be  understood  forensically 
— in  which  case  it  is  not  meant  that  we 
are  dead  in  fact,  but  dead  in  law ;  or  it 
may  be  understood  personally,  in  which 
case  the  being  dead  unto  sin  will  mean 
that  we  are  dead  thereunto  in  our  affec- 
tions for  it — that  we  are  no  longer  alive 
to  the  power  of  its  allurements  ;  but  that, 
in  virtue  of  the  appetites  of  our  sensitive 
frame  being  mortified  to  the  pleasures 
which  are  but  for  a  season,  we  sin  not  as 
we  wont,  just  because  the  incitements  to 
sin  have  not  the  power  they  wont  to 
seduce  us  unto  the  ways  of  disobedience. 

It  may  be  remarked  ere  we  proceed 
farther,  that  many  commentators  under-  [ 


stand  this  phrase  according  to  the  latter 
explanation — yet  the  former  we  think 
ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  as  it  involves 
a  principle  most  true  and  important  in 
itself,  and  brings  out  an  argument  against 
our  continuance  in  sin,  which  is  in  most 
striking  harmony  with  one  of  the  most 
explicit  and  memorable  quotations  that 
can  be  educed  from  the  whole  compass 
of  the  sacred  volume. 

To  understand  forensically  the  phrase 
that  we  are  dead  unto  sin,  is  to  understand 
that  for  sin  we  are  dead  in  law.  The 
doom  of  death  was  upon  us  on  account  of 
sin ;  and  we  were  in  the  condition  of 
malefactors,  on  whom  capital  sentence 
had  been  pronounced,  and  who  were  now 
in  that  place  of  imprisonment  from  whence 
they  were  shortly  to  be  led  forth  to  exe- 
cution. Conceive  that  the  whole  amount 
of  the  punishment  for  sin  was  the  simple 
annihilation  of  the  sinner — that,  just  as 
under  a  civil  government  a  criminal  is 
often  put  to  death  for  the  vindication  of 
its  authority  and  for  the  removal  of  a 
nuisance  from  society,  so,  let  it  be  ima- 
gined, that,  under  the  jurisprudence  of 
Heaven,  an  utter  extinction  of  being  was 
laid  upon  the  sinner,  both  for  the  purpose 
of  maintaining,  in  respect  and  authority. 
Heaven's  law,  and  also  for  the  purpose 
of  removing  a  nuisance  and  a  contamina- 
tion from  the  great  spiritual  family.  Let 
us  further  imagine,  not  merely  that  the 
sentence  is  pronounced,  but  that  the  sen- 
tence is  executed;  that  the  life  of  the 
transgressor  is  taken  away  ;  and  that,  by 
an  act  of  extermination  reaching  to  the 
soul  as  well  as  to  the  body,  the  whole 
light  of  consciousness  is  put  out,  and  he  is 
expunged  altogether  from  the  face  of 
God's  animated  creation.  There  could  be 
no  misunderstanding  of  the  phrase,  if 
when,  in  speaking  of  this  individual  after 
all  this  had  befallen  him,  you  were  to  say 
that  he  was  dead  unto  or  dead  for  sin  ; 
and  such  an  announcement  regarding  him 
were  just  as  distinctly  intelligible,  as 
when  you  tell  of  one  who  has  undergone 
the  capital  sentence  of  the  law,  that  he 
was  one  who  for  his  crimes  had  suffered 
execution. 

It  is  conceivable  after  such  a  catas- 
trophe, that  God  may  have  devised  a 
way,  by  which,  in  consistency  with  His 
own  character  and  with  all  the  purposes 
of  His  government,  He  might  remake  and 
reanimate  the  creature  who  had  under- 
gone this  infliction — might  assemble  the 
particles  of  his  now  dissipated  materialism 
into  the  same  body  as  before,  and  might 
infuse  into 'it  a  spirit,  on  which  He  shall 
stamp  the  very  same  identical  conscious- 
ness as  before,  and  thus  introduce  it  once 
again  within  that  universe  of  life  where  it 
wont  to  expatiate.    The  phrase  we  are 


150 


LECTURE  XXIX. — CHAPTER  VI,  1,  2. 


dead  unto  sin,  might  still  adhere  to  him, 
though  now  iilive  from  the  dead.  It  had 
been  still  our  rightful  sentence,  and  we 
would  still  have  been  lying  under  it — had 
not  some  expedient  been  fallen  upon,  or 
some  equivalent  been  rendered,  in  virtue 
of  which  it  is  that  we  have  been  recalled 
from  the  chambers  of  dark  nonentity,  and 
been  made  to  break  forth  again  upon  a 
peopled  scene  of  sense  and  intelligence 
and  feeling.  And  in  these  circumstances, 
is  it  for  us  to  continue  in  sin — we  who  for 
sin  were  consigned  to  annihilation,  and 
have  only  by  the  kindness  of  a  Saviour 
been  rescued  from  it — is  it  for  us  to  repeat 
that  thing,  of  whose  malignity  we  have 
had  in  our  own  persons  such  a  dreadful 
experience?  Is  it  for  us,  on  whom  the 
blow  of  God's  insulted  and  provoked  au- 
thority has  so  tremendously  fallen,  and 
who  under  its  force  would  still,  but  for  a 
Redeemer's  interference,  have  been  pro- 
foundly asleep  in  the  womb  of  nothing- 
ness— is  it  for  us  again  to  brave  the  dis- 
pleasure of  that  God  whose  hatred  of  sin 
is  as  unchangeable  as  his  sacredness  is 
unchangeable  ? — Above  all  is  it  for  us, 
who  have  had  such  recent  demonstration 
of  the  antipathies  that  subsist  between  sin 
and  holiness — is  it  for  us,  who  experimen- 
tally know  that  under  the  government  of 
the  one  there  for  the  other  can  be  no 
harbour  and  no  toleration — is  it  for  us, 
who  have  learned  from  our  own  history, 
that  sin  is  not  permitted  so  much  as  to 
Ijreathe  within  the  limits  of  God's  beloved 
family,  and  that  to  keep  it  clear  of  a 
scandal  so  foul  and  so  enormous  He  roots 
up  every  plant  and  specimen  that  is 
stained  by  it — is  it  for  us  Avho,  have  thus 
once  been  rooted  up  and  once  been  swept 
away,  but,  by  the  stretching  forth  of  a 
mediatorial  hand,  have  again  been  sum- 
moned to  the  being  and  the  birthright  we 
formerly  had  in  the  inheritance  of  chil- 
dren— is  it  for  us  to  repeat  that  abomina- 
tion which  is«\s  uncongenial  to  the  whole 
tone  and  spirit  of  the  Divinity  now  as 
ever;  and  will  remain  as  oflensive  to  His 
eye,  and  as  utterly  irreconcilable  to  His 
nature  through  all  eternity  ? 

Now  the  argument  retains  its  entireness, 
though  the  Mediator  should  interfere  with 
His  equivalent,  ere  the  penalty  of  death 
has  been  inflicted — though  instead  of 
drawing  them  out  of  the  pit  of  destruc- 
tion. He  by  ransom  should  deliver  them 
from  going  down  into  that  pit — though, 
instead  of  suffering  them  to  die  for  their 
sins  and  then  reviving  them  from  their 
state  of  annihilation,  He  should  himself 
die  for  them  :  and  they,  freed  from  the 
execution  of  the  sentence,  should  be  con- 
tinued in  that  life  of  which  they  had  in- 
curred the  forfeiture.  Still  they  were  dead 
in  law.    To  die  was  their  rightful  doom. 


though  this  doom  was  borne  by  another, 
and  so  borne  away  from  them.  Had  they 
actually  died  for  sin,  and  by  the  services 
of  a  mediator  been  brought  alive  again — 
the  argument  would  have  been,  How  shall 
we  who  died  for  sin,  now  that  we  live, 
continue  in  that  which  is  so  incompatible 
with  the  divine  goveVnmcnt,  that,  wherever 
it  exists,  it  behoves  by  death  to  be  swept 
away  1  And  the  argument  is  just  as  strong 
though  the  services  of  the  Mediator  are 
applied  sooner,  and  are  of  effect  to  pre- 
vent the  death  instead  of  recovering  it. 
Such  is  the  malignity  of  sin,  that,  under 
its  operation,  we  would  have  been  blotted 
out  from  the  living  universe — such  is  the 
sacredness  of  God  that  sin  cannot  exist 
within  the  precincts  of  His  loving-kind- 
ness ;  and  so  we,  who  lay  under  its  con- 
demnation, would,  but  for  a  Redfeemer's 
services,  have  been  deposed  from  our 
standing  in  creation.  We  were  as  good 
as  dead,  for  the  sentence  had  gone  forth, 
and  was  coming  in  sure  aim  and  fatulity 
on  our  devoted  persons,  when  Christ  step- 
ped between,  and,  suffering  it  to  light  upon 
Himself,  carried  it  away-  And  shall  we, 
who,  because  of  sin,  were  then  on  the  point 
of  extermination  from  a  scene  for  which 
sin  had  unfitted  us — shall  we  continue  in 
sin,  after  an  escape  has  been  thus  made 
good  for  us?  Shall  we  do  that  thing,  the 
doing  of  which  would  have  been  our  death, 
had  it  not  been  for  a  redeeming  process 
whereby  life  was  preserved  to  us;  and  is 
it  at  all  conceivable,  that  this  rcdem[)tion' 
would  have  been  wrought,  and  tliat  foi 
the  very  purpose  of  upliolding  us  in  tlio 
very  sin  which  made  our  redemption  ne- 
cessary ? 

To  use  the  term  dead  in  a  forensic 
meaning,  is  not  a  gratuitous  or  unauthoi 
rised  interpretation  on  our  part.  We 
have  the  example  of  Paul  himself  for  it, 
in  that  memorable  passage  of  first  Corin- 
thians, where  he  says,  that  "we  thus 
judge,  that  as  Christ  died  for  all,  then 
were  all  dead" — not  personally  dead — not 
dead  in  regard  of  aficction  for  what  was 
sinful  ;  but  dead  in  law — dead  in  respect 
of  that  sure  condemnation,  wliich,  but  for 
Christ,  would  have  been  fullilled  upon  all 
— not  executed  but  on  the  eve  of  execu- 
tion: and  whether  the  Saviour  prevent 
the  accomplishment  of  the  sentence,  or 
revive  and  restore  them  after  it,  the  argu- 
ment of  the  apostle  is  the  same,  Christ 
by  dying,  and  that  to  preserve  them  from 
dying,  did  as  much  for  tliem,  as  if  He  had 
brought  them  back  again  from  the  cham- 
bers of  death — as  if  lie  had  put  life  into 
them  anew,  after  it  was  utterly  extin- 
guished— as  if  He  had  placed  them  once 
again  within  the  limits  of  God's  family  ; 
and  given  them  a  second  standing  on  the 
platform  of  life,  from  whicli  sin  had  be- 


■LECTURE   XXIX. — CHAPTER   VI,    1,    2. 


151 


fore  swept  them  off.  It  is  making  Christ 
the  author  of  our  life,  which  He  is  as  ef- 
•fectually  by  preventing  its  extermination, 
as  He  would  have  been  by  infusing  it 
anew  into  us  after  it  was  destroyed  ;  and 
the  practical  lesson  comes  out  as  impres- 
sively in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other — 
even  that  we  should  give  up  the  life  to  Him 
who  thus  has  kept  or  who  thus  has  recall- 
ed it,  or  that  we  should  live  no  longer  to 
ourselves  but  to  Him  who  died  fo^  us  and 
who  rose  again.  ^ 

We  trust  you  may  now  perceive,  how 
impressive  the  consideration  is  on  which 
we  are  required  to  give  up  sin  under  the 
economy  of  the  gospel.  For  sin  we  wei-e 
all  under  sentence  of  death.  Had  the 
sentence  taken  effect,  we  would  all  have 
been  outcasts  from  God's  family.  Sin  is 
that  scandal  which  must  be  rooted  out, 
from  that  great  spiritual  household  over 
which  the  Divinity  rejoices — so  that  on  its 
very  first  appearance,  an  edict  of  expul- 
sion went  forth  ;  and  men  became  exiles 
from  the  domain  of  Almighty  favour,  just 
because  they  were  sinners.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  the  sentence  might  be  ar- 
rested, or  that  it  might  be  recalled  ;  but  it 
were  strange  indeed,  if,  after  being  doom- 
ed to  exile  because  they  had  been  sinners, 
they  should  cease  to  be  exiles  and  be  sin- 
ners still.  Strange  administration  indeed 
for  sin  to  be  so  hateful  to  God,  as  to  lay 
all  who  had  incurred  it  vmder  death  ;  and 
yet  when  readmitted  into  life,  that  sin 
should  be  permitted,  and  what  Avas  before 
the  object  of  destroying  vengeance  shoi»ld 
now  become  the  object  of  an  upheld  and 
protected  toleration.  Every  thing  done 
and  arranged  by  God- -bears  upon  it  the 
impress  of  His  character.  And  it  was  in- 
deed fell  demonstration  of  His  antipathy 
to  sin,  under  the  first  arrangement  of 
matters  between  Him  and  the  species,  that, 
when  it  entered  our  world,  the  doom  of 
extermination  from  all  favour  and  fellow- 
ship with  God  should  instantly  go  forth 
against  it.  And  now  that  the  doom  is 
taken  off — think  you  it  possible,  that  the 
unchangeable  God  has  so  given  up  His 
antipathy  to  sin,  as  that  man,  ruined  and 


redeemed  man,  may  now  perseveringly 
indulge,  under  the  new  arrangement,  in 
that  which  under  the  old  arrangement  de- 
stroyed him  ■?  Does  not  the  God  who 
loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity  six 
thousand  years  ago,  bear  the  same  love  to 
righteousness  and  the  same  hatred  to 
iniquity  still  1  And  well  may  not  the 
sinner  saj^ — if  on  my  own  person  such  a 
dreadful  memorial  of  God's  hatred  to  sih 
was  on  the  eve  of  being  inflicted,  as  that 
of  everlasting  destruction  from  His  pre- 
sence— if  the  avvfulness  of  such  a  vindic- 
tive manifestation  was  about  to  be  real- 
ised on  me  individually,  when  a  great 
Mediator  interposed  ;  and,  standing  be- 
tween me  and  God,  bare  in  his  own  body 
the  whole  brunt  of  His  coming  vengeance 
— if  when  thus  kept  from  the  destruction 
which  sin  drew  upon  me  and  so  as  good 
as  if  rescued  from  that  abyss  of  destruc- 
tion into  which  sin  had  thrown  me,  I  now 
breathe  the  air  of  loving-kindness  frcm 
Heaven,  and  can  walk  before  God  in 
peace  and  graciousness — Shall  I  again 
attempt  the  imcompatible  alliance  of  two 
principles  so  adverse,  as  that  of  an  ap- 
proving God  and  a  persevering  sinner; 
or  again  try  the  Spirit  of  that  Being,  who, 
in  the  whole  process  of  my  condemnation 
and  my  rescue  has  given  such  proof  of 
most  sensitive  and  unspotted  holiness? 

There  shall  be  nothing,  says  God,  to 
hurt  or  to  offend  in  all  my  holy  mountain. 
It  is  in  conformity  to  this,  that  death  is 
inflicted  upon  the  sinner;  and  this  death 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  his  expulsion 
from  the  family  of  holiness.  Through 
Jesus  Christ,  we  come  again  unto  mount 
Zion,  which  is  the  heavenly  Jerusalem ; 
and  it  is  as  fresh  as  ever  in  the  verdure 
of  a  perpetual  holiness.  How  shall  we 
who  were  found  unfit  for  residence  in  this 
place  because  of  sin,  continue  in  sin  after 
our  readmittance  therein  1  How  shall  we, 
recovered  from  so  awful  a  catastrophe, 
continue  that  which  first  involved  us  in 
it  1  or  again  take  on  that  disease  which 
has  already  evinced  itself  to  be  of  such 
virulence,  as  to  be  a  disease  unto  death. 


152 


LECTURE   XXX. — CHAPTER    VI,    3 — 7. 


LECTURE   XXX. 

ff 

Romans  vi,  3 — 7. 

"Know  ye  not.  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  baptized  into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death  1  TTierefore  tpc 
are  buried  with  him  by  baptism  into  death  ;  tliat  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the 
Father  even  i^o  we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life.     For  if  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the  likeness  of 

.  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection  :  Knowing  this,  that  our  old  man  is  crucified  with 
him,  that'  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed,  that  henceforth  we  should  not  serve  sin.  For  he  that  is  dead  is  freed 
from  sin."  a 


V.  3,  4.  The  original  meaning  of  the 
word  baptism  is  immersion,  and  though 
we  regard  it  as  a  point  of  indifferency, 
whether  the  ordinance  so  named  be  per- 
formed in  this  way  or  by  sprinkling — yet 
we  doubt  not,  that  the  prevalent  style  of 
the  administration  in  the  apostle's  days, 
was  by  an  actual  submerging  of  the 
whole  body  under  water.  We  advert  to 
this,  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  light  on 
the  analogy  that  is  instituted  in  these 
verses.  Jesus  Christ  by  death  underwent 
this  sort  of  baptism — even  immersion  un- 
der the  surface  of  the  ground,  whence  He 
soon  emerged  again  by  His  re-surrection. 
We  by  being  baptized  into  His  death,  are 
conceived  to  have  made  a  similar  transla- 
tion. In  the  act  of  descending  under  the 
water  of  baptism  to  have  resigned  an  old 
life,  and  in  the  act  of  ascending  to  emerge 
into  a  second  or  a  new  life — along  the 
course  of  which  it  is  our  part  to  maintain 
a  strenuous  avoidance  of  that  sin,  which 
as  good  as  expunged  the  being  that  we 
had  formerl}'' ;  and  a  strenuous  prosecu- 
tion of  that  holiness,  which  should  begin 
with  the  first  moment  that  we  were  ush- 
ered into  our  present  being,  and  be  per- 
petuated and  make  progress  toward  the 
perfection  of  full  and  ripened  immortality. 

"  Baptized  into  His  death" — or  regard- 
ing ourselves  as  if  like  Him  we  had  ac- 
tually been  slain  and  buried,  and  like  Him 
brought  forth  anew  and  made  alive  again, 
before  that  God  who  for  our  sins  had  swept 
us  beyond  the  circle  of  His  favoured  crea- 
tion. This  would  have  been  had  not 
Christ  died;  and  though  He  by  pouring 
out  His  soul  for  us,  has  kept  us  in  the 
favour  that  else  would  have  been  forfeited 
and  that  for  ever — yet  the  argument  is  the 
same,  if  prevented  from  going  down  into 
the  pit,  as  if  after  being  cast  headlong  into 
it  for  our  sins  we  had  again  been  extri- 
cated therefrom.  How  shall  we  whom  sin 
had  at  that  time  blotted  out  from  the  family 
of  life,  now  that  we  are  readmitted,  again 
indulge  in  it !  How  shall  we  run  counter 
to  those  holy  antipathies  of  the  divine  na- 
ture, of  the  strength  and  irreconcilableness 
of  which  we  already  in  our  own  persons 
have  had  so  fell  a  manifestation]  How 
shall  we,  rescued  from  destruction,  again 
welcome  to  our  embraces  the  destroyer  ] 


— or,  living  aiiew  under  the  eye  of  that 
God  who  could  not  endure  the  presence 
of  sin  and  so  consigned  it  to  the  exile  of 
death  everlasting,  shall  we  live  again  in 
that  very  course  which  made  our  former 
existence  so  offensive  to  Him  and  so  in- 
compatible with  the  whole  spirit  and  de- 
sign of  His  government  1  Has  He  changed 
His  taste  or  His  character  ]  or  makes  it 
any  difference  to  the  argument,  that  a  me- 
diator interposed  and  took  vipon  Himself 
the  whole  weight  of  that  avenging  arm, 
which  was  lifted  up  for'our  extermination  1 
Is  not  the  exhibition  of  God's  hatred  and 
hostility  to  sin  just  as  impressive,  that  the 
stroke  of  jealousy  fell  upon  the  head  of 
His  own  Son,  as  it  would  have  been,  had 
it  fallen  on  the  guilty  millions,  whom  this 
mighty  Captain  shielded  from  the  vindic- 
tive discharge  that  else  would  have  over- 
whelmed usi  And  whether  these  billows 
of  wrath  have  all  been  broken  on  the  Rock 
of  our  Salvation  ;  or  first  made  to  pass 
over  us,  we  had  again  been  summoned 
from  the  depth  and  caused  to  emerge  anew 
into  the  sunshine  of  God's  reconciled 
countenance — does  it  not  equally  prove 
that  He,  the  everlasting  enemy  of  sin,  will, 
in  any  new  economy  that  He  may  insti- 
tute, still  evince  it,  to  be  that  hateful  thing 
for  which  He  has  no  taste,  and  can  have 
no  toleration  ] 

So  much  for  the  application  of  the 
phrase  "  dead  unto  sin,"  when  understood 
forensically.  We  trust  that  however  im- 
perfectly we  may  have  illu.strated  this 
part  of  the  argument,  you  have  been  made 
to  perceive  that  there  is  in  it  the  force  and 
the  power  of  a  most  impressive  considera- 
tion ;  and,  whether  you  have  seized  upon 
it  or  not,  be  at  least  very  sure  of  this — 
that,  such  is  the  fact  of  the  matter,  there 
is  no  indulgence  for  sin  under  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  gospel.  It  is  a  restorative 
dispensation,  by  which  you  are  alike  kept 
from  the  penalty  of  sin  and  cured  of  its 
polluting  virulence.  It  restores  you  to  the 
favour  of  God,  but  it  restores  you  not  to 
the  liberty  of  sinning;  and  the  argument 
wherewith  we  would  arm  and  fortify  the 
principles  of  all  who  now  feel  themselves 
alive  in  Christ  Jesus  is — shall  we  continue 
in  that  hateful  thing  which  would  have 
brought  me  to  the  death,  had  not  my 


LECTURE   XXX. — CHAPTER,   VI,    3 7. 


153 


Saviour,  for  my  deliverance  and  preser- 
vation, bowed  down  His  head  unto  the 
sacrifice  1 

We  have  already  tried  to  set  forth  in 
your  hearing  the  forensic  interpretation, 
that  might  be  given  of  the  phrase  '^dead 
unto  sin" — dead  for  sin — not  that  the  sen- 
tence was  inflicted,  but  that  the  sentence 
was  pronounced  ;  and  the  argument  why 
they  should  not  continue  in  sin,  is  as 
strongly  applicable  to  those  who  qre  de- 
livered from  a  doom  that  was  impending, 
as  to  those  who  are  recalled  from  a  doom 
that  was  actually  executed.  There  were 
a  most  direct  force  in  the  consideration — 
should  a  revived  criminal  press  it  upon  his 
moral  feelings — how  can  I  recur  to  that 
which  is  so  odious  in  the  sight  of  my 
country's  government,  that  I  had  to  suffer 
a  death  for  it,  from  which  I,  by  a  miracle 
perhaps  of  mercy,  have  been  restored  ? 
And  it  ought  to  be  as  powerful  a  conside- 
ration with  a  reprieved  criminal,  whose 
sentence  has  been  suspended,  and  per- 
haps by  the  intercession  of  a  Mediator 
been  finally  withdrawn.  The  recurrence 
to  that  which  brought  down  the  sentence, 
were  just  as  monstrous  a  violence  done  to 
the  whole  spirit  and  object  of  the  admin- 
istration under  which  I  live,  in  the  one 
case  as  in  the  other  ;  and  be  assured  that 
there  were  the  very  same  violence  done  to 
the  spirit  of  Heaven's  administration — 
should  those  who  are  redeemed  from  death 
under  the  economy  of  the  gospel,  live  in 
that  which  had  sunk  them  under  so  fear- 
ful a  condemnation.  For  sin  we  were 
ready  to  die.  For  sin  we  would  have  died 
had  not  Christ  interposed,  and  undergone 
in  His  own  person  that  shedding  of  blood 
without  which  remission  is  impossible. 
The  demonstration  given  of  God's  antipa- 
thies to  the  power  and  existence  of  sin  in 
His  kingdom,  is  as  strong  by  the  falling 
of  the  deadly  blow  upon  the  head  of  a 
Mediator,  as  if  it  had  fallen  direct  on  the 
head  of  those  He  died  for.  And  shall  we 
from  whom  the  stroke  of  vengeance  has 
been  averted — shall  we  who  are  still  in 
life  but  virtually  in  a  life  from  the  dead 
— shall  we  who  in  Christ  may  so  read 
what  but  for  Him  would  have  happened 
to  ourselves,  as  to  be  baptized  into  His 
death  and  to  be  planted  together  in  the 
likeness  of  it — shall  we,  kept  from  falling 
into  the  abyss  of  condemnation,  and  there- 
fore as  good  as  if  summoned  again  from 
its  depths  on  the  platform  of  God's  fa- 
voured and  rejoicing  family — continue  in 
that  hateful  thing,  which  but  for  Christ 
would  have  destroyed  us,  and  of  God's 
abhorrence  to  which  the  atoning  death  of 
Christ  gives  so  awful  and  impressive  a 
manifestation  1 

But  while  we  have  thus  insisted  on  the 
forensic  interpretation  of  the  phrase 
20 


"  dead  unto  sin  " — yet  let  us  not  forbear 
to  urge  the  personal  sense  of  it,  as  imply, 
ing  such  a  deadness  of  aflection  to  sin, 
such  an  extinction  of  the  old  sensibility 
to  its  allurements  and  its  pleasures,  as 
that  it  has  ceased  from  its  wonted  power 
of  ascendency  over  the  heart  and  charac- 
ter of  him  who  was  formerly  its  slave. 
We  think  that  this  sense  too  was  in  the 
mind  of  the  apostle  ;  and  that  he  speedily 
takes  it  up  in  the  prosecution  of  his  argu- 
ment. But  we  are  rather  induced  to  be- 
lieve, that  he  starts  his  argument  with  the 
phrase  understood  forensically — that  out 
of  the  premises  already  established  he 
gathers  an  immediate  and  very  powerful 
dissuasive  against  the  continuance  of  the 
believer  in  sin — that,  without  assuming  as 
yet  any  revolution  of  desire  on  his  part, 
he  plies  him  with  a  question  which  ought 
by  its  moral  influence  to  work  such  a 
revolution,  and  a  question  too  that  ema- 
nates direct  from  the  truth  about  which 
the  apostle  had  just  been  previously  em- 
ployed, even  that  Christ  died  for  us ;  or, 
in  other  words,  that  we,  under  a  rightful 
sentence  of  death,  had  yet  been  suffered 
to  live  by  the  transference  of  the  doom 
upon  the  person  of  another.  And  shall 
we  in  these  circumstances,  persist  in  do- 
ing the  very  thing  that  had  brought  that 
doom  upon  us  ? — a  very  pertinent  question 
most  assuredly  at  this  stage  of  his  rea- 
soning ;  and  a  question,  which,  did  it  tell 
with  the  impression  it  ought  on  the  heart 
of  a  disciple,  would  lead  him  to  abjure 
sin  ;  and  so  from  the  thought  that  he  was 
dead  unto  it  forensically,  would  it  conduct 
him  to  the  reality  of  being  dead  unto  it 
actually  and  habitually  and  personally. 

But  you  will  surely  perceive  that,  to 
bring  about  this  effect,  something  more  is 
necessary  than  merely  to  address  to  the 
corrupt  mind  of  man  some  new  moral 
suasion  that  had  never  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  it.  We  are  not  aware  that  it 
lies  within  the  influence  of  any  argument 
to  deaden  the  appetites  of  nature  for  that 
which  is  sinful.  It  is  true,  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  what  Christ  hath  done,  a  new 
topic  and  a  new  suggestion  can  be  offered 
to  the  sinner,  which  had  Christ  not  done, 
no  such  topic  could  have  at  all  been 
urged  upon  him.  But  we  fear  that  it  is 
not  enough  to  bring  argument  however 
powerful  from  without,  whereby  to  assail 
the  feelings  and  propensities  of  the  human 
heart — that  additional  to  the  great  out- 
ward transaction  of  Christ's  atoning  death, 
from  which  we  have  endeavoured  to  fetch 
a  persuasive  for  turning  from  all  iniquity 
— there  must  be  also  an  inward  operation 
upon  every  disciple,  eie  the  persuasive 
can  be  so  listened  to  as  to  be  practically 
effectual :  or,  in  other  words, — as,  through 
what  Christ  hath  done  for  us  we  are  fo- 


154 


LECTURE    XXX. CHAPTER.   VI,    3 — 7. 


rensically  dead  unto  sin,  so,  that  wo  may- 
be regarded  as  having  already  undergone 
the  curse  in  llini— so,  tliore  must  also  be 
a  something  done  in  us,  a  personal  change 
wrought,  a  deadening  process  undergone 
whereby  sin  is  no  longer  of  power  over 
us. 

Now  though  this  be  the  work  of  the 
Spirit — yet  tiie  Spirit  accommodates  His 
work  to  the  nature  of  the  subject  upon 
which  He  is  employed.  He  treats  man  as 
a  rational  and  intelligent  being.  It  is  not 
by  the  rcsistlessness  of  a  blind  impulse, 
that  He  carries  any  given  effect  on  the 
desires  of  the  heart — but  by  making  man 
see  what  is  desirable,  and  then  choose  it, 
and  then  labour  after  it  with  all  the  stren- 
uousness  of  a  willing  and  purposing  and 
acting  creature,  lie  does  not  become 
personally  dead  unto  sin,  or  personally 
alive  unto  righteousness,  but  by  the  ope- 
ration of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Yet  this  ope- 
ration is  not  a  simple  fiat,  by  which  the 
transition  is  brought  about  without  the 
steps  of  such  a  process — as  marks  the 
judgment,  and  the  feeling,  and  the  con- 
science, and  the  various  other  mental  fac- 
ulties of  him  who  is  made  to  undergo  this 
great  regeneration.  Agreeably  to  the 
language  of  our  ShorterCatechism,  though 
this  be  the  work  of  God's  Spirit — yet  it  is 
a  work  whereby  He  convinces  and  He 
enlightens  the  mind,  and  He  renews  the 
will,  and  He  persuades  to  that  which  is 
right,  and  He  enables  for  the  performance 
of  it.  Let  us  endeavour,  if  possible,  to 
trace  the  succession  of  those  moral  influ- 
ences, by  which  man  under  the  gospel  is 
conducted  from  the  natural  state  of  b(;ing 
alive  to  sin  and  to  the  world,  to  the  state 
of  being  dead  unto  these  things  and  alive 
unto  God. 

V.  5.  6. — We  are  planted  together  in 
the  likeness  of  His  death — by  His  death 
He  bore  the  curse  of  a  violated  law  and 
now  it  has  no  further  charge  against 
Him.  He  acquitted  Himself  to  the  full 
of  all  its  penalties ;  and  now  He  is  fn- 
ever  exempted  against  any  future  reck- 
oning with  a  creditor  whom  He  has  con- 
clusively set  aside ;  and  just  because  he 
has  completely  satisfied  him.  He  is  now 
that  immortal  Vine,  who  stands  forever 
secure  and  beyond  the  reach  of  any  de- 
vouring blight  frotn  the  now  appeased 
enemy  ;  and  we  who  by  faith  are  united 
with  Him  as  so  many  branches,  share  in 
this  blessed  exemption  along  with  Him. 
We  have  as  good  as  had  the  sentence  of 
death  discharged  upon  us  already.  In 
Christ  our  propitiation  we  have  rendered 
the  executor  all  his  dues.  In  Him  our 
surety  we  have  paid  a  debt,  for  which  we 
can  no  longer  be  craved  or  reckoned 
with.  And  here  we  are  like  unto  Christ  in 
that  we  are  secure  from  the  visitation  of 


the  great  penalty,  as  if  we  had  borne  it 
ourselves — in  that  as  with  Him  the  hour 
and  the  power  of  darkness  have  now 
passed  away,  and  never  again  to  go  over 
ilim  ;  so  we,  just  as  if  we  had  undergone 
the  same  trial  and  the  same  baptism, 
come  forth  acquitted  of  all  our  trespasses 
and  the  hand  of  the  avenging  adversary 
shall  never  reach  us. 

And  as  we  thus  share  in  His  death,  so 
shall  we  also  share  in  His  resurrection. 
From  the  humiliation  of  the  grave,  He 
arose  to  the  heights  of  sublimest  glory. 
By  what  He  hath  borne  in  our  stead,  we 
now  stand  as  exempted  from  punishment 
as  if  we  had  borne  it  ourselves.  By  what 
He  hath  done  of  positive  obedience  in  our 
stead.  He  hath  not  only  been  highly  ex- 
alted in  His  own  person :  but  He  hath 
made  us  the  partakers  of  His  exaltation, 
to  the  rewards  of  which  we  shall  be  pro- 
moted as  if  we  had  rendered  the  obedi- 
ence ourselves.  And  it  is  thus  that  we 
understand  the  being  planted  together 
with  Him  in  the  likeness  of  His  death, 
and  the  being  planted  together  with  Him 
in  the  likeness  of  His  resurrection. 

The  sixth  verse  we  think  ushers  in 
the  transition  from  the  forensic  to  the 
personal.  By  being  dead  unto  sin  we 
understand  that  we  are  spoken  of  as  in 
the  condition  of  having  already  under- 
gone the  penalty  of  death,  and  so  being 
acquitted  of  this  great  penal  consequence 
of  sin.  We  get  into  this  condition,  not  by 
actually  suffering  the  death  ;  but,  as  it  is 
expressed  in  the  third  verse,  by  being 
baptized  unto  the  death  of  Christ,  and  so 
as  in  the  fourth  verse  by  being  buried 
with  Him  in  this  baptism,  and  in  the  fifth 
verse  planted  together  with  Him  in  the 
likeness  of  His  death — All  indicative  of 
our  being  forensically  dealt  with  on  ac- 
count of  Christ's  death,  just  as  if  we  our- 
selves had  undergone  the  suffering  which 
for  us  He  hath  endured.  And  we  would 
even  carry  this  style  of  interpretation  to 
the  first  clause  of  the  sixth  verse;  and 
understand  by  the  old  man  being  crucified 
with  Him,  that  the  sinner  is  now  to  be 
reckoned  with,  just  as  if,  in  his  own 
person,  he  had  sustained  the  adequate 
punishment  of  that  guilt,  for  which  Christ 
rendered  the  adequate  expiation.  And  all 
this  however  for  a  posterior  end — all  this 
for  a  purpose  specified  in  the  remaining 
part  of  the  verse  now  under  consideration 
— all  this  for  the  achievement  of  such  a 
personal  change  upon  the  believer,  as 
that  in  him  the  body  of  sin  might  at 
length  be  altogether  destroyed ;  and  that 
henceforth,  or  from  the  moment  of  his 
becoming  a  believer,  he  might  not  serve 
sin. 

This  tallies  with  another  part  of  the 
Bible,  where  it  is  said  that  Christ  gave 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER   VI,    3 — 7. 


155 


himself  up  for  us — suffered  in  our  stead — 
died  the  detith  that  legally  impended  over 
us,  solhat  the  sentence  is  as  much  over 
and  away  from  us,  as  if  it  had  been  in- 
flicted on  our  own  persons — This  He  did 
tor  an  end  even  posterior  to  that  of  our 
deliverance  from  condemnation — for  an 
end  analogous  to  the  one  stated  in  the 
verse  before  us — even  that  the  body  of  sin 
might  be  destroyed,  and  that  we  should 
not  serve  sin  ;  or,  as  we  have  it  in  the 
passage  now  referred  to,  that  He  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity  and  purily  us 
unto  himself  a  peculiar  people  zealous  of 
good  works. 

Now  where  it  may  be  asked  is  the  con- 
nection ]  How  comes  it  that  because  we 
are  partakers  in  the  crucifixion  of  Christ, 
so  that  the  law  has  no  further  severity  to 
discharge  upon  us — how  comes  it  that 
this  should  have  any  effect  in  destroying 
the  body  of  sin,  or  in  emancipating  us 
from  the  service  of  sin  ]  Whence  is  it 
that  exoneration  from  the  penalty,  should 
lead  to  emancipation  from  the  power? 
What  is  the  hidden  tie  that  conducts  the 
believer  from  being  forensically  dead 
unto  sin,  to  his  being  personally  dead 
unto  sin  also?  How  is  it  that  the  fact  of 
bis  being  acquitted  leads  to  the  fact  of  his 
being  sanctified?  and  what  is  the  precise 
nature  of  that  step  which  conducts  from 
the  pardon  of  a  reconciled,  to  the  purity 
of  a  regenerated  creature? 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  both  originates  and  carries  forward 
the  whole  of  this  process.  He  gives  the 
faith  which  makes  Christ's  death  as  avail- 
able for  our  deliverance  from  guilt,  as  if 
we  had  suffered  the  death  in  our  own 
persons ;  and  He  causes  the  faith  to  ger- 
minate all  those  moral  and  spiritual  in- 
fluences, which  bring  about  the  personal 
transformation  that  we  are  enquiring  of 
But  these  He  does,  in  a  way  that  is  agree- 
able to  the  principles  of  our  rational 
nature ;  so  that  His  agency  does  not  su- 
persede the  question — how  is  it  that  a 
belief  on  our  part,  that  we  are  so  far 
partakers  of  the  death  of  Christ  as  to  par- 
take in  the  deliverance  which  it  hath 
wrought  from  the  guilt  of  sin — how  is  it 
that  this  belief  destroys  the  being  of  sin 
upon  our  persons,  and  releases  us  from 
that  slavery  in  which  Nature  is  held  to 
its  allurements  and  its  charms? 

We  apprehend  one  way  of  it,  to  be 
through  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new 
affection  to  dispossess  an  old  one  from 
the  heart.  You  cannot  destroy  your  love 
of  sin,  by  a  simple  act  of  extermination. 
You  cannot  thus  bid  away  from  'your 
bosom,  one  of  its  dearest  and  oldest  fa- 
vourites. Our  moral  nature  abhors  the 
vacuum  that  would  be  formed,  by  an  old 
affection  taking  its   departure   from   the 


chambers  of  the  inner  man,  without  any 
new  atfection  to  succeed  it.  The  former 
favourite  will  retain  his  place  and  his 
ascendancy  there,  till  he  is  supplanted  by 
a  new  one,  ready  to  take  up  his  room,  and 
to  give  the  sensation  of  full  and  well-liked 
company — so  as  not  to  leave  the  heart  in 
a  state  of  dreary  and  woful  abandonment. 
It  is  thus  that  the  man  who  feels  his  only 
portion  to  be  on  earth,  and  that  heaven  is 
hopelessly  beyond  his  reach,  resigns  him- 
self to  the  full  and  undivided  sway  of 
earthly  affections.  He  cannot  bid  them 
away  from  him.  They  cleave  to  him 
with  a  tenacity  and  a  power  of  adherence, 
that  nothing  but  the  mastery  of  a  new 
affection  can  possibly  overcome;  and 
whence,  if  heaven  is  impregnably  shut 
against  him,  whence  can  he  fetch  the 
instrument  that  will  drive  out  the  legion 
of  earthly  feelings  and  earthly  desires 
and  earthly  idolatries,  which  now  lord  it 
over  him,  and  have  established  the  empire 
and  tyranny  of  sin  within  the  confines  of 
his  moral  and  spiritual  nature?  Let  it  be 
his  feeling  that  heaven  is  unattainable  ; 
and  this  will  chill  and  discourage  within 
him  all  longing  for  the  enjoyments  that 
are  there — so  that  his  love  of  the  enjoy- 
ments which  are  here,  will  keep  undis- 
turbed possession  of  his  soul  and  give 
the  character  and  the  colour  of  atheism  to 
all  its  movements.  He  will  live  without 
God  in  the  world ;  and  never  till  the  fa- 
vour of  God  be  made  accessible  to  him — 
never  till  the  joys  of  the  upper  Paradise 
are  placed  within  his  reach — never  till 
the  barrier  be  thrown  down,  which  de- 
fends his  approaches  to  the  happ)^  world 
that  lies  in  the  distant  futurity  away  from 
him — never  till  then  will  the  powers  of 
the  world  that  is  to  come  carry  it  over  the 
pleasures  of  the  world  that  is  present,  and 
by  which  he  is  immediately  surrounded. 
The  old  affections  will  cleave  and  keep 
their  obstinate  and  undisputed  hold,  just 
because  the  proper  engine  is  not  brought 
into  contact  with  the  heart,  and  which 
can  alone  avail  for  the  dispossession  of 
them.  They  will  not  give  way  at  a  sim- 
ple mandate  from  the  chair  of  reason  or 
philosophy  ;  and  nothing  can  expel  them 
from  the  bosom — but  the  powerful  and 
victorious  rivalship  of  new  affections  sent 
into  the  heart,  from  new  objects  placed 
within  the  grasp  either  of  certain  or  of 
possible  attainment. 

Now  the  death  of  Christ  is  the  breaking 
down  of  the  else  insuperable  barrier.  It 
has  fetched  other  objects  -from  afar,  and  • 
placed  them  within  the  attainment  of  sin- 
ful man,  and  presented  them  to  his  free 
choice,  and  brought  the  delights  of  eter- 
nity to  his  very  door — so  that,  if  he  just 
have  faith  to  perceive  them,  he  is  brought 
into  the  very  condition,  that,  by  the  bias 


156 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER   VI,    3 — 7. 


of  his  moral  and  sentient  nature,  is  most 
favourable  to  the  extinction  of  old  appe- 
tites, and  that  just  by  the  intruding  and 
dispossessing  power  of  a  new  one.  The 
things  that  are  above  now  lie  at  his  door 
for  acceptance,  and  are  urgently  solicit- 
ing admittance  within  the  repositories  of 
his  heart,  and  we  may  now  bid  him  set 
his  whole  affection  on  the  things  that  are 
above — which  if  he  docs,  like  the  rod  of 
Aaron,  it  will  swallow  up  all  his  subordi- 
nate and  earthly  desires ;  and  he  will 
henceforth  cease  to  set  his  affections  upon 
the  things  that  are  beneath.  Let  him  just 
by  faith  look  upon  himself  as  crucitied 
with  Christ;  and  then  he  will  have  got 
over  that  wall  of  separation,  which  stood 
between  him  and  a  joyful  immortality. 
That  spiritual  and  everlasting  death, 
which  is  the  natural  doom  of  every  sin- 
ner, is  now  as  good  as  traversed,  and  got 
over  by  him — for,  in  the  person  of  his 
dying  Saviour  with  whom  he  stands  asso- 
ciated in  the  whole  power  and  effect  of 
His  atonement,  he  has  already  borne  the 
whole  weight  of  this  condemnation  ;  and 
there  is  now  nothing  between  him  and 
that  heaven,  all  the  facilities  and  glories 
of  which  have  now  entered  into  competi- 
tion with  the  world  and  its  evanescent 
gratifications — And  it  is  thus  that  the 
world  is  disarmed  of  its  power  of  sinful 
temptation.  It  is  thus  that  the  cross  of 
Christ  crucifies  the  world  unto  you,  and 
you  unto  the  world.  It  is  thus  that  sin 
receives  its  death-blow,  by  its  old  mastery 
over  the  heart  being  dethroned  and  done 
away,  through  the  still  more  commanding 
mastery  of  other  affections,  which  is  now 
competent  for  man  to  have,  because  the 
objects  of  them  are  now  placed  within 
the  reach  of  its  attainment.  It  is  thus 
that  the  cross  of  Christ,  by  the  same 
mighty  and  decisive  stroke  wherewith  it 
has  moved  the  curse  of  sin  away  from  us, 
also  moves  away  the  power  and  the  love 
of  sin  from  over  us.  And  we  no  longer 
mind  earthly  things,  just  because  better 
things  are  now  within  our  offer,  and  our 
conversation  is  in  heaven — whence  we 
also  look  for  the  Saviour  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

And  this  is  in  perfect  analogy  with 
other  and  most  familiar  exhibitions  of  our 
nature,  in  the  scenes  of  business  and  or- 
dinary affairs.  Let  us  just  conceive  a 
man  embarked,  with  full  and  earnest  am- 
bition, on  some  humble  walk  of  retail 
merchandise — whose  mind  is  wholly  ta- 
ken up  through,  the  year,  with  the  petty 
fluctuations  that  are  taking  place  in  pri- 
ces and  profits  and  customers ;  but  who 
nevertheless  is  regaled  by  the  annual 
examination  of  particulars  at  the  end  of 
it,  with  the  view  of  some  snug  addition  to 
his  old  accumulations.    You  can  figure 


how  the  heart  of  such  a  man  may  be 
engrossed  with  the  play  of  all  those  "anx- 
ieties and  feelings  and  mental  appetites, 
which  are  incidental  to  such  a  condition 
— how  wedded  he  is  to  his  own  little  con- 
cern— how  watchful  of  the  turns  and 
movements  that  may  affect  its  prosperity 
— and,  wiihal,  how  complacently  he  cher- 
ishes the  anticipation  of  that  decent  com- 
petency, which  forms  the  all  he  has 
learned  to  aspire  after.  You  must  see 
how  impossible  it  were  to  detach  the  af- 
fections of  this  individual  from  the  ob- 
jects and  the  interests  of  this  his  favourite 
course,  by  a  simple  demonstration  of  their 
vanity ;  and  with  what  moral  tenacity  he 
would  cleave  to  the  pursuits  of  his  present 
gainful ness;  and  what  a  mighty  and  pe- 
culiar force  were  necessar)%  to  disengage 
him  from  the  operations  of  that  counter 
over  which  there  was  unceasingly  kept 
up  the  most  agreeable  play  that  was 
within  the  reach  of  his  ever  arriving  at. 
But  just  suppose,  that,  in  some  way  or 
other,  this  reach  were  greatly  extended  ; 
and,  either  some  splendid  property,  or 
some  sublime  walk  of  high  and  hopeful 
adventure,  were  placed  within  his  attain- 
ment :  and  the  visions  of  a  far  more  glo- 
rious afliuence  were  to  pour  a  light  into 
his  mind,  which  greatly  overpassed  and 
so  eclipsed  all  the  fairness  of  those  home- 
lier prospects  that  he  wont  to  indulge  in 
— Is  it  not  clear  to  all  your  discernments 
that  the  old  affection  which  he  could  nev- 
er get  rid  of  by  simple  annihilation,  will 
come  to  be  annihilated,  and  that  simply 
by  giving  place  to  the  new  one — that  the 
field  of  employment  from  which  no  force 
could  have  torn  him,  he  now  willingly 
abandons,  and  that  just  for  the  more  al- 
luring field  on  which  he  has  been  invited 
to  enter — that  the  meaner  ambition  has 
now  disappeared  from  his  bosom,  and 
just  because  the  loftier  ambition  has  over- 
borne it — that  the  ganie  in  which  he  as- 
pired after  hundreds  is  now  given  over, 
and  just  because  a  likelier  game  of  many 
thousands  has  enticed  him  away  from  it 
— that  the  worship  he  formerly  rendered 
to  an  ido  of  brass  is  now  renounced,  and 
just  because  seduced  from  it  by  the  supe- 
rior fascination  of  that  worship  which  he 
is  now  rendering  to  an  idol  of  gold  ?  Do 
not  you  see  from  this,  how  it  is  that  the 
higher  idolatry  has  superseded  the  lower  ; 
and  also  how  it  is,  that  both  idolatries  are 
to  be  extinguished — how  it  is  that  if  we 
had  only  faith  to  realise  the  magnificence 
of  eternity,  and  to  believe  that  through 
the  death  of  Christ  the  portal  was  now 
opened  to  its  blessedness  and  its  glory, 
that  this  would  deaden  all  our  worldliness 
together — Not  merely  laying  one  species 
of  earthly  ambition,  by  the  lighting  up  of 
another ;  but  disposing  of  all  by  the  para> 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER    VI,    3 7. 


157 


mount  importance  of  an  object,  that 
greatly  surpassed  all,  and  so  absorbed 
all  1  Does  not  this  throw  explanation  on 
the  mystery  of  sin  being  slain  in  its  influ- 
ences, simply  by  a  believing  view  on  our 
part  of  sin  slain  in  its  curse  and  condem- 
nation ;  and  how,  after  all,  the  mighty  in- 
strument for  achieving  our  deliverance 
from  the  power  of  things  seen  and  sensi- 
ble, is  our  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of 
that  death  which  has  opened  up  for  us 
access  to  things  eternal — so  as  to  make 
this  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world, 
even  our  faith. 

And  this  illustration,  by  the  way,  may 
help  to  show  how  the  gospel  can  do  what 
the  law  cannot  do.  Were  the  humble 
trafficker  asked  to  purchase  for  himself 
some  place  of  occupancy  and  lucrative 
partnership  on  that  higher  course,  where 
merchants  are  called  princes,  and  are 
held  to  be  the  honourable  of  the  earth — it 
is  likely  that  the  consciousness  of  utter 
inability  for  the  enterprise,  would  check 
all  his  ambitious  tendencies  within  the 
sphere  that  he  already  moved  in,  and  lead 
him  to  lavish  as  before  every  energy  and 
affection  that  belonged  to  him  on  the 
scene  of  his  present  hopes  and  present 
anxieties.  But,  instead  of  the  place  being 
sold,  were  the  place  given  to  him — were 
he  freely  and  gratuitously  offered  admis- 
sion to  it  with  all  the  flattery  of  its  thriving 
channels  and  splendid  anticipations — 
there  were  then  a  moving  power  to  dis- 
enchant him  from  all  his  present  affec- 
tions, in  the  things  held  forth  to  him  as  a 
present,  which  it  never  had  when  held 
forth  to  him  in  the  shape  of  a  bargain,  to 
the  terms  of  which  his  means  were  totally 
and  hopelessly  inadequate.  And,  in  like 
manner,  should  any  child  of  this  world 
that  is  amongst  us,  have  heaven  set  forth 
to  him  as  the  reward  of  that  obedience  on 
which  heaven  could  look  with  compla- 
cency— there  were  a  sense  of  incompe- 
tency for  the  task,  which  would  lead  him 
to  place  this  spiritual  region  at  an  im- 
practicable distance  away  from  him;  and, 
with  the  feeling  that  earth  was  his  alone 
portion,  Avould  he  still  grovel  as  before 
among  the  pursuits  and  the  pleasures  of 
that  scene  of  carnality,  on  which  he  all 
along  had  been  wont  to  expatiate.  But 
lot  heaven,  instead  of  being  exposed  as 
the  purchase  of  his  merit,  be  set  before 
him  as  a  present  to  his  necessities — in- 
stead of  the  law  bidding  him  acquire  it 
by  his  doings,  let  the  gospel  bid  him  re- 
ceive it  as  the  gift  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord — in  a  word,  instead  of 
holding  it  forth  to  him  for  a  price  to  be 
paid  by  himself,  let  it  be  held  forth  to  him 
as  the  fruit  of  that  price  which  the  Saviour 
hath  already  rendered,  by  a  death  in  the 
whole  power  and  value  of  which  he  is 


freely  invited  to  partake— then  will  it  be 
seen,  that,  the  firmer  his  trust,  the  faster 
will  be  the  practical  hold  that  the  unseen 
world  takes  of  his  heart,  and  the  more 
powerful  its  controlling  influence  over  the 
whole  of  his  habits  and  his  history.  The 
faith  in  a  free  pardon,  which  some  might 
apprehend  would  rivet  him  to  sin,  has 
just  the  effect  of  disenchanting  him  from 
that  territory  of  sense  where  its  wiles  and 
its  entanglements  are  laid.  The  stronger 
the  faith  is,  in  the  nearness  and  certainty 
of  the  coming  heaven — the  fuller  is  the 
access  into  the  believer's  soul,  of  a  taste 
for  heaven's  joys,  and  an  impulse  towards 
heaven's  services.  It  is  the  very  thing 
which  reaches  that  exterminating  blow, 
whereby  the  body  of  sin  or  the  being  of 
sin  is  destroyed ;  and  the  man  is  dispos- 
sessed of  the  tyranny  wherewith  it  had 
lorded  over  him,  and  now  ceases  to  be  its 
slave— just  because  the  death  of  Christ 
has  opened  for  him  the  gates  of  everlast- 
ing blessedness,  and  his  heart  transformed 
from  the  present  evil  world  is  conformed 
to  the  delights  and  the  doings  of  the  upper 
paradise. 

We  are  far  from  having  touched  on  all 
the  principles,  which  come  into  living  and 
actual  play  within  the  believer's  heart; 
and  by  which  he  is  conducted  from  the 
state  of  being  crucified  with  Christ  foren- 
sically,  to  the  state  of  being  crucified  with 
him  personally — so  that  he  dies  unto  the 
power  of  sin  ;  and,  through  the  Spirit, 
mortifies  the  deeds  done  in  his  body  ;  and 
finally  crucifies  the  flesh  with  its  affec- 
tions and  lusts.  But  let  it  here  be  re- 
marked, that,  in  the  bringing  of  this  about, 
there  is  a  strong  likeness,  in  point  of 
moral  history  and  example,  between 
Christ  and  His  faithful  disciple.  There  is 
a  real  analogy  between  the  death  for  sin 
undergone  by  the  former,  and  the  morti- 
fication unto  the  power  of  sin  that  is  un- 
dergone by  the  latter.  There  is  a  simi- 
larity between  the  spiritual  exercise, 
which  conducted  the  Saviour  to  that  vic- 
tory which  He  achieved  over  the  world  in 
dying  for  its  salvation  ;  and  that  spiritual 
exercise,  which  conducts  the  believer  to 
the  victory  which  he  achieves  over  the 
world,  in  dying  unto  the  sinfulness  of  its 
earthly  affections.  The  one  for  the  joy 
that  was  set  before  Him  endured  the  cross ; 
and  the  other  for  the  same  joy,  now  set 
freely  and  gratuitously  before  him,  en- 
dures  the  cross  that  is  laid  by  the  gospel 
on  nature's  inclinations.  The  one  made  a 
voluntary  renunciation  of  all  that  was  in 
the  world,  on  leaving  it  ;  and  the  other 
makes  the  same  voluntary  renunciation, 
in  transferring  his  love  to  that  God,  the 
love  of  whom  is  opposed  to  the  love  of  the 
world.  We  mistake  the  nature  of  Christ's 
work  upon  earth,  if  we  think  not  that  He 


158 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER   VI,    3 — 7. 


had  to  struggle  with  the  fascinations  of 
this  world's  pleasures,  and  the  seducing 
intluer)ce  of  this  world's  glories — for  the 
God  of  this  world  hath  power  to  try  Him 
though  not  to  prevail  over  Him  ;  and  in 
all  respects  was  He  tempted  like  as  we 
are.  From  His  infancy  to  His  death,  was 
there  a  contest  of  strenuousness  and  suf- 
fering and  self-denial  ;  and  all,  that  He 
might  win  the  victory  over  a  world  that 
plied  Him  with  countless  idolatries.  And 
as  was  the  Master  so  is  the  servant.  We 
have  to  follow  Him  in  the  .steps  of  this 
holy  warfare.  The  cross  is  little  counted 
upon  in  these  days  of  soft  and  silken  pro- 
fessorship ;  and  smooth  indeed  is  that 
pilgrimage,  through  which  many  are 
looking  forward  to  the  triumphs  of  a 
coming  eternity.  But  let  us  not  deceive 
ourselves.  There  is  a  process  of  cruci- 
fixion that  must  be  gone  through,  not  upon 
the  flesh  as  with  the  Saviour,  but  upon  the 
utlections  of  the  flesh.  There  must  be  a 
striving  against  sin,  if  not  unto  the  death 
of  the  body,  at  least  unto  the  death  of  its 
dearest  and  most  darling  appetites.  There 
must  be  a  winding  up  of  the  purposes  and 
energies  of  the  spiritual  power,  to  that 
pilch  of  resistance  against  the  sinfulness 
of  nature,  which  wound  up  the  soul  of  our 
Redeemer  to  the  resolute  giving  up  of 
Himself  unto  the  sacrifice.  And  though 
the  death  unto  sin,  and  the  baptism  unto 
that  death,  and  the  being  planted  with 
Christ  in  the  likeness  of  it,  and  the  being 
planted  with  Him,  have  been  here  under- 
stood and  reasoned  upon  forensically — yet 
our  faith  in  this  understanding  of  it,  has 
not  wrought  its  genuine  effect  upon  us, 
unless  we  are  dying  unto  the  power  of  sin 
in  our  affections  ;  and  are  purifying  our- 
selves in  the  waters  of  spiritual  baptism  ; 
and  are  daily  likenmg  unto  Christ,  in  that 
superiority  over  the  world  which  led  Him 
to  surrender  it;  and  are  inflicting  the 
violence  of  crucifixion  on  all  that  is  sin- 
ful in  the  propensities  of  nature — So  as 
that  we  are  not  merely  judicially  dealt 
with  as  if  in  our  own  persons  we  had 
suff"ered  and  died — but  really  and  histori- 
cally, in  these  persons,  do  we  share  witii 
Christ  in  the  fellowship  of  His  sutferings 
and  in  a  conformity  to  His  death. 

V.  7.  Here  again  I  would  understand  a 
forensic  death — the  death  we  are  counted 
to  have  suffered  in  Christ  as  a  penalty  for 
sin,  the  death  which  releases  us  from  all 
further  charge  and  reckoning  because  of 
sin— the  death  which  as  effectually  shields 
us  from  the  further  inflictions  of  severity 
from  the  unrelenting  exactoi-,  as  the  dying 
of  the  slave  .secures  his  escape  from  the 
cruelties  of  that  tyrant,  beyond  whose 
reach  he  is  now  situated.  The  connec- 
tion between  the  master  and  the  servant 
ceases  with  the  payment  of  wages;  and 


when  death  the  wages  of  sin  Is  rendered 
to  the  sinner,  the  final  settlement  is  made, 
and  they  become  free  the  one  from  the 
other.  Now  it  is  true  that  these  bitter 
wages  of  sin  were  inflicted  not  upon  us 
but  upon  Christ;  but  for  us  He  sustained 
them,  and  we  are  in  as  exempt  a  condition 
from  any  further  reckoning  on  account 
of  sin,  as  if  the  adju.stment  had  been  made 
with  us  the  principals,  instead  of  being 
made  with  Christ  the  surety — or  as  if  we 
had  borne  the  whole  punishment — or  as 
if  death,  which  is  the  fruit  of  sin,  had 
been  actually  laid  upon  us. 

Now  it  is  very  clear  how  this  should 
rightfully  free  us  from  the  punishment ; 
but  how  should  it  also  free  us  from  the 
power]  We  have  already  unfolded  one 
way,  in  which  deliverance  from  the  former 
leads  to  deliverance  from  the  latter  ;  and 
the  text  suggests  another  way  of  it.  Sin 
is  here  represented  in  the  light  of  a  tyrant, 
and  the  sinner  as  his  slave.  But  let  it  be 
remembered,  that  there  is  a  personal  and 
a  living  tyrant,  from  whose  cruel  and 
malignant  breast  the  whole  mischief  of 
sin  has  emanated  upon  our  world — one 
with  whom  the  extension  of  sin  is  a  matter 
of  power  and  of  policy — one  wMiose  dear- 
est ambition  is  concerned  in  the  warfare, 
that  is  now  going  forward  between  the 
principles  of  light  and  of  darkness — one 
whose  heart  is  set  upon  the  object  of 
bringing  men  under  the  dominion  of  sin, 
and  who  finds  his  full  and  final  gratifica- 
tion in  the  execution  of  the  curse  which  it 
afterwards  entails  upon  them.  The  er- 
rand upon  which  the  Saviour  came,  was 
to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil;  and 
you  all  perceive  how,  by  his  death  upon 
the  cross.  He  lilted  the  curse  and  the 
punishment  of  sin  at  least  awa}'  from  all 
who  believe  on  Him,  and  how  they  who 
by  faith  are  dead  in  Him  are  freed  at 
least  from  condemnation.  They  have 
been  extricated  from  the  tyrant's  grasp, 
in  as  far  as  death  and  the  power  of  death 
are  concerned.  He  has  no  further  claim 
upon  them,  as  the  subjects  of  that  infernal 
kingdom,  where  he  is  to  hold  the  reign  of 
terror  and  of  vengeance  throughout  all 
eternity:  and  where,  in  addition  to  the 
penal  torments  wherewith  he  shall  exer- 
cise his  unhappy  victim--,  the  agency  of 
their  own  sinful  passions  will  lay  a  heavy 
burden  on  the  misery  that  overweighs 
them.  It  is  not  enough  adverted  to — how 
much  sin  is  its  own  punishment — how 
much,  by  the  very  mechanism^  of  our 
sentient  nature,  wretchedness  and  wick- 
edness are  allied  the  one  with  the  other — 
how  inherently  and  how  essentially  suf- 
fering and  moral  evil  are  ever  found  in 
company — that  there  is  an  essential  bit- 
terness in  sin  itself,  independently  of  any 
arbitrary  infliction  which  in  the  shape  of 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER   VI,    3 — 7. 


159 


f5re  or  of  any  material  chastisement  may 
be  laid  upon  it  in  hell — and  that  this  is 
just  as  true  of  sia  under  the  gospel  as 
under  the  law.  The  new  economy  under 
which  we  live  has  not  so  altered  the  char- 
acter or  the  constitution  of  things,  as  that 
goodness  shall  not  of  itself  be  a  matter  of 
enjoyment,  and  as  that  sin  shall  not  of 
itself  be  matter  of  anguish  and  tribula- 
tion. The  gospel  has  not  changed  the 
bitter  into  a  sweet.  It  has  not  given  a 
new  set  of  properties  to  the  affections  of 
our  moral  nature.  It  has  not  infused  the 
feeling  of  solemn  and  sacred  delight  into 
the  art'ection  of  ungodliness.  It  has  not 
given  the  character  of  a  sweet  and  tran- 
quil emotion  to  the  aftection  of  anger.  It 
has  not  associated  the  transports  of  an- 
gelic love,  with  the  affection  of  malignity. 
Though  you  should  be  delivered  by  the 
death  of  Christ  from  the  penal  sufferings, 
that  attached  to  these  evil  principles  in 
the  heart — yet  there  are  other  sufferings, 
that  spring  immediately  and  necessarily 
from  the  very  exercise  of  the  principles 
themselves  ;  and  from  which  you  cannot 
be  delivered,  but  by  the  utter  extirpation 
of  the  principles.  In  other  words,  you 
are  not  fi'eed  from  the  tyrant  who  lords  it 
over  sinners  by  a  mere  release  from  the 
penalty  of  disobedience.  He  is  not  dis- 
armed of  all  his  jtower  to  make  you 
wretched,  by  your  legal  deliverance  from 
imprisonment  in  the  future  hell.  If  he  is 
still  permitted  to  reign  in  your  heart,  he 
can  establish  a  hell  there,  that  were 
enough  to  embitter  your  whole  eternity. 
And,  in  order  that  the  death  of  Christ  and 
j'our  participation  in  that  death  shall 
give  you  complete  freedom  from  the  great 
tyrant  and  adversary  of  our  species,  he 
must  be  dethroned  from  his  power  over 
your  present  desires,  as  well  as  from  his 
power  over  your  future  destiny.  Sinful 
afiections  will  always  be  painful  affec- 
tions. And  your  deliverance  is  wrought, 
not  by  changing  the  quality  of  these  af- 
fections, not  by  turning  the  painful  into 
the  pleasurable,  but  by  ridding  you  of  the 
affections  altogether.  And  we  repeat, 
that,  if  by  being  dead  in  Christ  we  are 
freed  from  Satan,  this  cannot  be  fully 
accomplished  but  by  our  being  in  the 
language  of  the  text  freed  from  sin — from 
sin,  not  merely  disarmed  of  its  curse,  but 
from  sin  disarmed  of  its  power  and  finally 
destroyed  in  its  existence. 

This  unfolds  to  us  another  way,  in 
which  the  death  of  Christ,  and  our  fellow- 
ship therewith,  may  be  brought  to  bear 
on  the  practical  object  of  so  withstanding 
the  assaults  of  temptation,  as  that  sin 
shall  not  have  the  dominion  over  us.  It 
is  not  a  matter  of  fancy,  but  a  matter  of 
most  distinct  scriptural  revelation,  that 
these  assaults  are  conducted  by  a. living 


and  personal  and  withal  most  actively 
vicious  and  vindictive  adversary,  who  is 
altogether  intent  on  the  object  of  retain- 
ing as  entire  and  unbroken  a  moral  as- 
cendancy as  he  can  possibly  achieve  over 
our  species.  You  know  how  it  is,  that,  by 
death  Christ  hath  destroyed  him  who  has 
the  power  of  death,  that  is  the  devil — how 
He  stood  to  have  all  wreaked  upon  Him- 
self, which  could  be  rightfully  inflicted 
upon  us  because  of  our  disobedience — 
how,  after  this,  we,  who  partake  in  the 
benefits  of  His  death,  may  challenge  an 
exemption  from  the  cruel  mastery  of  hira 
who  wont  to  maintain  a  resistless  and 
unquestioned  sway  over  the  propensities 
of  our  fallen  nature — how,  m  the  very 
moment  of  conflict  with  his  enticements 
and  his  wiles,  this  challenge  may  be 
made  ;  and  he,  giving  way  to  the  force  of 
it,  will  desist  from  his  unholy  enterprise 
of  seducing  us  away  from  the  new  obe- 
dience of  the  gospel.  Upon  every  occa- 
sion of  exposure  to  the  fascinations  of 
moral  evil,  may  we  go  througli  the  spirit- 
ual exercise  of  asserting  our  freedom  from 
the  power  of  him,  who  arms  these  fasci- 
nations with  all  their  influence;  and, 
strongly  confident  in  the  plea,  that,  by 
the  daath  of  Christ  and  our  death  in  Him, 
Satan  has  virtually  done  his  worst  upon 
us,  and  already  expended  that  power 
wherewith  he  wont  to  hold  us  in  bondage 
— why  it  is  no  vain  imagination,  that 
such  a  plea,  if  faithfully  pressed  against 
him  in  the  hour  of  spiritual  conflict,  will 
surely  prevail  over  him  ;  and  he,  retiring 
a  vanquished  foe  from  the  field  of  war- 
fare, will  leave  us  freed  from  the  power 
of  sin  as  we  are  freed  from  its  curse  and 
condemnation. 

It  has  been  rightly  said  that  we  think 
not  enough  of  those  higher  agencies 
which  are  concerned  in  the  doings  and 
the  difficulties  and  the  whole  discipline 
of  our  preparation  for  eternity.  We  are 
apt  to  look  on  the  conflict  in  which  we 
are  involved,  as  a  mere  contest  with  flesh 
and  blood — when  in  fact  it  is  a  contest 
with  principalities,  and  powers,  and  spi- 
ritual wickedness  in  high  places.  We 
should  know  the  might  of  our  adversaries 
that  we  may  go  rightly  armed  to  the  bat- 
tle. And  be  assured  that  the  death  of 
Christ,  is  not  a  more  effectual  shield 
against  the  power  thai  would  drag  you  to 
the  place  of  condemnation  ;  than  it  is 
against  the  power,  that  would  now  so  lord 
it  over  the  aflections  of  your  heart,  as  to 
perpetuate  the  reign  of  sin  within  you, 
and  make  you  as  effectually  the  slaves  as 
before  of  those  evil  desires  and  principles 
which  war  against  the  soul.  Christ  hath 
spoiled  the  great  adversary  of  all  his 
power.  He  hath  left  him  no  claim  of  as- 
cendency whatever  over  those  who  be- 


160 


LECTURE   XXX. CHAPTER    VI,    3 — 7. 


lievc  in  Ilim.  It  is  true,  that,  in  the  mys- 
terious struggle  which  took  place^bctwcen 
Him  and  the  prince  of  darkness,  there  was 
a  sting  put  forlh  wliich  pierced  Him  even 
unto  the  death  ;  but,  in  the  very  act  of 
being  so  pierced,  the  sting  was  plucked 
away,  and  Satan  is  now  bereft  of  all  his 
power  to  hurt  those  who  are  buried  with 
Christ  in  baptism,  and  have  been  planted 
together  with  Him  in  His  likeness.  He 
did  not  merely  disarm  him  of  his  power 
to  scourge  you,  and  leave  untouched  his 
povi'er  to  seduce  you.  It  was  an  entire 
dethronement  that  He  effected  of  the  God 
of  this  world  ;  and  what  you  have  dis- 
tinctly to  do,  my  brethren,  in  the  heat  and 
urgency  of  your  besetting  temptations,  is 
to  set  up  your  death  unto  sin  in  Christ,  as 
your  defence  against  the  further  authority 
of  sin  over  you — is  to  interpose  the  plea 
of  His  atonement  between  you  and  the 
attempts  of  the  great  adversary — is  to  af- 
firm, in  opposition  to  all  his  devices,  that 
he  can  no  more  compel  your  services 
than  a  tyrant  or  task-master  can  compel 
service  from  a  dead  slave.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible, my  brethren,  that  Satan,  thus  with- 
stood and  thus  striven  against,  shall  pre- 
vail over  you.  The  man  who,  rivetting 
all  his  confidence  in  the  death  of  Ckirist, 
has  become  partaker  of  all  his  immuni- 
ties and  of  all  its  holy  influences,  will  not 
only  find  peace  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  but 
protection  from  its  tyranny.    This  faith 


will  not  only  be  to  him  a  barrier  from  the 
abyss  of  its  coming  vengeance;  but  it 
will  be  to  him  a  panoply  of  defence 
against  its  present  ascendancy  over  his 
soul.  The  sure  way  to  put  Satan  to  flight, 
is  to  resist  him  steadfast  in  this  faith, 
which  will  be  to  him  who  exercises  it,  a 
shield  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
adversary. 

We  are  aware  of  the  charges  of  strange 
and  mystical  imaginary,  to  which  this  re- 
presentation, however  scriptural  it  may 
be,  exposes  us.  But  we  ask  on  the  one 
hand,  those  who  have  often  been  defeated 
by  the  power  of  temptation — whether 
they  ever  recollect  in  a  single  instance, 
that  the  death  of  Christ  believed  and  re- 
garded and  made  use  of  in  the  way  now 
explained,  was  a  weapon  put  forth  in  the 
contest  with  sin  ;  and  we  ask,  on  the  other 
hand,  those  who  did  make  use  of  this  wea- 
pon— whether  it  ever  failed  them  in  their 
honest  and  faithful  attempts  to  resist  the 
instigations  of  evill  We  apprehend  that 
the  testimonies  of  both,  will  stamp  an  ex- 
perimental, as  well  as  a  scriptural  sound- 
ness, upon  the  affirmation  of  my  text,  that 
he  who  by  faith  in  the  death  of  Christ  is 
freed  from  the  condemnation  of  sin,  has 
also  an  instrument  in  his  possession, 
which  has  only  to  be  plied  and  kept  in 
habitual  exercise,  that  he  may  habitually 
be  free  from  its  power. 


LECTURE   XXXI. 


Romans  vi,  8 — 10. 

"Now,  if  we  be  dead  with  Clirist,  we  believe  that  we  shall  also  live  with  him:  knowing  that  Christ,  being  raised 
from  the  dead,  dietli  no  more  ;  death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  him.  For  in  that  lie  died,  he  died  unto  sin  once  ; 
but  in  that  he  liveth,  he  liveth  unto  God." 


By  the  death  of  Christ  a  full  penalty 
was  rendered  for  sin,  insomuch  that  He 
could  no  more  be  reckoned  with  on  ac- 
count of  it.  He  undertook  to  be  surety 
for  all  who  should  believe ;  and  having 
finished  His  undertaking,  the  matter  was 
closed,  and  the  creditor  now  ceased  from 
putting  in  any  further  claim,  or  preferring 
any  further  challenge  against  Him.  For 
us  to  be  dead  with  Christ,  is  just  to  share 
in  this  very  exoneration.  It  was  for  us 
that  the  account  was  settled  ;  and,  just  as 
much  as  if  by  death  the  appointed  pen- 
alty we  had  settled  it  ourselves,  do  we 
now  stand  acquitted  of  all  further  count 
and  reckoning  because  of  sin.  In  the 
covenanting  of  ordinary  trade,  a  deficien- 
cy from  our  engagements  brings  us  into 


debt ;  but  should  an  able  cautioner  liqui- 
date the  whole,  we,  in  him,  may  be  said  to 
have  sustained  the  prosecution,  and  borne 
the  damage,  and  are  now  clear  of  the 
weight  of  conscious  debt — because  in  him 
we  have  made  full  and  satisfactory  pay- 
ment. In  our  covenant  with  the  Lawgiver 
of  heaven  and  earth,  a  deficiency  from 
our  engagements  brings  us  into  guilt ;  but 
should  a  competent  mediator  take  upon 
his  own  person  the  whole  burden  of  its 
imputation  and  its  penalty,  we,  in  him, 
may  be  said  to  have  been  pursued  even 
unto  death  which  was  its  sentence,  and 
should  now  feel  clear  of  the  weight  of 
conscious  guilt — because  in  him  we  have 
rendered  a  full  atonement.  And  we  live 
beneath  our  privilege,  we  fail  in  making 


LECTURE  XXXI. CHAPTER  VI,  8 10. 


161 


the  required  use  of  the  great  propitiation,  we 
are  deficient  of  the  homage  that  its  due  to 
its  completeness  and  its  power — if  we  cast 
not  the  burden  of  legal  condemnation 
away  from  our  spirits.  It  is  detracting 
from  the  richness  and  the  efficacy  of 
Heaven's  boon,  for  us  to  cherish  the 
haunting  imagination  of  a  debt,  that  the 
revealed  Surety  has  done  away  or,  chang- 
ing the  terms,  to  cherish  the  liaunting  im- 
agination of  a  guiit,  for  which  the  llits^h 
Priest  whom  God  Himself  has  set  fortli, 
has  made  a  sacrifice  wherewith  God 
Himself  has  declared  that  He  is  well 
pleased.  So  that  it  is  your  positive  duty 
to  take  the  comfort  of  this,  and  to  feel  the 
deliverance  of  this.  In  as  far  as  you  do 
not,  in  so  far  you  nullify  the  work  of  re- 
demption, and  cast  a  dimness  and  a  dis- 
paragement over  the  most  illustrious  ex- 
hibition of  Heaven's  grace — dignified  as 
it  is  with  the  full  expression  of  Heaven's 
righteousness.  Be  dead  with  Christ  then  ; 
and,  this  you  are  by  putting  faith  in  the 
atoning  efficacy  of  that  death.  He  who 
so  believes  is  as  free  from  condemnation, 
as  if  the  cup  of  it  had  been  put  into  his 
own  hands,  and  he  had  already  exhausted 
it  to  its  last  dregs — as  if  in  his  own  per- 
son, he  had  walked  the  whole  length  of 
the  valley  and  shadow  of  that  death  which 
every  sinner  has  rightfully  incurred — as 
if  what  was  only  possible  for  the  Godhead 
to  have  borne  within  a  given  compass  of 
time,  He  Himself  had  borne,  the  sulierings 
of  that  eternity  which  is  in  reserve  for  all 
the  guilt  that  is  unexpiated.  Be  dead  with 
Christ,  by  giving  credit  to  the  gospel  tes- 
timony about  the  death  of  Christ ;  and 
the  whole  of  this  tremendous  retribution 
for  sin  with  you  is  as  good  as  over — and 
it  is  your  own  comfort,  as  well  as  God's 
commandment,  that  you  henceforth,  with 
the  assurance  of  being  set  at  liberty  from 
sin,  walk  before  him  relieved  from  the 
bondage  both  of  its  conscious  guilt  and 
of  its  anticipated  vengeance. 

But  in  order  to  be  fully  conformed  to 
the  death  of  Christ,  we  must  advert  to 
what  is  said  in  the  9th  and  10th  verses, 
about  the  full  and  conclusive  efficacy  of 
it — so  conclusive,  that  it  had  not  again  to 
be  repeated,  tor  He  had  to  die  only  once, 
and  death  had  no  other  dominion  over 
Him.  There  was  power  enough  for  the 
whole  purpose  of  our  deliverance  from 
guilt  in  the  one  offering — a  truth  of  suffi- 
cient worth,  it  would  appear,  to  be  urged 
by  the  apostle  in  other  places  of  the  New 
Testament ;  when  he  says,  that  Christ  did 
not  offer  Himself  often  ;  for  then  must  He 
have  often  suffered  since  the  foundation 
of  the  world — but  now  once,  hath  He  ap- 
peared to  put  av/ay  sin  by  the  sacrifice 
of  Himself:  And  Christ  was  once  offered 
to  bear  the  sins  of  many  :  And  it  is  through 


the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ 
once  for  all,  that  we  are  cleansed  from 
guilt :  And,  finally,  laying  upon  this  point 
the  stress  of  a  frequent  reiteration  does 
the  apostle  say  that  it  is  by  one  offering 
that  we  are  for  ever  perfected.  There  is 
surely  a  real  practical  importance  in  a 
matter  so  much  insisted  on  ;  and  accord- 
ingly, we  infer  from  another  passage,  that 
it  was  to  save  the  believer  from  the  con- 
stant recurrence  and  revival,  in  his  heart, 
of  a  sense  of  guilt — it  was  that,  once 
purged,  he  should  have  no  more  con- 
science of  sins — it  was  tliat  he  should 
look  on  the  controversy  between  him  and 
God  as  now  fully  adjusted,  and  at  an  end 
— it  was  that  in  the  contemplation  of  that 
one  act,  even  the  decease  which  Christ 
accomplished  at  Jerusalem,  he  should  feel 
as  conclusively  relieved  from  the  imagi- 
nation of  guilt,  as  the  son,  in  whose  be- 
half the  father  has  interposed  and  given 
ample  .satisfaction  to  all  his  creditors, 
feels  himself  relieved  from  the  imagina- 
tion of  debt — it  was  that  we  should  no 
longer  conjure  into  life  again,  those  fear- 
ful misgivings,  which  the  one  death  of 
Christ  and  our  death  with  Him  should 
hush  into  everlasting  oblivion — So  that,  if 
it  be  our  duty  to  rejoice  in  the  comfort  of 
our  full  acquittance,  through  the  satisfac- 
tion rendered  by  Him  who  poured  out  His 
soul  for  us — it  goes  to  enhance  the  comfort 
still  more,  that  there  is  an  amount  and  a 
value  in  this  same  satisfaction,  for  meet- 
ing all  the  exigences  of  our  future  history 
in  the  world — thus  ministering  the  very 
antidote  to  our  fears,  which  the  apostle 
John  urges  upon  his  disciples,  that  if  any 
man  sin  we  have  an  Advocate  with  the 
Father,  even  Him  who  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous. 

If  we  be  dead  with  Chrii^t,  and  death 
have  no  more  dominion  over  Him — this  is 
tantamount  to  guilt  being  no  longer 
chargeable  upon  us.  And  ought  not  this 
to  be  felt  as  a  precious  enhancement  of 
the  blessing — setting  an  irrevocable  seal 
as  it  were  upon  our  reconciliation  with 
God — placing  it  securely  beyond  the 
reach,  not  merely  of  the  impediments 
which  sin  already  contracted  had  thrown 
in  the  way  ;  but  also  beyond  the  reach 
of  all  those  future  accidents,  that  the  sin, 
into  which  we  shall  be  surprised  or  into 
which  we  shall  stumble,  may  afterwards 
involve  us.  We  set  not  the  remedy  at  its 
full  worth,  if  we  use  it  not  to  quiet  the 
alarms  of  the  guilt  that  is  before  us,  ag 
well  as  of  the  guilt  that  is  behind  us — if, 
like  the  children  of  Israel,  we  think  that 
some  great  purifying  ceremonial  must  be 
set  up  anew  to  wash  away  the  outstanding 
defilements  of  the  current  year,  under 
which  they  are  meanwhile  in  a  state  of 
distance  and  displeasure  from  God — if  we 


162 


LECTURE  XXXI. CHAPTER  VI,  8 — 10. 


regard  not  the  fulness  that  is  in  Christ  as 
r\  perennial  fountain,  which  is  at  all  times 
?i.ccessible  ;  and  is  a  very  present  cure 
to  the  conscience,  under  the  many  inroads 
and  solicitations  of  tliat  sinful  nature 
which  never  ceases  to  beset  us  with  its 
urgency — Tluis  overbearing  the  sense  of 
guilt  with  the  sense  of  that  healing  virtue 
which  lies  in  the  blood  of  the  one  sacri- 
fice ;  and  upholding  the  spirit  of  the  be- 
liever, even  while  opprest  with  the  infir- 
mities of  his  earthly  tabernacle,  in  the 
clear  and  confident  feeling  of  his  accep- 
tance with  God. 

But  is  not  this,  it  may  be  said,  equiva- 
lent to  the  holding  forth  of  a  Popish  in- 
dulgence for  all  sins,  past,  present,  and 
to  cornel  And,  is  not  this  a  signal  for 
antinomianism  ?  And  will  not  the  feeling 
of  our  death  to  the  guilt  of  sin,  make  us 
all  alive  to  the  charm  of  its  many  allure- 
ments— now  heightened  by  a  sense  of 
impunity  1  And  will  not  the  peace  that  we 
are  thus  called  upon  to  maintain,  even 
while  sin  has  its  residence  in  our  hearts, 
lull  us  still  further  into  a  peace  that  will 
not  be  broken^  even  though  sin  should 
reign  over  our  habits  and  our  history? 
We  have  sometimes  thought  so,  my  breth- 
ren, and,  under  the  suggestion  of  such  a 
fear,  have  qualified  the  freeness,  and  laid 
our  clauses  and  our  exceptions  and  our 
drawbacks  on  the  fulness  of  the  gospel ; 
and,  solicitous  for  the  purity  of  the  human 
character,  have  lifted  a  timid  and  a  hesi- 
tating voice  when  proclaiming  the  over- 
tures of  pardon  for  human  guilt.  But  we 
are  now  thoroughly  persuaded,  that  the 
effective  way  of  turning  men  from  sin  to 
righteousness,  is  to  throw,  wide  and  open 
before  them,  the  door  of  reconciliation; 
and  that  a  real  trust  in  God  for  accep- 
tance, is  ever  accompanied  with  a  real 
movement  of  the  heart  towards  godliness  ; 
and  that  to  mix  or  darken  the  communi- 
cations of  good  will  to  the  world  through 
Him  who  died  for  it,  is  not  more  adverse 
to  the  rest  of  the  sinner,  than  it  is  adverse 
to  the  holiness  of  the  sinner ;  and  that, 
after  all,  the  true  way  of  keeping  up  love 
in  the  heart,  is  to  keep  up  peace  in  the 
conscience — thus  making  your  freedom 
from  the  guilt  of  sin,  the  best  guarantee 
for  your  deliverance  from  its  power ;  and 
that,  as  we  have  already  affirmed,  if  you 
can  interpose  the  death  of  Christ  in  arrest 
of  condemnation,  when  Satan  for  the  pur- 
poses of  disturbance  would  inject  the  fears 
of  unbelief  into  your  bosom,  he  the  great 
adversary  of  souls  were  paralyzed  at  the 
very  sight  of  such  a  barrier  in  all  his  meas- 
ures of  hostility  against  you,  and  would 
retire  a  baffled  enemy  from  that  contest, 
in  which,  for  the  purposes  of  a  sinful  do- 
minion over  you,  he  tried  to  assail  and  to 
conquer  by  the  force  of  his  temptations. 


But  the  certainty  of  that  connection, 
which  obtains  between  a  death  unto  the 
guilt  of  sin,  and  a  death  unto  its  power, 
will  be  more  manifest  afterwards :  And, 
meanwhile,  after  having  said  so  much  on 
the  clause  of  being  dead  with  Christ,  it 
may  now  be  time  for  offering  our  remarks 
on  the  clause  that  we  shall  live  with  Him. 

Yet  before  we  proceed  to  the  elucida- 
tion of  this  latter  clause,  we  may  remark 
a  sanctifying  influence  in  the  former  one. 
We  are  looked  upon  by  the  Lawgiver  as 
dead  with  Christ — that  is,  as  having  in 
Him  borne  the  penalty  of  our  sins,  and 
therefore  as  no  longer  the  subjects  of  a 
curse  that  has  already  been  discharged, 
of  a  condemnatory  sentence  that  is  al- 
ready executed.  Now  though  we  share 
alike  with  Christ,  in  this  privilege  of  a  final 
acquittance  from  that  death  which  has  no 
more  dominion  over  Him,  and  is  for  ever 
averted  from  us — yet  it  was  at  His  expense 
alone,  and  not  at  ours,  that  the  acquit- 
tance was  obtained.  It  would  have  cost 
us  an  eternity  of  suffering  in  hell,  to  have 
traversed  the  whole  of  that  vengeance 
that  was  denounced  upon  iniquity  ;  and 
it  was  therefore  so  condensed  upon  the 
person  of  the  Saviour,  who  had  the  infinity 
of  the  Godhead  to  sustain  it,  that  on  Him, 
during  the  limited  period  of  His  sufferings 
on  earth,  all  the  vials  of  the  Almighty's 
wrath  were  poured  forth  and  so  were 
expended.  By  our  fellowship  with  Him 
in  His  death,  we  have  been  borne  across 
a  gulf,  which  to  ourselves  would  have 
been  utterly  interminable;  and  have  been 
landed  on  a  safe  and  peaceful  shore,  over 
which  no  angry  cloud  whatever  is  sus- 
pended ;  and  have  been  conclusively 
placed  beyond  the  reach  of  tho.se  devour- 
ing billows,  into  which  the  despisers  of 
the  gospel  salvation  shall  be  absorbed, 
and  have  for  ever  their  fiery  habitation. 
But  it  is  just  because  Christ  has,  in  the 
greatness  of  His  love,  for  us  travelled 
through  the  depths  of  all  this  endurance 
— just  because,  in  the  agonies  of  the  gar- 
den and  the  sufferings  of  the  cross,  were 
concentrated  the  torments  of  millions 
through  eternity — just  because,  in  that 
mysterious  passion  which  for  us  He  un- 
derwent. He  with  tears  and  cries  and 
anguish  unutterable,  forced  the  way  of 
reconciliation — And  we  who  are  dead  with 
Christ,  partake  in  all  the  triumphs  of  this 
sore  purchase,  but  not  in  the  pains  of  it; 
and  have  now  our  feet  established  on  a 
quiet  landing-place.  And  the  sanctifying 
influence  to  which  we  now  advert,  and 
which  no  real  believer  can  withstand,  is 
gratitude  to  Him,  who  hath  wrought  out 
for  us  so  mighty  a  deliverance.  It  is  the 
rcspondency  of  love  from  our  hearts,  to 
that  love  which  burnt  so  unquenchably 
in  His,  and  bore  Him  up  under  the  burdea 


LECTURE  XXXI. CHAPTER  VI,  8 10. 


163 


of  a  world's  atonement.  It  is  the  rightful 
sentiment,  that  now  we  are  not  our  own, 
but  the  ransomed  and  redeemed  property 
of  another.  This  touches,  and  touches 
irresistibly,  upon  him  who  rightly  appre- 
ciates all  the  horrors  of  that  everlasting 
captivity  from  which  we  have  been 
brought,  and  all  the  expense  of  that 
dreadful  equivalent  which  Christ  had  to 
render — And  he  thus  judges,  that,  as 
Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead  ; 
and  He  died,  that  those  who  live  might 
live  no  longer  to  themselves,  but  to  Him 
who  died  for  them  and  rose  again. 

""We  believe  that  we  shall  also  live  with 
Him."  To  explain  the  phrase  of  our 
being  dead  with  Christ,  we  had  to  ascer- 
tain how  it  was  that  Christ  was  dead  ;  and 
we  find  by  the  following  verse  that  He 
died  unto  sin,  and  we  in  like  manner  are 
dead  unto  sin ;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
wages  of  sin  being  paid  to  Christ,  there  is 
no  further  reckoning  between  them — and, 
as  this  transaction  was  for  us  and  in  our 
stead,  it  is  just  as  if  death  the  wages  of  sin 
had  been  rendered  unto  us ;  and  sin  can 
now  hold  no  further  count,  and  prefer  no 
further  charge  against  us.  This  sense  of 
dying  unto  sin  on  the  part  of  Christ,  will 
conduct  us  to  the  sense  of  his  living  unto 
God.  The  life  that  he  now  lives  with 
Him,  has  been  conferred  upon  Him  in  the 
shape  of  wages.  In  other  words,  it  is  a 
reward  consequent  upon  what  He  has 
done  for  us,  and  in  our  stead — even  as 
the  death  that  He  bore  was  a  punishment, 
consequent  upon  His  having  become 
accountable  for  us,  and  in  our  stead. 
This  will  recall  to  you,  my  brethren,  a 
distinction  to  which  we  have  already  had 
occasion  to  advert ;  and  for  which  there 
seemeth  a  real  warrant  in  the  book  of 
revelation — the  distinction  that  there  is, 
in  point  of  effect,  between  the  passive  and 
the  active  obedience  of  Christ — the  one 
satisfying  for  sin  and  making  an  end  of 
its  curse  and  punishment — So  that  to  be 
dead  with  Christ  and  dead  unto  sin,  is  to 
live  in  the  condition  of  those,  on  whom 
the  curse  and  the  punishment  have  al- 
ready been  expended ;  and  who  have 
therefore  nothing  now  to  fear  from  its 
charges — whereas  to  live  with  Christ  or 
to  be  alive  unto  God,  is  to  share  with  Him 
that  positive  favour  which  Christ  hath 
merited  from  God  by  His  positive  right- 
eousness. It  is  something  more  than  sim- 
ply to  cease  from  being  the  children  of 
wrath,  and  the  heirs  of  damnation — it  is 
to  become  the  objects  of  a  positive  good 
will,  and  the  heirs  or  the  expectants  of  a 
positive  reward. 

The  single  term  also,  indicates  that  the 
privilege  of  sharing  with  Him  in  His  life, 
IS  distinct  from  and  additional  to  the  privi- 
lege of  sharing  in  His  death.    By  the  one 


we  only  escape  the  curse — by  the  other 
we  obtain  the  blessing.  By  the  one,  we 
are  lightened  of  the  debt  which  He  hath 
discharged  through  His  sufferings — by  the 
other,  we  share  in  the  property  which  He  ^ 
hath  acquired  thi'ough  His  services.  The 
one  shuts  against  us  the  gate  of  hell.  The 
other  opens  for  us  the  gate  of  heaven. 
Did  we  only  share  with  Him  in  His  death, 
we  would  be  found  midway  between  the 
region  of  pain  and  the  region  of  positive 
enjoyment ;  but  by  also  sharing  with  Him 
in  His  life,  we  are  elevated  to  the  higher 
region,  and  partake  in  those  very  glories 
and  felicities  to  which  the  Saviour  has 
been  exalted.  Had  the  alone  work  of  the 
Saviour  been  an  expiation  for  sin,  there 
would  have  been  a  death,  and  such  a 
death  as  would  have  exempted  us  from  its 
endurance  ;  but  there  would  have  beennt) 
resurrection.  But  in  the  words  of  the 
prophet  Daniel,  our  Saviour  did  more  than 
finish  transgression  and  make  an  end  of 
sin — He  also  brought  in  an  everlasting 
righteousness ;  and  so  reaped  for  Himself 
and  those  who  believe  in  Him  a  positive 
reward,  the  first  fruits  of  which  were  His 
own  resurrection  to  blessedness,  and  the 
consummation  of  which  will  be  a  similar 
resurrection  to  all  His  followers.  It  was 
the  atonement  which  laid  Him  in  His 
grave.  It  was  His  righteousness  that 
lifted  Him  forth  again,  and  bore  Him  up 
to  paradise.  Had  there  been  an  atone- 
ment and  nothing  more,  like  prisoners 
dismissed  from  the  bar  we  would  have 
been  simply  let  alone.  But  He  brought  ia 
a  righteousness  also — so  that  we  not  only 
are  relieved  of  all  fear  ;  but,  inspired  with, 
joyful  hope,  we,  in  addition  to  being  dead 
with  Him,  believe  that  we  shall  also  live 
with  Him.  And  thus  it  is,  thai,  while  He 
was  delivered  up  unto  the  death  for  our 
offences,  that  the  guilt  of  them  may  be 
absolved  in  the  atonement  which  Pie 
made — He  was  raised  again  for  our  justi- 
fication,  or  that  we  may  share  in  that 
merit  for  which  He  Himself  was  exalted, 
and  on  account  of  which  we  too  believe 
that  we  shall  be  exalted  also. 

You  will  see  then,  that  as  we  understand 
the  phrase  of  our  dying  with  Christ  foren- 
sically — so  we  understand  the  phrase  of 
our  living  with  Christ  forensically.  It  is 
our  living  through  His  righteousness,  in 
that  favour  which  is  better  than  life — the 
sense  of  which  favour  will  keep  our  spirits 
tranquil  and  happy  here  ;  and  will  often, 
even  among  the  turmoils  of  our  earthly 
pilgrimage,  brighten  into  such  a  gleam  of 
comfort  and  elevation,  as  shall  be  the  fore-  • 
taste  to  us  of  the  coming  extacy — when, 
on  our  entrance  into  the  habitation  of 
God's  unclouded  and  immediate  presence, 
we  shall  share  with  our  Redeemer,  now 
on  high  in  His  full  enjoyment  of  the  divino 


164 


LECTURE  XXXI. — CHAPTER  VI,  8 — 10. 


glory  ;  and,  beheld  as  \vc  shall  be  in  the 
face  of  Christ,  of  that  love  wherewith  the 
Father  hath  loved  Him. 

But  just  as  a  believing  sense  on  our 
part,  of  our  being  dead  with  Christ  unto 
sin  in  the  forensic  sense  of  the  plirase, 
leads,  as  we  have  already  affirmed,  to  our 
being  dead  unto  sin  in  the  personal  sense 
of  the  phrase,  so  as  that  we  become  dead 
in  our  regard  for  sin— in  like  manner,  my 
brethren,  a  believing  st;nse  of  our  living 
with  Christ  in  the  forensic  sense  of  the 
phrase,  v/ill  lead  to  a  living  with  Him  in 
the  personal  son&e  of  the  phrase  also.  So 
as  that  the  style  and  character  of  our  life 
shall  resemble  His — loving  what  He  loves, 
sharing  with  Him  in  His  tastes  and  in  His 
powers  as  well  as  in  His  privileges,  walk- 
ing along  with  Him  in  the  very  same 
track  of  happiness  and  glory — For  which 
purpose  it  is  altogether  essential,  that  we 
be  endued  with  a  heart  which  delights  in 
the  very  same  pursuits,  and  feels  the 
working  and  aspiration  of  the  very  same 
properties.  Or,  in  other  words,  admitted 
as  we  are  to  rejoice  with  Him  in  that 
fa\our  of  God  which  He  hath  purchased 
by  His  obedience,  we  shall  not  have  the 
conviction  and  the  feeling  of  this,  without 
also  rejoicing  with  Him,  even  as  He  does 
now  in  beholding  the  character  of  God — 
in  gazing  with  delight  on  the  aspect  of 
His  pure  and  unspotted  holiness — in  copy- 
ing upon  our  own  spirits  all  those  graces 
and  virtues  whicli  we  admire  in  His.  So 
that  to  live  with  Christ  in  the  fellowship 
of  those  privileges  which  by  His  merit  He 
has  won,  will  bring  in  its  train  our  living 
with  Him  in  the  fellowship  of  all  that 
kindred  excellence  by  which  His  person 
is  adorned — being  alive  unto  God,  not 
merely  in  regard  to  our  right  through 
Christ  to  His  friendship;  but  alive  unto 
Him,  in  the  restoration  of  a  nature  that  is 
now  attracted  by  the  charm  of  His  moral 
attributes,  and  finds  both  its  delight  and 
its  dignity  to  live  in  the  imitation  of  them. 
There  is  a  sure  transition  between  our 
being  justified  by  faith,  and  our  being 
sanctified  by  faith.  There  is  a  provision 
made  for  this,  in  the  mechanism  of  the 
moral  nature  of  man  below  ;  and  there 
is  a  provision  made  for  it,  in  that  celestial 
mechanism  which  has  been  set  up  in 
heaven — and  from  which  there  come  down 
those  holy  inlluenc(;s,  that  serve  to  regen- 
erate our  world.  Faith  makes  known  to 
us  the  love  of  God,  and  upon  this  grati- 
tude calls  forth  the  love  of  the  heart  to 
Him  back  again.  Faith  revi-als  to  us  that 
exquisite  union,  which  is  held  out  in  the 
gospel,  between  the  awful  and  the  lovely 
attributes  of  His  nature ;  and  the  fear 
that  hath  torment  being  now  allayed,  and 
the  consciousness  of  personal  security 
being  now  established,  we  can,  without 


dread  and  without  disturbance,  take  an 
entire  view  of  the  Divinity,  and  add  to  the 
homage  of  our  thanksgiving,  the  homage  of 
a  reverence  that  is  free  from  terror,  to  such 
a  full  and  finished  glory.  Faith  opens  fa 
our  sight  the  real  churact(;r  of  heaven,  in 
the  sacredness  of  its  angelic  delights  and 
its  holy  services — so  that  to  rejoice  in  the 
hope  of  our  living  there,  it  is  indispensa 
ble  that  we  should  rejoice  in  the  de 
vices  and  the  doings  of  saintliness  here 
Neither  can  we  cherish  the  belief  that  we 
shall  live  with  Christ,  unless  the  kind  of 
life  that  is  held  through  eternity  alpng 
with  Him,  be  dear  and  congimial  to  our 
bosoms — so  that  grant  the  faith  through 
which  we  obtain  an  interest  in  His  right- 
eousness to  reside  and  operate  within  us, 
there  are  .securities  in  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  the  inner  man,  that  we  shall  aspire 
after  and  at  last  attairi  unto  holiness. 

Yet  however  suited  the  mechanism  of 
our  hearts  is,  to  this  purifying  operation 
of  faith — it  will  not  move,  neither  will  it 
persevere  in  the  movement,  without  a 
continued  impulse  from  above ;  and,  to 
secure  this,  there  has  been  raised,  if  I 
ma}'  use  the  expression,  a  mechanism  in 
heaven — by  the  working  of  which,  a 
stream  of  living  water  is  made  to  descend 
upon  the  moral  nature  of  man,  so  as  to 
attune  all  its  emotions  and  desires  to  those 
of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  upper  para- 
dise. In  other  words,  there  is  a  true  sanc- 
tuary there,  whereof  Christ  Himself  is  the 
minister,  and  it  is  His  office,  not  merely 
to  carry  up  the  prayers  of  His  people  to 
Him  who  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  mixed 
with  the  acceptable  odour  of  His  own 
merits — but  also  to  send  down  from  the 
Holiest  of  Holies  upon  our  world,  that  re- 
generating influence  by  which  man  is 
awakened  to  a  new  moral  existence,  and 
upheld  in  all  the  affeciions  nnd  in  all  the 
exercises  of  godliness.  He  is  the  prevail- 
ing Advocate,  through  whom  our  ascend- 
ing supplications  rise  with  acceptance  to 
God.  But  He,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  is 
also  the  quickening  Spirit,  through  whom 
the  light  and  the  heat  of  the  .sanctuary 
are  made  to  descend  upon  us.  It  is  thus 
that  faith  is  deposited  at  the  first  ;  and  it 
is  thus  that  faith  is  uphilil  ever  after- 
wards, in  power  to  work  witl)in  ns  all  the 
feelings  and  all  the  fruits  of  right(!OUS- 
ness.  The  Holy  Ghost,  that  blessing  so 
precious  and  so  preeniin  nt,  ;is  to  be 
styled  the  promise  of  the  Father — it  was 
by  His  power  and  agency  express  that 
Christ  was  revived,  and  His  resurrection 
from  the  grave  was  accomplished  ;  and, 
as  if  to  fulfil  and  illustrate  the  saying  of 
our  Saviour  that  because  I  live  ye  shall 
live  also,  this  very  power  has  b(!en  com- 
mitted to  His  mediatorial  hand  ;  and  it  is 
just  bv  its  working  that  He  quickens  us, 


LECTURE  XXXI. — CHAPTEK.  VI,  8 10. 


165 


who  by  nature  are  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  into  a  spiritual  resui'rection.  Thus 
are  we  made  spiritually  alive  unto  God, 
and  walk  in  newness  of'  life  before  Him. 
And  if  it  be  asked,  how  shall  this  virtue 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  us,  we  answer 
that  the  prayer  of  faith  will  bring  it  down 
at  any  time — that  with  it  the  door  of 
heaven's  sanctuary  is  opened  ;  and  the 
required  blessing  passes  with  sure  con- 
veyance into  that  believer's  heart,  the 
door  of  which  is  open  to  receive  it :  And, 
such  is  the  established  accordancy  be- 
tween the  doings  of  the  upper  sanctuary 
and  the  doings  of  the  church  upon  earth, 
that  every  member  thereof,  who  lives  in 
the  favour  of  God  because  of  the  right- 
eousness of  Christ  imputed  unto  him,  will 
live  also  in  the  love  and  likeness  of  God 
because  of  the  holiness  of  the  Spirit  in- 
fused into  him. 

The  only  practical  inference  I  shall. at 
present  insist  upon,  is  founded  on  the 
connection  that  we  have  so  abundantly 
adverted  to,  between  the  faith  of  a  sinner 
and  his  sanctitication.  The  next  verse 
will  give  us  room  for  enlarging  upon  this 
all-important  topic.  But  meanwhile  be 
assured,  that  you  may,  with  as  much 
safety,  confide  the  cause  of  your  lioliness 
upon  earth  to  the  exercise  of  believing,  as 
you  confide  the  cause  of  your  happiness 
in  heaven  to  this  exercise.  The  primary 
sense  of  believing  that  we  shall  live  with 
Christ,  is,  that,  through  His  righteousness, 
we  shall  be  admitted  to  that  place  of  glo- 
ry which  He  now  occupies — there  to 
spend  with  Him  a  blissful  eternity  ;  and 
according  to  this  belief,  if  real,  so  shall  it 
be  done  unto  us.  But  in  like  mannnralso, 
let  us  just  believe  that  we  shall  live  with 
Him  here,  by  entering  even  now  upon  the 
fellowship  of  those  virtues  which  adorn 
His  character,  and  of  that  Spirit  which 
actuated  the  whole  of  His  conduct ;  and 
according  to  this  belief,  if  real,  so  shall  it 
be  done  unto  us.  It  is  indeed  to  the  eye 
of  nature  a  most  unlikely  transformation, 
that  creatures  so  prone  as  we  are  to  sense 
and  to  ungodliness  ;  and  beset  with  the 
infirmities  of  our  earthly  tabernacle,  and 
weighed  down  under  that  load  of  corrup- 
tion wherewith  these  vile  bodies  are  ever 
encumbering  us,  that  we  should  break 
forth,  even  here  into  an  atmosphere  of 
sacredness,  and  inhale  that  spiritual  life 
by  which  we  become  assimilated  to  the 
.saints  and  the  angels  that  now  surround 
the  throne  of  God.  But  the  more  unlikely 
this  is  to  the  eye  of  nature,  so  much  the 
more  glorious  will  be  the  victory  of  our 


faith,  that  it  triumphs  over  the  strength  of 
an  improbability  so  grievous.  And  if,  like 
Abraham  of  old,  we  against  hope  believe 
in  hope  ;  and  stagger  not  at  the  promise 
because  of  unbetief,  but  are  strong  in 
faith  giving  glory  to  God — then,  barren  as 
we  constitutionally  are  of  all  that  is  spi- 
ritually excellent,  still,  such  is  the  influ- 
ence of  our  faith  over  our  sanctitication, 
that,  if  there  be  truth  in  the  promises  of 
God,  we  shall  be  made  to  abound  in  the 
fruits  of  righteousness. 

The  best  practical  receipt  I  can  give 
you,  my  brethren,  for  becoming  holy  is  to 
be  steadfast  in  the  faith.  Believe  that 
Christ's  righteousness  is  your  righteous- 
ness ;  and  His  graces  will  become  your 
graces.  Believe  that  you  are  a  pardoned 
creature ;  and  this  will  issue  in  your  be- 
coming a  purified  creature.  Take  hold 
of  tlie  offered  gift  of  Heaven  ;  and  you 
will  not  only  enter,  after  death,  on  the  fu- 
ture reversion  of  heaven's  triun:!phs  and 
heaven's  joys — but  before  death,  nay  oven 
now,  will  you  enter  upon  the  participation 
of  heaven's  feelings,  and  the  practice  of 
heaven's  moralities.  Go  in  prayer  with 
the  plea  of  Christ's  atonement  and  His 
merits  ;  and  state,  in  connection  witii  this 
plea,  that  what  you  want,  is  that  you  be 
adorned  with  Christ's  likeness,  and  that 
you  be  assisted  in  putting  on  the  virtues 
which  signalized  Him.  And  you  will  lind 
the  plea  to  be  omnipotent ;  and  the  con- 
tinued habit  of  such  prayer,  applied  to 
all  exigencies  of  your  condition,  will  ena- 
ble you  to  substantiate  the  example  of 
your  Saviour,  throughout  all  the  vai'ieties 
of  providence  and  of  history.  In  a  word, 
faith  is  the  instrument  of  sanctitication. 

And  when  you  have  learned  the  use  of 
this  instrument,  you  have  learned  the  way 
to  become  -holy  upon  earth  now,  as  well 
as  the  way  to  become  eternally  happy  in 
heaven  hereafter.  The  believing  prayer 
that  God  will  aid  you  in  this  difficulty; 
and  counsel  you  in  this  perplexity ;  and 
enable  you  to  overcome  in  this  trial  of 
charity  and  patience ;  and  keep  up  in 
your  heart  the  principle  of  godliness, 
amid  the  urgency  of  all  those  seducing 
influences  by  which  you  are  surrounded 
— this  you  will  find,  my  brethren,  to  be 
the  sure  stepping-stone,  to  a  right  acquit- 
tal of  yourself,  in  all  the  given  circum- 
stances of  your  condition  in  the  world. 
And  let  the  repeated  experience  of  your 
constant  failures,  when  you  had  nothing 
but  the  power  and  the  energies  of  nature 
to  trust  to,  shut  you  up  unto  the  faith. 


166 


LECTURE    XXXII. — CHAPTER   VI,    11. 


LECTURE  XXXII. 

Romans  vi,  11. 
•  Likewise  reckon  ye  also  yourselves  to  be  dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  lluougU  Jesus  Clirist  our  Lord.' 


We  regard  this  verse  as  proof  in  itself, 
of  the  forensic  meaning,  which  we  have 
all  along  ascribed  to  tlie  phrases  of  our 
being  dead  unto  sin  and  alive  unto  God. 
The  great  object  of  this  chapter,  is  to 
establish  the  alliance  that  there  is,  be- 
tween a  sinner's  acceptance  through 
Christ  and  a  sinner's  holiness.  And  in 
the  verse  before  us,  there  is  a  practical 
direction  given  for  carrying  this  alliance 
into  effect.  We  are  called  upon  to  reckon 
of  ourselves  that  we  are  dead  unto  sin, 
and  alive  unto  God  ;  and  this  is  a  step 
towards  our  becoming  holy.  Now  what 
are  we  to  reckon  ourselves?  why,  if  these 
phrases  be  taken  in  the  personal  sense 
of  them — it  would  be  that  we  are  mortified 
to  the  pleasures  and  temptations  of  sin ; 
and  alive  to  nothing  but  the  excellencies 
of  God's  character,  and  a  sense  of  the 
obligations  we  are  under  to  love  and  to 
honour  Him  :  Or,  in  other  words,  we  are 
to  reckon  ourselves  holy  in  order  that  we 
ma)^  become  holy.  It  were  a  strange 
receipt  for  curing  a  man  of  his  dishonesty, 
to  bid  him  reckon  of  himself  that  he  is  an 
honest  man.  One  really  does  not  see  the 
charm  and  the  operation  of  this  expedient 
at  all.  One  does  not  see,  how,  by  the 
simple  act  of  counting  myself  what  I 
really  am  not,  that  1  am  to  be  transferred 
from  that  which  I  am  to  that  which  1 
choose  to  imagine  of  myself.  And  a  still 
more  radical  objection  is,  that  it  is  bidding 
me  reckon  that  to  be  true  which  I  know 
to  be  false.  It  is  bidding  me  cherish  the 
belief  of  a  thing  that  is  not.  It  is  calling, 
not  upon  my  faith  in  a  matter  for  which 
there  is  no  evidence,  but  upon  my  imagi- 
nation of  a  matter  that  is  directly  oppo- 
site to  a  reality  of  which  I  am  conscious. 
To  lay  hold  of  a  sinner  and  bid  him 
reckon  of  himself  that  he  is  a  saint,  is  to 
bid  him  admit  into  credit  that  which  he 
knows  to  be  untrue — and  all  for  the  pur- 
pose too  of  turning  him  from  the  creature 
that  he  feels  he  is,  to  the  creature  that  he 
fancies  he  is.  We  have  heard  much  of 
the  power  of  imagination ;  but  this  is 
giving  it  an  empire  and  an  ascendancy 
that  exceeds  all  which  was  before  known 
or  observed  of  our  nature — besides  the 
very  obvious  moral  impropriety  that  there 
would  be  in  an  apostle  telling,  either  an 
unconverted  man  to  conceive  of  himself 
that  which  is  most  glaringly  and  noto- 
riously untrue ;  or,  if  you  will  restrict  the 


injunction  of  my  text  to  disciples  and 
believersv  telling  them  to  think  what  no 
humble  Christian  can  possibly  think  of 
himself — that  he  is  crucified  unto  the  love 
of  sin,  and  that  all  his  felt  and  living 
desires  are  towards  God  and  godliness. 

Now  you  free  the  passage  of  all  these 
difficulties,  by  taking  these  phrases  ac- 
cording to  the  forensic  interpretation  that 
we  have  given  them.  To  be  dead  unto 
sin,  is  to  be  in  the  condition  of  one  on 
whom  death  the  sentence  of  sin  has  al- 
ready been  inflicted — if  not  in  his  own 
person  at  least  in  that  of  his  representa- 
tive ;  so  that  the  execution  for  the  trans- 
gression of  the  law  is  a  matter  that  is  now 
past  and  over.  To  be  alive  unto  God  is 
to  live  in  the  favour  of  God — a  favour  to 
which  we  have  been  admitted  through 
the  services  of  a  Mediator,  or,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  text,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.  To  reckon  that  Christ  died  for 
the  one  purpose,  and  to  reckon  that  he 
brought  in  an  everlasting  righteousness 
for  the  other  purpose — is  to  reckon,  not  on 
a  matter  of  fancy,  but  on  a  matter  pro- 
posed, and  that  too  on  the  evidence  of 
God's  own  testimony  to  faith.  It  is  not  to 
cherish  a  delusive  belief  of  what  we  are 
in  ourselves,  and  that  in  the  face  of  our 
own  consciousness — it  is  to  cherish  a  most 
solid  and  warrantable  belief  of  what  God 
has  done  for  us,  and  that  on  the  credit  we 
place  in  His  own  intimation.  Ere  we  can 
in  our  own  minds  bolster  up  the  reckon- 
ing, that  we  are  personally  dead  unto  sin 
and  personally  alive  unto  God — there 
must  be  many  misgivings;  and  .sad  fail- 
ures and  fluctuations  of  confidence,  on  the 
constant  detections  that  we  must  be  ever 
making  of  our  own  ungodliness.  And  at 
best  it  is  a  very  precarious  security  indeed 
for  holiness,  if  the  way  to  become  holy  is 
to  reckon  that  we  are  so.  But  when,  in- 
stead of  looking  downwardly  on  the  dark 
and  ambiguous  tablet  of  our  own  charac- 
ter, we  look  upwardly  to  that  Saviour  who 
now  sitteth  in  exaltation,  after  having 
rendered  the  penalty  of  our  disobedience 
and  won  for  us  the  reward  of  life  everlast- 
ing— We  hold  by  a  thing  of  historical 
fact,  and  not  by  a  thing  of  deceitful  ima- 
gination ;  we  rest  on  the  completeness  of 
a  finished  expiation  and  perfect  obedience ; 
and  transfer  our  reckoning  from  a  ground 
where  consciegce  meets  us  and  gives  us 
the  lie,  to  a  ground  occupied  by  the  stable 


LECTURE  XXXII. CHAPTER  VX,  11. 


167 


and  enduring  realities  of  Scripture — where 
God  who  cannot  lie  meets  us  with  the 
assurances  of  His  truth  ;  and  the  voice  of 
His  kindness  welcomes  us  to  the  deliver- 
ance of  those  who  are  dead  with  Christ, 
to  the  high  and  heavenly  anticipations  of 
those  who  are  alive  with  Him. 

When  a  sinner  is  bidden  to  reckon 
himself  dead  unto  sin,  and  this  phrase  is 
understood  personally,  he  is  bidden  to 
reckon  himself  a  saint — to  reckon  what  is 
not  true;  and  surely  this  is  not  the  way 
of  causing  him  to  be  a  saint.  But  when 
he  is  bidden  to  reckon  himself  dead  unto 
sin,  and  this  phrase  is  understood  forensi- 
cally,  he  is  bidden  look  upon  himself  as 
a  partaker  with  Christ  in  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  Him,  on  whom  the 
sentence  is  already  discharged  and  gone 
by;  and  to  whom  therefore  there  is  no 
more  condemnation.  But  it  may  be  said, 
might  not  this  be  an  untruth  also?  Uo 
I  read  anywhere  in  the  Bible,  of  Christ 
dying  for  me  in  particular"?  The  apostle 
is  speaking  to  his  converts  when  he  says, 
"Reckon  yourselves  dead  unto  sin."  But 
is  it  competent  to  address  any  one  indi- 
vidual at  random,  to  reckon  himself  in 
this  blessed  condition  of  freedom  from  a 
penalty,  that  Christ  hath  intercepted  and 
absorbed  in  behalf  of  all  who  believe  on 
Him?  Might  not  he  in  so  reckoning  be  as 
effectually  working  himself  up  into  the 
belief  of  a  delusive  imagination,  as  if  he 
reckoned  that  he  was  a  new  creature — 
while  all  the  habits  and  tendencies  of  the 
old  man  still  remained  with  him,  in  fall 
and  unabated  operation  ? 

Why,  my  brethren,  it  is  no  where  said 
in  the  Bible  that  Christ  so  died  for  me  in 
particular,  as  that  by  His  simple  dying 
the  benefits  of  His  atonement  are  mine  in 
possession.  But  it  is  everywhere  said  in 
the  Bible,  that  lie  so  died  for  me  in  par- 
ticular, as  that  by  His  simple  dying,  the 
benefits  of  His  atonement  are  mine  in 
offer.  They  are  mine  if  I  will.  Such 
terms  as  whosoever,  and  all,  and  any,  and 
ho  every  one,  bring  the  gospel  redemption 
specifically  to  my  door ;  and  there  it 
stands  for  acceptance  as  mine  in  offer,  and 
ready  to  become  mine  in  possession  on 
my  giving  credit  to  the  word  of  the  testi- 
mony. The  terms  of  tlie  gospel  message 
are  so  constructed,  that  I  have  just  as 
good  a  warrant  for  reckoning  myself  dead 
unto  sin,  as  if,  instead  of  the  announce- 
ment that  God  hath  set  forth  Christ  to  be 
a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  world 
through  faith  in  His  blood,  I  had  been  the 
only  sinner  in  the  world  ;  or  I  had  been 
singled  out  by  name  and  by  surname,  and 
it  was  stated  "that  God  had  set  forth  Christ 
a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  me  individu- 
ally; through  faith  in  His  blood.  The 
act  of  reckoning  myself  dead  unto  sin 


through  Christ,  is  just  the  act  of  receiving 
the  truth  of  Christ's  declaration, — accord- 
ing to  the  terms  of  the  declaration.  It  is 
not  reckoning  on  the  truth  of  a  falsehood. 
Were  it  a  personal  phrase,  no  doubt,  it 
were  reckoning  that  to  be  in  the  house, 
which  is  no  where  to  be  found  within  its 
limits.  But  it  being  a  forensic  phrase,  it 
is  just  opening  the  door  of  the  house;  and 
suffering  that  to  enter  in  which  is  pressing 
upon  it  for  admittance.  Bid  the  sinner 
reckon  in  the  former  way  ;  and  you  bid 
him  feel  that  to  be  a  reality  within  him, 
which  has  no  existence.  Bid  him  reckon 
in  the  latter  way  ;  and  you  bid  him  fetch 
from  the  abiding  realities  which  are  with- 
out, a  conviction  that  will  carry  light  and 
peace  and  comfort  into  his  bosom — you 
bid  him  close  with  the  overtures  of  the 
gospel — you  bid  him  appropriate  to  him- 
self what  is  said  of  the  power  of  Christ's 
blood,  and  the  purpose  and  effect  of  His 
sacrifice.  But  it  is  not  an  appropriation 
which  carries  him  beyond  the  exercise 
of  a  legitimate  faith — because  not  an  ap- 
propriation beyond  the  real  meaning  and 
application  of  the  terms,  that  I  have  just 
adverted  to.  By  reckoning  himself  per- 
sonally dead  unto  sin,  and  personally 
alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  he  would  outrun  the  reckoning  of 
his  own  conscience.  But  by  reckoning 
himself  forensically  dead  unto  sin,  and 
forensically  alive  unto  God,  he  does  not 
outrun  the  reckoning  of  the  Bible.  He 
gathers  no  more  out  of  the  field  of  reve- 
lation, than  what  he  finds  to  be  lying 
upon  its  surface  ;  and  laid  there  too,  just 
that  he  may  fall  in  with  it  and  take  it 
home.  Without  the  terms  '  whosoever,' 
and  '  all,'  and  '  any,'  and  '  ho,  every  one,' 
it  might  not  have  been  so  ;  but,  with  these 
terms,  he  may  reckon  of  himself  that 
forensically  he  is  dead  with  Christ — and 
yet  believe  no  further,  than  the  terms  in 
question  give  him  the  fullest  warrant  for. 
And  what  is  more.  You  will  not  ac- 
quire a  virtuous  character,  by  barely  ima- 
gining that  you  have  it  when  you  have  it 
not.  But  there  is  another  way,  in  which 
it  is  conceivable  that  a  virtuous  character 
may  be  acquired.  Not  by  any  false  reck- 
oning about  your  actual  character  ;  but 
by  a  true  reckoning  about  your  actual 
condhion.  A  mistaken  sense  as  to  the 
principle  that  inspires  your  heart,  will 
never  be  the  mean  of  bringing  a  right 
principle  there.  But  a  correct  and  habitual 
sense  as  to  the  place  you  occupy,  may,  by 
its  moral  influence  on  the  feelings,  have 
the  effect  both  of  introducing  and  of 
nourishing  the  right  princ^le.  It  is  not 
by  imagining  I  am  a  saint,  that  I  will  be- 
come so ;  but  by  reflecting  on  the  con- 
demnation due  to  me  as  a  sinner — on  the 
way  in  which  it  has  been  averted  from 


168 


LECTURE  XXXU. CHAPTER  VI,  11. 


my  person — on  the  passage  by  which, 
without  suffering  to  myself,  I  have  been 
borne  across  thu  region  of  vindictive  jus- 
tice, and  conclusively  placed  on  the  fair 
and  favoured  shore  of  acceptance  with 
God — The  sense  and  the  reckoning  of  all 
this,  may  transform  me  from  the  sinner 
that  I  am,  into  the  saint  that  I  am  not. 
The  executed  criminal,  who  has  been 
galvanized  into  life  again,  may  be  sent 
forth  upon  society  ;  and  there  exposed  to 
the  temptation  of'all  his  old  opportunities. 
It  is  not  by  reckoning  of  himself,  that  he 
is  now  altogether  dead  to  the  power  of 
these  temptations — it  is  not  by  reckoning 
himself  to  be  an  honest  man,  that  he  will 
become  so.  It  is  not  by  reckoning  falsely 
of  his  character,  that  he  will  change  it  into 
something  different ;  but  by  reckoning 
truly  of  his  condition,  he  may  bring  a 
moral  consideration  to  bear  upon  his 
heart,  that  will  transform  his  character. 
How  shall  I  who  for  theft  have  passed 
through  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  re- 
cur to  the  very  practice  that  destroyed 
me  I  And  how,  in  like  manner,  says  the 
believer,  shall  I  who  have  virtually  under- 
gone this  sentence  of  the  law,  that  the 
soul  which  sinneth  it  shall  die — how  shall 
I,  now  that  I  have  been  made  alive  again, 
continue  in  that  hateful  thing,  of  whose 
malignant  tendencies  in  itself,  and  of 
•whose  utter  irreconcilableness  to  the  will 
and  character  of  God,  I  have,  in  the  death 
of  my  representative  and  my  surety,  ob- 
tained so  striking  a  demonstration  1  It  is 
not  the  sense  or  reckoning  that  you  are  a 
sanctified  man — it  is  not  thus  that  the 
work  of  sanetiiication  is  done.  It  is  the 
sense  or  reckoning  that  you  are  a  justilied 
man — it  is  this  which  has  the  sanctifying 
influence — it  is  this  which  does  the  work, 
or  is  the  instrument  of  doing  it. 

Mark  then,  my  brethren,  the  apostle's 
receipt  for  holiness.  It  is  not  that  you 
reckon  yourself  already  pure ;  but  it  is 
that  you  reckon  yourself  already  par- 
doned. It  is  not  that  you  feel  as  if  the 
fetters  of  corruption  have  as  yet  been 
struck  off;  but  that  you  feel  as  if  alto- 
gether lightened  and  released  from  the 
fetters  of  condemnation,  and  that  you  may 
go  forth  in  the  peace  and  joy  of  a  recon- 
ciled creature.  And  somehow  or  other, 
this,  it  would  appear,  is  the  way  of  ar- 
riving at  the  new  spirit  and  the  new  life 
of  a  regenerated  creature.  And  how  it 
should  fall  with  the  efficacy  of  a  charm 
on  a  sinner's  ear,  when  told,  that  the  first 
stepping  stone  towards  that  character  of 
heaven  after  which  he  has  been  so  hope- 
lessly labouring,  is  to  assure  himself  that 
all  the  guilt  of  his  past  ungodliness  is  now 
done  away — that  the  ransom  of  iniquity  is 
paid — and  that  by  a  death  the  pains  of 


which  were  never  felt,  the  penalties  of 
that  law  he  so  oft  has  broken  shall  never 
reach  him.  It  is  indeed  levelling  the 
mountains,  and  making  the  crooked  paths 
straight,  when  such  a  high  way  of  access 
is  thrown  across  the  gulph  of  separation, 
that  is  between  sin  and  sacredness ;  and 
never,  my  brethren,  will  this  transition  be 
made  good, — never  will  the  sinner  know 
uhat  it  is  to  taste  of  spiritual  joys,  or  to 
breathe  with  kindred  delight  in  a  spritual 
atmosphere,  till,  buried  in  another's  death, 
and  raised  in  another's  righteousness  than 
his  own,  he  can  walk  with  tlie  confident 
peace  of  one  who  knows  that  he  is  safe, 
under  the  secure  and  ample  canopy  of 
the  offered  Mediatorship. 

So  that  the  apostle  tells  us  here,  and  in 
the  imperative  mood,  to  reckon  that  our 
death  by  sin  is  over  and  gone  by ;  and 
this  too,  you  will  observe,  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  about  our  sanctification.  What 
a  powerful  and  practical  outset  does  he 
afford  to  this  career  !  He  dreads  no  Anti- 
nomianism.  He  fearlessly  bids  the  people 
to  count,  that  one  man  has  died  for  them 
all ;  and  he  bids  them  habitually  reckon 
upon  this,  recur  to  it,  keep  it  in  memory, 
always  be  acting  and  holding  fast  the 
confidence  that  they  begun  with,  and  noc 
cast  it  away.  The  man  who  is  called 
upon  to  reckon  that  he  was  dead  unto  sin 
personally,  would  often  feel  as  if  out  of 
his  reckoning:  and  many  a  misgiving 
would  visit  him  ;  and  he  might  thus  spend 
his  life  in  the  tossings  of  anxiety.  But 
the  man  who  is  called  upon  to  reckon 
that  he  is  dead  unto  sin  forensically,  is 
presented  with  a  solid  foundation  in  that 
which  Christ  hath  done  for  him  ;  is  simply 
bidden  count  upon  that  as  a  settled  point, 
which  has  indeed  been  settled  fast ;  and, 
when  like  to  be  abandoned  by  hope,  he 
has  only  to  feel  for  the  solidity  of  his 
ground,  and,  in  so  doing,  will  find  that  it 
is  a  rock  of  strength  which  he  has  got  to 
stand  upon.  And  all  this  as  the  first  step 
to  a  life  of  new  obedience.  All  this  as  a 
primary  command,  among  those  which 
the  apostle  afterwards  delivers,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  our  transition  from 
sin  unto  holiness.  All  this  as  a  staff  to 
support  us  on  the  narrow  way  of  disci- 
pline and  duty,  as  provision  for  our  jour- 
iiny  to  the  land  of  uprightness.  And  what 
I  bid  you  remark  in  the  lu\st  place,  is  the 
very  peculiar  instrument  which  the  apos- 
tle puts  into  the  hands  of  his  his  disciples, 
lor  the  purpose  of  making  them  regener- 
ated creatures,-— even  a  trusty  reckoning, 
on  their  part,  that  they  are  already  recon- 
ciled creatures  ;  and  what  an  evidence 
here  of  God's  desire  tliat  you  should  feel 
at  peace  from  the  apprehension  of  His 
wrath,  when  it  is  this  very  peace  that  He 


LECTURE  XXXII. CHAPTER  VI,  11. 


169 


jproposes  as  the  means  of  making  you  the 
partakers  of  the  worth  and  purity  of  Ilis 
nature ! 

But,  in  the  second  place,  will  the  means 
be  really  effectual]  It  was  so  with  Paul. 
He  gloried  not  in  himself — not  in  his  cru- 
citixion  to  sin — not  in  his  resurrection  to 
holiness  ;  he  gloried  in  the  cross  of  Christ, 
and  the  crucifixion  to  sin  came  out  of  this 
glorying.  Thereby  the  world  was  cruci- 
fied unto  him,  and  he  unto  the  world.  The 
personal  result  came  out  of  the  forensic 
reckoning ;  and  not  a  believer  after  him, 
who  will  not  experience  the  same  result 
out  of  the  same  reckoning.  Your  busi- 
ness is  to  count  of  yourselves,  that  in 
Christ  your  condemnation  is  discharged  ; 
that  in  Him  your  acceptance  is  granted. 
And  the  more  steadfastly  and  constantly 
you  keep  by  this  business,  the  more  cer- 
tainly will  you  find  to  your  blessed  expe- 
rience, that  a  new  heart  and  a  new  history 
emerge  from  the  doing  of  it.  The  hourly 
habit  of  reflecting  upon  the  new  condition 
in  which  Christ  has  placed  you,  will  sus- 
tain an  hourly  influence,  by  which  there 
shall  germinate  and  grow  the  new  cha- 
racter that  Christ  proposes  should  arise 
'in  you.  You  have  laboured  long  perhaps, 
after  the  life  of  God  and  of  heaven  in  the 
soul ;  but  this  is  just  because  you  have 
been  labouring  long  in  the  wrong  track, 
or  with  wrong  instruments.  Turn  you 
now  unto  that  doctrine,  which  is  as  much 
the  power  of  God  unto  sanctification  hero 
as  unto  salvation  hereafter;  and  know, 
from  this  time  forward,  that  the  way  of 
reaching  the  life  of  holiness  you  aspire 
after,  is  to  live  a  life  of  faith  in  the  Son 
of  God. 

I  have  already  adverted  to  some  of  the 
moral  influences,  wherewith  the  consi- 
deration of  our  having  been  as  good  as 
dead  for  sin,  is  so  abundantly  pregnant ; 
and  even  with  a  reiteration  that  might 
have  fatigued,  and  over  satiated  some  of 
you,  did  I,  in  remarking  on  the  second 
verse,  expatiate  at  great  length  on  whai 
struck  me  as  the  first  of  these  influences. 
It  is  the  same  with  that  which  may  be  ad- 
dressed to  a  man,  who  has  been  put  to 
death  for  a  crime,  and  then  made  alive 
again.  A  most  impressive  lesson  to  him, 
of  the  genius  and  character  of  that  go- 
vernment under  which  he  lives;  of  its 
hostility  to  the  wickedness  for  which  he 
suffered ;  of  its  intolerance  for  a  trans- 
gression, into  which  if  he  again  fall,  there 
m^ay  be  no  mercy  and  no  readmittance 
from  the  sentence  that  will  be  surely  in 
reserve  for  him.  And,  in  like  manner, 
the  sinner,  who,  through  Christ,  has  been 
restored  from  condemnation,  learns,  both 
in  the  sentence  that  was  incurred,  and  in 
the  atonement  that  was  rendered,  what  a 
repulsion  there  is  between  sin  and  sacred- 
■22 


ness ;  and  how,  if  the  character  of  God 
be  the  same  that  it  ever  was,  he,  in  sin- 
ning wilfully,  dares  over  again  the  still 
unquelled  antipathies  of  the  Godhead — 
and,  that  if  he  gives  himself  up  to  the  old 
service,  which  reduced  him  at  first  from 
the  one  rightful  authority,  there  remaineth 
no  more  sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  certain 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery 
indignation  which  shall  devour  the  adver- 
sary. God  forbid,  that  we  should  continue 
in  sin,  that  grace  may  abound — or,  be- 
cause we  have  been  brought  back  again 
within  the  limits  of  God's  beloved  family, 
we  should  fetch  along  with  us  that  which 
before  had  banished  us  forth  of  a  domain 
— from  which  sin,  of  all  other  things,  must 
be  rooted  out,  because  sin  of  all  other 
things  is  that  which  most  sorely  and  most 
grievously  offendeth. 

But  he  does  not  know  all,  if  he  only 
know  of  that  inheritance  to  which  he  has 
been  readmitted,  that  no  sin  is  suffered  to 
have  occupancy  there.  This  is  only 
knowing  the  quality  of  that  which  is  ex- 
iled from  heaven's  family  ;  but  it  is  not 
knowing  the  quality  of  that,  which  is 
welcomed  and  cherished,  and  carried  to 
uttermost  perfection  there.  It  is  only  giv- 
ing me  to  understand  the  character  of  the 
outcast ;  but  it  is  not  giving  me  to  under- 
stand the  character  of  the  guest.  By  be- 
ing dead  with  Christ,  the  door  of  entry  is 
again  opened  for  me  into  the  great  house- 
hold of  the  blest ;  and  it  is  well  to  be  so- 
lemnized into  the  impression,  that  I  must 
shun  the  hateful  thing  which  banished  me 
therefrom.  But  I  should  also  be  led  to 
aspire,  and  with  all  my  earnestness,  after 
that  estimable  thing,  which  stamps  the 
character  and  constitutes  the  honour  and 
the  delight  of  this  rejoicing  family.  The 
disgraced  felon,  whose  frauds  had  expell- 
ed him  from  society,  when  again  intro- 
duced within  its  limits,  is  furnished  by  all 
his  recollections  with  a  strong  and  ac- 
tuating motive,  to  put  all  the  atrocities  of 
his  former  life  away  from  him  ;  but  not 
only  so, — by  his  strenuous  cultivation  of 
the  opposite  virtues — by  the  scrupulous 
integrity  of  his  dealings — by  the  high- 
minded  disdain,  in  which  he  would  hold 
even  the  slightest  deviations  from  the  path 
of  honour — by  the  sensitive  nicety  of  an 
uprightness,  on  which  no  discernible  flaw 
can  be  detected — he  might  regain  a  distin- 
guished place  in  that  living  circle,  the  es- 
teem and  happiness  of  which  he  had  be- 
fore forfeited  ;  and  reach  a  status  of  po- 
sitive credit  and  enjoyment,  in  room  of 
that  ignominy  which  before  had  covered 
him.  And  the  same  of  heaven  on  the 
other  side  of  death,  and  also  of  the  road 
which  leads  to  heaven  on  this  side  of  death. 
The  same  of  the  habit  and  condition  of 
paradise   hereafter ;  and   the  same  most 


170 


LECTURE  XXXII. CHAPTER  VI,  11. 


assuredly  of  the  habit  of  preparation  for 
paradise  here.  He  who  is  dead  with 
Christ,  and  so  freed  from  condemnation, 
is  not  ushered  at  once  into  the  celestial 
regions:  but  he  is  forthwith  set  on  the 
journey  which  leads  to  them.  And,  with 
his  eye  full  on  the  moral  and  spiritual 
glories  of  the  place  that  is  above,  he  will 
learn  that  sinle.ssness  is  not  enough — that 
he  must  be  strenuous  in  the  pursuit  of  po- 
sitive goodness — that,  to  lay  up  treasure 
in  heaven,  he  must  become  rich  in  all 
those  graces  that  adorn  and  dignify  the 
wearer — that,  to  be  received  and  welcom- 
ed as  a  member  of  the  upper  family,  he 
must  acquire  the  family  likeness;  or  ga- 
ther upon  his  inner  man  all  those  features 
of  piety  and  love,  and  humbleness  and 
temperance  and  purity,  which  go  to  make 
up  a  portrait  of  affirmative  excellence, 
and  to  stamp  on  every  desire  and  on  every 
doing  the  expression  of  holiness  unto  the 
Lord. 

The  starting-post  at  which  this  race  of 
virtue  begins,  and  from  which  this  noble 
career  of  progressive  and  aspiring  excel- 
lence is  entered  on,  is  your  freedom  from 
condemnation,  through  the  death  of  Christ. 
It  is  your  reckoning  by  faith  upon  this, 
which  cuts  asunder  that  load,  by  which 
the  compressed  and  heavy-laden  energies 
of  the  soul  are  restrained  from  bursting 
forth  on  a  path  of  hopeful  activity  ;  and 
it  is  thus,  that,  with  emancipated  powers 
now  awakened  to  life  and  to  liberty,  you 
press  onward  to  that  summit  of  perfection 
that  is  yet  seen  by  you  from  afar,  but  to 
which  you  have  bent  your  determined 
course,  and  are  ever  running,  as  for  the 
prize  of  your  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord.  But  to  our  progress  on  this 
great  moral  and  spiritual  journey,  the 
reckoning  of  the  text  is  indispensable. 
Without  this  reckoning,  you  are  chained 
to  the  sluggishness  of  despair.  With  this 
reckoning  the  chain  is  broken  ;  and  the 
sluggishness  is  dissipated  ;  and  the  facul- 
ties of  the  mind  are  not  only  freed,  but 
they  are  urged  and  stimulated  in  a  holy 
and  a  heavenward  direction.  For,  among 
the  thousand  other  guarantees  for  the 
faith  of  the  gospel  being  indeed  a  purify- 
ing and  an  inspiring  faith,  mark  it,  my 
brethren,  that  a  sense  of  pardon  will  never 
enter  believingly  into  the  sinner's  heart, 
without  its  being  followed  up  by  a  sense 
of  obligation  ;  and  gratitude  to  Him  who 
first  loved  you,  will  incite  you  to  all  that 
you  know  to  be  gladdening  or  acceptable 
to  His  bosom  :  And  when  you  read,  that 
He  wants  to  rear  all  those  creatures  who 
are  the  travail  of  his  soul,  into  .so  many 
illustrious  specimens  of  that  power  with 
which  He  is  invested — to  adorn  and  to 
sanctify  those  whom  He  has  saved — how 
can  you  refuse  to  be  a  fellow- worker  with 


Him,  in  striving,  by  all  the  aids  of  His 
grace,  to  apprehend  that  holiness,  for  the 
sake  of  producing  which  in  your  spirit, 
you  have  been  apprehended?  How  can 
you  refuse  to  gratify  in  your  own  person 
and  performance,  the  taste  of  Him  who 
ever  rejoices  to  behold  the  verdure  and  the 
beauty  that  sit  on  the  landscapes  of  ma- 
terialism ;  and  will  much  more  rejoice  to 
behold  in  the  church  of  the  redeemed,  on 
which  He  is  ever  shedding  the  water  of 
life  from  above,  the  unspotted  loveliness 
of  a  new  moral  creation,  that  now  teems 
and  rises  towards  that  full  accomplish- 
ment, when  it  shall  be  holy  and  without 
blemish  before  Him  1 

Thus  it  is  that  the  desire  of  Christ,  and 
your  desire,  meet  together  in  the  one  ob- 
ject of  your  sanctirtcation.  Let  the  sin- 
ner's desire  for  this  vent  itself  in  prayer  ; 
and  let  the  desire  of  the  Saviour  for  this 
go  forth  upon  the  prayer,  and  hand  it  up 
perfumed  with  the  incense  of  His  own 
merits  to  Him  who  sitteth  on  the  throne  ; 
and  the  descending  of  the  Spirit  on  the 
believer's  heart,  will  make  sure  that  re- 
generating process,  whereby  he  who  is 
saved  from  the  punishment  of  sin,  will 
also  most  certainly  be  saved  from  its' 
power.  The  man,  who,  in  the  faith  of 
God's  testimony,  reckons  himself  a  par- 
taker of  Christ's  death  and  resurrection, 
is  not  reckoning  beyond  his  warrant.  But 
he  who  so.  reckons  upon  Christ  hath  re- 
ceived Christ ;  and  the  mighty  vantage 
ground  upon  which  he  stands  is,  that  he 
can  now  plead  the  declaration  of  God 
Himself,  that  as  He  hath  given  His  own 
Son  He  will  also  with  Him  freely  give  all 
things ;  and  the  most  precious  of  these, 
are  the  heart  and  the  power  to  serve  Him. 
It  is  thus  that,  through  the  door  of  recon- 
ciliation, you  enter  on  the  path  of  new 
obedience  ;  and  still  we  come  back  again 
to  this,  that  the  very  reckoning  of  my 
text,  is  the  thing  which  gives  its  first  pros- 
perous outset  to  the  work  of  sanctification. 
It  is  this  which  brings  home  to  the  believ- 
er's heart,  the  malignity  of  sin — it  is  this 
which  opens  to  him  the  gate  of  heaven  ; 
and  disclosing  to  his  view  the  glories  of 
that  upper  region,  teaches  him  that  it  is 
indeed  a  land  of  sacredness — it  is  this 
which  inclines  his  footsteps  along  the  path 
to  immortality,  which  the  death  of  Christ 
and  it  alone  has  rendered  accessible — it  is 
this  which  conforms  his  character  to  that 
of  the  celestial  spirits  who  are  there  be- 
fore Him — For  the  will  of  Christ,  whom 
he  now  loves,  is,  that  he  should  be  like 
unto  Him;  and  the  grateful  wish  and  the 
grateful  endeavour  of  the  disciple,  draw 
forth  from  his  labouring  bosom  that  prayer 
of  faith,  which  is  sure  to  rise  with  ac- 
ceptance, and  is  sure  to  be  answered  with 
power. 


LECTURE   XXXII. CHAPTER    VI,    11 


i71 


To  conclude,  I  shall  be  pleased,  if,  as 
the  fruit  of  all  these  explanations,  I  have 
succeeded  in  making  palpable  to  any  un- 
derstanding, the  great  secret  of  what  that 
is  which  constitutes  the  principle  of  evan- 
gelical obedience.  The  constant  aim  and 
tendency  of  nature  is  towards  a  legal 
obedience  ;  and,  in  the  prosecution  of  this, 
it  is  sure  to  land  cither  in  a  spiritless  for- 
mality, or  in  a  state  of  fatigue  and  dissa- 
tisfaction and  despondency,  which,  with- 
out the  faith  of  the  gospel  is  utterly  inter- 
minable. To  believe  in  Christ,  is  the  way 
to  be  holy  here,  as  well  as  the  way  to  be 
happy  hereafter.  A  sense  of  peace  with 
God  through  Him,  when  it  enters  the  bo- 
som, is  the  sure  harbinger  of  purity  there  ; 
and  what  you  have  plainly  to  do,  that  you 
may  attain  to  the  character  of  heaven,  is 
to  take  up  the  reckoning  of  my  text — 
even  that  the  death  by  sin  is  conclusively 
gone  through ;  and  that,  the  life  by  God 
being  promised  through  Jesus  Christ,  the 
gate  of  heaven  now  stands  open  for  your 
approaches  through  the  way  of  holiness 
which  leads  to  it.  You  have  perhaps  been 
practising  at  the  work  of  reformation  by 
other  methods  ;  and  this  is  a  method  that 
may  have  been  still  untried  by  you.  Try 
it  now;  and  what  can  be  more  inviting, 
than  to  begin  an  enterprise  with  such  an 
encouragement  of  friendship  and  of  pa- 
tronage upon  your  side]  The  man  who 
sets  out  on  the  tract  of  legalism,  proposes 


to  win  this  friendship  by  his  obedience,  and 
to  secure  this  patronage".  But  the  man 
who  sets  out  evangelically,  counts  on  the 
friendship  and  the  patronage,  and  avails 
himself  of  all  the  aids  and  facilities  that 
are  abundantly  offered  to  him.  Make  the 
experiment,  my  brethren.  Take  it  up  as  a 
settled  point,  that  in  Christ  your  condem- 
nation is  done  away — that  in  Him  your 
right  to  everlasting  life  is  purchased  and 
secured  for  you — that  all  the  signals  of 
honest  and  welcome  invitation  are  now 
lifted  up  ;  and,  floating  in  the  eye  even  of 
the  worst  of  sinners,  are  cheering  him 
forward  to  the  land  of  uprightness — and 
that  every  influence  is  provided,  to  help 
his  movement  from  the  character  of  that 
earth  whence  he  is  so  soon  to  make  an 
everlasting  departure,  to  the  character  of 
that  now  open  and  accessible  heaven  whi- 
ther he  is  asked  to  bend  his  footsteps. 
Enter  upon  this  undertaking  on  the  foot- 
ing that  your  reconciliation  is  secured, 
and  not  on  the  footing  that  your  reconci- 
liation is  yet  to  win.  On  the  one  footing 
you  will  light  all  your  days,  at  a  distance 
from  hope,  and  at  an  utterly  impractica- 
ble distance  from  that  heaven  after  which 
you  are  toiling  so  fruitlessly.  Just  make 
the  attempt  then  on  the  other  footing ; 
and  see  whether  all  old  things  will  not  be 
done  away,  and  all  things  will  not  become 
new. 


LECTURE  XXXIII. 


Romans  vi,  12. 
'  Let  not  sin  therefore  leign  in  your  mortal  body,  that  ye  should  obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof.'' 


Some  would  substitute  here,  in  place  of 
mortal,  which  signifies  liable  to  death, 
the  idea  of  our  bodies  being  already  dead 
in  Christ ;  or  in  Him  being  already  put  to 
death  for  sin — which  would  just  be  urging 
us  to  strive  against  sin,  and  on  the  consi- 
deration too  that  I  have  in  your  hearing 
so  repeatedly  insisted  upon.  Let  not  thai 
hateful  enemy  again  reign  over  us,  who 
already  brought  us  to  the  borders  of  ex- 
ecution. And  here,  I  may  revert  for  a 
moment  to  the  thought,  that  sin,  by  the 
death  of  Christ  in  our  stead,  hath  been 
plucked  of  its  sting — that  our  Saviour  re- 
ceived it  in  His  own  body,  and  there  is  no 
more  power  in  our  cruel  adversary  to  in- 
flict its  mortal  poison  upon  us — and  that 
he  is  not  only  disarmed  of  his  right  to 
condemn  us,  but  furthermore  disarmed  of 
all  right  and  ability  to  tyrannize  over  us. 


In  virtue  of  the  defeat  that  he  has  gotten, 
he  will  not  obtain  the  dominion  over  our 
hearts  and  wills  unless  we  let  him.  If  we 
let  him  not,  we  shall  find  that  our  resist- 
ance, backed  as  it  is  by  the  plea  of  a  Sa- 
viour already  crucified,  and  by  the  power 
of  a  Saviour  now  exalted,  is  greatly  too 
much  for  him.  We  who  have  been  bap- 
tized into  Christ,  are  somewhat  in  the 
same  circumstances  with  regard  to  our  old 
oppressor  sin — that  the  children  of  Israel 
alter  being  baptized  into  Moses  in  the 
Red  sea,  were,  in  reference  to  the  power 
and  tyranny  of  Egypt.  Their  enemy  was 
engulphed  in  that  abyss,  over  which  they 
found  an  open  and  a  shielded  way  ;  and, 
placed  conclusively  beyond  the  reach  of 
his  dominion,  it  was  now  their  part  to  ex- 
change the  mastery  of  Pharaoh  for  the 
mastery  of  God ;  and  those  Avho  did  not 


172 


LECTURE  XXXIU. CHAPTER  VI,  12. 


acquit  themselves  of  this  their  part,  but 
rebelled  against  Heaven,  and  sighed  in 
their  hearts  after  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt, 
were  cut  off  in  the  wilderness.  And  these 
things  are  recorded  for  our  admonition,  on 
whom  tlie  latter  ends  of  the  world  have 
come.  If  truly  baptized  into  Christ,  we 
have,  with  Ilim  our  Deliverer,  passed 
athwart  that  mighty  chasm  which  had 
been  else  impassable ;  and  it  was  in  the 
act  of  opening  up  and  traversing  this 
deep,  that  he  who  had  the  power  of  death 
was  overthrown  ;  and  we,  now  placed  be- 
yond the  reach  of  his  inflictions,  are  to 
exchange  the  tyranny  of  sin  for  the  right- 
ful command  and  mastery  of  Him,  who 
hath  borne  us  across  from  the  confines  of 
the  enemy;  and  unless  we  let  him,  he  is 
stript  of  all  power  of  ascendancy  over  us 
— being  no  more  able  to  subjugate  our 
hearts  to  the  in'fluence  of  moral  evil,  than 
he  is  able  to  subjugate  our  persons  to  its 
penalty.  Now,  if  he  otter  to  reign,  let  us 
but  resist,  and  he  will  flee  from  us — 
whereas,  if  with  so  many  aids  and  secu- 
rities around  us,  and  standing  on  the  van- 
tage ground  of  a  safety  that  has  thus  lnon 
obtained  and  thus  been  guaranteed,  we 
shall  still  find  our  inclinations  towards 
this  malignant  destroyer,  we  shall  share 
in  the  fate  of  the  rebellious  Hebrews,  we 
shall  fall  short  on  our  way  to  the  heavenly 
Canaan,  we  shall  be  likened  to  those  who 
fell  in  the  wilderness. 

And  this  analogy,  which  has  been  insti- 
tuted by  Paul  himself  in  another  part  of 
his  writings,  does  not  fail  us — though  we 
should  take  the  term  mortal  in  the  custo- 
mary, which  I  am  also  inclined  to  think 
is  here  the  correct  signification  of  it. 
While  in  these  mortal  bodies,  vv'e  are  only 
on  a  road  through  the  wilderness  of  e.irth, 
to  the  secure  and  everlasting  blessedness 
of  heaven.  It  is  true  that  all  who  arc 
really  partakers  with  Christ  in  His  death, 
have  got  over  a  mighty  barrier,  that  lay 
between  this  terrestrial  Egypt  and  the 
Jerusalem  that  is  above.  They  have  been 
carried  through  the  strait  gate  of  accep- 
tance, and  have  now  to  travel  along  the 
narrow  way  of  duty  and  of  discipline.  It 
is  most  true  of  all  who  are  actually  through 
the  one,  that  they  will  be  borne  in  safety 
and  in  triumph  along  the  other.  But  one 
may  think  that  he  is  in  Christ,  when  h(i  is 
not — and  therefore  let  him  who  thus  think- 
eth  that  he  standcth,  take  heed  lest  he 
fall.  If  in  Christ,  it  is  true,  that  to  liim 
there  will  be  no  condemnation.  But  if  in 
Christ,  it  is  just  in  every  way  as  true,  that 
he  will  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after 
the  Spirit.  Let  us  therefore  make  sure  of 
our  condition  by  so  walking.  Let  us  give 
all  our  diligence  to  ascertain  and  estab- 
lish it.  If  we  really  are  at  a  distance 
from  the  land  of  sin's  condemnation,  wo 


are  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  land  of 
sin's  thraldom  and  oppressive  tyranny. 
Let  us  count  it  our  business  then  to  m^ke 
head  against  that  tyranny.  Let  not  sin 
reign  over  us,  on  the  passage  that  we 
have  yet  to  describe,  ere  we  shall  be 
translated  to  our  place  of  secure  and 
eternal  refuge  from  all  its  entanglements. 
Let  us  stifle  every  rising  inelination  for 
the  pleasures  and  the  carnalities  of  Egypt, 
and  come  not  under  the  power  of  those 
lusts  which  war  against  the  soul,  till  we 
reach  the  spiritual  Canaan,  v/here  every 
inclination  to  evil  that  we  have  withstood 
here,  shall  cease  to  exist  and  so  cease  to 
annoy  us. 

We  hold  it  of  prime  importance,  in  the 
business  of  practical  Christianity  that  we 
understand  well  the  kind  of  work  which 
is  put  into  our  hands,  both  that  we  may 
go  rightly  about  it,  and  also  that  we  may 
have  the  comfort  of  judging  whether  it  is 
actually  making  progress  under  our  exer- 
tions. A  mistake  on  this  point  may  lead 
us  perhaps  to  waste  our  ettbrts  on  that 
which  is  impracticable ;  and  when  these 
efforts  of  course  turn  out  to  be  fruitless, 
may  lead  us  to  abandon  our  spirits  to 
utter  despondency ;  and  thus,  to  use  the 
language  of  the  apostle  Paul — running  as 
uncertainly,  and  fighting  as  one  that 
beateth  the  air,  we  may  spend  our  days, 
alike  strangers  to  peace,  and  to  progres- 
sive holiness. 

Now  to  save  us  from  this  hurtful  mis- 
take it  were  well  that  we  weighed  the  vast 
import  of  certain  terms  in  the  verse  before 
us  which  are  altogether  big  with  signifi- 
cancy.  "Let  not  sin,"  says  the  apostle, 
"reign  in  your  mortal  body,  that  ye 
should  obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof"  Here 
we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  how  widely 
diverse  the  injunction  of  the  apostle  would 
have  been,  if  instead  of  saying,  "liCt  not 
sin  reign  in  your  mortal  bodies,"  he  had 
said.  Let  sin  be  rooted  out  of  your  mortal 
bodies;  or  if,  instead  of  saying,  Obey  not 
its  lusts,  he  had  bid  us  eradicate  them. 
It  were  surely  a  far  more  enviable  state 
to  have  no  inclination  to  evil  at  all,  than 
to  be  oppressed  with  the  constant  forth- 
putting  of  such  an  inclination,  and  barely 
to  keep  it  in  check,  under  the  power  of 
some  opposing  principle.  Could  we  at- 
tain the  higher  state,  on  this  side  of  time, 
we  would  become  on  earth,  what  angels 
are  in  heaven,  whose  every  desire  runs  in 
the  pure  current  of  love  and  loyalty  to  a 
God  of  holinccs.  But  if  doomed  to  the 
lower  state,  during  all  the  days  of  our 
abode  in  the  world,  then  are  we  given  to 
understand,  that  the  life  of  a  Christian  is 
a  life  of  vigilant  and  unremitting  warfare 
— that  it  consists  in  the  struggle  of  two 
adverse  elements,  and  the  habitual  preva- 
lence  of  one   of  them — that  in  us,  and 


LECTURE   XXXIir. CHAPTER   VI,    12. 


173 


closely  ai-ound  us,  there  is  a  besetting 
enemy  who  will  not  quit  his  hold  of  us, 
till  death  paralyse  his  grasp,  and  so  let 
us  go — and  that,  from  this  sore  conflict  of 
the  Spirit  lusting  against  the  flesh,  and 
the  flesh  agaiiiit  the  Spirit,  we  shall  not 
be  conclusively  delivered,  till  our  present 
tainted  materialism  shall  be  utterly  taken 
down ;  and  that  the  emancipated  soul 
shall  not  have  free  and  unconfined  scope 
for  its  heavenly  affections,  until  it  has 
burst  its  way  from  the  prison-hold  of  its 
earthly  tabernacle. 

Now,  this  view  of  the  matter  gives  us  a 
different  conception  of  our  appointed  task 
from  what  may  often  be  imagined.  Sin, 
it  would  appear,  is  not  to  be  exterminated 
from  our  mortal  bodies  ;  it  is  only  to  be 
kept  at  bay.  It  is  not  to  be  destroyed,  in 
respect  of  its  presence,  but  it  is  to  be 
repressed  in  its  prevalency  and  in  its 
power.  It  will  ever  dwell,  it  would  ap- 
pear, in  our  present  framework ;  but 
though  it  dwell,  it  may  not  have  the  do- 
minion. Let  us  try  then  to  banish  it ; 
and  defeated  in  this  elfort,  we  may  give 
up  in  heartless  despair,  the  cause  of  our 
sanclihcation,  thus  throwing  away  at  once 
both  our  peace  and  our  holiness.  But  let 
us  try  to  dethrone  it,  though  we  cannot 
cast  it  out ;  and  succeeding  in  this  effort, 
while  we  mourn  its  hateful  company,  we 
may  both  keep  it  under  the  control  of 
strictest  guardianship,  and  calmly  look 
onward  to  the  hour  of  death,  as  the  hour 
of  release  from  a  burden  that  will  at  least 
adhere  to  us  all  our  days,  though  it  may 
nut  overwhelm  us. 

We  see  then  the  difference  between  a 
saint  in  heaven,  and  a  saint  upon  earth. 
The  former  may  abandon  himself  to  such 
feelings  and  such  movements  as  come  at 
pleasure;  for  he  has  no  other  pleasure 
than  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and  to  rejoice 
in  the  contemplation  of  His  unspotted 
glory.  The  latter  cannot  with  safety  so 
abandon  himself.  It  is  true,  that  there  is 
an  ingredient  in  his  nature,  now  under  an 
advancing  pi'ocess  of  regeneration,  which 
is  altogether  on  the  side  of  godliness ;  and 
were  this  left  unresisted  by  any  opposing 
influence,  he  might  be  spared  all  the 
agonies  of  dissolution,  and  set  him  down 
at  once  among  the  choirs  and  the  compa- 
nies of  paradise.  But  there  is  another  in- 
gredient of  his  nature,  still  under  an  un- 
linished  process  of  regeneration,  and 
which  is  altogether  on  the  side  of  ungod- 
liness ;  and  were  this  left  without  the 
control  of  his  new  and  better  principle, 
sin  would  catch  the  defenceless  moment, 
and  regain  the  ascendancy  from  which 
she  had  been  disposted.  Now  it  is  death 
which  comes  in  as  the  deliverer.  It  is 
death  which  frees  away  the  incumbrance. 
It  is  death  which  overthrows  and  grinds 


to  powder  that  corrupt  fabric  on  the  walls 
of  which  were  inscribed  the  foul  marks 
of  leprosy  ;  and  the  inmost  materials  of 
which  were  pervaded  with  an  infection, 
that  nothing,  it  seems,  but  the  sepulchral 
process  of  a  resolution  into  dust,  and  a 
resurrection  into  another  and  glorified 
body,  can  clear  completely  and  conclu- 
sively away.  It  is  death  that  conducts  us 
from  the  state  of  a  saint  on  earth,  to  the 
state  of  a  saint  in  heaven  :  but  not  till  we 
arc  so  conducted,  are  we  safe  to  abandon 
ourselves  for  a  single  instant  to  the 
spontaneity  of  our  own  inclinations  ;  and 
we  utterly  mistake  our  real  circumstances 
in  the  world— ;we  judge  not  aright  of  what 
we  have  to  do,  and  of  the  attitude  in 
which  we  ought  to  stand — we  lay  ourselves 
open  to  the  assaults  of  a  near  and  lurking 
enemy,  and  are  exposed  to  most  humilia- 
ting overthrows,  and  most  oppressive 
visitations  of  remorse  and  wretchedness, 
if,  such  being  our  actual  condition  upon 
earth,  we  go  to  sleep,  or  to  play  among  its 
besetting  dangers ;  if  we  ever  think  of 
the  post  that  we  occupy  being  any  other 
than  the  post  of  armour  and  of  watchful- 
ness; or,  falsely  imagining  that  there  is 
but  one  spiritual  ingredient  in  our  nature, 
altogether  on  the  side  of  holiness,  instead 
of  two,  whereof  the  other  is  still  alive,  and 
on  the  side  of  sin,  we  ever  let  down  the 
guardianship,  and  the  jealously,  and  the 
lowliness  of  mind,  and  the  prayers  for 
succour  from  on  high,  which  such  a  state 
of  things  so  urgently  and  so  imperiously 
demands. 

We  think  it  of  very  capital  importance 
for  us  to  know  that  the  body  wherewith 
we  are  burdened,  and  must  carry  about 
with, us,  is  a  vile  body;  that  the  nature 
which  we  received  at  the  first,  and  from 
which  we  shall  not  be  delivered  on  this 
side  of  the  grave,  is  a  corrupt  nature ; 
that  all  which  is  in  us,  and  about  us,  and 
that  is  apart  from  the  new  spirit  infused 
through  the  belief  of  the  gospel,  is  in  a 
state  of  aversion  to  the  will  of  God ;  that 
what  may  be  denoted  by  the  single  word 
carnality,  \s  of  perpetual  residence  with  us 
while  upon  earth ;  and  that  our  distinct 
concern  is,  while  it  resides  with  us,  that  it 
shall  not  reign  over  us.  It  is  ever  present 
with  its  suggestions ;  and  this  we  cannot 
help :  but  il  should  not  prevail  with  its 
suggestions ;  and  this,  by  the  aids  and 
expedients  provided  for  the  regeneration 
of  a  polluted  world,  we  may  help.  We 
shall  feel  with  our  latest  breath,  the  mo- 
tions of  the  flesh ;  and  these  motions,  if 
not  sins,  are  at  least  sinful  tendencies, 
which,  if.  yielded  to,  would  terminate  in 
sins.  Now  our  business  is  not  to  extir- 
pate the  tendencies,  but  to  make  our 
stand  against  them — not  to  root  out  those 
elements  of  moral  evil  which  the  body  of 


174 


LECTURE   XXXIII. CHAPTER   VI,    12. 


a  good  man  before  death  has,  and  after  its 
resurrection  has  not — but  to  stifle,  and  to 
keep  them  down  by  that  force  wherewith 
the  new  creature  in  Jesus  Christ  is  armed 
for  the  great  battle,  on  the  issue  of  which 
hangs  his  eternity.  We  cannot  obtain 
such  a  victory  as  that  we  shall  never  feel 
the  motions  of  the  flesh  ;  but  we  may 
obtain  such  a  victory,  as  that  we  shall 
not  walk  after  the  flesh.  The  enemy  is 
not  so  skilled  as  that  we  are  delivered  from 
his  presence  ;  but  by  an  unremitting  stren- 
uousness  on  our  part,  we  may  keep  him 
so  chained  as  that  we  shall  be  delivered 
from  his  power.  Such  is  the  contest,  and 
such  is  the  result  of  the  contest,  if  it  bt;  a 
successful  one.  But  we  ought  to  be  told, 
that  it  is  a  vain  hope,  while  we  live  in 
the  world,  to  look  for  the  extermination 
of  the  sinful  principle.  It  ever  stirs  and 
actuates  within  us ;  and  there  is  not  one 
hour  of  the  day,  in  which  it  docs  not  give 
token  that  it  is  still  alive,  and  though 
cast  down  from  its  ascendancy,  not  des- 
troyed in  its  existence.  Forewarned, 
forearmed,  and  it  is  right  to  be  informed, 
that  near  us,  and  within  us,  there  is  at  all 
times  an  insidious  foe,  against  whom  we 
cannot  guard  too  vigilantly,  and  against 
whom  we  cannot  pray  too  fervently  and 
too  unremittingly. 

The  time  is  coming,  when,  without  the 
felt  counteraction  of  any  adverse  and 
opposing  tendency,  we  shall  expatiate  in 
freedom  over  the  realms  of  ethereal  purity 
and  love — just  as  the  time  is  coming, 
when  the  chrysalis  shall  burst  with  unfet- 
tered wing  from  the  prison  in  which  it  is 
now  held  ;  and  where,  we  doubt  not,  that 
it  is  aspiring  and  growing  into  a  meetness 
for  traversing  at  large  the  field  of  light 
and  air  that  is  above  it.  The  Christian 
on  earth  so  aspires  and  so  grows ;  but 
Christian  though  he  be,  there  is  on  him 
the  heaviness  of  a  gross  and  tainted  mate- 
rialism, which  must  be  broken  down  ere 
his  spiritual  tendencies  can  expand  into 
their  full  and  final  development.  Mean- 
while, there  is  the  compression  upon  him 
of  downward,  and  earthward,  and  carnal 
tendencies,  which  will  never  be  removed 
till  he  die ;  but  which  he  must  resist,  so 
as  that  they  shall  not  reign  over  him. 
There  are  lusts  which  he  cannot  eradi- 
cate, but  which  he  must  not  obey ;  and, 
while  he  deplores,  in  humility  and  shame, 
the  conscious  symptoms  within  him  of  a 
nature  so  degraded,  it  is  his  business,  by 
the  energies  and  resources  of  the  new 
nature,  so  to  starve,  and  weaken,  and 
mortify  the  old,  as  that  it  may  linger  into 
decay  while  he  lives,  and  when  he  dies 
may  receive  the  stroke  of  its  full  annihi- 
lation. 

This  representation  of  a  believer's  state 
upon  earth  is  in  accordancy  with  Scrip- 


ture. We  find  the  apostle  stating,  that 
the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the 
spirit  against  the  flesh ;  and  in  such  a 
way  too,  as  that  the  man  cannot  do  what 
he  would.  He  would  serve  God  more 
perfectly.  He  would  render  him  an  offer- 
ing untinctured  by  the  frailty  of  his  fallen 
nature.  He  would  rise  to  the  seraphic 
love  of  the  upper  paradise,  and  fain  be 
able  to  consecrate  to  the  Eternal,  the 
homage  of  a  heart  so  pure  that  no  earthly 
feculence  shall  be  felt  adhering  to  it.  But 
all  this  he  cannot — and  why  .'  Because 
of  a  drag  that  keeps  him,  with  all  his 
soaring  aspirations,  among  the  dust  of  a 
perishable  world.  There  is  a  counter- 
poise of  secularity  within,  that  at  least 
damps  and  represses  the  sacredness  ;  and 
it  is  well  that  it  do  not  predominate  over 
it.  This  secularity  belongs  to  the  old 
nature,  being  so  very  corrupt  that  Paul 
.says  of  it — "  In  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh, 
there  dwelleth  no  good  thing."  There  is 
a  law,  then,  which  warreth  against  the 
law  of  our  mind,  even  while  that  mind  is 
delighting  inwardly  in  the  law  of  God. 
The  conflict  is  so  exceedingly  severe,  that 
even  they  who  have  the  first  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  groan  inwardly,  while  waiting  for 
the  redemption  of  the  body,  and  for  a 
translation  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God.  Burdened  with  the  mass 
of  a  rebellious  nature,  the  apostle  ex- 
claims, "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am  ! 
who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of 
this  death  ]"  Even  grace,  it  would  appear, 
does  not  deliver  from  the  residence  of 
sin  ;  for  Paul  complains  most  emphati- 
cally of  his  vile  body,  and,  we  have  no 
doubt,  would  so  have  stigmatized  it  to  the 
last  half  hour  of  his  existence  in  the 
world.  But  grace  still  does  something. 
It  delivers  from  the  reign  of  sin,  so  as 
that  we  do  not  obey  its  motions,  though 
vexed  and  annoyed  with  the  feeling  of 
them.  And  accordingly,  from  the  excla- 
mation of,  "O  wretched  man!"  does  he 
pass  in  a  moment  to  the  grateful  excla- 
mation of,  "I  thank  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,"  in  whom  it  is  that  we 
walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 
Spirit. 

From  such  a  representation  as  is  giveii 
by  the  apostle  of  Indwelling  Sin,  we  may 
deduce  some  distinct  practical  lessons, 
which  may  be  of  use  to  the  believer. 

First,  we  think  it  conducive  to  the  peace 
of  a  believer,  that  he  is  made  aware  of 
what  he  has  to  expect  of  the  presence  of 
corruption  during  his  sta)'  in  this  the  land 
of  immature  virtue;  and  where  the  holi- 
ness of  the  new-born  creature  has  to 
struggle  its  way  through  all  those  adverse 
elements,  which  nought  but  death  will  ut- 
terly remove  from  him.  It  must  serve  to 
allay  the  disturbance  of  his  spirit,  when 


LECTURE   XXXIII. CHAPTER   VI,    12. 


175 


pierced  and  humbled  under  the  conscious- 
ness of  an  evil  desire  and  wicked  prin- 
ciple still   lurking  within   him,  and  an- 
nouncing themselves  to  be  yet  alive,  by 
the    instigations    which    they    are    ever 
prompting,  and  the  thoughts  which  they 
are  ever  suggesting  to  the  inner  man.    It 
is   his   business  to  resist  the  instigations, 
and  to  turn  away  from  the  thoughts  ;  and 
thus  the  old  nature  may  be  kept  in  prac- 
tical check,  though  as  to  its  being,  it  is 
not   exterminated.     Yet   the   very  occur- 
rence of  a  sinful  desire,  or   an   impure 
feeling,  harasses  a  delicate  conscience ; 
for  no  such  occurrence  happens  to  an  an- 
gel, or  to  the  spirit  of  a  just  man  made 
perfect,  in  heaven ;  and  he  may  be  led  to 
■suspect  his   interest   in  the  promises  of 
Christ,  when  he  is  made  to  perceive  that 
there  is  in  him  still  so  much  of  what  is 
uncongenial  to  godliness.     It  may  there- 
fore quiet  him  to  be  told,  that  he  is  neither 
an  angel   nor  a  glorified  saint ;  and  tiiat 
there  is  a  distinction  between  the   saint 
who  is  struggling  at  his  appointed  war- 
fare below,  and  the  saint  who  is  resting 
and  rejoicing  in  the  full  triumph  of  his 
victory   above ;   and   the   distinction   an- 
nounces itself  just  by  the  very  intima- 
tions which  so  perplex  and  so  grieve  him 
— just  by  the  felt  nearness  of  that  corrupt 
propensity   which   is  the   plague  of   his 
heart,  which  it  is  his  bounden   duty   to 
keep  his  guard  against,  andwhich,  with 
his  new-born  sensibilities,  on  the  side  of 
holiness,  he  will  detest  and  mourn  over — 
but  not  to  be  overwhelmed  in  despair,  on 
account  of,  as  if  some  strange  thing  had 
happened  to  him,  or  as  if  any  temptation 
had  come  in  his  way  which  was  not  com- 
mon to  all  his  brethren   who  are  in  the 
world. 

But,  secondly,  this  view  of  the  matter 
not  only  serves  to  uphold  the  peace  of  a 
believer,  but  conduces  also  to  his  progress 
in  holiness  ;  for  it  leads  to  a  most  whole- 
some distrust  of  himself,  under  the  con- 
sciousness that  there  is  still  a  part  about 
him  most  alive  to  sin;  and  which,  if  not 
watched  and  guarded  and  kept  under  se- 
vere and  painful  restraint,  would  be  wholly 
given  over  to  it.  And  here  there  is  a  strik- 
ing accordancy  between  the  theoretical 
view  which  the  Bible  gives  of  our  nature, 
and  the  practical  habit  it  labours  to  im- 
press upon  all  who  partake  of  it.  An  an- 
gel, perhaps,  does  not  need  to  be  warned 
against  the  exposure  of  himself  to  tempta- 
tion ;  for  there  may  be  no  ingredient  in 
his  constitution  that  can  be  at  all  affected 
by  it:  but  not  so  with  man,  compounded 
as  he  is,  and  made  up  as. his  constitution 
is  here,  of  two  great  departments,  one  of 
which  is  prone  to  evil,  and  that  continu- 
ally ;  and  in  the  other  of  which  lie  all 
those  principles  and  powers  whose  oifice 


it  is,   if   not  utterly  to  extinguish    thi& 
proneness,  at  least. to  repress  its  outbreak- 
ings.     In  these  circumstances,  it  is  posi- 
tively not  for  man  to  thrust  himself  into 
a  scene  of  temptation  ;  and  when  the  al- 
ternative is  at  his  own  will,  whether  he 
shall  shun  the  encounter,  or  shall  dare  it, 
his  business  is  to  shun,  and  the  whole  of 
Scripture  is  on  the  side  of  cautiousnes.s, 
rather  than  of  confidence  in  this  matter ; 
and  we  may  be  assured,  that  it  is  our  part, 
in  every  case,  to  expose  nothing,  and  to 
hazard  nothing,  unless  there  be  a  call  of 
duty,  which    is  tantamount  to  a  call  of 
Providence.     When  the  trial  is  of  our  own 
bringing  on,  we  have  no  warrant  to  hope 
for  a   successful  issue.     God   will  grant 
succour  and   support  against  the  onsets 
which  temptation  maketh    upon   us,  but 
He  does  not  engage  Himself  to  stand  by 
us  in  the  presumptuous  onsets  which  we 
make  upon  temptation.     We  better  con- 
sult the  mediocrity  of  our  powers,  and 
better  suit  our  habits  to  the  real  condition 
of  our    ruined    and   adulterated   nature, 
when  we  keep  as  far  as  in  us  lies  our  de- 
termined di.stance  from  every  allurement 
'  — when  with  all  our  might  we  restrain  our 
tendencies  to  evil  within,  from  coming  into 
contact  with  the  excitements  to  evil  that 
are  without — when  we  make  a  covenant 
with  our  eyes  to  turn  them  away  from  the 
sight  of  vanity — and  whether  the  provo- 
cation be  to  anger,  or  evil  speaking,  or  in- 
temperance, or  any  wayward  and  vicious 
indulgence  whatever,  let  us  be  a.ssured, 
that    we    cannot   be  too   prompt  in  our 
alarms,   or  too  early   in   our  measures, 
whether  of  prevention  or  resistance  ;  and 
that  in  every  one  instance  where  we  have 
it  in  our  power,  and  no  dereliction  of  duty 
is  implied  by  it,  it  is  our  wise  and  salu- 
tary part,  not  most  resolutely  to  face  the 
provocative,  but  most  resolutely  to  tlee 
from  it. 

But,  thirdly,  this  view  of  the  matter 
not  only  leads  us  to  withdraw  the  vicious 
and  wrong  part  of  our  constitution  from 
every  encounter  with  temptation  that  can 
possibly  be  shunned — it  also  leads  us 
to  such  measures  as  may  recruit  and 
strengthen  the  gracious  or  good  part  of 
our  constitution  for  every  such  encounter 
as  cannot  be  shunned.  For  we  must,  in 
spite  of  all  our  prudence,  have  many  such 
encounters  in  the  world.  Temptation  will 
come  to  our  door,  though  we  should  never 
move  a  single  unguarded  footstep  towards 
temptation ;  and  then.  What,  we  would 
ask,  is  the  armour  of  resistance ! — what 
the  best  method  of  upholding  the  predo- 
minance of  the  good  principle  over  the 
evil  one  1  We  would  say,  a  fresh  com- 
mitment of  ourselves  in  faith  and  in  pray- 
er to  Him  who  first  put  the  good  principle 
into  our  hearts — another  act  of  recurrence 


176 


LECTURE   XXXIII. CHAPTER    VI,    12. 


to  the  fulness  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus — a 
new  application  for  .strength  from  the 
Lord  our  Sanctifier,  to  meet  this  new  oc- 
casion for  strength  which  He  Himself  has 
permitted  to  come  in  our  way,  and  to  cross 
the  path  of  our  history  in  the  world.  The 
humility  wliich  leads  us  to  flee  whenever 
we  can,  and  to  pray  when  flight  is  impos- 
sible— this  is  the  very  habit  of  the  soul, 
which  removes  it  from  the  first  set  of 
temptations,  and  will  most  effectually 
strengthen  it  against  the  second.  To  the 
proud  man,  who  reckons  upon  his  own 
capabilities,  God  refuses  grace.  To  the 
humble  man,  who  in  himself  has  no  other 
feeling  than  that  of  utter  emptiness,  God 
gives  grace  in  abundant  measure  for  all 
his  necessities  :  and  thus  it  is,  that  by  pro- 
ceeding as  he  ought,  on  the  consideration 
that  there  is  a  part  of  his  nature  belong- 
ing properly  and  originally  to  himself, 
which  he  must  keep  at  an  assiduous  dis- 
tance from  every  excitement  to  evil ;  and 
then  proceeding  as  he  ought,  on  the  con- 
sideration that  there  is  a  part  of  his  nature 
derived  by  grace  from  heaven,  and  nour- 
ished by  constant  supplies  from  the  same 
quarter. — thus  it  is,  we  say,  that  his  know- 
ledge of  his  own  constitution,  such  as  we 
have  endeavoured  to  unfold  it,  has  a  di- 
rect tendency  both  to  deepen  the  humility 
of  the  believer,  and  to  exalt  and  perfect 
his  holiness. 

It  is  this  state  of  composition,  in  every 
one  who  has  been  born  of  the  Spirit,  be- 
tween the  old  man  and  the  new  creature, 
which  explains  the  mystery  of  a  Christian 
being  more  humble,  just  as  he  becomes 
more  holy — of  his  growing  at  one  and  the 
same  time  in  di.ssatisfaclion  with  himself, 
and  in  those  deeds  of  righteou.sness  which 
are  by  .Tesus  Christ — of  his  being  both 
more  feelingly  alive  to  the  corruption  that 
is  in  him  from  one  part  of  his  nature,  and 
more  fruitfully  abundant  in  all  those  vir- 
tues which  have  their  soil  and  their  nutri- 
ment from  the  other  part  of  his  nature,  so 
us  to  hold  out  the  palpable  exhibition  of 
one  evidently  rising  in  positive  excellence, 
and  yet  as  evidently  sinking  into  a  pro- 
founder  self-abasement  than  before  ;  as  if 
it  required  a  so  much  deeper  foundation 
to  uphold  the  ascending  superstructure. 
The  truth  is,  that  wherever  there  is  any 
real  growth  of  morality,  there  must  be  a 
growth  of  moral  sensibility  along  with  it ; 
and  in  proportion  to  this  sensibility  will 
there  be  the  annoyance  that  is  felt,  and 
the  touching  grief  and  humility  wherewith 
the  heart  is  visited  on  every  fresh  evolu- 
tion of  that  depraved  nature,  which  is  only 
subordinated,  but  not  yet  extinguished  and 
done  away.  And  hence  the  want  of  sym- 
pathy, and  the  want  of  understanding  be- 


tween the  children  of  this  world,  and  the 
children  of  light ;  and  the  misinterpreta- 
tion that  is  sometimes  given  to  the  pains 
and  perplexities  and  mental  disquietudes 
which  the  latter  do  experience  ;  and  the 
puzzling  appearance  of  inconsistency 
which  is  held  out  by  the  emotions  and  the 
exercises  of  a  real  Christian,  who  is 
troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed 
— perplexed,  but  not  in  despair — perse- 
cuted, but  not  forsaken — cast  down,  but 
not  destroyed — Bearing  about  in  his  body 
the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life 
of  Jesus  might  be  made  manifest  in  his 
body — dying  unto  earthly  honours  and 
earthly  gratifications,  while  the  life  of 
Jesus  is  becoming  manifest  in  his  mortal 
flesh. 

To  conclude  then,  let  sin  reside  as  it 
may,  he  must  not  be  permitted  to  reign. 
He  may  be  put  up  with  as  a  most  offen- 
sive and  unpleasant  inmate  in  the  house — 
but  let  him  be  curbed  and  guarded,  and 
not  one  item  of  authority  be  conceded  to 
him.  Tt  is  enough  that  one  has  to  bear  his 
hateful  presence,  but  his  tyranny  is  not 
to  be  tolerated.  Against  this  there  is  ever 
to  be  upheld  a  manful,  and  strenuous,  and 
persevering  resistance.  He  may  distress, 
but  he  is  not  to  influence  us.  There  will 
be  a  constant  prompting  on  his  part  to 
that  which  is  evil ;  but  the  evil  thing  is 
not  to  be  done,  and  the  desire  which  in- 
cites to  that  thing  is  not  to  be  obeyed. 
This  is  the  strong  and  visible  line  of  de- 
marcation between  the  wilful  sinner  and 
the  aspiring  saint.  Both  of  them  have  vile 
bodies  charged  with  the  elements  of  cor- 
ruption, and  impregnated  with  a  moral 
virus,  the  working  of  which  is  towards  sin 
and  ungodliness.  Both  have  one  and  the 
same  constitutional  tendency.  But  the 
one  follows  that  tendenc}',  the  other  re- 
sists it ;  and  as  the  fruit  of  that  r(;sistance, 
though  not  freed  from  its  detested  pre- 
sence, he  is  at  least  emancipated  from  its 
domineering  power.  It  lives  in  the  house, 
but  it  is  not  master  of  the  house  ;  and  is 
there  so  starved  and  buffeted,  and  sub- 
jected to  such  perpetual  thwarting  and 
mortification  of  every  sort,  that  it  gradu- 
ally languishes  and  becomes  weaker,  and 
at  length,  with  the  life  of  the  natural  body, 
it  utterly  expires.  The  soul  which  ac- 
quiesced in  its  dominion  has  been  sowing 
all  along  to  the  flesh,  and  of  the  flesh  it 
shall  reaj)  corruption.  The  soul  that 
struggled  against  its  dominion,  and  re- 
fused compliance  therewith,  has  through 
the  Spirit,  mortified  the  deeds  of  the  body, 
and  shall  live, — has  all  along  been  sow- 
ing to  the  Spirit,  and  of  the  Spirit  shall 
reap  life  everlasting. 


LECTURE    XXXJII. CHAPTER    VI,    13,    14. 


177 


LECTURE  XXXIV. 

Romans  vi,  13,  14. 


"  Neither  yield  ye  your  members  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness  unto  sin :  but  yield  yourselves  unto  God,  as  those 
that  are  alive  from  the  dead,  and  your  members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God.  For  sin  shall  not  have 
dominion  over  you ;  for  ye  are  not  under  the  law,  but  under  grace." 


You  will  observe  in  the  term  'yield'  of 
the   present  verse,  a   counterpart  to  the 
term  '  reign'  of  the  last  verse.     We  have 
not  been  enjoined  to  root  out  sin  as  to  its 
presence  ;  but  we  have   been  enjoined  so 
to  resist,  as  that  it  shall  not  reign  over  us 
in  power.     And  in  like  manner  we  are  not 
called  upon  to  exscind  from  our  members 
their  evil  tendency   to   unrighteousness ; 
but  we  are  called  upon  not  to  yield  them 
up    as    instruments    of  unrighteousness. 
Could    Paul    have    exscinded    from    his 
members  their  inclination  to  sin,  he  would 
have    done   it  ;  and  then,   he  would   not 
have  had  to  complain   afterwards  in  the 
bitterness  of  his  soul,  that  he  found  a  law 
in   these   members,   warring  against  the 
law  of  his  mind — neither  would  he  have 
said  that  in  him,  that  is  in  his  flesh,  there 
dwelleth  no  good  thing.     But  the  truth  is, 
that,  after  conversion,  the  organs  of  the 
body  stand  in  the  same  relation  as  before 
to  the  objects  that  are  suited  to  them — the 
natural   influence   of  the   one   upon   the 
other  is  just  what  it  was — there  is  a  power 
of  temptation  in  the  one,  and  a  disposition 
to  coalesce  therewith  in  the  other,  neither 
of  which  is  extricated   by  grace,  either 
from  the  constitution  of  the  man,  or  from 
the  constitution  of  outward  nature.     But 
what  grace  does,  is,  to  stir  up  a  resolve  in 
the  mind  against  submitting  to  this  influ- 
ence, against  yielding  to  this  temptation. 
And  so  there  comes  to  be  a   law  in  the 
mind,  warring  against  the  law  that  is  in 
the  members — a  new  will  that  aspires,  if 
not  to  such  a  sovereignty  as  can  carry 
into  effect  a  sentence  of  expulsion  against 
the  evil  desires  that  are  in  the  members, 
at  least  to  such  a  sovereignty  as  shall  lay 
upon  these  desires  an  effectual  negative — 
So  .that  if  they  cannot  be  got  quit  of  while 
we  are  in  the  body,  as  so  many  trouble- 
some companions,  they   may  at  least  be 
deposed   from  the   practical  ascendancy 
they  want  to  wield  over  us,  as  so  many 
tyrannical  lords  and  oppressors.     Like 
the  whole  of  a  wilful  and  stubborn  team 
that  have  a  perverse  tendency  to  devia- 
tion, would  they  run  into  disorder  on  the 
reins  being  yielded  to  them  ;  but,  in  virtue 
of  the  strength  and  determination  of  the 
governor,  the  reins  are  not  given  up  ;  and 
so,  though  with  much  tension  and  fatigue 
and  watchfulness,  are  they  kept  on  the 
proper  course.     The  difference  between 
23 


such  a  management,  and  another  where 
all  the  animals  under  command  go 
smoothly  and  vigorously  along  in  the 
very  path  of  service  that  you  desire,  is 
another  mode  of  exemplifying  the  differ- 
ence that  there  is  between  the  work  of  a 
saint  on  earth,  and  the  work  of  a  saint  in 
heaven.  On  earth  you  have  to  maintain 
the  guiding  and  governing  power  of  the 
mind,  over  not  willing  but  reluctant  sub-  ^ 
jects,  who,  if  permitted  to  take  their  own 
way,  would  run  off  to  the  by-paths  of 
unrighteousness — and  whom  you  are  re- 
quired by  my  text,  not  to  yield  up  as  in- 
struments of  unrighteousness  unto  sin. 

There  is  a  love  of  gossip  in  our  nature, 
partly  due  to  its  malignity,  and  partly 
due  to  its  taste  for  the  ridiculous ;  and  in 
virtue  of  which,  there  may  be  an  urgent 
tendency,  in  the  midst  of  an  easy  circle 
of  companionship,  to  come  forth  with 
some  of  those  more  exquisite  traits  of  a 
neighbour's  folly,  the  recital  of  which 
would  impart  a  zest  to  the  conversation. 
To  make  use  of  a  very  familiar  phrase  in- 
deed, you  have  sometimes  a  minor  ca- 
lumny of  this  sort  on  your  tongue's  end; 
and  certain  it  is  of  such  an  inclination, 
that  it  will  not  only  survive  the  passage 
of  the  soul  from  a  state  of  nature  to  a 
state  of  grace — but  it  is  an  inclination,  we 
know,  often  give  way  to,  in  many  a 
brotherhood  and  many  a  sisterhood  of 
commonplace  professorship.  Well  then, 
suppose  that  on  the  eve  of  its  escape,  a 
sudden  remembrance  of  the  verse  which 
interdicts,  not  certain  of  the  more  flagrant 
and  aggravated,  but  which  interdicts  all 
evil  speakings  together,  should  come  into 
the  mind  ;  and  the  will,  that  power  which 
sits  in  the  chair  of  authority,  should  of 
consequence  interpose,  and  lay  its  arrest 
on  the  offending  member,  and  bind  it  over 
to  a  peace  which  it  feels  strongly  never- 
theless tempted  to  violiite — it  is  quite  com- 
patible with  the  man's  Christianity,  that 
he  should  have  about  him  still,  a  part  of 
a  constitution  to  which  the  utterance  of  a 
thoughtless  story  were  a  pleasurable  in- 
dulgence— it  is  quite  compatible  with  his 
Christianity,  that  this  is  a  temptation,  and 
he  should  feel  it  to  be  so ;  but  it  is  not 
worthy  of  his  vocation,  while  sensible  of 
its  force,  that  he  should  actually  and  in- 
deed submit  to  the  force  :  And  his  part  is 
resolutely  to  put  forth  his  hand  on  the 


178 


LECTURE  XXXIV. CHAPTER  VI,  13,  14. 


reins  of  management,  and  not  yield  his 
member  as  an  instrument  of  unrighteous- 
ness unto  sin. 

'But  yield  yourselves  unto  God.'  Amid 
the  clamour  and  besetting  importunity  of 
the  various  affections  of  our  nature,  tliere 
is  the  will,  whose  consent  must  be  ob- 
tained and  whose  authority  must  be  given, 
ere  any  one  of  the  affections  shall  be 
gratified.  It  is  true  that  trie  will  may  be 
the  slave  of  unwortliy  passions — ^just  as  a 
monarch  may  he  the  slave  of  unworthy 
favourites.  But  still  it  is  from  the  mon- 
arch, that  tlie  order  is  issued.  And  he 
must  set  his  seal  to  it  ere  it  can  be  car- 
ried into  efli'ect.  It  may  be  a  base  com- 
pliance in  him,  to  grant  what  he  does  to 
the  urgency  of  his  profligate  and  para- 
sitical minions.  But  still  hi»  grant  is  in- 
•  dispensable  ;  and  the  same  of  the  will 
among  all  the  other  feelings  and  faculties 
of  the  human  constitution.  It  may  be  in 
actual  abject  subordination  to  the  appe- 
tites ;  and  through  it  the  whole  man  may 
be  lorded  over,  by  a  set  of  most  ignoble 
though  most  oppressive  taskmasters.  Yet 
the  moment  that  the  will  shall  determine 
to  cast  off  this  ascendancy,  like  as  when 
a  monarch  dismisses  his  favourites,  their 
power  is  at  an  end  ;  and  should  the  will 
resolve  for  God,  this  were  tantamount  to 
our  yielding  up  of  the  whole  man  to  the 
will  and  authority  of  God.  It  may  do  so 
.  by  one  act ;  and  yet  that  act  be  the  transi- 
tion of  the  whole  man  into  another  habit, 
and  the  piissing  of  the  soul  under  another 
regimen,  than  before.  Though  one  step 
only,  it  is  indeed  a  big  and  a  decisive  one. 
It  is  the  great  introductory  movement  to  a 
new  life — nor  can  we  figure  a  mightier 
crisis,  or  a  more  pregnant  turning  point 
in  your  personal  history,  than  is  that  re- 
solve of  the  mind,  by  which  it  resolves 
effeetually  for  God,  by  which  it  yields 
itself  up  unto  Him  with  full  purpose  of 
heart  and  endeavour  after  new  obedience. 
And  this  one  act,  brooding  as  it  does 
with  consequences  of  such  moment,  both 
in  time  and  in  eternity — we  are  called 
upon  in  the  clause  now  under  considera- 
tion to  perform.  The  man  who  enlists 
himself  into  soldiery,  ma)^  do  it  in  a  single 
instant;  and  that  fixes  him  down  for  life 
to  the  obedience  of  a  new  master.  What 
I  want  to  gain  is  your  resolution  of  en- 
trance into  the  perpetual  service  of  God — 
that  you  purpose  now  to  give  no  more  of 
your  time  to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  but  to 
His  will — tliat  the  posture  now  of  readi- 
ness for  His  commands,  and  determina- 
tion to  obey  them,  be  at  this  moment  as- 
sumed by  you — that  you  now  give  the 
consent  of  your  will,  that  great  master 
faculty  of  the  inner  man,  to  your  being 
henceforth  the  subjects  of  God's  authority 
whatever  may  be  its  requirements — that 


listening,  as  it  long  has,  to  sin  and  to  sense 
and  to  selfishness,  you  make  it  now  your 
deliberate  and  steadfast  aim  to  resist  all 
the  suggestions  of  these" troublesome  and 
treacherous  advisers ;  and  in  their  place 
you  throne  the  great  principle  of,  '  Lord, 
what  wiliest  thou  me  to  do?' — All  these 
are  just  so  many  other  ways  of  expressing 
that  greatest  of  all  practical  movements, 
by  which  a  man  yields  himself  up  unto 
God — a  movement,  which,  if  not  taken, 
leaves  you  still  in  the  broad  way  among 
the  children  of  disobedience,  and  either 
marks  you  to  be  still  an  utter  stranger  to 
the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  or,  if  you  be  ac- 
quainted with  that  doctrine,  marks  and 
most  decisively,  that  it  is  a  doctrine  which 
has  come  to  you  in  word  only  and  not  in 
power. 

Be  assured,  my  brethren,  that,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  strength  and  the  smplicity 
of  your  determination  for  God,  will  be  the 
clearness  of  your  Christianity,  and  the 
comfort  attendant  on  all  its  hopes  and  all 
its  promises.  It  is  the  man  whose  eye  is 
single,  whose  whole  body  shall  be  full  of 
light.  You  complain  of  darkness,  do  you  1 
See  that  there  be  not  a  want  of  perfect 
oneness  and  willingness  and  sincerity,  as 
to  the  total  yielding  of  yourself  unto  God. 
The  entanglement  of  one  wrong  and 
worldly  affection,  may  mar  your  pur- 
poses. The  influence  of  one  forbidden 
conformity,  may  do  it.  To  the  right  fal- 
lowing of  Christ,  there  must  be  the  for- 
saking of  all.  He  must  be  chosen  as  tlie 
alone  master;  nor  will  He  accept  of  a 
partial  yielding  up  of  yourselves.  It  must 
be  an  entire  and  unexceptcd  yielding. 
Nor  is  there  any  thing  so  likely  as  the 
doublings  of  a  wavering  and  undecided 
purpose,  to  wrap  the  gospel  in  obscurity, 
and  throw  a  darkening  shroud  over  all 
that  truth  which  ministers  peace  and  joy 
to  the  believer's  soul. 

And  1  trust  that  you  are  now  prepared 
to  meet  a  difficulty,  which  is  sometimes 
suggested,  when  the  Christian  disciple  is 
urgi'd  on  to  perfection.  You  are  now 
aware  of  the  utter  hopelessness  that  there 
is  in  the  attempt  to  extirpate  the  presence 
of  sin  ;  but  this,  so  far  from  discouraging, 
ought  the  rather  to  excite  you  to  utter- 
most strenousness  in  the  work  of  making 
head  against  its  power.  In  such  a  state 
of  matters,  there  may  at  least  be  a  pure 
and  perfect  and  honest-hearted  aim — 
though  there  will  not  be  so  perfect  an 
accomplishment,  as  if  all  the  sinful  appe- 
tites were  eradicated,  instead  of  all  these 
appetites  being  only  kept  in  order.  Tlie 
purpose  of  the  mind  may  be  sound — the 
full  set  of  the  inner  man  which  delights 
in  the  law  of  God,  may  be  towards  obe- 
dience to  that  law — And  thus  there  may 
be  a  perfect  suri'endering  yourselves  up 


LECTURE  XXXIV. — CHAPTER  VI,  13,  14. 


179 


unto  the  service  of  God,  though  not  so 
perfect  an  execution  of  the  service  itself 
as  if  you  had  no  vile  body  of  sin  and  of 
death  to  contend  against.  The  charioteer 
whose  horses  have  a  strong  sideway 
direction,  may  be  as  thoroughly  intent  on 
the  object  of  keeping  his  vehicle  on  the 
road — as  he  whose  horses  would  of  them- 
selves and  without  even  the  guidance  of 
the  reins,  keep  an  unfaltering  direction  in 
the  right  path.  And  he  may  also  succeed 
in  keeping  them  on,  though  they  neither 
move  so  easily,  or  smoothly,  or  quickly. 
The  perfection  of  aim  is  the  same  in  both 
— though  the  one  must  put  forth  a  more 
painful  and  not  so  successful  an  endea- 
vour as  the  other.  And  it  is  just  in  this 
way,  that  I  call  on  you,  with  the  full  set 
of  all  your  purposes  and  energies,  stead- 
fastly to  keep  and  carefully  to  describe 
the  career  of  new  obedience.  God,  who 
knoweth  your  constitution,  knoweth  how 
to  distinguish  between  a  failing  in  the 
purpose  and  a  failing  in  the  performance. 
He  calls  for  singleness  and  perfectness 
and  godly  sincerity  in  the  one.  He  is 
aware  of  your  frame,  and  is  touched  with 
the  feeling  of  your  infirmities,  and  knows 
when  He  consistently  with  the  rules  of 
His  unerring  government  may  pass  by 
the  shortcomings  of  the  other.  And  thus 
while  encouraged  to  confess  and  pray 
over  the  remembrance  of  certain  sins  in 
the  hope  that  they  may  be  forgiven — we 
are  also  taught,  that  there-  is  a  sin  which 
will  not  be  forgiven,  there  is  a  sin  unto 
death. 

See  that  in  yielding  yourselves  unto 
God,  it  be  a  perfect  surrender  that  you 
make.  See  that  you  give  yourself  wholly 
over  to  His  service.  I  am  nut  asking  at 
present  how  much  you  can  do  ;  but  go  to 
the  service  with  the  feeling  that  your  all 
is  due,  and  with  the  honest  intention  and 
desire  that  all  shall  be  done.  Let  there 
be  no  vitiating  compromise  between  sin 
and  duty  in  the  principle  of  your  actions 
— whatever  the  degree  of  soil  or  of  short- 
ness in  the  actions  themselves.  Enter 
upon  your  new  allegiance  to  God,  with  a 
full  desire  to  acquit  yourselves  of  all  its 
obligations ;  and  thus  it  is,  that,  without 
reservation,  you  may  take  Him  to  be 
3'our  liege  Sovereign — and  that,  without 
reservation,  you  may  yield  yourselves  up 
unto  Goil. 

Then  follows  a  very  important  clause 
— 'as  those  who  ai'e  alive  from  the  dead.' 
It  cuts  up  legalism  by  the  roots.  To  work 
legally  is  to  worK  for  life — to  vi^ork  evan- 
gelically is  to  work  from  life.  When  you 
Bet  forth  on  the  work  of  obedience  in  the 
one  way,  you  do  it  to  attain  a  life  that 
you  have  not.  When  you  set  forth  on  the 
work  of  obedience  in  the  other  way,  you 
do  it  in  the  exercise  and  from  the  energies 


of  a  life  that  you  already  have.  Which 
is  the  way  of  the  text  is  perfectly  obvious. 
You  are  not  here  called  upon  to  enter  the 
service  of  God,  as  those  who  have  life  to 
win ;  but  to  enter  the  service  of  God,  as 
those  who  are  already  alive — as  those 
who  can  count  upon  heaven  as  their  own 
and  with  a  sense  of  God's  loving  favour 
in  their  hearts  and  a  prospect  of  glory 
eternal  in  their  eye,  put  themselves  under 
the  authority  of  that  gracious  Parent,  who 
guides  and  cheers  and  smiles  upon  them 
along  the  path  of  preparation. 

In  this  single  expression,  there  are 
three  distinct  things  suggested,  to  our 
attention;  and  all  of  them  standing  con- 
nected with  that  new  gospel  service  upon 
which  we  enter,  at  the  moment  of  our 
release  from  the  sentence  and  the  state  of 
death. 

There  is  first  the  hopefulness  of  such  a 
service.  The  same  work,  that,  out  of 
Christ,  would  have  been  vain  for  all  the 
purposes  of  acceptance — is  no  longer 
vain  in  the  Lord.  The  same  labour  that 
would  have  been  fruitless,  when,  toiling 
in  our  yet  unredeemed  state  of  condem- 
nation, we  would  have  toiled  as  if  in  the 
very  fire  and  found  nothing — may  now 
be  fruitful  of  such  spiritual  sacrifices,  as 
are  acceptable  to  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  The  same  otferings, 
which  would  have  been  rejected  as  an 
equivalent  for  the  wages  of  a  servant, 
may  now  be  rejoiced  over  and  minister 
complacency  to  the  spirit  of  our  heavenly 
Father — when  rendered  as  the  attentions 
of  one,  whom  He  has  admiited  into  the 
niuTiber  of  His  recalled  and  reconciled 
children.  Yield  yourselves  up  unto  God 
then,  not  a,s  one  who  has  to  earn  life,  but 
as  one  who  has  already  gotten  life  from 
His  hands;  and  your  obedience,  divested 
of  all  legal  jealousies  and  fears,  will  be 
free  and  spontaneous  on  the  part  of  the 
creature — and,  on  the  part  of  the  Creator, 
will  be  sustained  as  worthy  of  Himself  to 
receive,  for  the  sake  of  that  great  High 
Priest,  whose  merits  and  whose  interces- 
sion and  whose  death  have  poured  a  con- 
secration over  the  services  of  all  who 
believe  on  Him. 

There  is  secondly  in  this  expression 
the  principle  of  such  a  service — even 
gratitude  to  Him  who  has  received  us.  It 
puts  us  in  mind  of  these  precious  scrip- 
tures. "We  are  not  our  own,  we  are 
bought  with  a  price — let  us  therefore 
glorify  the  Lord  with  our  body  and  our 
spirit,  which  are  the  Lord's."  And  "if 
Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead ; 
and  He  died,  that  they  who  live  might 
live  no  longer  1o  themselves,  but  to  Him 
who  died  for  them,  and  who  rose  again." 
It  is  just  yielding  up  to  Him  in  service, 
that  which  He  has  conferred  upon  us  by 


180 


LECTURE  XXXIV. — CHAPTER  VI,    13,  14. 


donation.  It  is  turning  to  its  bidden  use 
the  instrument  He  has  ptit  into  our  hands. 
It  is  giving  Him  His  own;  and  you,  in 
yielding  yourselves  up  unto  God  as  those 
who  are  alive  from  the  dead,  are  just 
yielding  the  appropriate  return  of  grati- 
tude for  the  life  that  has  thus  been  bes- 
towed upon  you. 

And  lastly,  in  this  expression  there  is 
implied  the  power  for  the  service.  The 
faith  which  receives  Christ,  receives  pow- 
er along  with  Him  to  become  one  of  God's 
children.  It  of  itself  argues  a  spiritual 
perception,  of  which  nought  but  spiritual 
life  can  make  us  capable.  The  instant 
of  our  believing  is  the  instant  of  our  new 
birth.  The  same  faith  which  reconciles, 
is  also  the  faith  which  regenerates  ;  and 
you,  in  yielding  yourselves  up  unto  the 
service  of  God,  will  be  nobly  upheld 
among  all  its  fatigues  and  all  its  difficul- 
ties, by  the  influences  which  descend  on 
the  prayer  of  faith  from  the  upper  sanc- 
tuary. 

'  And  your  members  as  the  instruments 
of  righteousness  unto  God.'  You  see  how 
readily  and  how  naturally,  the  apostle 
descends  from  the  high  principle  to  the 
plain  work  of  obedience.  To  yield  your- 
selves unto  God,  is  a  brief  expression  of 
that  act,  by  which  you  submit  your  per- 
son and  bind  over  all  your  performances 
to  His  will.  To  yield  your  members  as 
the  instruments  of  righteousness  unto 
God,  is,  in  the  language  of  lawyers,  like 
an  extension  of  the  brief  It  is  imple- 
menting the  great  and  initiatory  deed  of 
your  dedication  to  His  service  It  is  go- 
ing forth  on  the  business  to  which  you 
have  com8  engaged  ;  and  actually  doing 
in  the  detail,  what  you  before  solemnly 
and  honestly  purposed  to  do  in  the  gene- 
ral. Did  you  at  one  time  put  forth  your 
hand  to  depredation  or  violence — now  let 
it  be  the  instrument  of  service  to  your 
neighbour,  and  honest  labour  for  your 
families.  Or  did  your  feet  carry  yo\i  to 
the  haunts  of  profligacy — now  let  them 
carry  you  to  the  house  of  prayer,  and  of 
holy  companionship.  Or  did  your  tongue 
utter  forth  the  evil  speakings,  whether  of 
calumny  or  carelessness  or  profanation — 
let  it  now  be  the  organ  of  charity  and 
peace,  and  let  the  salt  of  grace  season  its 
various  communications.  Or  did  your 
eyes  go  abroad  in  quest  of  foolishness — 
let  the  steadfast  covenant  now  be  made 
with  them  ;  that,  with  shrinking  and  sen- 
sitive purity,  they  may  be  turned  away 
from  every  obtruding  evil.  Or  did  you 
give  your  ears  to  the  corrupting  jest,  and 
what  perhaps  is  most  corrupting  of  all,  to 
the  retined  converse  that  is  impregnated 
with  taste  and  intellect  and  literature  and 
every  charm  but  that  of  Christianity — let 
them  now  be  given  up  in  obedience  to 


the  lessons  of  eternal  wisdom,  and  to  the 
accents  which  fall  from  those  who  fear 
the  Lord  and  talk  often  together  of  His 
name.  In  this  way  you  turn  your  mem- 
bers into  so  many  instruments  of  right- 
eousness. You  give  up  your  bodies  as 
well  as  your  spirits  a  living  sacrifice  unto 
God.  The  holiness  that  has  been  ger- 
minated in  the  heart,  is  sent  forth  to  the 
visible  walk,  and  inscribed  in  characters 
upon  the  history  that  may  be  read  and 
seen  of  all  men.  By  yielding  yourselves 
unto  God  you  enlist  in  His  service.  By 
yielding  your  members  as  instruments  of 
righteousness  unto  God,  you  go  about  the 
service.  You  carry  out  into  deed  and  into 
development,  what  before  existed  only  in 
design.  By  yielding  yourselves  you  sub- 
scribe the  indenture.  By  yielding  your 
members  you  act  upon  this  indenture. 
By  the  one  you  undertake  in  all  things 
for  the  glory  of  God.  By  the  other  you 
do  all  things  to  His  glory.  The  one  shows 
me  that  the  will,  that  sovereign  among 
the  faculties,  is  for  obedience.  The  other 
demonstrates  that  the  will  has  made  good 
her  sovereignty,  by  showing  me  the  per- 
son on  the  way  of  obedience. 

Be  assured  that  you  have  not  yielded 
up  yourselves,  if  you  have  not  yielded  up 
your  members ;  or  that  the  heart  is  nut 
right,  if  the  history  is  not  right.  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  be  assured  that  the  hon- 
esty, and  the  frugality,  and  the  tempe- 
rance, and  the  scrupulous  abstinence 
from  all  evil  communications,  and  all  the 
other  every-day  duties  of  every-day  life, 
have  a  high  place  in  religion  ;  that  when 
done  unto  God,  they  reflect  an  influence 
on  the  source  from  which  they  emanate — 
adding  to  the  light  and  spirituality  of  the 
believer  ;  and,  though  only  the  doings  of 
his  outer,  yet  serving  to  build  up  his  in 
ner  man  in  faith  and  in  holiness. 

V.  14.  Compare  the  promise  that  sin 
shall  not  reign  over  you,  with  the  precept 
of  two  verses  ago — '  let  not  sin  reign  over 
you  ;'  and  it  will  .throw  light  on  a  very 
interesting  connection,  even  on  the  way 
in  which  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  and 
the  promises  of  the  gospel  stand  related 
the  one  with  the  other.  The  promise  does 
not  supersede  the  precept.  "  I  will  give 
you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit,"  He 
says  in  one  place — "  Make  you  a  new 
heart  and  a  new  spirit,"  He  says  in  ano- 
ther. "  God  worketh  in  you  both  to  will 
and  to  do,"  in  one  place — "  work  out  your 
own  salvation,"  in  another  It  is  pre- 
cisely in  the  same  way,  that  He  bids  the 
man  of  withered  hand  stretch  it  forth. 
The  man  could  not  unless  power  had 
been  given  ;  but  he  made  the  attempt, 
and  he  found  the  power.  The  attempt,  or 
an  act  of  obedience  on  the  part  of  the 
man,  was  indispensable.    The  power,  or 


LECTURE  XXXIV. — CHAPTER  VI,  13,  14. 


181 


an  act  of  bestowment  on  the  part  of  God, 
was  also  indispensable.  Tiiey  both  met ; 
and  the  performance  of  the  bidden  move- 
ment was  the  result  of  it.  Had  the  man 
made  the  attempt  v/ithout  the  power, 
there  would  have  been  no  sM-etching  forth ; 
or  had  the  man  got  the  power  and  not  made 
the  attempt,  there  would  have  been  as 
little  of  stretching  forth.  It  was  the  con- 
currence of  the  one  with  the  other  at  the 
instant,  that  gave  rise  to  the  doing  of  the 
thing  which  was  required  of  him.  And 
so  of  all  gospel  obedience.  '  Let  not  sin 
reign,'  » for  sin  shall  not  reign ' — is  in 
perfect  accordancy  with  "work  out  your 
own  salvation,"  for  it  is  "  God  that  work- 
eth  in  you."  It  is  God's  part  to  lodge  the 
gift,  but  it  is  your  part  to  stir  it  up.  Stir 
up  the  gift  that  is  in  you,  says  Paul.  If 
no  gift  be  there,  nothing  will  follow.  If 
the  gift  be  there — your  exertion  turns  it 
to  its  right  use,  and  works  out  the  right 
and  proper  effect  of  it.  It  is  thus  that  di- 
vine grace  and  human  activity  are  in  per- 
fect co-operation.  The  one  as  sovereign 
as  if  man  had  nothing  to  do.  The  other 
as  indispensable  as  if  it  had  been  left  to 
man  to  do  all.  The  grace  so  far  from 
superseding  the  activity,  gives  it  all  its 
encouragement — for  without  the  grace  the 
activity  were  powerless,  and  you  would 
soon  cease  from  it  in  all  the  heartlessness 
of  despair  ;  and  thus  it  is  that  the  precepts 
of  '  Let  not  sin  reign  over  you,'  finds  a 
etimulous  instead  of  a  soporific  in  the 
promise   that   '  sin  shall  not  reign  over 

fOU.' 

And  the  reason  alleged  for  sin  not 
reigning  over  you,  is,  that  you  are  not  un- 
der the  law  but  under  grace.  The  law  is 
the  creditor  of  all  who  are  under  it,  and 
sin  is  the  debt  which  presses  you  down 
with  a  force  which  you  cannot  cast  off; 
and  you  may  conceive  the  debt  to  be  of 
magnitude  so  overwhelming,  that  you  not 
only  are  unable  for  the  slightest  liquida- 
tion of  its  principal,  but  that,  unable  for 
its  constantly  accumulating  interest,  you 
cannot  live  without  every  day  adding  to 
the  burden  of  it.  And  thus  it  is  with  sin — 
J  most  fearful  reckoning  of  past  guilt 
against  you, — and  an  hourly  augmenting 
guilt,  by  which  the  law  is  armmg  every 
day  with  a  greater  strength  of  rightful 
severity,  that  it  may  wreak  on  the  culprits 
who  have  offended  it.  It  has  you  in  its 
power,  even  as  the  creditor  has  his  vic- 
tims, who  can  only  be  rescued  from  his 
grasp  by  the  interposition  of  an  able  and 
an  adequate  surety.  And  for  us  sinners, 
there  has  been  precisely  such  an  interpo- 
sition. The  law  has  been  treated  with, 
by  one  who  has  rendered  it  ample  satis- 
faction— in  that  He  both  magnified  it  and 
made  it  honourable.  He  has  rescued  us 
from  the  challenge,  that,  because  of  sin, 


the  law  would  have  preferred  against  us  ; 
and  sin  ceases  to  have  the  dominion,  in 
regard  to  the  power  of  laying  on  the  pen- 
alty being  now  done  away.  But  this  is 
not  all.  The  grace  of  the  gospel,  under 
which  you  now  are,  has  done  more  than 
sweep  away  the  condemnation  of  sin.  It 
has  struck  an  effectual  blow  at  its  practi- 
cal ascendancy  over  you.  It  has  provided 
a  spirit  that  puts  into  you  another  taste, 
and  other  inclinations  than  those  you  had 
formerly.  The  law  had  power  over  your 
person,  but  not  over  your  will — so  that  it 
combined  the  tormentor  with  the  tyrant, 
in  that  it  was  ever  thwarting  your  desires, 
whose  rebelliousness  on  the  other  hand 
was  ever  aggravating  your  guilt.  But 
grace  has  delivered  your  person  from  the 
law  ;  and,  most  delightful  of  all  masteries, 
it  has  softened  and  subdued  your  wills — 
and  so,  causing  you  to  love  the  way  of 
holiness,  has  turned  your  duty  into  an 
enjoyment.  It  has  done  more  than  the 
surety  who  only  liquidates  the  debt,  but 
perhaps  leaves  you  as  thriftless  and  idle 
and  improvident  as  before,  for  new  debts 
and  new  difficulties.  But  it  has  acted  like 
the  surety,  who  not  only  pays  all  for  you, 
but  supplies  you  with  the  means  of  future 
independence  ;  and  teaches  you  the  man- 
agement for  turning  them  to  the  best  ac- 
count ;  and  watches  over  your  proceed- 
ings with  the  assiduity  and  advices  of  a 
friend,  whose  presence  ever  delights  in- 
stead of  offending  you  ;  and  charms  you 
by  his  own  example  into  the  sobriety  and 
industry  and  good  conduct,  which  form 
the  best  guarantees  for  your  prosperity  in 
this  world.  Thus,  we  say,  does  the  grace 
of  the  gospel  not  only  disenthrall  the  soul 
of  man  from  the  bondage  of  guilt ;  but, 
enriching  it  with  other  desires  and  other 
faculties  than  before,  causes  it  to  prosper 
and  to  be  in  health — and  to  abound  in 
those  fruits  of  the  Spirit  against  which 
there  is  no  law. 

Let  me  just  urge  then  in  conclusion, 
that  you  proceed  on  the  inseparable  alli- 
ance which  the  gospel  has  established, 
between  your  deliverance  from  the  penalty 
of  sin  and  your  deliverance  from  its  pow- 
er— that  you  evidence  the  interest  you 
have  in  the  first  of  these  privileges,  by  a 
life  graced  and  exalted  by  the  second  of 
them — that  you  now  break  forth  as  eman- 
cipated creatures  whose  bonds  have  been 
loosed,  and  from  whom  the  fetters  of  cor- 
ruption have  been  struck  off  along  with 
the  fetters  of  condemnation.  You  may 
say,  that  it  is  preaching  to  the  dead,  to 
bid  you  move  and  bestir  yourselves  to- 
wards the  path  of  holiness — but  not  if 
faith  accompany  the  utterance,  for  in  that 
case  power  and  life  go  along  with  it. 
Like  the  withered  hand  you  will  perform 
the  gesture  that  is  required  of  you  at  the 


1«2 


LECTURE  XXXIV. — CHAPTER  VI,  13,  14. 


hearing  of  our  voice — if  the  Spirit  of  all 
grace  lend  His  elficacy  to  the  word  that 


is  spoken  ;  and  actuate  you  with  that  be-   as  well  as  justifies, 


lief  in  the  gospel  record,  which  strength- 
ens as  well  as  saves,  and  which  sanctities 


LECTURE  XXXV. 


Romans  vi,  15 — 18. 

•'What  then'?  shall  we  sin  because  we  are  not  un'^er  the  law,  but  under  grace"!  God  forbid.  Know  ye  not,  that  to 
whom  ye  yield  yourselves  servants  to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey;  whether  of  sin  unto  death  or  of 
obedience  unto  righteousness  1  But  God  be  thanked.  th,-\t  ye  were  the  servants  of  sin  ;  but  ye  have  obeyed  from  the 
heart  that  form  of  doctrine  which  was  delivered  you.  Being  then  made  free  from  sin,  ye  became  the  servants  of 
righteousness." 


■  You  will  perceive  that  in  the  15th  verse, 
the  apostle  reiterates  the  objection  that 
was  made  at  the  outset  of  the  chapter, 
where  it  is  said — 'What!  shall  we  con- 
tinue in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ?' — 
the  same  objection,  but  grounded  on  a 
distinct  consideration,  or  on  a  considera- 
tion differently  expressed  at  least  in  the 
15th  verse,  where  it  is  said,  'What  then  ] 
shall  we  sin  because  we  are  not  under  the 
law  but  under  grace  V  It  strikes  me  that 
the  apostle,  when  treating  this  question  as 
put  at  the  first,  has  in  his  eye  the  grace 
that  pardons  ;  and,  in  his  reply,  he  urges 
the  inconsistency  of  creatures,  who  for 
sin  had  been  adjudged  to  die,  but  through 
the  death  of  another  had  been  recalled  to 
life  again,  ever  recurring  in  the  habit  of 
their  practice  to  that  which  brought  upon 
them  so  sore  a  condemnation.  By  the 
time  he  arrives  at  that  point  in  the  pro- 
gress of  his  argument  where  we  now  are, 
he  had  asked  them  to  resist  the  power  of 
sin,  and  to  give  themselves  up  unto  the 
service  of  God ;  and  was  encouraging 
them  with  the  prospect  of  success  in  this 
new  plan  of  life,  on  the  assurance  that 
this  power  of  sin  was  not  unconquerable, 
but  that,  instead  of  its  prevailing  over 
them,  they  should  be  enabled  to  prevail 
over  it — because,  instead  of  being  now 
under  the  law,  they  were  now  under  grace. 
And  we  have  no  doubt  that  there  was  here 
a  reference,  not  to  grace  as  it  pardon.?,  but 
to  grace  as  it  purifies.  There  is  another 
passage  in  his  writings,  where  he  tells  us 
what  that  circum.stance  is  which  denotes 
a  man  to  be  not  under  the  law.  "But  if 
ye  be  led  by  the  Spirit  ye  are  not  under 
the  law."  To  be  taken  imder  the  leading 
of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  taken  under  grace — 
even  that  graee  which  paid  the  debt  of 
our  souls  and  is  now  upholding  them  in 
spiritual  subsistence.  What  is  the  con- 
sequence of  the  Spirit's  leading,  or  what 
is  the  fruit  of  it  ! — why  that  we  are  led  to 
the  preference  and  the  practice  of  all 
those  virtues  which  enter  into  the  compo- 


sition of  true  moral  excellence,  of  which 
the  apostle  gives  us  the  enumeration  by 
such  specific  terms  as  love  and  peace  and 
joy  and  gentleness  and  goodness  and  long- 
suffering  and  faith  and  meekness  and 
temperance,  against  which,  says  he,  there 
is  no  law.  The  grace  which  delivered  us 
from  the  reckoning  of  the  law  because  of 
our  past  delinquencies,  delivers  us  also 
from  the  future  reckonings  of  the  law,  by 
introducing  us  to  such  a  character  and 
such  a  conduct  as  even  the  law  has  no- 
thing to  allege  against ;  and  so  the  cir- 
cumstance of  being  under  grace,  so  far 
from  leading  us  to  sin,  leads  us  just  in  the 
opposite  direct  ion — leads  us  to  that  do- 
main of  righteousness  which  is  not  under 
the  law,  and  that  because  there  the  law 
finds  no  occa.^ion  on  which  it  might  put 
forth  its  authority  to  condemn  ;  and  there 
its  authority  to  issue  orders  is  not  called 
for,  because  it  is  in  fact  anticipated  by  the 
heaven-born  affection  which  does  not 
wait  for  its  commands,  by  the  heaven- 
born  taste  which  delights  in  the  doing  of 
them. 

V.  16.  There  may  appear  a  sort  of  un- 
meaning and  uncalled-for  tautology  in  this 
verse — a  something  not  very  close  or  con- 
sequential, and  which  it  isditticult  to  seize 
upon.  The  apostle  had  already  asked 
them  not  to  yield  them.selves  unto  the 
obedience  of  sin,  but  to  yield  themselves' 
unto  the  obedience  of  God.  If  it  were  a 
real  and  cHeetual  yielding  of  themselves 
to  the  obedience  of  God,  an  actual  course 
of  obedience  to  God  would  emerge  from 
it.  If  it  were  but  the  semblance  of  thus 
yielding,  or  the  putting  forth  of  a  warm 
but  unsteadfast  purpose  which  was  not 
adhered  to  and  not  followed  up — then 
would  they  still  continue  in  the  obedience 
of  sin.  Now,  says  the  apostle,  you  are 
the  servants  of  him  whom  you  indeeti 
obey — not  the  servants  of  him  whom  you 
only  profess  to  obey.  You  may  have  en- 
gaged yourselves  to  one  master — you  may 
have  gone  through  the  form  of  yieldinjj 


LECTURE  XXXV. CHAPTER  VI,  15 18. 


18'i 


yourselves  up  unto  him — you  may  per- 
haps have  deluded  yourselves  into  the 
imagination,  that  you  have  made  good 
your  surrender  unto  his  will  and  unto  his 
authority  ;  but  .still,  if,  in  the  fact  and  in 
the  real  history,  you  obey  another — you 
prove  by  this  that  you  are  indeed  the  ser- 
vants of  that  other.  He  who  sins  is  the 
servant  of  sin  ;  and  the  effect  of  that  ser- 
vice is  death.  He  who  obeys  is  the  ser- 
vant of  obedience  ;  and  the  effect  of  that 
service  is  personal  righteousness,  or  per- 
sonal meetness  for  the  realms  of  life 
everlasting.  You  may  have  made  a  dedi- 
cation of  yourselves  unto  one  of  these 
masters ;  but  you  are  the  servants  of  the 
other  master,  if  him  you  actually  serve. 
And  perhaps  the  best  way  of  seizing  on 
the  .sense  of  the  apostle  in  this  verse,  is 
just  to  substitute  whomsoever  for  whom  in 
the  first  claiise  of  it,  when  the  whole 
would  run  thus:  'Know  ye  not  that  to 
whomsoever  ye  yield  yourselves  servants 
to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  whom  ye  do 
actually  obey,  whether  of  sin  unto  death 
or  of  obedience  unto  righteousness.'  1 
have  already  told  you  of  your  release 
from  condemnation  by  the  death  of  Christ ; 
and  I  have  told  you  how  monstrously  out 
of  all  proper  character  it  were,  that,  after 
re-admittance  into  the  bosom  of  that  ac- 
cepted famil)'  from  which  sin  and  sin 
alone  had  exiled  you,  you  should  again 
recur  to  the  service  of  sin  ;  and,  under  the 
impression  of  this  sentiment,  I  have  bid- 
den you  yield  yourselves  up  unto  the  ser- 
vice of  God.  And,  to  encourage  you  the 
more,  I  have  proclaimed  in  your  hearing 
the  helps  and  the  facilities  which  grace 
hath  provided,  for  speeding  you  onward 
in  the  accomplishment  of  this  service  ; 
and  when,  after  all  this,  you  ask  me  shall 
I  sin  then  because  of  this  grace — I  answer, 
No.  If  you  do  so,  it  will  prove  that  the 
yielding  not  unto  sin  but  unto  God,  to 
which  1  have  just  enjoined  you,  has  in  fact 
been  no  yielding  at  all — that  you  have 
made  perhaps  a  form  of  dedication  ;  but 
it  is  by  your  after  doings,  and  by  these 
alone,  that  we  are  to  estimate  the  truth 
and  the  power  of  it.  The  grace  which 
you  allege,  as  the  plea  of  exemption  from 
God's  service,  is  the  very  argument  on 
■which  I  found  my  expectation,  that  the 
path  of  His  service  is  the  very  place  on 
which  1  shall  now  be  sure  to  meet  you — 
for  it  is  this  grace  which  gives  the  power. 
There  would  be  no  wanting  of  it  to  sub- 
stantiate your  dedication,  if  the  dedication 
itself  were  a  heartily  sound  and  sincere 
one.  For  a  man  to  say,  shall  I  sin  be- 
cause I  am  under  grace! — is  in  every  way 
as  preposterous,  as  it  were  for  a  sick  ser- 
vant that  had  long  been  disabled  from 
work  but  was  now  recovered,  to  say,  shall 
I  spend  my  time  in  idleness  or  mischief, 


now  that  I  have  gotten  health  for  the  la- 
bours of  my  employment?  Such  a  use 
of  his  newly-gotten  health,  would  prove 
that  he  had  not  honestly  engaged  for  the 
interests  of  that  master,  whose  servant  he 
professes  himself  to  be  ;  and  just  so  of  the 
application  to  which  it  is  proposed  that 
grace,  that  mighty  restorer  of  health  to 
the  soul,  shall  be  turned — if  you  are  not 
actually  in  the  service  of  God  but  of  sin, 
it  proves  that  you  have  not  honestly  yield- 
ed yourselves  unto  God.  * 
V.  17,  18.  Thus  the  question,  Whose  *" 
servants  are  ye,  resolves  itself  into  a 
matter  of  fact;  and  is  decided,  not  by  the 
circumstance  of  your  having  made  a 
dedication  of  yourselves  unto  God,  but  by 
the  way  in  which  this  is  followed  up  by 
the  doings  of  obedience.  Whosoever  he 
may  be  to  whom  j'ou  profess  that  you  are 
servants,  you  are  the  real  servants  of  him 
whom  you  obey ;  and  the  apostle,  on 
looking  to  his  disciples,  prououuces  them 
by  this  test  to  have  become  the  servants 
of  righteousness.  He  knows  what  they 
were  in  time  past,  and  he  compares  it 
with  what  they  are  now.  They  were  the 
servants  of  sin — they  are  now  the  ser- 
vants of  righteousness.  They  not  only 
made  a  show  of  yielding  themselves  up 
in  obedience  unto  this  new  master;  but 
they  make  him  to  be  indeed  their  master, 
by  their  in  deed  and  in  truth  obeying  him. 
And  he  not  only  affirms  this  change  of 
service  on  the  part  of  his  disciples ;  but 
he  assigns  the  cause  of  it.  They  obeyed 
from  the  heart.  There  might  have  been 
an  apparent  surrender,  but  which  the 
inner  man  did  not  go  along  with.  There 
might  have  been  the  form  of  an  yielding  ; 
but  some  secret  reservations,  some  tacit 
compromise  of  which  perhaps  the  man 
was  scarcely  if  at  all  conscious,  some 
latent  duplicity,  that  marred  the  deed, 
and  brought  a  Haw  unto  it  by  which  it 
was  invalidated.  There  may  have  been 
something  like  a  prostration  of  the  soul, 
to  the  new  principle  that  now  claims  an 
ascendancy  over  it;  but  there  must  have 
been  a  failjng  or  draw-back  somewhere. 
All  had  not  been  sound  at  the  core — some 
want  of  perfect  cordiality  about  it,  that 
explains  why  there  should  have  been  the 
semblance  of  a  yielding  unto  one  master, 
but  the  actual  service  of  another.  Now 
God  be  thanked,  says  the  apostle,  this  is 
not  the  way  with  you.  I  look  at  your 
fruit,  and  I  find  it  the  fruit  of  holiness.  I 
look  at  your  life,  and  I  find  it  to  be  the 
life  of  th%  servants  of  God.  I  compare 
you  now  with  what  I  know  you  to  have 
been  formerly;  and  I  find  such  a  practi- 
cal change  as  convinces  me,  that,  whereas 
sin  was  formerly  your  master,  righteous- 
ness is  now  your  master  in  deed  and  in 
truth.    And  the  account  he  gives  of  this 


184 


LECTURE  XXXV. CHAPTER  VI,  15 18. 


is,  that  the  yielding  which  they  made  of 
themselves  was  a  sincere  and  honest 
yielding.  The  great  master  act  of  obe- 
dience, which  they  rendered  at  that  time, 
was  obedience  from  the  heart ;  and  thus 
it  turned  out,  that  what  was  truly  and 
singly  transacted  there,  sent  forth  an 
impulse  of  power  upon  their  habits  and 
their  history. 

But  what  is  it  that  they  are  said  here  to 
obey  from  the  heart  ?  It  is  called  in  our 
translation  the  form  of  doctrine.  Now 
we  know  that  the  term  doctrine  in  the 
original  may  signify  the  thing  taught,  or 
it  may  signify  the  process  of  teaching. 
In  the  last  sense  it  is  synonymous  with 
instruction  ;  and  instruction,  or  a  process 
of  it,  may  embrace  many  items,  and  may 
consist  of  several  distinct  parts,  and  be 
variegated  with  lessons  of  diverse  sort — 
to  obey  which  from  the  heart,  is  just  to 
take  them  all  in  with  the  simplicity  and 
good  faith,  in  which  a  child  reads,  and 
believingly  reads,  the  exercise  of  its  task- 
book.  And  this  view  of  the  matter  is 
very  much  confirmed,  by  the  import  of 
the  Greek  word  corresponding  to  form 
in  our  English  translation.  It  is  the  same 
with  a  mould,  that  impresses  its  own 
precise  shape  however  formed,  and  con- 
veys its  own  precise  devices  however 
multiplied,  to  the  soft  and  yielding  sub- 
stance whereunto  it  is  applied.  And  it  is 
further  remarkable,  that  it  would  be  still 
more  accordant  with  the  original — if,  in- 
stead of  its  being  said  that  they  obeyed 
from  the  heart  the  form  of  doctrine  which 
had  been  delivered  to  them,  it  had  been 
rendered,  that  they  obeyed  from  the  heart 
the  mould  or  model  of  doctrine,  into  which 
they  had  been  delivered.  The  image 
seems  taken  from  the  practice  of  casting 
liquified  metal  into  a  mould  ;  and  whereby 
the  cast  and  the  mould  are  made  the 
accurate  counterparts  of  each  other. 
Christian  truth,  in  its  various  parts  and 
various  prominences,  is  likened  unto  a 
mould — into  which  the  heart  or  soul  of 
man  is  cast,  that  it  may  come  out  a  pre- 
cise transcript  of  that  whiclj  has  been 
applied  to  it.  Did  the  melted  lead  only 
touch  the  mould  at  one  point,  it  would 
not  receive  the  shape  that  was  designed  to 
be  impressed  upon  it — or  if  the  surface 
of  the  one  adhered  to  the  surface  of  the 
other  only  throughout  a  certain  extent, 
and  not  at  all  the  parts,  neither  yet  would 
there  be  an  accurate  similitude  between 
the  copy  and  the  model.  It  is  by  the 
closeness  and  the  contact  of  t^e  two  all 
over,  and  by  the  yielding  of  the  one  soft- 
ened throughout  for  the  whole  impression 
of  the  other,  that  the  one  takes  on  the 
very  shape  and  the  very  lineaments  which 
it  is  the  purpose  of  the  other  to  convey. 

And  such  ought  to  be  the  impression, 


which  the  heart  of  man  receives  from 
the  word  of  God.  It  should  be  obedient 
to  every  touch,  and  yield  itself  to  eve- 
ry character  that  is  graven  thereupon. 
It  should  feel  the  impression,  not  from 
one  of  its  truths  only,  but  from  all  of  them 
— else,  like  the  cast  which  is  in  contact 
with  the  mould  but  at  a  single  point,  it 
will  shake  and  fluctuate,  and  be  altogether 
wanting  in  settled  conformity  to  that  with 
the  likeness  of  which  it  ought  to  be  every- 
where encompassed.  You  know  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  to  poise  one  body  upon  another 
when  it  has  only  got  one  narrow  place  to 
stand  upon ;  and  that  even  another  will 
not  afford  a  sufficient  basis  on  which  to 
rest ;  and  that,  to  secure  a  position  of  sta- 
bility, there  must  at  least  be  three  points 
of  support  provided — else  the  danger  is 
that  it  may  topple  to  an  overthrow.  We 
think  we  have  seen  something  akin  to  this 
ere  the  mind  of  an  inquirer  was  rightly 
grounded  and  settled  on  the  basis  of  God's 
revealed  testimony  —  how  it  veers  and 
fluctuates,  when  holding  only  by  one  ar- 
ticle and  regardless  of  all  the  others — how 
tossed  about  it  is  apt  to  be  by  every  wind 
when  it  fails  of  a  sufficiently  extended 
grasp  on  the  truths  of  Christianity — how 
those  who  talk  for  example  of  the  bare 
act  of  faith,  vacillate  and  give  way  in  the 
hour  of  temptation,  and  that  just  because 
they  have  not  stuck  to  the  testimony -of 
the  Bible  about  the  whole  duty  and  disci- 
pline of  holiness — how  those  who  admit 
both  the  righteousness  of  Christ  as  their 
plea,  and  the  regeneration  of  their  own 
characters  as  their  preparation  for  heaven 
to  be  alike  indispensable,  have  neverthe- 
less been  brought  to  shipwreck  ;  and  that 
just  because,  though  adhering  in  words  to 
these  two  generalities,  they  have  never 
spread  them  abroad  over  their  whole  his- 
tory in  the  living  applications  of  prayer 
and  watchfulness.  They  need  the  filling 
up  of  their  lives  and  hearts  with  the  whole 
transcript  of  revelation.  One  doctrine 
does  not  suffice  for  this — for  God  in  His 
wisdom,  has  thought  fit  that  there  shall 
be  a  form  or  scheme  of  doctrine.  The 
obedience  of  the  heart  unto  the  faith,  is 
obedience  unto  all  that  God  proposes,  for 
the  belief  and  acceptance  of  those  who 
have  entered  on  the  scholarship  of  eter- 
nity ;  and  for  this  purpose,  there  must  be 
not  a  mere  subscription  or  assent  of  the 
understanding  to  any  given  number  of 
points  and  articles — there  must  be  a 
broad  coalescence  of  the  mind,  with  the 
whole  expanse  and  magnitude  of  the  book 
of  God's  testimony. 

A  scheme  of  doctrine,  you  will  observe, 
implies  more  truths  than  one  ;  and  St.  Paul 
had  actually  gone  beyond  the  announce- 
ment of  his  one  individual  item  by  the 
time  that  he  reached  the  verse  which  is 


LECTURE  XXXV. CHAPTER.  VI,  15 — 18. 


185 


now  submitted  to  you.  He  was  very  full  on 
Christ  as  the  propitiation  for  sin,  and  on 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  as  the  plea  of 
acceptance  and  reward  for  sinners — and 
then  when  he  came  to  the  question,  shall 
they  who  are  partakers  of  this  benefit 
continue  in  sin  that  they  may  get  still 
more  of  the  benefit,  he  is  very  strenuous 
in  pronouncing  a  negative  thereupon. 
Here  there  was  not  one  doctrine  but  a 
form  of  doctrine,  not  one  truth  but  a  com- 
pound of  truths — a  mould  graven  on  both 
sides  of  it  with  certain  various  charac- 
ters ;  and  the  softened  metal  that  is  poured 
therein,  yields  to  it  all  round,  and  takes 
the  varied  impression  from  it.  And  so  of 
him,  who  obeys  from  the  heart  the  form 
of  doctrine  into  which  he  is  delivered. 
He  does  not  yield  to  one  article,  and  pre- 
sent a  side  of  hardness  and  of  resistance  to 
another  article.  He  is  thoroughly  softened 
and  humbled  under  a  sense  of  sinfulness, 
and  most  willingly  takes  the  salvation  of 
the  gospel  on  the  terms  of  the  gospel.  He 
does  not  like  the  sturdy  controversalist, 
or  the  eager  champion  of  system  and  of 
argument,  call  out  from  the  word  his  own 
favourite  position,  with  the  light  of  which 
he  would  overbear  and  eclipse  the  whole 
remaining  expanse  of  the  law  and  of  the 
testimony  ;  but,  like  the  little  child,  he 
follows  on  to  know  the  Lord — just  as  the 
revealed  things  offer  themselves  to  his 
docility  and  notice,  on  that  inscribed  tab- 
let which  the  Lord  hath  placed  before 
him.  This  was  the  way  in  which  the  dis- 
ciples of  Paul  seemed  to  have  learned 
their  lessons  at  his  hand ;  and  this  way 
of  it,  it  would  appear,  brings  forth  the 
testimony  from  their  apostle,  that  they 
had  obeyed  from  the  heart  the  form  of  his 
doctrine.  Their  obeying  of  it  from  the 
heart  marks  their  obeying  of  it  truly  and 
in  the  inward  parts  ;  and  their  obeying  a 
form  of  doctrine  marks,  not  their  exclu- 
sive adherence  to  one  doctrine,  but  their 
broad  and  entire  coalescence  in  his  sum- 
mary of  doctrine.  A  most  important  step 
this,  for  it  forms  the  very  modus  of  con- 
catenation, between  what  the  apostle  says 
they  once  were  and  what  he  says  they 
now  are.  They  were  the  servants  of  sin  ; 
They  are  the  servants  of  righteousness, 
and  why  ; — what  was  it  that  took  place  at 
the  interesting  moment  of  transition,  or 
rather  what  was  it  that  gave  rise  to  if? 
They  obeyed  from  the  heart  the  form  of 
doctriiie  into  which  they  were  moulded  or 
cast ;  and  then  it  was  that  they  were 
made  free  from  sin — then  was  it  that, 
loosed  from  its  power  as  well  as  from  its 
condemnation,  they  gave  their  emancipat- 
ed faculties  to  the  service  of  righteousness. 
I  therefore  know  not  a  more  pertinent 
and  more  efficacious  advice,  that  I  can 
give  for  those  who  are  desirous  of  being 
24 


made  free  from  sin,  and  so  of  being  trans- 
lated into  the  service  of  another  master 
besides  him  who  heretofore  has  domi- 
neered over  them,  than  that  they  should 
spread  open  their  whole  mind  to  the 
whole  testimony — than  that  they  should 
render  that  obedience  of  their  hearts  unto 
the  fiiith,  which  consists,  not  in  the  con- 
finement either  of  their  attention  or  belief 
to  one  of  its  articles,  but  in  the  freeness 
of  their  walking  survey  over  the  whole 
platform  of  revelation,  and  in  their  ready 
approbation  of  all  the  truths  which  lie 
extended  thereupon.  "  Believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  ye  shall  be  saved," 
is  a  quotation  from  Scripture  ;  and  indeed 
one  of  the  most  precious  and  memorable 
of  its  sayings — but  "repent  and  believe 
the  gospel,"  is  the  complex  announce- 
ment of  Jesus  Christ  Himself;  and  you 
must  treasure  up  the  saying  that  "  unless 
ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 
There  is  no  condemnation  to  those  who 
are  in  Christ  Jesus,  is  a  weighty  and  well- 
laid  doctrine — but  another  is  subjoined  ; 
and  out  of  the  two  we  have  this  scheme 
or  form  of  doctrine,  that  "  there  is  no 
condemnation  to  those  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spirit." 

The  belief  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
will  be  the  salvation  of  one  and  all  who 
embrace  it;  but  mark  how  this  one  an- 
nouncement has  another  added  to  it,  which 
is  hinged  to  it  as  it  were,  and  may  be 
made  to  close  into  a  mould  for  impressing 
the  heart  of  God's  elect  children — "God 
hath  from  the  beginning  chosen  you  to 
salvation,  through  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth."  To  have 
the  blood  of  Christ  sprinkled  upon  you,  is 
indeed  to  be  furnished  with  a  sure  defence 
against  the  angel  of  wrath — when  he  com- 
eth  forth  in  his  avenging  mission  against 
the  children  of  iniquity ;  but  within  the 
compass  of  a  single  clause,  does  the 
apostle  Peter  tack  obedience  to  the  sprink- 
ling of  the  blood  of  Christ.  And  then,  to 
use  his  expressions,  do  you  "  obey  the 
truth," and  are  indeed  "obedient  children 
not  fashioning  yourselves"  according  to 
the  errors  and  the  ignorance  of  former 
days,  when  you  submit  to  both  the  articles 
of  this  clause,  and  proceed  upon  them 
both.  Paul  went  about  preaching  every- 
where faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  but 
this  forms  only  one  part  of  his  summary, 
according  to  his  own  description  of  it. — • 
and  so  he  tells  us  of  his  "testifying,  both 
to  the  Jews  and  also  to  the  Greeks,  re- 
pentance towards  God  and  faith  towards 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In  one  place  he 
could  say  of  himself  and  of  his  disciples, 
that,  "being  justified  by  faith  we  have 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  and  in  another  place  he  says  to 


186 


LECTURE  XXXV. — CHAPTER  VI,  15 — 18. 


his  disciples  "  tliat  the  unrighteous  shall 
not  inlu'rit  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  he 
told  them  that  such  they  once  were,  but 
they  hud  made  it  seems  the  very  transi- 
tion spoken  of  in  our  text;  and  he  could 
now  say,  "  but  ye  are  washed,  but  ye  are 
sanctilicd,  but  ye  are  justified,  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  by  the  Spirit 
of  our  God."  And  the  way  for  you,  my 
brethren,  to  make  good  the  same  transi- 
tion— is  to  have  the  same  obedience  of 
faith — it  is  to  spread  out  the  tablet  of  your 
heart,  for  the  pressure  thereupon  of  all 
the  characters  that  are  graven  on  the 
tablet  of  revelation — it  is  to  incorporate  in 
your  creed  the  necessity  of  a  holy  life,  in 
imitation  and  at  the  will  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
along  with  a  humble  reliance  on  His 
merits  as  your  alone  meritorious  plea  for 
acceptance  with  the  Father — it  is  to  give 
up  the  narrow,  intolerant,  and  restrictive 
system  of  theology,  which,  by  vesting  a 
right  of  monopoly  in  a  few  of  its  favour- 
ite positions,  acts  like  the  corresponding 
system  of  trade,  in  impeding  the  full  cir- 
culation of  its  truths  and  of  its  treasure, 
through  that  world  within  itself,  which  is 
made  up  of  the  powers  and  affections  and 
faculties  that  reside  in  a  human  bosom. 
But  do  you,  my  brethren,  obey  the  whole 
form  of  Christian  doctrine,  as  well  as  each 
and  sundry  of  its  articles — be  your  faith 
as  broad  and  as  long,  as  is  the  record  of 
all  those  commuiiications,  that  are  ad- 
dressed to  it — and  be  very  sure  that  it  is 
only  when  you  yield  yourselves  up  in 
submission  to  all  its  truths,  that  you  can 
be  made  free  from  sin  by  sharing  in  the 
fulfilment  of  all  its  promises. 

You  ot\en  read  in  Christian  authors  of 
the  power  of  the  truth ;  and  by  which 
they  mean  its  power,  not  merely  to  pacify 
the  sinner's  fears,  but  its  power  to  sanctify 
his  character.  It  is  a  just  and  expressive 
phrase,  and  is  adverted  to  in  the  passage 
before  us,  where  it  is  said  that  the  being 
made  free  from  sin,  and  becoming  ser- 
vants unto  righteousness,  turns  on  the 
obedience  of  the  heart  to  doctrine.  But  it 
is  not  one  doctrine  only,  but  the  entire 
form  of  doctrine,  to  which  the  heart  is 
obedient ;  and  so  this  power  of  the  truth, 
is  the  power  of  the  whole  truth.  Mutilate 
the  truth  and  you  cripple  it.  Pare  it  down 
and  you  paralyse  its  energies.  The  Spirit 
is  grieved  with  the  duplicity  and  the 
disingenuousness  of  men,  when  they  oifer 
to  divide  that  testimony,  which,  if  they 
would  but  treat  it  fairly.  He  Avould  turn 
into  the  mighty  engine  of  their  conversion, 
and  so  pass  them  over  with  the  strength 
of  His  own  right  hand,  from  the  service 
of  sin  to  the  service  of  righteousness.  The 
obedience  must  be  sincere,  or  it  is  not 
obedience  from  the  heart ;  and  it  must  not 
be  partial,  or  it  is  not  obedience  to  the 


whole  form  of  doctrine  thai  is  delivered. 
And  at  the  sight  of  this  flaw,  the  Spirit 
takes  His  flight  from  the  heart  that  is  de- 
formed by  it ;  and  leaves  the  owner 
thereof  in  the  thraldom  of  nature's  cor- 
ruption and  nature's  carnality.  And  thus, 
my  brethren,  as  you  hope  to  be  rescued 
from  the  tyranny  of  sin  by  the  power  of 
Christian  truth,  you  must  fan  and  foster 
the  whole  of  it.  There  must  be  the  sub 
mission  of  a  whole  faith  to  a  whole  testi- 
mony. Divide  and  you  darken.  The 
whole  of  that  light,  which  one  truth  or 
one  portion  of  the  record  reflects  upon 
another,  is  extinguished — when  the  inqui- 
rer, instead  of  looking  fearlessly  abroad 
over  the  rich  and  varied  landscape  of 
revelation,  fastens  his  intent  regards  on 
one  narrow  portion  of  the  territory,  and 
shuts  out  the  rest  from  the  eye  of  his  con- 
templation. The  Spirit  will  not  lend 
Himself  to  such  a  man — one  who  does 
not  choose  to  see  afar  off;  and  is  sure  to 
forget  some  capital  truth  or  other,  in  that 
finished  scheme  of  doctrine  which  the 
gospel  has  made  known  to  us.  And  of  all 
the  things  which  he  is  apt  to  forget — 
perhaji^s  the  most  frequent  is,  that  every 
true  Christian  is  purged  from  his  old 
sins  ;  and  thus,  in  the  language  of  Peter, 
the  person  who  is  thus  blind,  lacketh 
righb.'ousness,  and  is  both  barren  and 
unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  reason  why  you  remain  in  the  fet- 
ters of  sin  is,  that  you  refuse  your  consent 
to  some  part  or  other  in  the  scheme  ot 
truth.  You  would  fain  have  orthodoxy, 
and  perhaps  think  that  you  are  in  the 
actual  possession  of  it,  when,  without 
power  and  without  spiritual  discernment, 
you  only  strain  at  a  few  of  the  literalities 
of  Christian  doctrine,  and  sit  down  in  the 
unmoved  lethargy  of  nature,  with  the 
word  upon  your  lips  that  there  is  salva- 
tion by  faith,  and  forgiveness  through  the 
blood  of  a  satisfying  atonement.  Could 
we  only  get  you  to  admit  the  necessity  of 
a  personal  surrender,  in  all  holy  obedi- 
ence unto  God — could  we  prevail  upon 
you  to  believe  that  Christ  came,  not 
merely  to  redeem  you  from  guilt,  but  to 
redeem  you  from  the  vain  conversation 
of  the  world — could  we,  under  the  power 
of  this  incipient  conviction,  only  persuade 
you  to  make  a  beginning,  and  to  move  a 
single  footstep  in  the  way  of  transition 
from  sin  unto  righteousness — could  you 
understand,  that,  even  as  the  remission  of 
sins  must  be  had,  so  repentance  must  be 
accomplished,  ere  you  be  admitted  into 
heaven,  and  the  honesty  of  this  your  un- 
derstanding  approved  itself  by  your  forth- 
with acting  upon  it — could  we  only  get 
you  thus  to  set  forth  on  this  measure  of 
incipient  light,  the  light  would  grow  with 


LECTURE  XXXV. CHAPTER  VI,  15 — 18. 


187 


the  incipient  obedience  ;  and,  ever  bright- 
ening as  you  advanced,  would  the  prin- 
ciple of  forsaking  all  for  Christ  become 
more  decided ;  and  your  decision  for 
Christ  would  grow  with  the  growth,  and 
strengthen  with  the  strength  of  your  de- 
pendence upon  Him.  The  justification 
and  the  sanctification,  these  two  mighty 
terms  in  Christianity,  would  be  alike 
clearly  apprehended  as  essential  to  the 
completion  of  the  .scheme  of  that  doctrine, 
by  the  obedience  of  the  heart  unto  which  it 
is  that  you  are  saved.  And  I  again  repeat 
it,  my  brethren,  take  in  the  whole  of  gospel 
truth — lay  hold  of  its  offered  pardon,  and 
enter  even  now  upon  its  prescribed  course 
of  purification.  The  Spirit  will  not  look  in- 
differently on  your  day  of  small  things;  but 
if  you,  casting  yourself  into  the  mould  of 
the  whole  truth,  shall  labour  to  realise  it 
and  seek  to  be  renewed  as  well  as  to  be  for- 
given— He  will  come  down  with  the  might 
of  His  creative  energies  upon  you,  and, 
breaking  asunder  the  chains  of  your  cap- 
tivity to  sin,  will  cause  you  hencefor- 
ward to  be  the  servants  of  righteousness. 
This  practical  change,  stands  connected 
with  the  obedience  of  your  heart  to  the 
form  or  scheme  of  Christian  doctrine — 
for  it  is  upon  this  being  rendered,  that 
you  are  made  free  from  sin  and  become 
the  servants  of  righteousness.  Yet  let  us 
not  think  therefore,  that  we,  of  our  own 
proper  energy,  supply  as  it  were  the  first 
condition  on  which  our  deliverance  from 
sin  is  made  to  turn  ;  and  that  then  the 
Spirit  comes  down  and  gives  full  and 
finished  accomplishment  to  it.    The  truth 


is,  that  He  presides  over  the  initial,  as 
well  as  over  all  the  successive  movements 
of  this  great  transformation  ;  and  accord- 
ingly, in  the  17th  verse,  the  primary  cir- 
cumstance  of  your  obeying  from  the  heart 
the  form  of  doctrine,  is  made  matter  of 
thanksgiving  to  God.  It  is  through  grace, 
in  fact,  that  you  are  made  to  embrace  the 
whole  form  of  doctrine.  If  any  of  you 
feel  so  disposed  in  consequence  of  our 
imperfect  explanations — the  glory  of  this 
is  due  to  grace,  which  has  revealed  to  you 
the  necessity  of  holiness  as  well  as  par- 
don— which  has  touched  and  softened  your 
hearts  under  the  impression  of  this  truth 
— which  has  moved  you  to  an  aspiring 
obedience  thereto — which  will  lead  you,  I 
trust,  to  carry  out  the  principle  into  prac- 
tice and  daily  conversation — which  will 
vent  itself  upward  to  the  sanctuary  in 
prayer,  and  bring  down  that  returning 
force,  which  can  unchain  you  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption,  and  give  you  im- 
pulse and  strength  for  all  the  services  of 
righteousness.  It  is  grace  that  begins  the 
good  work,  and  it  is  grace  that  perfects  it 
— and  to  sin  because  we  are  under  this 
grace,  carries  in  it  just  the  same  contra- 
diction, as  to  be  in  darkness  because  the 
sun  has  arisen  ;  or  to  be  in  despair  be- 
cause an  able  friend  has  come  forward  to 
support  us  ;  or  to  be  in  disease  because  an 
infallible  physician  has  taken  us  in  his 
charge,  and  is  now  plying  us  with  a  regi- 
men which  never  misgives,  and  with 
medicines  the  operation  of  which  never 
disappointed  him. 


LECTURE   XXXVI. 


Romans  vi,  19 — 21. 


"I  speak  after  the  manner  of  men,  because  of  the  infirmity  of  your  flesh  :  for  as  ye  have  yielded  your  members  ser- 
vants to  uncleanness,  and  to  iniquity  unto  iniquity;  even  so  now  yield  your  members  servants  to  riehteousnoss 
unto  holiness.  For  when  ye  were  the  servants  of  sin,  ye  were  free  trom  righteousness.  What  fruit  had  ye  then  in 
tliose  things  whereof  ye  are  now  ashamed  ;  for  the  end  of  those  things  is  de  .th  7" 


The  first  clause  of  the  nineteenth  verse 
reminds  us  somewhat  of  another  passage 
in  the  apostle's  writings,  when  he  says  to 
his  disciples,  I  speak  unto  you  not  as  unto 
spiritual  but  as  unto  carnal,  even  as  unto 
babes  in  Christ.  The  transition  from  the 
rude  and  raw  conceptions  of  nature,  to 
the  heights  of  spiritual  wisdom  and  dis- 
cernment, is  not  an  immediate  but  a  suc- 
cessive one;  and  so  it  follows,  that  the 
illustrations  of  Christian  doctrine,  must  be 
laried  according  to  the  progress  of  him 
whom  you  are  labouring  to  convince  and 
to  satisfy  ;  and  we  have  to  speak  more  in 


the  manner  of  men,  more  in  the  way  that 
is  suited  to  the  comprehension  of  unen- 
lightened and  unrenewed  humanity,  to 
those  who  are  still  in  the  infancy  of  their 
education  for  heaven — whereas,  in  the 
language  of  Paul,  to  those  who  are  per- 
fect, to  those  who  by  reason  of  use  have 
had  their  senses  well  exercised,  we  speak 
what  he  calls  hidden  wisdom,  even  the 
wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery.  From  the 
clause  before  us,  we  infer  that  the  same 
topic  may  be  variously  illustrated,  and 
that  acccn'ding  to  the  degree  of  maturity 
which  our  hearers  have  attained  in  Chris- 


188 


LECTURE   XXX.V1. CHAPTER   vr,    19 — 21. 


tian  experience.  And,  agreeably  to  this, 
we  find,  that,  whereas  in  the  first  instance, 
the  apostle,  in  expounding  the  personal 
change  from  sin  to  holiness  which  takes 
place  on  every  believer,  borrows  a  simil- 
itude that  may  be  understood  by  men  at 
the  very  outset  of  their  Christian  disciple- 
ship — he  passes  on  to  another  considera- 
tion, the  force  of  which  could  only  be  felt 
and  acquiesced  in  by  those,  who  had  in 
some  degree  been  familiarised  to  the  fruits 
and  the  feelings  and  the  delights  of  new 
obedience. 

This  by  the  vvay  may  account  for  the 
various  tastes  that  there  are  for  various 
styles  and  manners  of  elucidation  ;  and 
all  it  may  be  of  substantially  the  same 
doctrine.  It  justifies  fully  the  very  pecu- 
liar appetite,  that  a  hearer  is  often  found 
to  express  for  that  which  he  feels  to  be 
most  suited  to  him.  Nay  it  goes  to  ex- 
plain the  change  that  may  have  taken 
place  in  his  preference  for  the  ministra- 
tions of  another  expounder,  whose  mode 
of  putting  or  illustrating  the  truths  of 
Christianity,  is  the  best  adapted  to  that 
state  of  progress  whereunto  he  has  now 
attained.  And  all  that  remains  for  him  is 
to  bear  in  mind,  that  there  are  other 
hearts  and  other  understandings  in  the 
world  beside  his  own — that,  as  there  is  a 
diversity  of  subjects,  so  there  is  and  so 
there  ought  to  be  a  diversity  of  applica- 
tions ;  and,  accordingly,  a  diversity  of 
gifts  is  provided  by  that  Spirit,  who  divid- 
eth  to  every  man  severally  as  He  will. 
This  consideration  should  serve  to  abate 
a  little  of  the  intolerance,  wherewith  a 
hearer  is  apt  to  regard  the  ministrations 
of  all,  who  do  not  lie  within  the  boundary 
of  his  own  very  limited  and  exclusive  fa- 
vouritism. It  should  expand  into  a  wider 
latitude  that  estimation  of  utility  and 
worth,  which  he  is  too  apt  to  confine  to 
those  select  few  among  the  preachers,  who 
work  most  effectually  upon  the  peculiar 
tablet  of  his  own  understanding.  More 
particularly,  when  he  sees  how  Paul  ac- 
commodated his  illustrations  to  the  capac- 
ity and  progress  of  his  disciples — how,  on 
the  principle  of  being  all  things  to  all 
men,  he  made  use  of  carnal  or  human 
comparisons,  to  those  who  were  but  just 
emerging  into  spiritual  light  from  the 
mere  light  and  discernment  of  nature — 
how  this  gifted  apostle',  that  could  have 
dealt  out  the  profounder  mysteries  to  the 
older  and  more  accomplished  converts, 
condescended  to  men  of  low  attainment ; 
and  for  their  sakes  came  forth  with  expla- 
nations, the  need  or  the  pertinency  of 
which  might  not  have  been  felt  by  those 
who  had  reached  a  higher  maturity  of 
experience  in  the  gospel — Then  might  he 
patiently  wait  what  to  him  perhaps  are 
the  insipid  or  inapplicable  reasonings  of 


his  minister,  in  the  hope  that  others  of  the 
congregation  require  the  very  argument 
which  falls  powerlessly  on  his  own  heart, 
and  are  profiting  by  the  very  considera- 
tions which  to  him  are  superfluous  or  un- 
called for. 

And  it  is  well  to  notice  what  the  precise 
illustration  is,  which  Paul  seems,  while 
he  is  using  it,  to  have  felt  of  so  puerile 
and  elementary  a  character,  or  so  adapt- 
ed to  the  mere  infancy  of  the  Christian 
understanding — that  he  says  I  speak  as  a 
man  or  as  a  mere  child  of  nature,  who 
had  not  been  initiated  into  the  mysteries 
of  the  gospel,  and  that  because  of  the  in- 
firmity of  your  flesh.  The  thing  he  was 
attempting  to  make  plain  to  them,  was 
the  transition  of  a  believer  from  the  ser- 
vice of  sin  to  the  service  of  righteousness. 
The  service  of  sin  might  not  be  a  very 
palpable  conception  to  us,  it  being  the 
service  of  a  mere  abstraction,  so  long  as 
you  restrict  your  attention  to  the  general 
term.  But  when  embodied,  as  it  was  to 
the  imagination  of  a  heathen  convert,  in 
the  person  of  a  heathen  deity  ;  and  fa- 
miliar as  he  must  have  been,  with  those 
impure  and  frantic  orgies  which  were 
held  in  honour  of  a  god  who  both  exem- 
plified and  patronised  the  worst  vices  of 
our  nature — he  would  instantly  connect 
with  the  service  of  sin,  the  service  of  a 
living  master,  who  issued  a  voice  of  au- 
thority and  exacted  deeds  of  iniquity 
from  his  worshippers,  as  the  most  accep- 
table homage  that  could  be  rendered  to 
him.  In  turning  from  that  service  to  the 
service  of  righteousness,  he  could  thus 
easily  comprehend  it,  as  a  similar  transi- 
tion to  that  of  passing  from  under  the 
authority  of  one  living  commander  to 
another — even  from  the  god  or  gods  to 
whom  he  aforetime  rendered  the  offering 
of  acceptable  impurity  or  acceptable  cru- 
elty, to  the  true  God  of  heaven  and  of 
earth  whom  he  could  only  serve  accepta- 
bly by  walking  in  holiness  and  righteous- 
ness before  Him.  And  these  Romans — 
accustomed  as  they  were  to  the  transfer- 
ence of  bond  slaves  from  one  master  to 
another,  to  the  way  in  which  they  were 
ransomed  from  their  old  servitude  and 
placed  under  a  new  subjection  to  him 
who  had  purchased  or  redeemed  them — 
would  the  more  easily  catch  the  simili- 
tude from  the  mouth  of  the  apostle — when 
he  told  them  of  the  power  and  effect  of 
the  ransom  by  Christ ;  and  how,  in  virtue 
of  it,  they  were  rescued  from  the  grasp 
of  their  old  tyrant,  who  could  no  longer 
wield  that  vengeance  against  them  for  sin 
which  he  else  had  been  permitted  to  ex- 
ercise— and  no  longer,  if  they  chose  to 
betake  themselves  to  the  grace  and  privi- 
leges of  the  gospel,  could  have  that  as- 
cendency over  them,  by  which  their  af- 


LECTURE  XXXVI. — CHAPTER  VT,  19 — 21. 


189 


fections  were  entangled  and  they  were 
kept  under  the  oppressive  influence  of 
moral  evil.  From  this  they  were  all  re- 
leased and  extricated,  by  the  new  master 
who  had  laid  down  his  life  for  them  as 
the  price  of  their  captivity  ;  and  whom, 
now  that  He  had  taken  it  up  again,  they 
were  bound  to  serve  in  the  way  of  all  His 
commandments. 

And  this  illustration  of  it,  was  not  only 
well  adapted  to  the  understanding  of  those 
i'agans  who  had  turned  them  from  dumb 
idols  to  serve  the  living  and  the  true  God. 
It  may  still,  in  many  instances,  be  the 
most  effectual  that  can  be  employed,  for 
making  clear  to  the  convert  of  modern 
days,  either  at  the  moment  of  his  turning 
or  recently  after  he  has  done  so — how  he 
enters  on  the  new  habit  of  a  sanctified 
disciple,  at  the  time  that  rescued  from 
condemnation  he  cherishes  the  new  hope 
of  a  redeemed  disciple.  He  need  be  at 
no  loss  either  for  a  living  and  substantial 
personification,  when  told  of  the  service 
of  sin.  There  is  a  real  monarch  to  whom 
the  iniquities  of  every  sinner  are  so  many 
acceptable  offerings — a  superhuman  be- 
ing who  sits  on  a  throne,  the  authority  of 
which  extends  over  a  wide  domain  of  the 
moraV  world — an  actual  and  living  Mo- 
loch, who  is  surrounded  by  innumerable 
slaves  whom  he  has  the  power  of  tyran- 
nizing over  in  time  and  of  tormenting 
through  all  eternity :  And  the  express 
mission  of  the  Son  of  God  was  to  combat 
and  overthrow  him.  He  came  to  destroy 
the  works  of  the  devil  ;  and  to  make  good 
the  deliverance  of  all,  who  put  themselves 
under  Himself  as  the  captain  of  their  sal- 
vation, and  are  willing  to  be  rescued  from 
the  grasp  of  the  adversary.  And  that  power 
to  punish  us  in  hell,  wherewith  Satan  v/as 
invested,  Christ  has  as  it  were  exhausted 
by  stepping  forward  and  absorbing  its 
whole  discharge  in  His  own  body  on  the 
tree.  And  that  power  to  fascinate  and 
enthrall  us  upon  earth,  wherewith  the 
God  of  this  world  holds  his  votaries  in 
subjection  to  sin,  the  Redeemer  hath  also 
overcome  by  the  Spirit  poured  forth  on 
the  hearts  of  His  followers,  from  that 
throne  of  mediatorship  to  which  He  has 
been  exalted.  And  the  believer,  strong 
and  shielded  and  secure  in  the  privileges 
that  have  thus  been  obtained  for  him,  is 
effectually  set  at  large  from  the  power  of 
his  old  master — either  to  confine  him  in 
the  prison-house  of  guilt,  or  to  control 
him  in  any  of  his  actions  now  that  he 
walketh  at  liberty.  But  still,  like  the 
bond  servant  who  has  been  translated  to 
a  humane  from  a  hard-hearted  superior, 
he  is  not  his  own — he  is  bought  with  a 
price — and  his  business  is  now  to  devote, 
to  the  new  and  the  pleasing  service  of 
Him  who  loveth  righteousness  and  who 


hateth  iniquity,  that  soul  and  spirit  and 
body  which  are  not  his  own  but  his 
Lord's. 

But  the  chief  cause,  perhaps,  why  an 
illustration  of  this  sort  is  more  readily 
seized  upon  at  the  outset  of  our  Chris- 
tianity than  many  others,  is  that  it  falls 
more  in  with  the  natural  legality  of  the 
human  heart.  We  know  not  how  obsti- 
nately it  is  that  the  conception  of  work 
and  wages  adheres  to  us,  long  after  we 
profess  to  have  given  in  to  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone  ;  and  this 
leaven  of  carnality  may  remain,  to  taint 
the  pure  and  the  free  and  evangelical 
spirit,  even  for  many  months  after  the 
germ  of  gospel  truth  has  been  deposited, 
and  ere  by  its  growth  it  overbear  the 
feelings  and  tendencies  of  the  old  man. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Paul  should  think  it 
right  to  adjust  his  expositions,  to  the  slate 
of  immature  and  yet  unformed  Chris- 
tianity; and  that  the  sturdy  and  unbend- 
ing advocate  of  salvation  by  grace,  and 
by  grace  exclusively,  should,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  helping  forward  the  cause  of 
Christian  holiness,  avail  himself  of  the 
legal  admixture  that  still  infuses  itself 
into  the  thoughts  at  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  Christian  discipleship.  But  so  it  is ; 
and,  on  the  principle  of  all  things  to  all 
men,  he  suits  his  argument  to  the  infirmity 
of  their  flesh  ;  and,  disposed  as  they  are 
under  the  economy  of  nature  to  regard 
themselves  as  servants,  who  by  the  fulfil- 
ment of  an  allotted  task  make  out  a  title 
to  payment  from  their  master — he  still, 
under  the  economy  of  the  gospel,  employs 
at  least  the  relationship  of  servant  and 
master  to  express  the  relationship  that 
there  is  between  them  and  God.  He  comes 
upon  the  very  borders  of  legality,  in  order 
that  he  might  fetch  from  thence  a  some- 
thmg  that  he  might  suitably  address  to 
the  babes  in  Christ,  for  the  purpose  of 
urging  them  on  to  the  new  life  that  be- 
comes the  new  creature  ;  and  while  none 
more  careful  than  he  to  check  in  his 
disciples  the  spirit  that  would  challenge 
reward  frt)m  God,  even  as  the  servant 
might  prosecute  the  master  for  his  right- 
ful wages — yet  none  more  solicitous  than 
he,  that  every  Christian  should  be  stead- 
fast and  abundant  in  all  the  works  of 
righteousness.  And  therefore,  did  he 
gladly  avail  himself  of  a  similitude,  that 
the  very  legalism  of  the  heart  would 
dispose  it  the  more  readily  to  apprehend ; 
and  by  which  he  would  make  it  plain  to 
his  disciples,  that  they  must  now  give 
themselves  up  to  the  service  of  another 
master — that  they  must  now  yield  them- 
selves unto  God. 

It  may  only  be  further  necessary  in 
this  verse  to  explain  its  reiterations.  In 
their  former  state  they  had  made  their 


190 


LECTURE  XXXVI. CnATTEE  VU    19 21. 


mcml)crs  servants  to  iniquity  unto  iniqui- 
ty— that  is,  iniquity,  or  he  in  whom  moral 
evil  m:iy  be  conceived  as  personirted  or 
embodied,  was  their  master.  They  were 
servants  to,  or  the  servants  of  iniquity  ; 
and  it  is  added  'unto  iniquity' — That  is  to 
say,  unto  tlie  corrupticMi  or  iniquity  of 
Ihcir  own  character.  The  eflect  of  mak- 
ing iniquit}'  their  master,  was  to  stamp 
the  character  of  iniquity  upon  their  souls. 
They  were  the  slaves  of  the  tyrant  ini- 
quity; and  the  etfect  of  this  was  to  make 
tiiemselves  iniquitous.  And  in  like  man- 
ner, are  we  to  explain  the  counterpart 
clause  of  their  yielding  their  members 
servants  to  righteousness  unto  holiness — 
that  is,  b}^  entering  into  the  service  of  this 
new  master,  they  become  partakers  of  his 
character  and  of  his  taste  in  their  own 
persons.  They  could  not  become  the 
servants  of  righteousness,  without  them- 
selves becoming  holy.  In  yielding  up 
their  members  unto  righteousness,  they 
look  to  righteousness  as  vested  with  an 
authority  to  rule  over  their  actions ;  and 
the  effect  of  their  doing  so  is,  that  right- 
eousness becomes  an  accomplishment  to 
adorn  and  exalt  their  nature.  So  that 
this  last  clause  may  be  thus  paraphrased 
— 'As  aforetime  you  have  yielded  your 
members  servants  unto  uncleanness  and 
to  iniquity,  unto  the  utter  ruin  and  cor- 
ruption of  your  whole  character — even  so 
now  yield  your  members  servants  to 
righteousness,  unto  the  recovery  and 
transformation  of  your  character,  that  it 
n'la)^  stand  out  anew  in  all  the  charms  of 
holiness,  an  be  graced  as  it  was  origi- 
nally with  tan  features  and  the  linea- 
ments of  that  divine  resemblance  wherein 
it  was  created.' 

And  I  ma}'  here  advert  to  the  influence 
which  action  has  upon  principle.  When 
you  do  what  is  right  at  the  bidding  of  ano- 
ther, there  may,  in  the  first  instance,  be 
no  very  willing  concurrence  of  the  heart 
with  the  obedience  that  has  been  pre- 
scribed to  you.  You  may  yield  yourself 
up  unto  God,  under  an  overpowering  sense 
of  His  authority  ;  and,  from  that  impulse 
alone,  do  many  things,  which  the  sponta- 
neous tastes  and  feelings  of  the  inner 
man  do  not  very  cordially  go  along  with. 
But  no  matter — you  have  entered  upon 
His  service  ;  and  the  effect  of  your  stren- 
uous and  faitlirul  perseverance  in  the 
course  of  it,  will  be  to  reconcile  t'ae  inner 
man  to  that  whereunto  you  have  restrain- 
ed the  outer  man.  This  is  a  result  which 
it  appears  you  must  work  your  way  to. 
The  effect  of  your  going  tlirough  the  ser- 
vices of  righteousness,  is  that  you  will  at 
length  attain  the  spirit  of  holiness.  You 
must  labour  at  the  work  of  obedience  ; 
and,  like  unto  the  effect  of  practice  in 
many  other  parts  of  human  experience, 


you  will  at  length  come  to  love  the  ways 
of  obedience.  We  doubt  not  that  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  desire  and  of  cordial  regard 
towards  what  is  right,  enters  into  the  very 
first  moving  principle  that  sets  you  ago- 
ing on  the  career  of  your  sanctificatior- 
But  you  are  not  to  wait  till  your  taste  and. 
affections  be  spiritualized  to  a  sufficient 
pitch,  ere  you  embark  on  this  career. 
But  now,  whether  with  or  against  the 
grain,  do  whatever  your  hand  findeth  to 
do  which  you  know  to  be  obviously  right. 
Do  it  under  a  sense  of  allegiance  to  God, 
in  defect  meanwhile  of  the  more  generous 
and  ang(;lic  principle  that  you  like  the 
doing  of  it ;  and  the  transition  pointed 
out  in  the  text  seems  to  be,  that,  as  the 
fruit  of  your  being  subordinated  to  God's 
authority,  will  you  come  at  length  to  be 
assimilated  to  Ilim  in  holiness. 

V.  20.  This  twentieth  verse  seems  an 
argument  for  our  entire  dedication  to  the 
new  master,  into  whose  service  we  have 
entered  ourselves.  It  is  somewhat  like 
the  consideration  of  making  the  past  time 
of  our  life  suffice,  for  having  done  the 
will  of  the  flesh  ;  and  that  it  is  now  high 
time  to  spend  the  remainder  of  our  life  in 
doing  the  will  of  God.  Aforetime  you 
were  wholly  given  over  to  the  service  of 
sin,  and  righteousness  as  emanating  from 
the  divine  sovereignty  had  no  dominion. 
You  were  free  from  righteousness,  or 
wholly  unrestrained  by  its  obligations 
and  its  precepts.  Now  then  be  free  from 
sin,  resist  the  mandates  of  the  old  tyrant, 
and  give  yourself  wholly  up  to  the  will 
of  the  new  master — Let  your  obedience 
to  Him  now  be  as  complete,  as  was  your 
disregard  of  Him  then  ;  and  an  argument 
of  mighty  influence  why  the  old  service 
should  be  altogether  given  up  and  the 
new  service  be  altogether  followed,  is 
urged  upon  them  in  the  following  verse, 
by  the  appeal  which  the  apostle  makes  to 
their  own  memory,  of  what  it  was  they 
gained  in  the  employment  of  their  first 
master. 

V.  21.  The  apostle  now  proceeds  to  an 
argument,  that  could  be  better  seized  upon 
by  those  v/ho  had  to  a  certain  degree 
moved  onwards  in  Christianity  —  who 
could  now  speak  to  the  superiority  of  the 
new  service  over  the  old  ;  and  that,  not 
from  the  higher  authority  which  had  pre- 
scribed it.  but  from  the  more  refined  char- 
acter and  enjoyment  of  the  service  itself 
— by  those  whose  moral  taste  had  under- 
gone a  renovation,  and  could  now  look 
back  with  loathing  upon  the  profligacies 
of  their  former  career,  while  they  cher- 
ished a  love  and  a  heartfelt  preference  for 
those  beauties  of  holiness  which  adorned 
the  new  path  whereon  they  had  entered. 
You  will  see  that,  to  appreciate  such  a 
comparison,  marked  a  higher   state  of 


LECTURE   XXXVI. CIIAPTEE,   VI,    19 21. 


191 


spiritual  cultivation,  than  merely,  at  the 
bidding  of  God,  to  enter  upon  the  task, 
which  at  the  outset  of  their  gospel  pro- 
fession He  as  their  new  master  had  put 
into  their  hand.  The  musical  scholar, 
who,  at  the  bidding  of  a  parent  or  a  pre- 
ceptor, practises  every  day  at  the  required 
hours  upon  an  instrument,  is  not  so  ripe 
for  a  festival  of  harmony,  as  he,  who, 
under  the  impulse  of  an  ear  all  awake  to 
its  charms,  revels  as  in  his  most  kindred 
element,  when  spontaneously  he  sets  him 
down  to  the  performance — not  as  a  task, 
but  as  an  entertainment.  And  neither  is 
that  spiritual  scholar  so  ripe  for  heaven, 
who,  because  of  the  infirmity  of  his  flesh, 
needs  to  have  his  distaste  for  holiness 
overcome  by  the  argument  of  God's  au- 
thority— as  he,  who,  in  his  love  for  holi- 
ness, now  confirmed  by  the  experience  he 
has  had  of  its  pleasant  and  peaceful  ways, 
nauseates  with  his  whole  heart  the  oppo- 
site vice  and  the  opposite  impurity.  It  is 
right  to  lift  the  voice  of  an  imperative  re- 
quirement on  the  side  of  new  obedience, 
at  the  commencement  of  every  man's 
Christianity — ^just  as  it  is  right  to  exact 
from  the  musical  scholar,  a  regular  atten- 
dance on  lessons  which  at  the  outset  he 
may  find  to  be  wearisome.  But  as  in  the 
one  case  what  is  felt  to  be  a  weariness, 
often  merges,  with  the  cultivation  of  the 
taste  and  of  the  <  ar,  into  a  willing  and 
much-loved  gratiiication — so,  in  the  other 
case,  what,  from  the  strength  of  remaining 
carnality  was  laboured  at  as  a  bondage 
and  called  for  the  direct  incitement  of 
God's  authoritative  command  to  make 
head  against  the  sluggishness  of  nature, 
yet,  as  the  fruit  of  perseverance  in  the 
walk  of  holiness,  does  the  will  itself  at 
length  become  holy  ;  and  there  is  a  growth 
of  affection  for  all  its  exercises  and  all 
its  ways;  and  the  doing  of  the  allotted 
task  by  the  outer  man,  calls  forth  and 
confirms  a  suitable  taste  of  accordancy 
in  the  inner  man  ;  and,  in  proportion  to 
the  strength  of  the  regard  for  what  is 
sacred,  must  be  the  strength  of  the  recoil 
from  what  is  sinful  and  what  is  sensual. 
So  that  while  Paul,  in  illustrating  the 
transition  of  a  gospel  convert  from  sin 
unto  righteousness,  did,  at  the  moment  of 
that  transition  and  because  of  the  infir- 
mity of  his  flesh,  urge  in  terms  as  direct 
as  if  the  legal  economy  were  still  in  force, 
the  obligation  under  which  he  lay,  to  ex- 
change the  service  of  one  master  for  the 
service  of  another — yet,  with  the  disciple 
who  long  had  practised  and  long  had  per- 
severed at  the  bidden  employment,  could 
he  use  an  argument  of  a  higher  and  no- 
bler and  more  generous  character ;  and, 
triumphantly  appealing  to  his  own  recol- 
lection, asked  him  to  compare  the  vile- 
ness  and  wretchedness  of  his  former  days. 


with  the  preciousness  of  that  heavenly 
charm  which  he  now  felt  to  be  in  all  the 
works  and  all  the  ways  of  new  obedience. 

The  apostle  tells  us  here  of  the  fruit  of 
sin  in  time,  and  of  its  fruit  in  eternity. 
For  its  fruit  in  time  he  refers  his  disciples 
to  their  own  experience  ;  and,  whether  we 
advert  to  the  licentious  or  the  malignant 
passions  of  our  nature,  we  shall  find  that 
even  on  this  side  of  the  grave  it  is  a  fruit 
of  exceeding  bitterness.  Tliat  heart,  which 
is  either  to.ssf'd  with  the  agitations  of  un- 
hallowed desire,  or  which  is  preyed  upon 
by  the  remorse  and  shame  and  guilty  ter- 
ror that  are  attendant  on  its  gratification 
— that  once  serene  bosom,  from  which  its 
wonted  peace,  because  its  wonted  sense 
of  purity  has  departed — that  chamber  of 
the  thoughts  which  is  no  longer  calm,  be- 
cause stormed  out  of  all  tranquillity  and 
self-command  by  the  power  of  a  wild 
imagination — The  unhappy  owner  of  all 
this  turbulence,  who  has  given  up  the 
reins  of  government,  and  now  maddens  in 
the  pursuit  of  his  tumultuous  joys  along 
the  career  of  lawless  dissipation — let  him 
speak  for  himself  to  the  fruit  of  those 
things,  of  which  he  may  well  be  ashamed. 
O  does  he  not  feel,  though  still  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  materialism  of  hell,  that  a 
hell  of  restlessness  and  agony  has  already 
taken  up  its  inmost  dwelling-place  in  hi.'S 
own  soul ;  that  there  the  whip  of  a  secret 
tormentor  has  begun  its  inflictions  ;  and, 
even  now,  the  undying  worm  is  con- 
sciously active  and  never  ceases  to  cor- 
rode him  !  Or,  if  he  be  a  stranger  still  to 
the  fiercer  tortures  of  the  I  tirt,  will  he 
not  at  least  admit,  that,  as  the  fruit  of 
guilty  indulgence,  a  hell  of  darkness  if 
not  a  hell  of  agony,  has  taken  possession 
of  it — that,  at  least,  the  whole  of  that 
beauteous  morning  light  which  gladdened 
his  pure  and  peaceful  childhood  is  utterly, 
extinguished — that  all  the  vernal  springs 
of  approved  and  placid  satisfaction  are 
now  dried  up — and  that,  in  the  whole  rap- 
ture and  I'iot  of  his  noisy  companionship, 
there  is  nought  that  can  so  cheer  his  de- 
solate spirit  as  in  the  happy  years  of  his 
boyhood — nought  that  shines  so  sweetly 
upon  him,  as  did  the  lustre  of  his  pious 
and  his  early  home. 

Or,  if,  from  the  wretchedness  of  him 
who  is  the  victim  of  his  base  and  sordid 
propensities,  you  proceed  to  examine  the 
wretchedness  of  him  whom  deceit  is  ever 
instigating  against  another's  rights,  or 
cruelty  has  steeled  against  all  that  is  ex- 
quisite and  all  that  is  prolonged  in  an- 
other's sufferings — you  will  find  tliat  here 
too,  the  heart  which  is  the  place  of  wicked- 
ness is  also  the  place  of  woe  ;  and  that, 
whatever  the  amount  of  unhappiness  may 
be  of  which  he  is  the  instrument  to  others, 
it  may  not  equal  the  unhappiness  which 


192 


LECTURE  XXXVI. CHAPTER  VI,  19 — 21. 


his  own  moral  perversities  have  ferment- 
ed in  his  own  bo.som.  The  man  of  d(;ep 
and  inscrutable  design,  who  is  an  utter 
stranger  to  the  simplicity  and  godly  sin- 
cerity of  the  gospel — the  man  of  thought 
and  mystery  and  silence,  and  into  the 
hiding-place  of  whose  inaccessible  heart 
the  ligiit  of  day  never  enters — the  man 
who  ever  ruminates  and  ponders  and  re- 
solves, and  has  a  secret  chamber  of  plot 
and  artifice  in  his  own  bosom  which  ad- 
mits of  no  partnership  with  a  single  bro- 
ther of  the  species — Such  a  one,  it  may 
be  thought,  diabolical  though  he  be,  will, 
in  the  triumphs  of  his  wary  and  well-laid 
policy,  have  his  own  sources  of  diabolical 
satisfaction.  But  ere  he  reach  his  place 
in  eternity,  he  too  in  time  may  have  the 
foretaste  of  the  misery  that  awaits  him. 
There  is  already  a  hell  in  his  own  heart, 
that  is  replete  with  the  worst  sufferings 
of  the  hell  of  condemnation ;  and  if  through 
the  deep  disguises  in  which  he  lies  en- 
trenched from  the  eye  of  his  fellow-men, 
we  could  see  all  the  fears  and  all  the  fore- 
bodings that  fluctuate  within  him,  we 
should  say  of  him,  what  is  true  of  every 
son  of  wickedness,  that,  like  the  troubled 
sea,  he  cannot  rest. 

It  seems  inseparable  from  the  constitu- 
tion of  every  sentient  creature,  and  who 
is  at  the  same  time  endowed  with  moral 
faculties,  that  he  cannot  become  wrong 
without  at  the  same  time  becoming  wretch- 
ed. And  what  is  the  death  that  is  the  end 
of  these  things,  but  their  natural  and  their 
full-grown  consummation?  The  fruit  of 
sin  in  time,  when  arrived  at  full  and  finish- 
ed maturity,  is  just  the  fruit  of  sin  through 
eternity.  There  may  be  fire — there  may 
be  a  material  lake  of  vengeance — there 
may  be  the  shootings  of  physical  agony 
inflicted  on  the  material  frames  of  the 
damned  by  material  instruments :  But  we 
believe  that  the  chief  elements  of  the  tor- 
ture there,  will  be  moral  elements — that 
fierce  and  unhallowed  desire — that  con- 
tempt and  jealousy  and  hatred  unquench- 
able— that  rancour  in  every  heart,  and 
disdain  in  every  countenance — that  the 
glare  of  fiendish  malignity,  and  the  out- 
cry of  mutual  revilings,  and  the  oaths  of 
daring  blasphemy,  and  the  keen  agony  of 
conscious  and  convicted  worthlessness — 
We  believe  that  tliese  will  form  the  ingre- 
dients of  that  living  lake,  where  the  spi- 
rits of  the  accursed  will  be  for  ever  in- 
lialing  the  atmosphere  of  spiritual  bitter- 
ness. And  such  is  the  natural  course  and 
consummation  of  iniquity  upon  earth.  It 
is  merely  the  sinner  reaping  what  he  has 
sown  ;  and  suffering  the  misery  that  is 
essentially  entailed  upon  the  character  ; 
and  passing  onwards,  by  a  kind  of  neces- 
sary transition,  from  the  growth  and  in- 


dulgence of  vice  here,  to  the  constitutional 
result  of  it  in  wretch(;dness  both  here  and 
hereafter.  It  makes  no  violent  or  desul- 
tory step,  from  sin  in  time  to  hell  in  eter- 
nit}'.  The  one  emerges  from  the  other,  as 
does  the  fruit  from  the  fiower.  It  is  sim- 
ply that  the  sinner  be  filled  with  his  own 
ways,  and  that  he  eat  the  fruit  of  his  own 
devices.  All  that  is  neccssar)'^  to  consti 
tute  a  hell,  is  to  congregate  the  disobe- 
dient together,  where,  in  the  language  of 
the  P.salmist,  they  are  merely  given  up  by 
God  to  their  own  hearts'  lusts,  and  where 
they  walk  in  their  own  counsels. 

To  conclude — there  are  some  we  trust 
here  present,  who  feel  the  force  of  the 
comparison  between  their  past  and  their 
present  habits  ;  and  who  all  open  to  the 
charms  of  the  vast  superiority  which  lies 
in  holiness,  would,  from  the  impulse  of 
spiritual  taste  alone,  make  a  most  quick 
and  digustful  recoil  from  all  iniquity.  But 
there  may  be  others,  who,  instead  of 
having  accomplished  the  transition  from 
darkness  to  light,  are  only  at  the  turning 
point — or  are  yet  but  meditating  the  tran- 
sition, instead  of  having  made  it.  They 
have  not  yet  acquired  that  loathing  for 
sin,  and  that  love  of  sacredness,  which 
would  make  them  appreciate  the  con- 
trast, which  the  apostle  makes  betweeu 
the  service  of  the  old  and  the  service  of 
the  new  master.  Then  let  us  revert  tc 
them  with  the  argument  of  the  apostle 
who  spoke  to  his  young  converts  as  a  man. 
and  because  of  the  infirmity  of  their  flesh 
If  they  are  not  yet  in  a  condition  for  be- 
ing  roused  to  the  performance  of  the  lat- 
ter service  by  the  finer  argument  of  taste, 
let  us  attempt  to  rouse  them  by  the  gros.ser 
argument  of  authority.  The  scholar  is 
compelled  to  his  hours  of  attendance  for 
a  musical  task,  and  thus  does  he  work 
himself  into  a  musical  taste.  And  know, 
ye  men,  who  are  still  only  at  the  place  of" 
breaking  forth  on  the  career  of  new  obc 
dience,  that  it  is  a  career  which  must  be 
entered  on — that  though  it  shall  for  the 
present  be  against  every  taste  and  ten- 
dency of  the  inner  man,  your  business  is 
to  constrain  the  outer  man  to  a  confor- 
mity with  all  the  requirements  of  the  gos- 
pel— that  the  life  of  a  Christian  is  not  ut- 
terly and  throughout  like  a  piece  of  well- 
tuned  harmony,  moving  in  soft  and  flow- 
ing accordance  with  a  well-poised  and 
smoothly-going  mechanism.  But  there  is 
a  conflict,  and  a  strenuousness,  and  a 
painful  opposition  between  the  delights  of 
nature  and  the  demands  of  the  gospel,  and 
a  positive  striving  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,  and  a  violence  in  seizing  upon  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  which  is  taken  by 
force. 


LECTURE  XXXVU. — CHAPTER  VI,  22,  23. 


193 


LECTURE  XXXVII. 


Romans  vi,  22,  23. 

"  But  now,  beirg  made  free  from  sm,  and  become  servants  to  God,  ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and  the  end  ever- 
lasting life.     For  the  wages  of  sin  ij>  death  ;  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 


The  apostlp,  in  contrasting  the  nature 
and  enjoyment  of  the  two  services,  passes 
from  that  of  sin  which  is  indeed  a  service 
of  bit'orness,  to  that  of  righteousness 
which  is  a  service  of  delight  here  and  of 
enduring  hliss  and  glory  hereafter.  It  is 
remarkable  that  he  speaks  ol'  holiness  as 
the  fruit,  and  not  as  the  principle  of  our 
service  to  God — as  the  effect  which  that 
service  has  upon  the  character,  and  not 
as  the  impelling  moral  power  which  led 
to  the  service.  And  this  accords  with  the 
ob.servations  that  we  made  on  the  various 
clauses  of  the  nineteenth  verse — where 
they  who  hud  yielded  their  members  ser- 
vants to  iniquity,  are  represented  as  having 
ther(;by  reaped  truit  unto  iniquity — or,  in 
other  words,  as  having,  by  their  own  sin- 
ful work,  aggravated  and  confirmed  the 
sinfulness  of  their  own  characters.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  who  had  yields  d 
their  members  servants  to  righteousness, 
are  represented  as  having  reaped  thereby 
fruit  unto  lioliness — or,  in  other  words, 
they,  by  doing,  and  that  on  a  direct  feel- 
ing of  obligation  or  at  the  bidding  of  a 
diiNct  authority,  that  which  was  right, 
tliey,  by  giving  an  obedient  hand  to  tlie 
Work  of  righteousness,  rectified  their  own 
moral  fram;is  ;  restoreii  to  themselves  that 
iirtage  of  holiness  in  which  they  were 
oriiiinally  firincui  ;  bee  ime  saints  in  taste 
and  principle,  from  being  at  the  first 
rather  only  siints  of  p  rformance.  The 
obedience  of  the  hand  n  'ched  a  sanctify- 
ing influence  upon  th<  ir  hearts;  and  a 
perscver mce  in  holy  cosiduct  made  them 
at  length  to  be  holy  cr'  atures.  This  is 
the  v<;ry  process  laid  down  in  the  verse 
before  us.  In  virtue  of  having  become 
servants  to  God.  they  had  th<'ir  fruit  unto 
holiness.  Wc#have  no  doubt  that  there  is 
a  germ  of  holiness,  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  new  life  of  the  new  creature  in  Chri-t 
Jesus.  But  ^;til!  a  coarser  principle  of  it, 
if  I  may  be  allow  d  the  expression,  inav 
predtjmin  ite  at  the  first;  and  the  finer 
principles  of  it  may  grow  into  establish- 
ment afterwards.  The  good  things  may 
be  done,  somewhat  doggedly  as  it  vvi^re, 
at  the  will  of  another;  but  the  assiduous 
doing  of  the  hnnd  may  at  length  carry 
along  witli  it  the  delight  of  the  heart,  and 
the  same  good  things  be  done  at  our  own 
will.  It  may  become  at  length  a  more 
spontaneous  and  pleasurable  service;  and 
this  certainly  marks  a  stage  of  higher  and 
25 


more  saintly  advancement  in  personal 
Christianity.  It  evinces  a  growing  assi- 
milation to  God — who  does  what  is  right, 
not  in  force  of  another's  authority ;  but 
who  does  what  is  right,  in  force  of  the 
free  and  original  propensities  of  his  own 
nature  to  all  that  is  excellent.  And  in 
like  manner  does  it  forward  our  resem- 
blance to  Him — when,  on  our  first  be- 
coming subject  to  His  imperative  control, 
we  at  length  like  the  service  which  we 
aforetime  laboured  in — when  that  way,  to 
which  at  His  word  of  command  we  have 
betaken  ourselves,  becomes  a  way  of 
pleasantness — when  that  path,  to  which 
we  constrained  our  footsteps  because  He 
had  prescribed  it,  is  felt  by  us  to  be  a  path 
of  peace.  By  such  a  blessed  progress  of 
sanctification  as  this,  do  we  at  length 
cease  to  be  servants  and  become  sons  ; 
the  Spirit  of  adoption  is  shed  upon  us  ; 
and  we  feel,  even  here,  somewhat  of  the 
glorious  liberty  of  God's  own  children. 
A  thing  of  labour  is  transformed  into  a 
thing  of  love.  Our  duty  becomes  our  in- 
clination. And,  by  the  heart  and  spirit 
being  enlisted  thereinto,  what  was  before 
of  constraint  is  now  of  congeniality  and. 
most  willing  accord.  The  feeling  of  bond- 
age wears  away  ;  and  that  which  might 
once  have  been  felt  as  a  burden,  is  now 
felt  as  the  very  beatitude  of  the  soul.  It 
is  thus  that  the  process  of  the  text  is  real- 
ised ;  and  when  the  transition  is  so  made 
that  the  work  of  servitude  becomes  a 
work  of  felicity  and  freedom — then  is  it 
that  man  becomes  like  unto  God,  and  holy 
even  as  He  is  holy. 

One  most  important  use  to  be  drawn 
from  this  argument  is,  that  you  are  not  to 
suspend  the  work  of  literal  obedience,  till 
you  are  prepared  by  the  renewal  that  has 
taken  effect  on  the  inner  man,  for  render- 
iiig  unto  God  a  thoroughly  spiritual  obe- 
dience. There  are  some  who  are  posi- 
tively afraid  of  putting  forth  their  hand 
on  the  work  of  the  commandments  at  all, 
till  they  are  qualified  for  the  service  of 
God  on  sound  and  evangelical  principles. 
Now,  in  every  case,  it  is  right  to  be  al- 
ways doing  what  is  agreeable  to  the  will 
of  God.  There  may  be  a  mi.vture  at  first 
of  the  spirit  of  bondage — there  may  be  a 
remainder  and  taint  of  the  leaven  of 
legalism — there  may  be  so  much  of  na- 
ture's corrupt  ingredient  in  it  at  the  out- 
set, that  the  apostle  would  say  of  these 


194 


LECTURE   XXXVU.— CHAPTER   VI,    22,    23. 


babes  in  Christ  who  had  just  set  forth  on 
their  new  career,  '  I  speak  unto  you  not 
as  unto  spiritual  but  as  unto  carnal.'  Yet 
still  it  is  good  to  give  yourselves  over, 
amid  all  the  crude  and  embryo  and  infant 
conceptions  of  a  young  disciple,  to  the 
direct  service  of  God.  Break  loose  from 
your  iniquities  at  this  moment.  Turn 
you  to  all  that  is  palpably  on  the  side  of 
God's  law.  Struggle  your  way  to  the 
performance  of  what  is  virtuous,  through 
all  those  elements  of  obscurity  and  disor- 
der which  may  fluctuate  long  in  the  bosom 
of  a  convert.  Do  plainly  what  God  bids, 
and  on  the  direct  impulse  too  of  God's 
authority ;  and  the  fruit  of  your  thus 
entering  upon  His  service,  will  be  the 
perfecting  at  length  of  your  own  holiness 
— such  a  holiness  as  shall  be  without  spot 
and  wrinkle — purified  from  the  flaw  of 
legal  bondage,  or  of  mercenary  selfish- 
ness— a  holiness  that  finds  its  enjoyment 
in  the  service  itself,  and  not  in  any  remu- 
neration that  is  distinct  from  or  subse- 
quent to  the  service — a  holiness  that  is 
upheld,  not  by  the  future  hope  of  the 
great  reward  which  is  to  come  after  the 
keeping  of  the  commandments ;  but  a 
holiness  upheld  by  the  present  experience, 
that  in  the  keeping  of  the  commandments 
there  is  a  great  reward. 

Yet  mark  it  well,  my  brethren,  that  not 
till  you  are  made  free  from  sin,  can  you 
enter  even  upon  the  first  rudiments  of  a 
fruitful  and  acceptable  obedience — not 
till  you  are  delivered  from  him,  who,  like 
the  executioner  for  a  debt,  could  at  any 
time  seize  upon  all  your  gains,  and  thus 
render  all  care  and  effort  and  industry  on 
your  part  of  no  avail.  The  analogy  holds 
between  him  who  has  the  power  of  pur- 
suing you  with  diligence,  because  of  what 
you  owe ;  and  him  who  has  the  power  of 
inflicting  death  as  the  condemnatory  sen- 
tence upon  you,  because  of  what  you 
have  incurred  as  a  transgressor  of  the 
law.  The  man  who  has  not  gotten  his 
discharge,  is  bereft  of  every  motive  to 
economy  or  to  labour — because  the  credi- 
tor is  on  his  watch,  to  lay  hold  of  the 
entire  proceeds  ;  and,  by  every  movement 
he  makes  towards  him,  he  can  add  to  the 
expense  of  the  business,  and  so  plunge 
him  into  more  hopeless  and  irretrievable 
circumstances  than  before.  And  so  it  is 
of  the  great  adversary  of  human  souls — 
invested  with  power  as  the  grim  execu- 
tioner of  the  sentence ;  and  invested  also 
with  the  power  of  aggravating  that  sen- 
tence, by  the  corrupt  sway  that  he  has 
over  the  affections  of  his  enslaved  vota- 
ries, by  the  command  which  belongs  to 
him  as  the  god  of  this  world  over  all  the 
elements  of  temptation,  by  his  ill-gotten 
empire  in  the  hearts  of  the  fallen  posterity 
of  a  fallen  ancestor.    To  be  freed  from 


this  hateful  tyranny,  there  must  be  re- 
course to  Christ  as  your  surety — so  that 
this  arch-bailiff  shall  no  longer  have  the 
right  to  pursue  you,  for  the  heavy  arrears 
of  all  the  negligence  and  all  the  miscon- 
duct that  are  past;  and  there  must  also 
be  recourse  upon  Christ  as  your  strength 
and  sanctifier — so  that  this  arch-betrayer, 
shall  be  as  little  able  to  subjugate  you  to 
the  power  of  sin  as  to  exact  from  you  its 
y.  nishment.  So  that  faith,  and  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  our  interest  in  that  pro- 
mise of  the  Spirit  whicli  is  given  to  faith 
— .this  after  all  forms  the  great  introduc- 
tory step  to  a  life  of  hearty,  because  to  a 
life  of  hopeful  obedience.  A  more  literal 
obedience  at  the  first,  may  be  the  step- 
ping-stone to  a  more  spiritual  obedience 
afterwards — but  faith  is  the  essential  step- 
ping-stone to  all  obedience.  Without 
faith,  the  sense  of  a  debt,  from  which  you 
are  not  yet  free,  will  ever  continue  to 
haunt  and  to  paralyse  you.  Without 
faith,  God  remains  the  object,  not  of  love, 
but  of  dread ;  and  thus  an  immovable 
interdict  is  laid  upon  the  service  of  the 
affections.  Without  faith;  all  the  help.? 
and  facilities  of  obedience  are  withheld 
from  the  soul ;  and  the  weary  unproduc- 
tive struggle  of  him  who  is  not  yet  freed 
from  the  law  which  is  the  strength  of  sin, 
terminates,  either  in  a  deceitful  formality, 
or  in  the  abandonment  of  a  task  now  felt 
to  be  impracticable,  or  finally  in  the  utter 
wretchedness  of  despair.  Faith  opens  a 
gate  of  conveyance  through  all  these 
obstructions.  It  cancels  the  bond  that 
was  before  felt  as  a  dead  weight  on  aii 
the  energies  of  an  aspiring  reformation. 
It  gives  the  feeling  that  now  obedience  is 
not -in  vain  ;  and  that  the  labour  of  serv- 
ing God,  instead  of  having  all  its  acquisi- 
tions wrested  away  as  by  the  hand  of  an 
unrelenting  creditor  on  the  moment  that 
they  are  made,  is  now  productive  of  a 
fruit  that  is  realised  in  time  and  that 
endures  through  eternity.  Like  the  dis- 
charged bankrupt,  can  the  believer  who 
is  freed  from  sin,  now  count  upon  the 
gains  of  his  diligence,  and  may  therefore 
set  himself  anew  to  save  qjid  to  strive  for 
treasure  that  he  is  permitted  to  enjoy. 
Faith  is  the  starting-post  of  obedience ; 
but  what  I  want  is  that  you  start  imme- 
diately— that  you  wait  not  for  more  light 
to  spiritualize  your  obedience ;  but  that 
you  work  for  more  light,  by  yielding  a 
present  obedience  up  to  the  present  light 
which  you  possess — that  you  stir  up  all 
the  gift  which  is  now  in  you ;  and  this  is 
the  way  to  have  the  gift  enlarged — that 
whatever  your  hand  findeth  to  do  in  the 
way  of  service  to  God,  you  now  do  it  with 
all  your  might :  And  the  very  fruit  of 
doing  it  because  of  His  nuthonty,  is  that 
you  will  at  length  do  it  because  of  your 


LECTURE   XXXVU. — CHAPTER   VI,    22,    23. 


Ids 


own  renovated  taste.  As  you  persevere 
in  the  labours  of  His  service,  you  will 
grow  in  the  likeness  of  His  character. 
The  graces  of  holiness  will  both  brighten 
and  multiply  upon  you.  These  will  be 
your  treasures,  and  treasures  for  heaven 
too,— the  delights  of  which  mainly  con- 
sist in  the  alfc;ctions,  and  feelings,  and 
congenial  employments  of  the  new  crea- 
ture. 

We  gather  from  the  text,  what  is  t'  e 
great  and  practical  business  of  a  Christian 
in  the  world.  It  is  to  perfect  his  holiness. 
The  promises  he  lays  hold  of  by  faith. 
The  future  blessedness  and  the  present 
sanctitication  are  both  held  out  to  him  as 
a  gift,  at  the  very  moment  of  his  first  con- 
tact witii  the  overtures  of  the  gospel. 
There  is  a  free  pardon — there  is  an  all- 
perfect  righteousness  for  his  valid  claim 
upon  God's  favour — there  is  a  renewing 
and  a  strengthening  spirit — All  these  are 
gratuitously  stretched  forth  to  him  for  his 
acceptance ;  and  his  business,  and  the 
business  of  you  all,  is  now,  even  now,  to 
put  on  the  investiture  of  these  various 
privileges.  And  mark  how  the  apostle 
lays  down  the  career  of  activity  for  a 
disciple,  as  a  thing  subsequent  to  all  this, 
and  emanating  out  of  all  this — "  Having 
therefore  these  promises,  dearly  beloved,  let 
us  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of 
the  flesh  and  of  the  Spirit,  perfecting  our 
holiness  in  the  fear  of  God."  And  it  is  of 
importance  to  advert  here,  to  the  place 
that  the  fear  of  God  has  in  this  process 
of  your  advancing  sanctification — as  har- 
monising with  the  text,  that,  by  becoming 
the  servants  of  God  ye  have  your  fruit 
unto  holiness.  You  begin  the  new  obe- 
dience of  the  gospel,  more  at  first  in  the 
spirit  and  with  the  fearfulness  of  servants 
— more  under  the  impulse  of  God's  right- 
ful authority  over  you — more  perhaps  at 
His  bidding  than  at  your  inclination — 
more  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  Him,  than 
from  the  love  you  as  yet  bear  to  the  work 
that  He  has  given  you  to  do.  But  no 
mattei- — be  diligent  with  such  principles 
as  you  have,  with  such  performances  as 
God  hath  prescribed  to  you;  and  your 
diligence  in  the  service  will  at  length 
work  out  a  delight  in  the  service.  The 
labour  you  render  to  Him  as  your  Master, 
will  forward  and  mature  your  famdy 
likeness  to  Him  as  your  Father.  From 
servants  you  will  become  sons ;  and  my 
object  in  urging  this  law  and  order  of 
progression  upon  you,  is,  if  possible,  to 
set  you  aworking  with  such  humble  de- 
grees of  light  and  spirituality  as  you  have 
— and  this  is  the  way  of  attaining  to  more 
light  and  to  more  spirituality.  It  is  to 
cause  you  to  break  forth  from  the  ground 
of  inactive  speculation  ;  and  to  put  into 
your  hands  the  employment  of  an  instant 


task,  to  which  5'^ou  may  perhaps  feel 
prompted  at  the  outset  by  something  even 
of  a  legal  fear  towards  God.  But  no 
matter — should  it  be  the  task  that  goes  to 
perfect  your  holiness,  it  will  perfect  also 
your  love  ;  and  then  will  you  be  conclu- 
sively delivered  from  the  spirit  of  all 
legalism  or  bondage  or  carnality,  and 
have  that  atfeclion  in  your  bosom  which 
casteth  out  fear. 

And  I  should  like  you  to  know  the  pre- 
cise import  of  the  term  holiness.  It  has 
been  defined  to  be  all  moral  and  spiritual 
excellence.  But  this  does  not  just  exhaust 
the  meaning  of  the  term.  It  is  not  just 
virtue,  even  in  the  most  comprehensive 
sense  of  the  word,  as  including  in  it  all  that 
one  absolutely  ought  to  be,  both  in  refer- 
ence to  God  and  to  all  the  creatures  of 
God.  To  turn  virtue  into  holiness,  a 
reference  must  be  had  to  the  opposite  of 
virtue — even  sin  ;  and  then  does  virtue  be- 
come holiness,  when,  in  addition  to  its 
own  positive  qualities,  we  behold  with 
what  sudden  and  sensitive  aversion  it  re- , 
coils  from  the  contamination  of  its  oppo- 
site. Thus  it  is,  my  brethren,  that  had 
there  been  no  sin  there  would  have  been 
no  sacredness.  There  might  have  been 
love  and  rectitude  and  truth,  exalted  to 
all  that  infinity  which  they  have  in  the 
Godhead ;  and  filling  too,  according  to 
the  measure  of  his  capacity,  every  one 
being  that  had  sprung  from  the  creative 
hand  of  the  Divinity.  But,  in  order  that 
the  Divinity  or  any  subordinate  creature 
shall  make  an  exhibition  of  sacredness — 
it  must  be  seen  how  it  is  that  he  stands 
affected  by  the  contemplation  of  sin  ;  or 
by  the  approach  of  sin  to  his  presence. 
And  then  it  is  that  we  witness  the  charac- 
teristic display  of  God  in  the  holiness,  or 
of  God  in  the  sacredness  that  belongs  to 
Him — when  we  read  of  the  eyes  which 
are  so  pure  that  they  cannot  look  upon 
iniquity — when  we  read  of  a  sanctuary  so 
remote  from  all  fellowship  with  evil,  that 
it  is  there  impossible  for  evil  to  dwell — 
when  we  read  of  God  in  the  awful  jea- 
lousies, and  of  God  in  the  unconquerable 
repugnance  of  His  nature  to  sin  ;  of  the 
grief  and  the  hostility  and  the  indignation 
wherewith  it  is  regarded  by  the  Spirit  of 
the  Deity — So  that"  should  it  offer  to  draw 
nigh,  all  Heaven  would  shrink  at  its  com- 
ing ;  or  fire  would  go  forth  from  the  place 
where  His  Honour  dwcUeth,  to  burn  up 
and  to  destroy. 

Holiness  is  virtue,  regarded  in  the  one 
aspect  of  its  separation  from  all  that  is 
opposite  to  virtue.  It  is  thus  that  the  at- 
tributes of  clean  and  pure  and  untainted 
are  given  to  it — free  from  all  spot,  because 
free  from  all  mixture  or  vicinity  with  sin- 
fulness. The  vessels  of  the  temple  were 
holy,  because,  set  apart  from  common  use, 


196 


LECTURE   XXXVII. CIIAPTEK.   VI,    22,    23. 


they  were  consecrated,  and  that  exclusive- 
ly, to  the  solemn  and  separate  services  of 
a  divine  ritual.  But  the  most  striking  of 
all  the  historical  demonstrations  that  we 
have,  of  the  deep  and  determined  recoil 
that  there  is  between  a  lioly  God  and  a 
sinful  world,  is,  when  He  gave  it  in 
charge  to  set  bounds  about  mount  Sinai 
and  to  sanctify  it — tlirough  which  neither 
the  priests  nor  the  people  were  to  pass,  lest 
the  Lord  should  break  forth  upon  them. 

From  this  explanation,  you  will  see  how 
the  fruit  of  holiness  arises  out  of  the 
cleansing  of  yourselves  from  all  fdthiness 
of  the  flesh  and  the  spirit.  The  deeds  of  im- 
purity must  be  given  up  at  God's  bidding, 
even  though  the  urgency  of  His  command 
should  carry  you  beyond  what  you  would 
have  been  carried  to,  by  your  own  detes- 
tation of  impurity.  Vou,  at  the  outset  of 
your  new  course,"  make  a  wider  departure 
from  iniquity  than  your  own  dislike  to  ini- 
quity would  prompt  you  to.  But  then,  this 
reformation  of  the  outer  man  will  tell 
upon  the  inner  man.  As  you  keep  your 
I'earful  distance  from  evil,  your  dread  and 
your  delicacy  against  it  will  augment  up- 
on you  ;  and  it  is  just  by  this  reHex  influ- 
ence of  the  habit  upon  the  heart  that  its 
holiness  is  perfected.  And  this  view  of 
holiness,  as  consisting  of  virtue  or  moral 
excellence  in  its  quality  of  uncompromis- 
ing and  unappeasable  enmity  to  sin,  har- 
monises with  the  character  that  is  held 
out  of  heaven — as  being  a  place  so  invio- 
lably sacred  tiiat  nothing  unclean  or  un- 
righteous can  enter  thereinto.  O  how  it 
ought  to  chase  away  from  our  spirit  ail  the 
delusions  of  antinomianism — when  told,  as 
we  are,  what  is  the  atmosphere  of  that 
place  whither  the  disciples  of  Jesus  are 
going  ;  and  how  it  is  not  possible  for  sin 
so  nmch  as  to  breathe  in  it !  What  a  spur 
to  diligence  in  the  great  work  of  purify- 
ing ourselves  even  as  that  upper  paradise 
is  pure,  in  which  we  hope  to  spend  an 
eternity  ;  and  how  busy  might  we  be  at  all 
the  branches  of  our  spiritual  education, 
when  we  think  that  we  shall  be  found  un- 
meet for  admittance  into  the  great  spiritual 
family,  unless  we  are  found  without  spot 
and  blameless  in  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ ! 
It  is  thus  that  in  our  text,  holiness  here  is 
the  essential  stepping-stone,  or  the  indis- 
pensable path  of  conveyance  to  heaven 
hereafter.  And  as  surely  as  the  end  of 
sin  is  death,  so  surely  the  end  of  holiness 
is  life  everlasting. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  spirit- 
ual character  of  hell ;  and  have  alhrmed 
that  the  wretchedness  thereof,  was  mainly 
composed  of  spiritual  elements.  And,  in 
like  mimner  may  we  advert  to  thespritual 
character  of  heaven  ;  and  as  surely  artirm 
of  it,  that  the  happiness  which  is  felt  and 
circulated  there,  is  mainly  composed  of 


spiritual  elements.  It  lies  in  the  play  and 
exercise  of  pleasurable  affections — in  the 
possession  of  a  heart  now  thoroughly 
emancipated  from  all  its  idolatries,  and 
attuned  to  the  love  of  that  which  is  most 
worthy  of  love — in  the  well-poised  and 
well-constituted  mechanism  of  the  soul, 
that  now  moves  in  duteous  and  delighted 
conformity  to  the  will  of  that  mighty  Being 
on  whom  all  is  suspended — in  the  con- 
scious enjoyment  of  His  favour,  sensibly 
expressed  by  such  indications  of  benig- 
nity and  regard,  as  will  pour  into  the 
bosom  unutterable  extacy — in  the  rap- 
tured contemplation  of  all  the  glory  and 
all  the  gracefulness,  that  are  spread  out 
before  the  mental  eye  on  the  character  of 
the  Divinity — in  the  willing  accordancy 
of  honor  and  blessing  and  praise,  not 
merely  to  Him  who  sittcth  supreme  on  a 
throne  of  majesty,  but  to  him  who  paved 
for  sinners  a  way  of  access  into  heaven, 
and  consecrated  it  by  his  blood.  And 
songs  of  eternal  gratitude  and  gladness 
will  ever  and  anon  be  lifted  there  ;  and  it 
will  be  the  spiritual  jubilee  of  beatified 
spirits  that  is  held  there  ;  and  the  clear 
ethereal  element  of  holiness  will  be  all 
that  is  breathed  there ;  and,  altogether, 
it  will  not  be  a  sensual,  but  a  moral  pa- 
radise— where  righteousness  will  be  the 
alone  recreation,  and  the  .service  of  God 
be  the  very  cordial  and  nutriment  of  the 
soul.  And  how  is  it  possible,  we  again 
ask,  that  there  can  be  any  other  way  to 
such  a  habitation  there,  than  the  way 
here  of  aspiring  and  progressive  holiness  1 
What  other  education  can  fit  us  for  such 
an  eternity  as  this — but  the  education  ot 
virtuous  discipline,  and  guarded  purity, 
and  determined  watchfulness  against  that 
sin  wherewith  'he  sacredness  of  the  upper 
regions  can  have  no  fellowship'!  If  hea- 
ven above  would  recoil  from  all  contact 
with  the  pollutions  of  the  world  that  is 
below,  then  surely,  we  who  are  aspiring 
toward  that  heaven,  should  keep  our  as- 
siduous distance  from  them.  The  way  of 
the  disciple  here,  should  be  as  distinct 
and  as  distinguishable  from  that  of  a  child 
of  this  world,  as  the  places  are  in  which 
they  will  spend  their  eternity;  and  if  it 
be  through  the  way  of  sin  that  the  one 
reaches  his  abode  of  death  and  condem- 
nation, so  surely  must  the  other  keep  on 
the  way  of  holiness,  ere  he  can  reach  the 
abode  of  life  everlasting. 

V.  23.  It  is  of  importance  here  to  re- 
mark the  contrast  which  the  apostle  ex- 
presses in  this  verse,  as  to  the  manner  of 
these  two  successions — how  it  is,  on  the 
on(!  hand,  that  death  follows  in  the  train 
of  sin  ;  and  how  it  is  that  everlasting  life 
follows  in  the  train  of  holiness.  He  had 
before  likened  the  trarsition  from  the  one 
state  to  the  other,  to  a  transition  from  the 


LECTURE   XXXVII. — CHAPTER    VI,    22,    23. 


197 


service  Df  one  master  to  the  service  of 
another  master.  And  he  before  told  us 
that  he  had  done  so,  on  a  principle  of  ac- 
commodation to  the  yet  remaining  carnal- 
ity of  their  feelings  and  conceptions  upon 
the  whole  subject.  They  were  still  in- 
fected with  the  spirit  of  legalism.  They 
were  still  most  familiar  with  the  illustra- 
tion of  work  and  wages  ;  and,  accustomed 
as  they  were  to  the  transition  of  a  bond 
slave  from  one  master  to  another,  they 
could  readily  seize  on  that  comparison — 
by  which  Paul  urged  upon  them  their 
emancipation  from  the  authority  of  sin 
regarded  as  their  old  tyrant,  and  their  al- 
legiance to  righteousness  regarded  as 
their  new  and  lawful  superior.  But  he 
now  adverts  to  a  difference  between  the 
two  services,  which  it  is  of  importance  for 
as  all  to  apprehend.  The  death  that 
comes  after  sin  comes  as  the  wages  of  sin. 
Everlasting  life,  coming  though  it  must  do 
after  holiness,  comes  not  as  the  wages  of 
holiness.  It  is  a  gift.  On  this  footing 
must  it  be  received  at  the  last ;  and  on 
this  footing  must  it  now  be  looked  forward 
to  by  the  expectants  of  immortality. 

As  to  the  Jirst  of  these  successions, 
namely  sin  and  death  as  the  wages  of  sin, 
— the  very  term  wages,  is  expressive  of 
the  one,  as  being  the  lit  remuneration  of 
the  other.  We  are  thereby  informed  of 
death  being  rightfully  the  punishment  of 
sin,  or  being  due  to  it  in  the  way  of  desert. 
I  have  already  endeavoured  to  show, — 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  tyranny  of  sin 
over  the  afiFections,  that  can  at  all  exempt 
us  its  helpless  slaves,  from  the  condemna- 
tion to  which  sinners  are  liable — that  the 
very  strength  of  our  inclinations  to  that 
which  is  evil  just  makes  us  the  more  atro- 
cious, and  therefore  the  more  punishable 
— that  had  the  necessity  in  question  been 
a  necessity  against  the  will  to  do  wick- 
edly, there  might  have  been  cause  shown 
why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be  pass- 
ed against  us ;  but  when  that  necessity 
just  lies  in  the  very  bent  and  determina- 
tion of  the  will  towards  wickedness,  then 
is  it  a  circumstance  of  aggravation,  in- 
stead of  an  apology,  for  our  transgres- 
sions against  the  law  of  God.  Let  no  man 
say  because  of  the  depravity  of  his  own 
heart,  and  the  unresisted  ascendancy  of 
sin  over  it,  that  he  is  tempted  of  God.  The 
fact  is  that  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own 
lusts  and  enticed ;  and  the  death,  which 
is  laid  upon  him  as  a  penalty,  is  as  much 
the  natural  as  it  is  the  penal  effect  of  his 
own  conduct.  In  being  enveloped  with 
the  atmosphere  of  hell  on  the  other  side 
of  the  grave,  because  of  his  character  on 
this  side  of  it,  he  is  simply  filled  with  the 
fruit  of  his  own  ways — he  is  just  reaping 
that  which  he  has  sown.    And  as  neces- 


sarily as  anger  disquiets,  and  envy  cor- 
rodes, and  avarice  chills,  and  inordinate 
desire  shakes  the  spirit  into  phrensy — as 
necessarily  as  the  fierce  or  malignant 
passions  of  our  nature,  like  so  many  tor- 
mentors' whips,  serve  to  scourge  or  to 
agonise — so  necessarily,  as  well  as  meri- 
toriously, does  their  entrance  into  hell 
hereafter,  follow  in  the  train  of  all  the 
iniquity  that  is  unrepcntedof  and  unturn- 
ed from. 

And  as  hell  is  just  the  place  suited  na- 
turally for  sin,  so  heaven  is  just  the  place 
that  is  naturally  suited  lor  holiness.  But 
while  hell  is  both  naturally  and  meritori- 
ously the  place  for  sin — heaven  is  natu- 
rally only  and  not  meritoriously  the  place 
for  holiness.  Heaven  is  not  so  earned  by 
man.  It  is  given  to  him.  And  you  should 
advert  to  the  distinction  so  palpably  here 
held  out  by  the  apostle — that  v/hereas  death 
is  rendered  to  the  sinner  on  the  footing  of 
wages  that  are  due  to  him,  eternal  life  is 
rendered  to  the  believer  on  the  footing  of 
a  gift  that  is  simply  and  freely  bestowed 
upon  him. 

But  mark  in  the  first  place — that  the 
circumstance  of  heaven  being  a  gift,  does 
not  supersede  the  necessity  ihat  there  is 
for  holiness  going  before  it.  It  may  take 
away  from  the  merit  of  holiness ;  but  it 
does  not  take  away  from  the  need  of  holi- 
ness. The  man  who  comes  to  tht;  mar- 
riage-feast must  have  on  the  marriage- 
garment  ;  though  it  is  not  the  simple  act  of 
putting  on  that  garment,  which  entitles 
him  to  a  seat  among  the  guests.  His  title 
there  is  simply  the  invitation  that  he  has 
gotten  ;  and  yet  it  is  quite  indispensable 
that  he  comes  suitably  arrayed.  He  may 
not  be  able  even  to  purchase  the  requisite 
vestments  ;  and  should  these  too  have  to 
be  provided  for  him — should  even  the 
very  dress  in  which  he  comes  have  to  be 
given  to  him,  as  vrell  as  the  entertainment 
that  is  set  before  him  after  he  does  come 
— It  may  both  be  true,  that  without  the 
dress  he  could  not  have  been  admitted  ; 
and  also,  that,  poor  and  defenceless  out- 
cast as  he  was,  he  owes  nothing  whatever 
to  himself — that  all  had  to  be  given  ;  and 
he,  ere  he  could  partake  of  that  feast  by 
which  heaven  is  represented  in  the  New 
Testament,  had  to  be  clothed  by  another's 
wealth  as  well  as  regaled  by  another's 
bounty. 

Now  this  is  just  the  way  in  which  the 
everlasting  life,  that  none  can  obtain  with- 
out being  holy,  is  nevertheless  a  gift.  It 
is  of  grace  and  not  at  all  of  works.  It  is 
all  of  grace  from  the  first  to  the  last — for 
the  very  holiness  is  given;  and  while  of 
all  sin  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  our  own, 
because  drawn  away  to  it  of  our  own 
lusts  and  enticed — of  holiness  it  may  be 


198 


LECTURE   XXXVII.— CHAPTER   VX,    22,    23. 


said  that  it  is  not  of  ourselves,  but  that 
good  and  perfect  gift  which  cometh  down 
from  above. 

And  as  eternal  life  being  a  gift,  does 
not  supersede  the  need  of  holiness — so 
holiness  being  a  gift,  does  not  supersede 
the  need  that  there  is  for  your  own  stir- 
ring, and  )-our  own  painstaking,  and  all 
the  diligence  both  of  your  performances 
and  your  prayers.  Still  the  progress  is 
just  as  has  already  been  set  forth  to  you, 
from  such  small  doings  as  you  are  able 
for  at  the  first,  to  your  growth  in  grace 
and  in  holiness  afterward.  And  yet,  even 
for  the  small  doings,  an  influence  from  on 
high  must  have  been  made  to  rest  upon 
you.  It  is  by  power  from  heaven  that 
the  work  is  begun  ;  and  it  is  by  power 
from  the  same  quarter  that  the  work  is 
carried  forward,  even  unto  perfection.  In 
other  words  you  cannot  pray  too  early. 
Turn  me  and  I  shall  be  turned,  may  be  a 
most  pertinent  and  a  most  availing  cry 
even  at  the  outset  of  your  conversion. 
You  cannot  too  soon  mix  up  dependence 
upon  more  grace,  with  diligence  in  the 


use  of  all  the  grace  that  has  already  been 
imparted.  When  you  do  whatever  your 
hand  findeth  to  do,  you  are  only  stirring 
up  the  gift  that  is  in  you  ;  and  if  "faithful 
in  turning  to  account  all  that  you  do 
have,  and  watchful  and  prayerful  for 
more,  it  is  thus,  that,  from  the  more  rude 
and  literal  services  which  you  are  enabled 
to  render  at  the  outset  of  your  new  obe- 
dience, you  are  conducted  to  the  higher 
attainments  of  the  spiritual  character, 
and  have  your  fruit  unto  an  ever-advanc- 
ing holiness.  And  Christ  is  all  in  all 
throughout  this  entire  process.  He  pur- 
chased the  inheritance,  and  He  makes 
you  meet  for  it.  He  has  gone  to  prepare 
a  place  for  you  there,  and  He  prepares 
you  here  for  the  place.  It  is  through  Him 
that  the  Spirit  is  given  in  answer  to  your 
prayers  ;  and  while  nothing  more  true 
than  that  you  must  have  the  fruit  of  holi- 
ness ere  you  can  have  eternal  life,  it  is 
just  as  true  that  eternal  life,  both  in  its 
preparations  and  in  its  rewards,  is  the 
gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 


LECTURE  XXXVIII. 

Romans  vii,  1 — 4. 

"Know  ye  not,  bretlireii,  (for  I  speak  to  them  that  know  tlie  law,)  how  that  the  law  hath  dominion  over  a  man  aa 
long  as  he  liveth  !  For  the  woman  which  hath  an  husband  is  bound  by  the  law  to  her  husband  so  long  as  he  liveth  : 
but  if  the  husband  be  dead,  she  is  loosed  from  tlie  law  of  her  husband.  So  then  if,  while  her  husband  liveth,  she  be 
married  to  another  man,  she  shall  be  called  an  adulteress  :  but  if  her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  free  from  that  law;  so 
that  she  is  no  adulteress,  though  she  be  married  to  another  man.  Wherefore,  my  brethren,  ye  also  are  become  dead 
to  the  law  by  the  body  of  Christ ;  that  ye  should  be  married  to  another,  even  to  him  who  is  raised  from  the  dead, 
that  we  should  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God." 


The  apostle,  in  these  verses,  bethinks 
him  of  other  illustration,  on  the  subject 
of  the  new  and  the  holy  life  that  is  incum- 
bent on  a  believer — and  one  more  ad- 
dressed to  his  Jewish,  even  as  the  former 
was  to  his  Gentile  disciples.  In  the  verses 
that  we  have  already  tried  to  expound  in 
your  hearing,  he  illustrates  the  transfer- 
ence that  takes  place  at  conversion,  from 
the  service  of  sin  to  the  service  of  right- 
eousness— by  the  transference  of  a  bond- 
slave now  made  free  from  his  old  master, 
but  whose  services  are  still  due  to  the 
present  and  the  lawful  superior  under 
whom  he  now  stands  enrolled.  The  apos- 
tle then,  at  the  commencement  of  this 
chapter,  turns  him  to  those  who  know  the 
law,  and  deduces  from  the  obligations 
which  attach  to  marriage,  the  same  result 
which  he  had  done  beifore  from  the  obli- 
gations which  attach  to  servitude — that  is, 
an  abandonment  on  the  part  of  the  be- 
liever of  those  doings  which  have  their 
fruit  unto  death,  and  a  new  service  which 


has  its  fruit  unto  holiness ;  or,  as  it  is 
termed  in  this  passage,  its  '  fruit  unto 
God.' 

The  attentive  reader  will  perceive,  that 
there  is  a  certain  cast  of  obscurity  over 
the  whole  of  this  passage ;  and  arising 
from  the  apparent  want  of  an  entire  and 
sustained  analogy,  between  the  illustra- 
tion and  the  thing  to  be  illustrated.  It  is 
true  that  the  obligations  of  marriage  are 
annulled  by  the  death  of  either  of  the 
parties ;  but  then  he  only  supposes  the 
death  of  one  of  the  parties,  and  that  is 
the  husband.  Now  the  case  to  be  eluci- 
dated by  this  supposition,  is  that  of  the 
now  dissolved  relationship  which  there  is 
between  the  law  and  him  who  was  the 
subject  of  the  law.  The  law  is  evidently 
the  husband  in  this  relationship,  and  the 
subject  is  as  evidently  the  wife.  So  that, 
to  make  good  the  resemblance — the  law 
should  be  conceived  dead,  and  the  subject 
alive,  and  at  liberty  for  being  transferred 
into  another  relationship  than  that  which 


LECTURE   XXXVIir. CHAPTER   VII,    1 — 4. 


199 


he  formerly  occupied.  Yet,  in  reading 
the  first  verse,  one  would  suppose — that  it 
was  on  the  expiry  of  life  by  the  subject, 
and  not  on  the  expiry  of  life  by  Xhi  law, 
that  the  connection  between  them  was  to 
be  broken  up  and  dissolved.  It  is  true 
that  the  translation  might  have  run  thus, 
*  How  that  the  law  hath  dominion  over  a 
man  so  long  as  it  liveth  ;  and  many,  for 
the  sake  of  preserving  a  more  lucid  and 
consistent  analogy,  have  adopted  this 
translation.  But  then  this  does  not  just 
suit  so  well  with  the  fourth  verse — where, 
instead  of  the  law  having  become  dead 
unto  us,  we  are  represented  as  having  be- 
come dead  unto  the  law  ;  so  that  a  certain 
degree  of  that  sort  of  confusion,  which 
arises  from  a  mixed  or  traverse  analogy 
appears  unavoidable.  It  so  happens  too, 
that  either  supposition,  of  the  law  being 
dead  or  of  the  subject  being  dead,  stands 
linked  with  very  important  and  unques- 
tionable truth — so  that  by  admitting  both, 
you  may  exhibit  this  passage  as  the 
envelope  of  two  meanings  or  two  lessons, 
both  of  which  ai-e  incontrovertibly  sound 
and  practically  of  very  great  consequence. 
This  of  course,  would  add  very  much  to 
the  draught  that  we  make  upon  your 
attention ;  and  altogether  we  fear  that, 
unless  there  is  a  very  pointed  and  stren- 
uous forth-putting  of  your  own  intelligence 
on  these  verses,  we  shall  fail  to  render 
any  explanation  of  them  to  you,  which 
you  will  feel  to  be  at  all  very  vivid  or 
very  interesting. 

It  is  in  the  first  place  true,  that  the  law 
may  be  regarded  as  dead ;  and  that  he 
our  former  husband,  now  taken  out  of  the 
way,  has  left  us  free  to  enter  upon  that 
alliance  with  Christ  considered  as  our 
new  husband,  which  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  New  Testament  is  likened  unto  a 
marriage.  And  it  is  true  also,  that  the 
death  of  the  law,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
dissolution  of  its  authority  over  us,  took 
place  at  the  death  of  Christ.  It  was  then, 
that,  in  the  language  addressed  to  the 
Colossians,  it  was  then  that  our  Saviour 
blotted  out  the  handwriting  of  ordinances 
that  was  against  us,  which  was  contrary 
to  us,  and  took  it  out  of  the  way,  nailing 
it  to  His  cross.  It  was  then  that  the  law 
lost  its  power  to  reckon  with  us,  and  its 
right  as  an  offended  lord  to  take  vengeance 
of  our  trespasses  against  him.  You  have 
read  of  certain  venomous  animals  which 
expire,  on  the  moment  that  they  have 
deposited  their  sting  and  its  mortal  poison, 
in  the  body  of  their  victim.  And  thus 
there  ensues  a  double  death — the  death 
of  the  sufferer,  and  the  death  also  of  the 
assailant.  And  certain  it  is,  that  on  the 
cross  of  our  Saviour,  there  was  just  such 
a  catastrophe.  Then  did  our  Saviour 
pour  out  His  soul,  under  the  weight  and 


agony  of  those  inflictions  that  were  laid 
upon  Him  by  the  law  ;  but  then  also  did 
the  law  expend  all  its  power  as  a  judge 
and  an  avenger,  over  those  who  believe  in 
the  Saviour. 

There  is  something  in  the  consideration 
of  the  law  alive  and  of  the  law  dead,  that 
should  bear  practically  home  upon  the 
fears  and  the  feelings  of  every  inquirer. 
Without  Christ  the  law  is  in  living  force 
against  us ;  and  were  we  rightly  aware 
both  of  its  claims  and  of  our  provocations 
— then  should  we  feel  as  if  in  the  hands 
of  an  enraged  husband,  who  had  us  most 
thoroughly  in  his  power;  and  who,  in- 
censed with  jealousy  and  burning  with 
the  spirit  of  revenge,  because  of  the  way 
in  which  we  had  aggrieved  and  degraded 
him, — held  us  in  the  daily  terror  of  a 
resentment,  which  no  penitence  could 
appease,  and  which  he  was  ready  to  dis- 
charge upon  us  by  some  awful  and  over- 
whelming visitation.  It  is  some  such 
appalling  imagination  as  this,  that  gives 
rise  to  what  is  familiarly  known  by  a 
phrase  which  often  occurs  in  our  older 
authors — a  law-work.  It  is  a  work  which 
passes  through  the  heart  of  him,  who  is 
conscience-stricken  under  the  conviction 
of  sin,  and  terror-stricken  under  the  anti- 
cipation of  a  coming  vengeance.  The 
experience  and  degree  of  this  state  of 
emotion  are  exceedingly  various  ;  but  at 
all  times  it  is  the  state  of  one  who  feels 
himself  still  under  the  law  ;  and  liable  to 
be  reckoned  with  by  him  as  an  unrelent- 
ing creditor,  who  can  allege  such  an 
amount  of  debt  as  never  can  be  paid,  and 
of  deficiency  that  in  his  own  person  can 
never  be  atoned  for.  Some  are  pursued 
with  this  thought,  as  if  by  an  arrow  stick- 
ing fast.  Others,  without  such  intense 
agony,  are  at  least  haunted  by  a  restless- 
ness, and  a  discomfort,  and  a  general 
uneasy  sensation  that  all  is  not  right, 
which  leads  them  to  cast  about  for  the 
peace  and  deliverance  of  some  place  of 
refuge,  in  which  they  fain  would  take 
shelter  and  hide  themselves.  All  are  in 
the  state  of  the  apostle  who  says  of  him- 
self, that,  when  the  law  came,  sin  revived  . 
and  he  died — or  that,  when  a  sense  of  the 
law  and  of  its  mighty  demands  visited 
his  heart,  there  revived  within  him  a 
sense  of  his  own  fearful  deficiencies  along 
with  it ;  and  he  gave  himself  over  to  the 
despair  of  one,  who  had  rightfully  to 
suffer  and  rightfully  to  die.  Men  under 
earnestness,  and  who  at  the  same  time 
have  not  yet  found  their  way  to  Christ, 
are  in  dealings  with  the  law  alive — stand 
related  to  him  as  the  wife  does  to  an  out- 
raged husband,  breathing  purposes  of 
vindictiveness  and  resolute  on  the  accom- 
plishment of  them — A  slate  of  appalling 
danger  and  darkness  from  which  there  is 


200 


LECTURE  XXXVm. CHAPTER  VU,  1 4. 


no  relief,  but  in  the  death  of  that  husband  ; 
and  a  state  exemplifying  perhaps  the 
spiritual  condition  of  some  who  now  hear 
me,  who  know  themselves  to  be  sinners, 
and  know  the  law  wherewith  thoy  have 
to  do  as  the  unbending  and  implacable 
enemy  of  all  who  have  oft'ended  him— 
who  feel  that  with  him  there  is  no  reprieve 
and  no  reconciliation — who  have  long 
perhaps  wearied  themselves  in  vain  to 
find  some  door  of  escape,  from  this  severe 
and  stern  and  uncompromising  exactor — 
and,  as  the  bitter  result  of  all  their  fa- 
tiguing but  unfruitful  endeavours,  are  now 
sitting  down  in  heartless  and  hopeless 
despondency. 

And  perhaps  the  illustration  of  our  text, 
may  open  up  for  them  a  way  of  access  to 
the  relief  which  they  aspire  after.  It  is 
just  such  a  relief  as  would  be  afforded  by 
the  death  of  the  first  tyrannical  husband, 
who,  at  the  same  time,  had  a  right  to 
wreak  the  full  weight  of  his  displeasure 
upon  you;  and  by  the  substitution  of  an- 
other in  his  place,  who  had  cast  the  veil 
of  a  deep  and  never-to-be-disturbed  obli- 
vion over  the  whole  of  your  past  history, 
and  with  whom  you  were  admitted  to  no 
other  fellowship'  than  that  of  love  and 
peace  and  confidence.  It  is  thus,  my  bre- 
thren, that  Christ  would  divorce  you,  as  it 
were,  from  your  old  alliance  with  the  law  ; 
and  welcome  you,  instead,  to  a  new  and 
friendly  alliance  with  Himself  He  in- 
vites you  to  treat,  in  trust  and  in  kindly 
fellowship  with  Him,  as  the  alone  party 
with  whom  you  need  to  have  to  do  ;  and 
as  to  the  law,  with  whom  you  so  long  have 
carried  on  the  distressful  fellowship  of 
accusation  on  the  one  side  and  of  con- 
scious guilt  and  fear  upon  the  other.  He 
bids  you  cease  from  the  fellowship  alto- 
gether— by  having  no  other  regard  unto 
the  law,  than  as  unto  a  husband  who  is 
now  dead  and  may  be  forgotten.  And  to 
deliver  this  contemplation  from  any  image 
so  revolting,  as  that  of  our  rejoicing  in 
the  death  of  a  former  husband ;  and  find- 
ing all  the  relief  of  heaven  in  the  more 
kindred  and  affectionate  society  of  an- 
other— You  have  to  remember,  that  the 
law  has  become  dead,  so  as  to  be  divested 
of  all  power  of  reckoning  with  you — not 
by  an  act  which  has  vilified  the  law  or 
done  it  violence,  but  by  an  act  which  has 
magnified  the  law  and  made  it  honourable 
— not  by  a  measure  which  has  robbed  the 
law  of  its  due  vindication,  but  by  a  mea- 
sure which  sets  it  forth  to  the  world's  eye 
in  the  full  pomp  and  emblazonment  of  its 
vindicated  honours— not  by  the  new  hus- 
band having  with  assassin  blow  reliiived 
you  of  the  old,  but  by  the  one  having 
done  full  homage  to  the  rights  and  auihu- 
rity  of  the  other  ;  and  rendered  to  him 
such  a  proud  and  precious  satisfaction,  as 


exalts  him  more  than  he  could  have  been 
by  all  the  fidelities  of  your  most  unbro- 
ken allegiance.  It  is  thus  that  Christ  has 
negociated  the  matter  with  the  law  ;  and 
now  invites  you  to  lay  upon  Him,  the 
whole  burden  of  its  unsettled  accounts, 
and  of  its  fearful  reckonings,  and  of  its 
unappeased  resentments — now  invites  you 
to  break  loose  from  the  disquietudes  of 
your  old  relationship,  to  emancipate  your- 
selves from  that  heavy  yoke  under  which 
you  have  become  weary  and  heavy  laden, 
to  come  unto  Him  and  take  His  yoke  upon 
you ;  and  you  shall  have  rest  to  your 
souls. 

It  is  thus  that  the  law  which  is  alive,  and 
fiercely  alive  to  all  who  are  under  it,  be- 
comes dead  to  the  believer — now  no  longer 
under  the  law  but  under  grace.  To  him 
the  law  is  taken  out  of  the  way.  It  is  the 
hand-writing  of  ordinances  that  was  at 
one  time  against  him,  and  contrary  to 
him ;  but  its  hostility  has  become  power- 
less, ever  since  it  has  been  nailed  to  the 
cross  of  Christ.  It  was  then,  that  it  put 
forth  all  the  right  and  power  of  condem- 
nation which  belonged  to  it;  and  there- 
fore it  was  then,  that  its  authority  as  a 
judge  may  be  said  to  have  expired.  The 
law  had  power  over  every  man,  so  long 
as  it  was  alive  ;  and  its  power  went  to  the 
inrtiction  of  a  grievous  curse  upon  all,  for 
all  had  broken  it.  But  after  it  got  its 
death-blow  on  the  cross,  this  power  ceas- 
ed ;  and  we  became  free  from  it — just  as 
the  woman  is  free  from  all  the  terror  and 
all  the  tyranny  of  that  deceased  husband, 
who  wont  to  lord  it,  and  perhaps  with  jus- 
tice too,  most  oppressively  over  her.  And 
thus  ought  we  to  hold  ourselves  as  free, 
from  the  whole  might  and  menacing  of 
that  law,  which  has  now  spent  its  whole 
force  as  an  executioner,  on  that  body  by 
which  the  whole  chastisement  of  our  peace 
has  been  borne.  And  we  actually  live 
beneath  our  offered  privilegijs — we  shut 
our  hearts  against  that  blessed  tranquillity, 
to  which  by  the  whole  style  and  tenor  of 
the  gospel  we  are  made  most  abundantly 
welcome — If  we  cast  not  away  the  terror 
from  ••ur  spirits,  of  an  enemy  who  is  now 
exhausted  of  all  his  strength  ;  and  resign 
not  ourselves  to  the  full  charm  of  so  great 
and  precious  a  deliverance. 

When  a  sense  of  the  law  brings  remorse 
or  tearfulness  into  your  heart — tr.msfer 
your  thoughts  from  it  as  your  now  dead, 
to  Christ  as  your  now  living  husband. 
Make  your  escape  from  all  the  rueful  ap- 
prehension whieh  the  one  would  excite,  to 
the  rest  and  the  comfort  and  the  able  pro- 
tection which  are  held  out  by  the  other. 
I:istead  of  having  to  do  as  formerly  with 
the  law,  have  to  do  with  Christ  now  stand- 
ing in  its  place.  Thus  will  you  flee  to  Him, 
in  whom  you  will  find  strong  consolation. 


LECTURE  XXXVin. CHAPTER  VII,  1 4. 


201 


Nor  will  you  throw  yourselves  loose  from 
the  guidance  of  all  rule  and  of  all  recti- 
tude, by  having  thus  swept  the  la w  entirely 
away  from  the  field  of  your  vision,  and 
made  an  entire  substitution  of  Christ  in 
its  place — for  Ho  is  revealed  not  merely 
as  a  witness  unto  the  people,  but  as  a 
leader  and  a  commander  unto  the  people. 

But  there  is  another  way  than  through 
the  death  of  the  husband,  by  which  tlio 
relationship  of  marriage  may  be  dissolved ; 
and  that  is  by  the  death  of  the  wife.  And 
there  is  another  way  in  which  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  law  and  the  subject 
may  be  dissolved,  than  by  the  death  of 
the  law ;  and  that  is  by  the  death  of  the 
subject.  The  law  has  no  more  power 
over  its  dead  subject,  than  the  husband 
has  over  his  dead  wife,  or  than  the  tyrant 
has  over  his  dead  slave.  And  it  is  in  this 
way,  that  the  assertion  of  all  power  or 
authority  over  us,  on  the  part  of  the  law, 
seems  to  be  represewted  in  the  fourth 
verse — when  we  are  said  to  have  become 
dead  unto  the  law,  and  it  is  added  by  the 
body  of  Christ.  This  brings  us  back  to 
the  conception  that  has  been  already  so 
abundantly  irisisted  on,  that  in  Christ  we 
all  died — that  we  were  dead  in  law  ;  and, 
though  Christ  alone  and  in  His  own  body 
died  for  our  sins,  yet  that  was  tantamount 
to  the  legal  infliction  of  the  sentence  of 
death  upon  ourselves — so  that  the  law 
can  have  no  farther  reckoning  with  us, 
having  already  had  that  reckoning  with 
us  to  the  full  in  the  person  of  Him  who 
was  our  surety  and  our  representative  : 
And  just  as  the  criminal  law  has  done  its 
utmost  upon  him  whom  it  has  brought  to 
execution,  and  can  do  no  more — so  the 
law  can  do  no  more  in  the  way  of  ven- 
geance with  us,  having  already  done  all 
with  Him  who  was  smitten  for  our  ini- 
quities, and  who  poured  out  His  soul  unto 
the  death  for  us. 

After  our  old  relationship  with  the  law 
is  thus  put  an  end  to,  the  vacancy  is  sup- 
plied, and  in  a  way  that  is  very  interest- 
ing, by  Him,  who,  after  having  removed 
the  law  through  His  death  out  of  the 
station  it  had  before  occupied,  then  rose 
again  and  now  stands  in  its  place.  And 
we  utterly  mistake  the  matter,  if  we  think, 
that,  because  emancipated  from  the  rela- 
tion in  which  we  formerly  stood  to  the 
law — we  are  therefore  emancipated  from 
all  service.  The  wife  owes  a  duty  to  her 
second  husband,  as  well  as  her  first.  The 
one  has  his  claims  upon  her  obedience 
and  her  dutiful  regards,  as  well  as  the 
other.  It  is  true,  that,  with  the  former, 
the  predominant  feeling  which  prompted 
her  services  may  have  been  that  of 
obligation — mixed  with  great  fearfulness, 
because  of  the  deficiencies  into  which  she 
was  perpetually  falling  ;  and  that,  with  i 
26 


the  latter,  the  predominant  feeting  which 
prompts  her  services  may  be  sweet  and 
spontaneous  affection  to  one,  from  whom 
she  is  ever  sure  to  obtain  the  kindest 
indulgence.  But  still  it  is  evident,  that 
under  the  second  economy  of  matters, 
there  will  be  service,  possibly  much  greater 
in  amount  and  certainly  far  worthier  in 
principle,  than  all  that  was  ever  rendered 
under  the  first.  And  thus  it  is  with  the 
law  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  Christ  on 
the  other.  Under  the  law  we  were  bidden 
to  do  and  live ;  and  the  fear  of  a  forfeit- 
ure, or  the  consciousness  of  having  incur- 
red a  forfeiture,  already  infused  the  spirit 
of  bondage  into  all  our  services.  Under 
Christ,  we  are  bidden  to  live  and  do.  We 
are  put  into  the  secure  possession  of  that 
which  we  before  had  to  strive  for;  and 
the  happy  rejoicing  creature  comes  forth 
at  will,  with  the  services  of  gratitude  and 
of  new  obedience.  Instead  of  life  being 
given  as  a  return  for  the  work  that  we 
render,  our  work  is  given  as  a  return  for 
the  life  that  we  receive.  And  it  will  fur- 
ther be  seen,  that,  whereas  a  slavish  and 
creeping  and  jealous  selfishness  was  the 
principle  of  all  our  diligence  under  the 
law,  it  is  a  free  and  affectionate  generosity 
which  forms  the  principle  of  all  our  dili- 
gence under  the  gospel.  In  working  to 
the  law,  it  is  all  for  ourselves — even  that 
we  may  earn  a  wage  or  a  reward.  In 
working  to  Christ  it  is  all  the  free-will 
offering  of  love  and  thankfulness — not  in 
the  mercenary  spirit  of  a  hireling,  but 
with  the  buoyant  alacrity  of  an  eternally- 
obliged  and  devoted  friend — because  we 
thus  judge,  that,  as  Christ  died  for  all, 
then  were  all  dead ;  and  He  died,  that 
they  who  live  should  live  no  longer  to 
themselves,  but  unto  Him  who  died  for 
them  and  who  rose  again ! 

And  to  the  eye  of  the  attentive  reader, 
this  may  throw  light  on  the  difficult  verse, 
which  comes  immediately  after  the  quota- 
tion that  we  have  now  given.*  Christ 
upon  earth  so  lived  and  so  died  in  our  stead, 
that  we  may  be  said  to  have  been  held  in 
the  body  of  Christ.  He  was  made  sub- 
ject to  the  law,  in  taking  upon  Him  of 
our  nature ;  and  when  he  was  in  the 
world,  we  may  be  conceived  with  Him  to 
have  served  the  law,  and  with  Him  to 
have  suffered  under  it.  But  the  law  hath 
dominion  over  a  man  only  so  long  as  he 
liveth  ;  and  thus,  at  the  death  of  Christ, 
and  our  death  along  with  Him,  this  do- 
minion terminated.  And  now  it  is  not 
with  the  law  that  wc  have  to  do,  even  as 
Christ  had  to  do  with  it  in  the  days  of 
His  mortal  flesh.  It  is  with  Christ  in  His 
immortal  and  glorifled  body  that  we  hold 
all  our  conversation  ;  and  thus,  perhapgf, 

•  2  Cor.  V,  16. 


202 


LECTURE   XXXVIII. CHAPTER   VII,    1 4. 


will  the  more  profoundly  spiritual  of  our 
hearers  feel  a  meaning  in  these  words  of 
the  apostle,  who,  after  he  had  said  of 
Christians  '  that  they  should  not  henceforth 
live  unto  themselves  but  unto  Him  who 
died  for  them  and  rose  again' — said  further, 
that,  "  Wherefore  henceforth  know  we  no 
man  after  the  (lesh  :  yea  though  we  have 
known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now 
henceforth  know  we  Him  no  more.  There- 
fore if  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new 
creature;  old  things  are  passed  away, 
behold  all  things  have  become  new." 

We  shall  not  have  time  for  the  exposi- 
tion of  any  more  verses  at  present ;  and 
shall  therefore  take  up  the  remainder  of 
this  lecture  with  the  enforcement  of  such 
practical  lessons,  as  may  be  suggested 
from  the  passage  that  we  already  have 
endeavoured  to  illusti'ate. 

It  must  be  quite  distinct  to  you,  in  the 
first  place,  that,  though  released  from  the 
old  relationship  between  you  and  the  law 
on  your  becoming  a  disciple  of  Christ, 
you  are  not  thereby  thrown  adrift  from 
all  restraint  and  from  all  regulation. 
The  second  husband  has  his  claims  as 
well  as  the  first ;  and  the  wife  is  as  much 
the  subject  of  obligations  to  the  one  as  to 
the  other.  The  transition  from  nature  to 
grace  is  here  represented,  by  the  dissolv- 
ing of  one  marriage  and  the  contracting 
of  another.  Had  there  been  no  second 
marriage  after  the  breaking  up  of  the 
first,  then  may  it  have  been  inferred,  that 
the  faith  of  the  gospel  led  to  a  state  of 
lawless  and  reckless  abandonment.  But 
there  is  such  a  marriage,  which  of  course 
carries  its  duties  and  its  obligations  and 
its  services  along  with  it ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, there  is  a  very  remarkable  clause 
in  the  apostle's  writings  that  is  commonly 
included  in  a  parenthesis — when  speaking 
of  himself  as  without  law  he  says — 
"Being  not  without  law  to  God  but  under 
the  law  to  Christ."     1  Cor.  ix,  21. 

Now  this  leads  us  in  the  second  place 
to  consider,  what  it  is  of  the  law  that  we 
have  parted  with  by  the  death  of  the  first 
husband  ;  and  what  it  is  of  the  law  that 
is  retained,  by  our  new  alliance  with  the 
second.  And  perhaps  this  cannot  be  done 
better,  than  in  the  language  of  our  older 
divines,  who  tell  us  on  the  one  hand,  that 
the  law  is  abolished  as  a  covenant.  We 
have  ceased  from  the  economy  of '  Do  this 
and  live.'  Our  obedience  to  the  law  is  no 
longer  the  purchase-money  by  which  hea- 
ven is  bought — no  longer  the  righteous- 
ness by  which  the  rewards  of  eternity  are 
earned — no  longer  the  title-deed  on  which 
we  can  knock  at  the  gate  of  paradise,  and, 
presenting  it  there,  can  demand  our  admit- 
tance among  its  felicities  and  its  glories. 
If  you  choose  to  abide  in  the  relationship 
of  the  first  marriage,  the  law  will  be  unto 


you  a  rigorous  exactor — insisting  on  every 
article  of  the  bond,  and  looking  with  an 
air  of  jealous  and  pointed  stipulation 
to  your  every  fulfilment;  and,  what  is 
more,  he  will  be  unto  you  an  offended 
Lord,  urging  to  performances  which  can 
never  be  reached,  and  reminding  of  de- 
ficiencies which  under  him  never  can  be 
pardoned.  If  you  will  persist  in  looking 
upon  heaven  as  the  bargain  of  your  ser- 
vices, then  will  you  be  dealt  with  accord- 
ing to  the  whole  spirit  of  a  bargain's 
demands  and  of  a  bargain's  punctualities. 
Now  it  is  in  this  respect  that  the  law  has 
ceased  from  his  wonted  capacity.  The 
believer  is  rid  of  him,  and  of  all  his  com- 
mandments, viewed  in  the  light  of  so  many 
terms,  on  the  rendering  of  which  eternal 
life  is  yours  of  challenged  reward — yours 
of  rightful  and  meritorious  acquirement. 
All  of  you  I  trust  are  convinced,  that  on 
this  footing  eternal  life  were  placed  at  an 
impracticable  distance  away  from  you. 
This  was  the  old  footing  with  the  old  hus- 
band ;  but,  now  that  he  is  dead,  it  is  a 
footing  on  which,  to  the  great  relief  of  a 
sinful  and  sinning  species,  it  no  longer 
stands ;  and  it  is  thus  that  we  view  the 
matter,  when  we  say  of  the  law  that  it  is 
abolished  as  a  covenant. 

But  on  the  other  hand  say  our  divines, — 
while  abolished  as  a  covenant,  it  is  not 
abolished  as  a  rule  of  life.  Though  not 
under  the  economy  of  do  and  live,  still 
you  are  under  the  economy  of  live  and 
do.  Your  obedience  to  the  law  is  no 
longer  the  purchase-money,  by  which 
heaven  is  bought ;  but  still  your  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  is  the  preparation  by 
which  you  are  beautified  and  arrayed  for 
heaven.  It  is  no  longer  tlie  righteousness, 
by  which  the  rewards  of  eternity  are 
earned  ;  but  still  it  is  the  righteousness, 
which  fits  us  to  enjoy  the  sacred  rest,  and 
the  hallowed  recreations  of  eternity.  It 
is  no  longer  that,  by  which  you  obtain 
such  a  title  as  qualities  you  to  challenge 
the  glories  and  the  felicities  of  paradise 
for  your  due  ;  but  still  it  is  that,  by  which 
you  obtain  such  a  taste,  as  qualifies  for 
partaking  in  the  glories  and  felicities  of 
paradise  for  your  best-loved  enjoyment. 
To  walk  by  a  rule  is  to  v/alk  by  a  partic- 
ular and  assigned  way.  And  still  under 
the  gospel  as  under  the  law,  the  way  to 
heaven  is  the  highway  of  holiness.  Still 
it  is  as  true  in  the  present  as  in  the  for- 
mer dispensation,  that  without  holiness 
no  man  shall  see  God  ;  and  if  it  be  no 
longer  the  gold  by  which  you  buy  the 
inheritance,  still  it  is  the  garment  that 
you  must  put  on  ere  you  are  permitted  to 
enter  on  the  possession  of  it. 

The  proprieties  of  the  marriage  state 
are  substantially  the  same  with  the  sec- 
.  ond  husband,  as  they  were  with  the  first. 


LECTURE  XXXVm. CHAPTER  VII,  1 — 4. 


203 


But  while  the  one  would  chide  you,  the 
other  would  charm  you  into  the  perform- 
ance of  them  ;  and  we  may  add,  that, 
while  the  stern  and  authoritative  precepts 
of  the  one  never  could  have  forced  your 
compliance,  because  the  will  is  not  a  sub- 
ject for  the  treatment  of  force — the  mild 
persuasions  of  the  other,  by  his  poses- 
sion  of  this  faculty,  carry  in  them  a  power 
that  is  irresistible.  And  it  is  thus  that 
Christ,  who  loved  the  church  and  gave 
Himself  for  it,  "sanctifies  and  cleanses  it 
with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word, 
that  he  might  present  it  to  Himself  a  glo- 
rious church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle 
or  any  such  thing  ;  but  that  it  should  be 
holy  and  without  blemish." 

Thus  it  was  the  will  of  the  first  hus- 
band, that  you  should  keep  the  law,  and 
still  it  is  the  will  of  the  second  also  that 
you  should  keep  the  law.  There  is  no 
distinction  in  the  matter  of  it,  between  the 
commandment  of  the  one  and  the  com- 
mandment of  the  other.  What  you  ought 
to  have  done  under  the  first  economy, 
you  still  ought  to  do  under  the  second. 
It  were  strange  had  it  been  otherwise. 
He  who  loveth  righteousness  presented 
man  with  a  draught  of  it  on  the  tablet  of 
the  written  law  ;  and  told  him  that,  on  his 
obedience  thereto.  He  would  reward  him 
with  a  joyful  immortality.  This  reward 
has  been  forfeited  by  sinnei's,  but  redeem- 
ed by  the  Saviour  of  sinners ;  and  still 
God,  unchangeable  as  He  is  in  His  love 
of  righteousness,  and  who  had  before 
pictured  it  forth  in  that  perfect  code  of 
morality  which  by  man  has  been  viola- 
ted— will  now  have  it  to  be  pictured  forth 
on  the  character  of  man :  And,  for  this 
purpose,  does  He  put  the  law  in  his  heart 
and  write  it  out  upon  his  mind — and  that 
virtue,  which  the  first  husband  failed  to 
enforce,  does  the  second  succeed  in  estab- 
lishing— by  engaging  the  gratitude,  and 
goodwill,  and  aflPection  of  His  disciples, 
on  the  side  of  it.  That  spiritual  excel- 
lence which  man  could  not  find  of  him- 
self, wherewith  to  purchase  heaven — the 
Saviour  finds  for  him,  and  spreads  it  out 
in  goodly  adornment  upon  his  person,  so 
as  to  prepare  him  for  heaven.  What  the 
first  husband  would  have  exacted  as  a 
price,  the  other  lays  on  as  a  preparation  ; 
and  the  very  duties  that  were  required  by 
the  unrelenting  taskmaster,  but  not  ren- 
dered to  him — are  also  required  by  the 
kind  and  friendly  benefactor,  who  at  the 
same  time  gives  both  a  hand  of  strength 
and  a  heart  of  alacrity  for  all  His  services. 

The  diflference  between  the  two  cases, 
is  somewhat  like  that  which  obtains  be- 


tween a  family  establishment,  and  an 
establishment  of  hirelings.  Every  work- 
man in  the  one  is  under  a  law  of  sobriety 
and  good  conduct,  which,  if  he  violate,  he 
will  forfeit  his  situation.  But,  if  instead 
of  a  servant  he  is  a  son,  it  is  not  on  any 
bargain  of  that  kind,  that  he  is  understood 
to  retain  the  place  of  security  and  main- 
tenance, that  he  enjoys  under  the  roof  of 
his  father.  Yet,  though  sobriety  and  good 
conduct  are  not  laid  upon  him  in  the  way 
of  legalism — who  does  not  see,  that  the 
whole  drift  and  policy  of  the  patriarchal 
government  under  which  he  sits,  are  on 
the  side  of  all  that  is  virtuous  and  amiable, 
and  praiseworthy  on  the  part  of  its  mem- 
bers 1  Who  does  not  see,  that  the  desire 
of  a  father  may  still,  without  any  legal 
economy  of  do  and  live,  be  most  earnestly 
set  on  all  that  is  good  and  all  that  is 
graceful  in  the  morality  of  his  children"? 
And  while  the  thought  never  enters  his 
bosom  of  any  thing  else,  than  that  he 
should  aid  and  sustain  and  advance  them 
to  the  uttermost — yet,  next  to  the  desire 
that  they  should  live,  is  it  the  most  earnest 
desire  of  his  heart  that  they  should  live 
and  do — ^do  all  that  can  purify  or  embel- 
lish their  own  character,  do  all  that  is 
honourable  to  the  name  they  wear.  And 
thus  are  we  under  Christ  as  our  second 
husband,  or  under  the  new  family  gov- 
ernment of  heaven — no  longer  servants 
but  relatives — admitted  to  all  the  privi- 
leges of  life,  under  the  paternal  and  pro- 
tecting roof  of  Him,  whose  children  we 
are  in  Christ  Jesus.  Still  the  conduct 
that  as  servants  would  not  have  been 
tolerated,  as  sons  we  are  warned  and 
chastised  against ;  and  the  conduct  that  as 
servants  would  have  been  legally  reward- 
ed, as  sons  is  most  lovingly  recommended 
to  our  strenuous  and  unceasing  observa- 
tion. And  our  heavenly  Father  loveth 
righteousness  in  us,  and  hateth  iniquity 
in  us  ;  and  that  very  law  which  He  before 
enforced  on  the  penalty  of  our  eternal 
exclusion  from  His  presence.  He  now 
engages  us  to  choose  and  to  follow  as  the 
eternal  characteristic  of  all  His  family : 
And  our  business  now  is  to  put  ourselves 
in  training  for  the  joys  and  the  exercises 
of  this  great  spiritual  household  ;  and  for 
this  purpose  to  cleave  unto  Christ  as  the 
Lord  our  Sanctifier — to  betake  ourselves 
to  the  aids  of  His  grace,  and  resign  our 
whole  wills  to  the  influence  of  that  grati- 
tude, which  should  lead  us  to  love  and  to 
imitate  and  to  obey  Him.  Thus  shall  we 
bring  forth  fruit  unto  God — even  those 
fruits  of  righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus 
Christ  unto  His  praise  and  unto  His  glory 


204 


LECTURE  XXXIX- CHAPTER  VII,  5,  6. 


LECTURE  XXXIX. 

Romans  vii,  5,  6. 


"For  when  we  were  in  the  flesh,  the  motions  of  sin,  which  were  by  tlie  law,  did  work  in  our  luembors  to  bring  forth 
fruit  unto  death.  But  now  we  are  delivered  from  the  law,  that  beinj  dead  wherein  we  were  hold  :  tliat  we  should 
serve  in  newness  of  spirit,  and  not  in  the  oldness  of  tiie  letter." 


TiiEKE  is  a  twofold  change  which  takes 
place,  at  the  moment  of  a  believer's  tran- 
sition into  the  peace  and  privileges  of  the 
gospel.  He  in  the  first  place  passes  into 
a  new  condition,  as  it  respects  his  legal 
relationship  with  God;  and  he  in  the 
second  place  passes  into  a  new  character, 
as  it  respects  the  feelings  and  principles 
by  which  he  comes  to  be  actuated.  You 
know  what  his  relationship  to  God  is, 
under  the  first  economy  in  which  he  is 
situated.  The  moral  Governor  of  our 
world  ordained  a  law  of  rectitude,  and 
authoritatively  bound  it  on  the  observation 
of  our  species.  That  law  has  in  every 
individual  case  been  violated ;  and  it 
were  giving  up  the  very  conception  of  a 
moral  government,  for  us  to  delude  our- 
selves with  the  imagination,  that  a  certain 
penally  shall  not  follow  in  the  train  of 
an  oflence,  or  that  condemnation  shall  not 
follow  in  the  train  of  disobedience.  This 
in  fact  were  stripping  the  jurisprudence 
of  Heaven  of  its  sanctions,  and  so  reducing 
the  divine  administration  to  a  nullity  ; 
and  this  is  the  perpetual  tendency  of 
those  who  have  not  yet  been  arrested  by 
the  awful  realities  of  the  question.  They 
hurry  themselves  away  from  the  contem- 
plation of  God's  inviolable  majesty,  and 
uncompromising  truth  ;  and,  in  the  pleas- 
ing dream  of  His  tenderness  for  the  infir- 
mities of  His  erring  children,  would  they 
lull  themselves  into  a  sweet  oblivion  of 
the  alone  elements,  on  which  hinges  the 
fate  of  their  eternity.  It  is  indeed  most 
true,  that  God  has  all  of  the  love  and  the 
compassion  and  the  amiable  kindness 
wherewith  they  have  invested  Him ;  and 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  very 
development  of  these  attributes — the  very 
expression  of  a  longing  and  affectionate 
Father  after  His  strayed  children,  for  the 
purpose  of  recalling  them ;  but  at  the 
same  time  of  recalling  them  in  that  one 
way,  that  shall  illustrate  the  entire  char- 
acter and  perfection  of  the  Godhead.  It 
is  a  dispensation  of  mercy  free  to  all — 
only  of  mercy  through  the  medium  of 
righteousness — not  of  a  mercy  which 
dethrones  the  law,  but  of  a  mercy  which 
magnifies  that  law  and  makes  it  honour- 
able— not  of  such  an  indulgence  as  would 
pour  contempt  on  the  face  of  the  Divinity, 
but  such  an  indulgence  as  pours  a  deep 
and  awful  consecration  over  it.    We  sit 


under  the  economy  of  grace,  but  of  grace 
in  conjunction  with  holiness ;  and  tho 
overtures  of  reconciliation — coming  to  us 
as  they  do  through  the  channel  of  a  mys- 
terious atonement,  and  an  unchangeable 
priesthood,  and  a  mediatorship  sealed 
with  the  blood  of  an  everla.sting  covenant 
— come  to  us,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  through 
such  an  intervening  ceremonial,  as  serves 
to  guard  and  to  dignify  the  Sovereign, 
even  in  the  freest  exercise  of  His  clemency 
to  the  sinful — So  that  they  cannot  by  this 
path  of  access  enter  into  peace  with  the 
Deity,  without  beholding  Him  in  the 
awfulness  of  His  purity,  without  feeling 
for  Him  the  profoundest  reverence. 

From  this  rapid  sketch  of  the  great 
moral  characteristics  that  sit  on  the  econ- 
omy of  the  gospel,  you  may  come  to 
understand  how  it  is  that  the  believer,  on 
being  translated  into  a  new  condition  is 
also  moulded  and  transformed  into  a  new 
character.  It  is  easy  to  profess  the  faith, 
and  a  mere  profession  will  induce  no 
radical  change  on  the  habits  or  the  his- 
tory ;  but  if  a  man  actually  have  the  faith, 
then  he  has  that  which  never  fails  to  be 
the  instrument  of  a  great  spiritual  renova- 
tion. It  is  upon  this  principle,  that  he  is 
prompted  to  comply  with  the  overtures 
of  the  gospel  ;  and,  in  so  doing,  he  is 
made  to  feel  what  Nature  never  feels,  and 
that  is  a  calm  and  confident  sense  of  his 
own  reconciliation  with  God.  The  man 
who  has  never  experienced  this  .sensation, 
will  not  adequately  conceive  of  its  de- 
lights and  its  influences;  yet  still  may  he 
have  some  distant  imagination  of  the  new 
feelings  and  the  new  impuls's,  to  which 
it  is  the  harbinger.  On  this  single  event 
in  the  history  of  a  believer's  mind — that, 
whereas  formerly  there  was  in  it  a  dis- 
trust or  a  jealousy  of  God,  there  is  now  in 
it  the  assuredconviction  that  the  Almighty- 
is  his  Friend — on  this  single  event,  there 
is  made  to  turn  an  entire  revolution  of  its 
desires  and  its  principles.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Psalmist,  its  bonds  are  indeed 
loosed  ;  and,  in  place  of  that  terror  or  that 
hopele.ssness  which  froze  the  soul  into 
downright  inactivity,  is  there  now  the 
fieeness  of  a  grateful  and  confiding  spirit 
— the  alacrity  of  a  willing  obedience.  "1 
will  run  in  the  way  of  thy  command- 
ments" says  David  "when  thou  hast 
enlarged  my  heart."    It  is  just  this  ea 


LECTURE  XXXIX. CHAPTER  VII,  5,  6. 


205 


largement  that  is  opened  up  to  the  disci- 

Ele,  on  his  accepting  of  Christ,  and  so 
eing  delivered  from  the  fears  and  the 
fetters  of  legality.  The  mountain  of  a 
before  inextinguishable  debt  is  now  liqui- 
dated ;  and  a  discharge  is  given  by  which, 
from  a  peculiar  skilfulness  in  the  method 
of  our  salvation,  the  very  justice  of  God, 
as  well  as  His  mercy,  is  guaranteed  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  sinner  ;  and  he  now  has 
a  comfort  and  an  expectation  in  the  ser- 
vice of  that  Being,  before  whom  he  had 
hitherto  stood  paralyzed,  as  if  in  the 
hands  of  an  unappeased  and  unappeasa- 
ble creditor;  and  the  holiness,  which  for- 
merly he  would  have  attempted  in  vain  as 
his  price  or  his  pui'chase-money  for  that 
heaven  the  gate  of  which  was  shut  against 
all  his  exertions,  he  now  most  cheerfully 
renders  as  his  free-will  offering  and  his 
preparation  for  that  heaven  whose  gate 
is  now  open  to  receive  him ;  nor  can  he 
look  to  the  whole  process  and  principle 
of  his  recalrnent  to  the  favour  of  God, 
without  seeing  depicted  therein  the  love 
which  that  God  bears  to  righteousness, 
and  the  hatred  which  He  bears  to  iniquity. 
The  very  contemplation  from  which  he 
gathers  peace  to  his  breast,  brings  down 
upon  it  a  purifying  influence  also.  The 
same  spectacle  of  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,  that  charms  from  the  believer's 
heart  the  fears  of  guilt,  tells  him  in  most 
impressive  terms  of  the  evil  of  it :  And 
that  deed  of  amnesty,  on  which  are  in- 
scribed the  characters  of  good-will  to  the 
sinner,  is  so  emblazoned  with  the  vestiges 
of  God's  detestation  for  sin,  and  so  ratified 
by  a  solemn  expiation  because  of  it — 
that  the  intelligent  disciple  cannot  miss 
the  conclusion,  nor  will  he  fail  to  proceed 
upon  it,  that  this  is  the  will  of  God  even 
his  sanctification. 

I  trust  that  even  those  of  you  who  have 
no  experience  of  this  transition  at  all,  and 
to  whom  I  still  speak  as  in  a  mystery,  will 
at  least  admit,  that,  when  a  man  comes 
practically  and  powerfully  under  the 
operation  of  these  influences,  he  must 
feel  another  moral  pulse,  and  breathe 
another  moral  atmosphere  from  before. 
It  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  that  without 
supernatural  aid  the  transition  cannot  be 
effected — that,  even  for  the  establishment 
of  that  faith  which  is  the  primary  and 
presiding  clement  of  this  great  renewing 
process,  an  agency  must  descend  upon  us 
from  on  high  which  nevertheless  it  is  our 
duty  to  watch  and  to  pray  for;  and  that 
unless  from  the  first  to  the  last  we  feel 
our  dependence  upon  the  Spirit  of  God, 
we  shall  not  be  upheld  in  those  habits 
and  affections  of  sacredness,  which  con- 
stitute our  meetness  for  the  inheritance 
that  is  above.  But  my  purpose  in  intro- 
ducing this  remark,  is  to  demonstrate  how 


wide  is  the  dissimilarity  in  the  whole 
form  and  forthgoings  of  a  man's  mind, 
after  the  accession  of  this  influence  from 
what  they  were  before  it — how  certainly 
a  new  character,  as  well  as  a  new  condi- 
tion, emerges  from  it :  and,  when  you 
connect  the  change  with  that  which  the 
Bible  reveals  to  us  of  the  power  from  the 
upper  sanctuary  by  which  it  has  been 
effected,  you  will  be  at  no  loss  to  perceive 
on  the  one  hand,  why  converts  to  the  faith 
of  the  gospel,  as  born  of  the  Spirit  are 
said  to  be  in  the  Spirit;  and, on  the  other, 
you  will  be  at  as  little  loss  to  perceive 
the  meaning  of  the  apo.stle's  phrase, 
'  when  we  were  in  the  flesh' — when  we 
were  what  nature  originally  made  us; 
and  before  that  transition  by  believing, 
which  introduced  another  relationship 
with  God,  and  introduced  us  to  another 
habit  and  another  disposition  in  regard  to 
Him. 

The  apostle  tells  us  what  took  place 
both  with  him  and  with  his  disciples,  at 
the  time  when  they  were  in  the  flesh. 
Then  did  the  motions  of  sins,  which  were 
by  the  law,  work  in  their  members  to 
bring  forth  fruit  unto  death.  We  should 
like  here  to  know  in  the  first  instance, 
what  is  meant  by  the  phrase  of  '  sins  which 
w(Te  by  the  law  V  Some  understand  such 
things  as  were  declared  by  the  law  to  be 
sinful — as  if  the  apostle  had  said,  'then 
did  certain  affections  which  by  the  law 
were  pronounced  sins,  work  in  our  mem- 
bers to  bring  forth  fruit  unto  death.' 
Others  assign  a  still  greater  force  to  the 
law  in  this  passage,  as  if  the  law  had  not 
only  d'clnred  the  affections  in  question  to 
be  sinful,  but  as  if  it  was  the  law  that  had 
made  them  to  be  sinful.  And  indeed  there 
is  nothing  hyperbolical  in  ascribing  this 
function  to  the  law — and  that,  on  the  prin- 
ciple tiiat  where  there  is  no  law  there  is  no 
transgression.  If  a  man  break  no  rule 
he  is  no  sinner — and  if  there  was  posi- 
tively no  rule  to  break,  then  sin  were  an 
impossibility.  It  is  the  law  that  charac- 
terizes sin  as  sinful  ;  that  makes  the  affec- 
tion to  be  sin  which  but  for  it  would  have 
been  no  sin  at  all,  and  that  purely  by  for- 
bidding it.  So  that  it  is  quite  fair  to  un- 
derstand the  motions  of  sins  which  were 
by  the  law,  to  be  not  merely  such  motions 
or  desires  as  the  law  had  declared  to  be 
sinful,  but  also  such  motions  and  desires 
as  the  law  had  actually  constituted  sinful. 

But  admitting  both  these  explanations 
as  quite  consistent  tht;  one  with  the  other, 
and  as  alike  applicable  to  the  passage  be- 
fore us,  there  are  others,  who,  additional 
to  these,  would  ascribe  to  the  law  an  in- 
fluence of  a  still  more  active;  and  f^tficient 
quality — ;is  if  it  not  only  rendered  certain 
affections  sinful  which  but  for  it  could  not 
have  obtained  any  such  character,  but  as 


) 


206 


LECTURE  XXXIX. — CHAPTER  VU,  5,  6.  • 


if  it  called  forth  into  being  the  very  affec- 
tions  themselves.  They  would  make  the 
law,  not  merely  a  discoverer  and  an  as- 
sertor  of  sin,  but  they  would  make  it  a 
provocative  to  sin ;  or  an  instrument  for 
calling  it  into  existence,  as  well  us  an  in- 
strument fur  detecting  and  exposing  it. 
They  think  themselves  warranted  in  this 
explanation  by  the  text,  "that  the  law  en- 
tered that  the  otfence  might  abound ;" 
and  still  more  by  tiie  text,  that  "  the  law 
wrought  in  me  all  manner  of  concupis- 
cence"— so  that  these  last  interpreters,  in 
explaining  the  phrase  of  the  motions  of 
sin  which  were  by  the  law,  would  not  ob- 
ject to  the  idea  of  the  law  having  actually 
excited  these  motions,  and  being  thus  the 
efficient  originator  of  the  sins  that  pro- 
ceeded from  them. 

Nor  is  this  view  of  the  matter  so  much 
at  war  with  the  real  experience  of  our  na- 
ture, as  may  at  first  be  supposed.  The 
law  may  irritate  and  inflame  the  evil  pro- 
pensities of  the  heart  to  greater  violence. 
The  yoke,  which  it  lays  on  human  cor- 
ruption, may  cause  that  corruption  to  fes- 
ter and  tumultuate  the  more.  The  per- 
verse inclination  is  just  fretted  to  a  stouter 
and  more  daring  assertion  of  itself,  by  the 
thwarting  resistance  which  it  meets  with  ; 
and  you  surely  can  conceive,  nay,  some 
of  you  may  have  found — how  legal  prohi- 
bitions, and  remorseful  visitations,  and  all 
the  scruples  of  a  remaining  conscience 
and  sense  of  rectitude  in  the  bosom,  which 
lie  in  the  way  of  some  vicious  indulgence 
on  which  the  appetite  is  set,  may  give  the 
keener  impulse  to  its  demands,  and  make 
it  more  ungovernable  than  had  there  been 
no  law.  And  when  once  all  the  barriers 
of  principle  are  levelled,  you  may  well 
imagine — how,  on  the  pressure  and  the 
prohibition  being  removed,  the  depraved 
tendency  will  burst  out  into  freer  and 
.larger  excesses  ;  and  the  harder  the  strug- 
gle was  ere  the  victory  over  a  feeling  of 
duty  had  been  obtained,  the  prouder  will 
be  the  rebel's  subsequent  deiiance  to  all 
its  suggestions,  and  the  more  fierce  and 
lawless  will  be  his  abandonment. 

Nay,  I  can  figure  how  the  existence  and 
felt  obligation  of  a  law  may,  on  the  minds 
of  a  more  delicate  cast,  have  somewhat 
of  the  same  operation.  It  is  not  too  sub- 
tile a  remark,  for  there  is  substantial  and 
experimental  truth  in  it — that,  if  the  im- 
putation of  guilt  lie  hard  upon  a  man,  and 
he  overwhelmed  therewith  sink  into  shame 
and  into  despondency — in  addition  to  los- 
ing the  sense  of  character,  he  may  lose 
the  character  itself  He  will  come  down 
in  reality  to  the  level  of  the  surrounding 
estimation ;  and  you  have  only  to  enve- 
lope him  in  an  atmosphere  of  disgrace,  in 
order  to  impart  a  corresponding  tinge  of 
moral  deterioration,  to  the  living  prin- 


ciples by  which  he  is  actuated.  This 
proves  of  what  importance  it  is,  for  up- 
holding the  tone  of  character  in  society — 
that  we  should  all  be  predisposed  to  turn 
to  our  fellows  with  kindness  and  confi- 
dence and  respect ;  and  there  is  no  saying 
how  much  the  opposite  habits  of  suspicion 
and  detraction,  and  liendish  delight  in  the 
contemplation  of  human  ignominy,  may 
contribute  to  lower  the  real  worth  and 
dignity  of  our  species.  But  our  present 
aim  is  to  show,  that,  by  the  very  establish- 
ment of  a  law,  we  beconni  exposed  to  the 
sense  of  its  violations  ;  and  this  degrading 
sense  works  a  regardlessness  of  character, 
and  lays  us  open  to  other  and  larger  vio- 
lations :  And  thus  the  lav/  may  become 
not  only  declaratory  of  sin,  but  creative 
of  sin  ;  and  that  both  by  constituting  cer- 
tain actions  to  be  sinful  and  multiplying 
these  actions — And  in  all  these  ways  may 
we  understand  the  plirase  of  our  apostle, 
even  the  motions  of  sins  which  are  by  the 
law. 

The  remaining  clause  of  this  verse,, 
brings  into  view  the  distinction  that  there 
is,  between  feeling  the  motions  or  tenden- 
cies of  sin  and  the  actual  following  of 
these  tendencies.  We  have  before  abun- 
dantly insisted  on  the  presence  of  sinful 
inclinations,  even  in  the  regenerated 
Christian ;  but  that  he  differs  from  him 
who  is  still  in  the  flesh,  in  that  while  the 
one  obeys  the  inclinations,  the  other  ut- 
terly refuses  to  indulge  or  gratify  them. 
Paul  himself  was  not  exempted  from  the 
motions  of  sins ;  and  this  is  what  he  feel- 
ingly laments  in  the  subsequent  verses 
of  this  chapter.  But  then  he  did  not  suffer 
these  motions  so  to  work  in  him,  as  to 
bring  forth  fruit  unto  death.  It  is  of  im- 
portance for  the  believer  to  understand 
that,  so  long  as  he  abides  in  his  present 
framework,  he  occupies  an  infected  tene- 
ment— he  bears  about  with  him  a  vile 
body  charged  with  a  moral  virus,  from 
the  presence  of  which  death  alone  can 
deliver  him ;  and  against  the  power  of 
which,  it  is  his  appointed  warfare  so  to 
struggle,  as  that  it  shall  not  have  the 
practical  ascendency  over  him.  This  is 
the  inward  constitution  even  uf  a  saint 
upon  earth — a  constant  urgency  to  evil. 
But  what  distinguishes  him  from  the  wil- 
ful sinner  is,  that  he  so  resists  this  urgen- 
cy that  it  does  not  prevail.  There  is  no 
conflict  with  the  one  for  he  walks  alto- 
gether in  the  counsel  of  his  own  heart, 
and  altogether  in  the  sight  of  his  own 
eyes.  With  the  other  there  is  the  conflict 
of  two  opposite  principles — of  the  Spirit 
lusting  against  the  flesh,  and  the  flesh 
against  the  spirit ;  but  so  as  that  the 
Spirit  has  the  habitual  predominance 
and  by  the  Spirit  he  is  practically  led 
They  who  are  in  the  flesh  have  no  such 


LECTURE  XXXIX. — CHAPTER  VU,  5,  6, 


207 


principle  of  counteraction  within  them  to 
their  evil  tendencies — so  that  the  motions 
of  sins  which  are  in  them  work  in  their 
members  so  as  to  bring  forth  fruit  unto 
death. 

Paul  now  under  the  power  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  in  the  full  career  of  his  sanctifi- 
cation,  speaks  of  his  being  in  the  flesh  as 
a  thing  of  remembrance.  He  could  now 
look  back  upon  that  state,  with  the  full 
advantage  of  a  tender  and  enlightened 
conscience,  that  recognized  as  shiful  what 
he  before  had  never  charged  himself 
with,  as  incurring  the  guilt  of  any  viola- 
tion that  should  infer  death.  He  was 
even  then  free  from  the  grosser  profliga- 
cies of  human  wickedness;  and  lived  in 
the  deceitful  secui'ity  of  one,  who  thought 
that  all  his  duties  were  adequate  to  all  his 
obligations.  But  he  now  could  discern, 
that,  unblemished  as  he  was  in  respect  of 
all  outward  enormities,  he  was  then 
wholly  given  over  to  the  idolatry  of  his 
own  will ;  and  then  when  tried  by  a  law 
which  questioned  him  of  his  godliness — 
of  his  preference  for  the  Creator  above 
the  creature — of  his  obedience  to  the 
commandment,  that  he  should  covet  and 
desire  no  ear'^hly  good,  so  much  as  the 
favor  of  that  Being  at  whose  bidding  he 
ought  to  have  subordinated  all  the  affec- 
tions of  his  heart — When  thus  tried,  he 
could  now  plainly  perceive,  that,  at  that 
time,  he  was  altogether  carnal ;  and  not 
the  less  so  that  at  that  time  too,  he  with 
self  was  altogether  satisfied.  But  the  dif- 
ficulty is  to  make  that  which  was  a  thing 
of  remembrance  to  Paul  after  he  was 
converted,  to  make  it  a  thing  of  present 
consciousness  to  those  who  are  not  yet 
converted.  It  is  true,  it  was  on  the  eve  of 
his  becoming  a  christian  that  the  convic- 
tion of  sin  first  seized  him — nay,  this  very 
conviction  might  have  been  the  instru- 
ment of  turning  him  to  the  gospel.  And 
therefore  it  is  the  more  desirable,  to  reach 
the  same  conviction  to  the  hearts  of  those 
who  are  still  in  the  flesh  and  now  hearing 
me — to  make  them  understand,  how  whol- 
ly it  is  that  they  are  in  the  flesh — how  un- 
reservedly they  give  themselves  up  to  the 
impulse  of  all  those  constitutional  ten- 
dencies, which  result  from  the  existing 
mechanism  of  their  soul  and  body  and 
spirit,  without  any  control  upon  it  from  the 
accession  of  a  principle  of  godliness — 
how  much  they  live  and  talk  and  feel,  just 
as  they  would  have  done  though  the  idea 
of  a  God  were  never  present  to  them — So, 
in  fact,  as  to  be  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
habit  of  glorifying  the  Lord  with  their  soul 
and  body  and  spirit,  which  are  the  Lord's. 

For  the  purpose  of  awakening  this  con- 
viction, the  thing  wanted  is  both  a  more 
tender  and  a  more  lofty  conception  of 
the  divine  law.    Where  there  is  glaring 


deceit,  or  fell  malignity,  or  abandoned 
licentiousness  in  the  action — there  may 
be  less  of  difficulty  in  tracing  it  to  the 
operation  of  such  propensities,  as  in  truth 
work  those  palpable  deeds  of  disobedi- 
ence, which  obviously  and  undeniably 
have  their  fruit  unto  death.  But  when 
the  actions  are  those  of  industry  for  ex- 
ample in  a  lawful  calling,  or  of  light- 
heartedness  in  a  gay  and  harmless  amuse- 
ment, or  of  courtcousness  in  a  circle  of 
decent  and  estimable  companionship — 
Surely  they  are  such  actions  as  a  chris- 
tian may  perform ;  and  in  what  circum- 
stances, it  may  be  asked,  do  they  indicate 
the  performer  of  them  to  be  still  in  the 
flesh,  and  under  the  dominion  of  such 
appetites  as  bring  forth  fruit  unto  death  1 
Whatever  difficulty  we  may  feel  in  an- 
swering the  question,  it  can  be  replied  to, 
and  on  a  clear  and  intelligent  principle 
too,  by  that  law  which  is  a  discerner  of 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart. 
You  are  still  in  the  flesh,  if  what  you 
habitually  do  is  not  done  unto  God.  How- 
ever more  amiable  and  more  refined  your 
species  of  worldliness  may  be  than  that 
of  another,  yet  still,  if  you  are  not  walk- 
ing with  God,  you  are  walking  after  the 
flesh,  and  you  move  in  a  pictured  world 
of  atheism.  Such  may  be  your  dark  and 
obtuse  apprehensions  of  the  spiritual  mo- 
rality of  the  law — that  the  general  drift 
of  your  affections  being  away  from  God 
and  set  upon  earthly  things,  may  not  ap- 
pear to  the  eye  of  your  contemplation  as 
being  very  deeply  tinged  with  the  hue 
and  character  of  criminality.  But  by  the 
law  itself  this  is  declared  to  be  a  state 
and  habit  of  the  soul,  that  is  exceeding 
sinful ;  and  all  that  is  devised  and  all 
that  is  done  under  that  dominant  and  un- 
quelled  spirit  of  secularity,  which  is  the 
universal  spirit  of  unrenewed  and  unre- 
generated  nature,  is  done  by  those  who 
are  still  in  the  flesh,  and  all  the  desires  of 
whose  heart  bring  forth  fruit  unto  death. 

To  quicken  you  from  tliis  state — to 
transform  secularity  into  sacredness — to 
make  those  who  are  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins  alive  unto  God — to  usher  you 
into  other  feeling,s  and  other  principles, 
than  those  which  unchristianized  hu- 
manity ever  can  exemplify — This  in  fact 
is  the  great  and  ultimate;  design  of  the 
gospel,  which,  after  translating  you  into 
another  condition,  also  transforms  you 
into  another  character. 

V.  6.  'That  being  dead  wherein  we 
were  helcf  might  be  rendered  '  having 
died  in  Him  in  whom  we  were  held.'  The  j 
hiw  has  wreaked  the  whole  force  of  its 
vindication  on  the  head  of  our  great  sacri- 
fice ;  and  this  is  tantamount  to  our  having 
borne  the  penalty  ourselves  ;  and  so,  by 
our  death  in  Christ,  being  delivered  from 


208 


LECTURE  XXXIX. CHAPTER  VII,  5,  6. 


an  infliction  that  has  now  gone  by.  The 
law  has  no  further  reckoning  with  us,  on 
the  old  principle  of  do  this  and  live.  We 
are  not  now  under  what  the  apostle  in 
another  place  calls  the  ministry  of  con- 
demnation, or  under  the  authority  of  what 
he  in  the  same  place  calls  the  letter  that 
killeth.  The  commandment  no  longer 
frowns  upon  us,  from  the  place  which  it 
before  occupied  when  written  on  tables 
of  stone  ;  but  it  is  now  felt  in  persuasive 
influence  within  us,  because  written  now 
on  the  fleshly  tablets  of  our  heart.  It  no 
longer  acts  as  a  master,  who  drives  his 
reluctant  slaves  into  a  forced  compliance 
with  his  bidding ;  or  keeps  them  in  per- 
petual terror,  under  the  consciousness  of 
a  displeasure  which  no  act  or  strength  of 
theirs  can  allay.  It  is  now  their  hearts' 
desire,  instead  of  their  constrained  drudg- 
ery, to  fulfil  the  requisitions  of  the  law. 
The  honest  struggle  in  which  they  are 
embarked,  is  to  make  head  against  all 
that  corruption  of  nature,  which  would 
incline  them  to  disobedience ;  and  now 
in  the  hands  of  an  approving  friend  who 
deals  out  to  them  supplies  of  grace  and 
strength  for  the  warfare,  they  serve  in 
newness  of  spirit  and  not  in  the  oldness 
of  the  letter. 

So  that  whatever  the  change  be,  which 
takes  place  on  this  transition  from  nature 
to  the  gospel,  it  is  not  such  a  change  as 
carries  an  exoneration  from  service  along 
with  it.  It  may  be  service  in  another 
spirit,  and  under  a  different  stimulus  from 
before ;  but  still  it  is  service.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  true  faith  of  Christianity, 
which  exempts  its  disciples  from  the  ac- 
tive performance  of  virtue;  or  from  the 
most  assiduous  cultivation  of  all  moral 
and  of  all  spiritual  excellence.  So  that 
there  must  in  some  way,  be  a  misappre- 
hension of  the  matter,  when  it  is  thought 
of  the  New  Testament  or  of  the  evangeli- 
cal system  that  is  contained  in  it — as  if  it 
annulled  every  motive  to  righteousness ; 
or  substituted  the  contemplation  and  the 
quietism  of  a  mystic  theology,  in  place  of 
those  moralities  by  which  human  life  is 
adorned,  and  which  send  a  powerful  and 
practical  impulse  to  the  conduct  on  the 
busy  walks  of  human  society. 

It  may  be  difficult  on  this  subject,  to 
reach  the  understanding  of  those  who 
have  not  the  experimental  feeling  of  ii ; 
but  still  perhaps  they  may  be  able  to  ap- 
prehend, what  the  leading  characteristics 
are  of  that  service  which  is  rendered  in 
the  oldness  of  the  letter.  Under  this 
economy,  heaven  is  held  out  to  man  as 
the  reward  of  his  obedience — an  inherit- 
ance for  which  he  must  pay  value  ;  and 
that  never  will  be  his  without  the  pur- 
chase-money of  certain  specified  merits, 
and  certain  prescribed  services.    There 


is  something  in  this  state  of  matters  tha* 
is  powerfully  calculated  to  set  man  ago- 
ing ;  and  more  particularly  when  he  un- 
derstands it  to  be  the  alternative,  that» 
should  he  lose  heaven,  he  will  have  his 
part  through  eternity  among  the  un- 
quenchable torments  andever-during  ago- 
nies of  hell.  And  so  without  any  love  to 
virtue  in  itself,  but  from  the  single  princi- 
ple of  regard  to  his  own  safety — without 
any  native  hatred  of  sin,  but  from  the 
terror  of  that  awful  and  intolerable  ven- 
geance which  he  conceives  to  be  attached 
to  it — may  he  be  set  on  a  most  laborious 
course  of  dutiful  and  diligent  and  pains- 
taking obedience.  Now  only  suppose 
him  to  have  a  just  imagination  of  the  law, 
of  its  high  demands,  and  of  his  countless 
deficiencies  therefrom ;  and  do  you  not 
perceive,  that,  after  all,  they  are  the 
jealousies  of  distrust,  and  the  scrupulosi- 
ties of  fearfulness,  and  the  mercenary 
feelings  of  a  bargain,  and  the  extorted 
homage  of  sordid  and  slaysh  dcvoteeship, 
and  in  a  word  the  desires  or  the  dreads  of 
selfishness — that  these  form  the  main  con- 
stituents of  that  old  legal  service,  which  it 
is  the  purpose  of  the  gospel  to  supersede  1 
But  the  most  blasting  circumstance  of  the 
whole  is,  that  the  primary  influence  by 
which  this  course  of  obedience  has  been 
originated,  and  by  which  it  continues  to 
be  sustained — is  not  the  love  of  rectitude 
at  all,  but  of  a  something  in  the  shape  of 
reward  that  is  distinct  from  rectitude  ;  and 
not  a  spontaneous  aversion  of  the  heart  to 
sin,  but  the  recoil  of  animal  or  physical 
nature  from  that  suffering  which  follows 
in  the  train  of  sin.  There  are  no  great 
moral  characteristics,  to  stamp  or  to  sig- 
nalize the  activities  of  such  a  service ; 
and  to  view  man  plodding  and  drivelling 
in  this  career,  is  to  view  him  the  mere 
creature  of  his  own  personal  interests,  the 
degraded  bondsman  of  his  own  fears. 

From  this  view  of  what  it  is  to  serve 
God  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter,  let  us  pro- 
ceed to  the  view  of  what  it  is  to  serve  Him 
in  the  newness  of  the  spirit.  Under  this 
economy  the  door  of  heaven  is  thrown 
open  to  a  sinful  world  ;  and  the  signals 
of  invitation  are  hung  out  from  all  its 
portals ;  and,  instead  of  being  proposed 
as  the  unattainable  reward  of  an  obedi- 
ence utterly  beyond  the  power  of  hu- 
manity, it  is  held  forth  in  the  character 
of  an  accessible  gift  by  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  But  then  it  is  not  a 
heaven  of  sensuality  :  It  is  a  heaven  of 
sacredness.  It  is  not  a  place  for  the  re- 
creation of  animal  nature:  It  is  a  place 
for  the  high  recreation  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  faculties.  It  is  described  as  the 
land  of  uprightness  ;  and  its  main  delight 
as  lying  in  the  play  of  holy  affections, 
regaled  by  holy  exercises.    No  man  can 


LECTURE  XXXIX. CHAPTER  VII,  5,  6. 


209 


purchase  heaven  by  his  virtue ;  yet  no 
man  can  be  happy  in  heaven  without 
virtue — for  virtue  is  the  element  of  heaven ; 
and  without  the  preparation  of  a  virtuous 
heart  and  a  virtuous  character,  all  the 
appropriate  extacies  of  that  pure  and  lofty 
region  you  would  be  incapable  of  sharing 
in.  On  this  single  change  in  the  relation 
between  virtue  and  heaven,  do  you  pass 
from  service  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter  to 
service  in  the  newness  of  the  Spirit.  Your 
virtue  is  not  the  price  of  heaven  ;  for 
then  all  the  jealousies  of  a  bargain,  and 
the  freezing  apprehensions  of  legality, 
would  degrade  it  from  a  thing  of  sponta- 
neous love  to  a  thing  of  selfishness.  But 
virtue  is  your  indispensable  preparation 
for  heaven,  to  which  you  are  freely  beck- 
oned in  the  gospel  by  all  the  tokens  of 
welcome  and  good-will ;  and  the  man  who 
has  this  believingly  in  his  eye,  forthwith 
enters  with  a  new-born  alacrity  and  de- 
light on  the  career  of  holiness.  He  loves 
it,  not  for  any  distinct  or  separate  reward, 
but  he  loves  it  for  itself;  and  gratitude  to 
Him,  who  poured  out  His  soul  as  an  ex- 
piation for  his  sins,  engages  his  affection 
to  it  the  more  ;  and  the  soul,  disengaged 
from  all  anxieties  about  a  debt  which 
Christ  hath  extinguished  and  a  condem- 
nation which  Christ  hath  done  away,  is 
now  at  leisure  and  at  liberty  for  the  pro- 
secution of  all  moral  excellence  ;  and  the 
law,  put  into  his  heart  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  is  now  his  heart-felt  delight,  instead 
of  being  as  before  his  hopeless  and  un- 
availing drudgery.  He  has  become  a  new 
creature.  The  taste  and  the  affection  of 
holy  angels  have  been  given  to  him  ;  and 
we  refer  to  you  all — on  comparing  the 
service  that  is  prompted  by  a  love  for  the 
reward  of  the  law,  with  the  service  that  is 
prompted  by  a  love  to  the  righteousness 
of  the  law — which  of  the  two  presents 
you  with  virtue  in  its  most  generous  style 
of  exhibition,  and  which  of  them  it  is  that 


forms  the  highest  and  the  noblest  offer- 
ing. 

It  might  perhaps  help  to  clear  this  mat- 
ter,  did  we  think  that  the  great  object  of 
the  economy  under  which  we  sit  is  to  be- 
come like  unto  God.  Now,  it  is  not  for 
reward  that  God  is  righteous  ;  but  the  love 
of  righteousness  for  itself  is  the  original 
property  of  His  nature.  Neither  is  it 
under  the  dread  of  punishment,  that  He 
shuns  iniquity  ;  but  it  is  because  He  hates 
iniquity.  There  is  nought  of  legalism  in 
the  morality  of  the  Godhead ;  but  it  is  a 
morality  which  springs  from  the  primi- 
tive and  emanating  fountains  of  His  own 
character,  and  spreads  out  in  free  and 
spontaneous  efflorescence  over  all  His 
ways.  It  is  not  with  a  prospective  regard 
to  some  future  heaven,  that  is  to  be  ad- 
judged to  Him  from  a  tribunal  which  is 
loftier  than  Himself — it  is  not  under  an  in- 
fluence like  this,  that  God  is  so  observant 
of  truth,  and  so  strict  in  justice,  and  of 
such  unwearied  beneficence.  These  in 
fact  have  constituted  His  heaven  from 
eternity;  and  it  is  just  this  spiritual  hea- 
ven, the  delight  of  which  lies  in  its  love 
and  in  its  holiness — it  is  this,  and  no  other, 
that  awaits  those  who  are  here  admitted 
to  the  number  of  His  children  through  the 
faith  which  is  in  Christ,  and  have  the  fa- 
mily likeness  imparted  to  them.  Then  it 
is  that  you  pass  from  the  oldness  of  the 
letter  to  the  newness  of  the  Spirit — when, 
instead  of  toiling  at  the  observations  of 
virtue  for  a  sordid  reward  distinct  and  se- 
parate from  virtue  itself,  you  are  prompt- 
ed to  the  observations  of  virtue  by  the 
spontaneous  love  which  you  bear  to  it. 
This  alone  is  true  moral  excellence,  puri- 
fied of  all  that  taint  of  selfishness  by 
which  it  were  otherwise  debased  and  vi- 
tiated ;  and  it  is  only  when  transformed 
into  this,  that  you  are  formed  again  after 
the  image  of  God  in  righteousness  and  in 
true  holiness. 


LECTURE  XL. 

Romans  vii,  7 — 13. 


"  What  shall  we  say  then.  1  Is  the  law  sin  1  God  forbid.  Nay,  I  had  not  known  sin  but  by  the  law  ;  for  I  had  not 
known  lust,  except  the  law  had  said,  Thou  shalt  not  covet  But  sin,  taking  occasion  by  the  commandment, 
wrought  in  me  all  manner  of  concupiscence.  For  without  the  law  sin  was  dead.  For  I  was  alive  without  the 
law  once ;  but  when  the  commandment  came,  sin  revived  and  I  died.  And  the  commandment,  which  was  or- 
dained to  life,  I  found  to  be  unto  death.  For  sin,  taking  occasion  by  the  commandment,  deceived  me,  and  by  it 
slew  me.  Wherefore  the  law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment  holy  and  just  and  good.  Was  then  that  which  is 
good  made  death  unto  me?  God  forbid.  But  sin,  that  it  might  appear  sin,  working  death  in  me  by  that  which  i.s 
good;  that  sin  by  the  commandment  might  become  exceeding  sinful." 


The    apostle   had  before  affirmed  as 
much,  as  that  it  was  the  law  which  consti- 
tuted that  to  be  sinful,  that  without  the  law 
could  have^ad  no  such  character  ascrib- 
27 


ed  to  it — nay  perhaps,  that  even  the  law 
called  forth  into  living  energy  and  opera- 
tion, certain  sinful  affections,  which,  but 
for  it  acting  as  a  provocative,  might  have 


210 


LECTURE   XL. CHAPTER   VII,    7 13. 


lain  within  us  in  a  state  of  latent  and  of 
unobserved  dormancy.  And  he  seems  to 
feel  in  this  verse,  as  if  this  might,  in  the 
apprehension  of  his  readers,  attach  the 
same  sort  of  odiousness  to  the  law  that  is 
attached  to  sin  itself  This  charge  against 
the  law,  he  repels  4vilh  the  utmost  vehe- 
mence and  decision,  and  that  sort  of  readi- 
ness which  carries  somewhat  the  expres- 
sion of  indignancy  along  with  it.  And 
the  first  consideration  that  he  calls  to  his 
aid  is,  that  the  law  acted  as  a  discoverer 
of  sin.  He  had  not  known  sin  but  by  the 
law  ;  and  he  had  not  known  lust,  or  as 
some  would  understand  this  clause,  he  had 
not  known  the  sinfulness  of  lust,  or  he 
had  not  known  lust  to  be  sinful,  except  the 
law  had  said  '  thou  shalt  not  covet.'  It  is 
no  impeachment  against  the  evenness  of  a 
ruler,  that,  by  the  application  of  it  to  any 
material  surftice,  you  can  discover  all  that 
is  crooked  or  unequal  thereupon.  On  the 
contrary  its  very  power  of  doing  so  proves 
how  straight  and  unerring  it  is  in  itself; 
and  the  more  minute  the  deviations  are 
which  it  can  manifest  to  the  eye  of  the 
observer,  the  greater  is  the  evidence  that 
is  afforded  to  the  perfection  of  the  instru- 
ment that  you  are  using.  The  light  of 
day  may  reveal  a  place  of  impurity,  or  a 
soil  in  the  colouring  of  the  object  that  you 
contemplate,  which  could  not  be  recog- 
nised under  the  shade  of  midnight — nor 
yet  in  the  duskiness  of  approaching  even. 
Yet  who  would  ever  think  on  that  account, 
of  ascribing  to  the  beautiful  element  of 
light,  any  of  that  pollution  or  deformity, 
which  the  light  has  brought  forth  to  obser- 
vation 1  The  character  of  one  thing  may 
come  more  impressively  home  to  our  dis- 
cernment, by  its  contrast  with  the  charac- 
ter of  another  thing.;  and  the  stronger  the 
contrast  is  between  the  two,  the  more  in- 
tense may  our  perception  become  of  the 
distinct  and  appropriate  character  of  each 
of  them.  But  it  were  indeed  very  strange, 
if  the  dissimilarity  of  these  two  things, 
should  be  the  circumstance  that  led  us  to 
confound  them  ;  or  if  when  because  placed 
beside  each  other,  the  one  became  more 
palpably  an  object  of  disgust  than  if 
viewed  separately — the  other  should  not 
on  that  very  account,  become  more  pal- 
pably and  more  powerfully  the  object  of 
our  admiration.  When  one  man  stands 
before  you  in  the  full  lustre  and  loveli- 
ness of  moral  worth,  and  another  loath- 
some in  all  the  impurities  of  vice  and 
wickedness — the  very  presence  of  the  first, 
may  generate  in  the  heart  of  the  observer, 
a  keener  sensation  of  repugnancy  towards 
the  second ;  and  this  not  surely  because 
they  have  any  thing  in  common,  but  be- 
cause they  have  every  thing  in  wide  and 
glaring  opposition.  It  were  indeed  a  most 
perverse  inference  to  draw,  from  the  fact 


of  virtue  having  shed  an  aspect  of  greater 
hatefulness  on  the  vice  that  is  contiguous 
to  it — that  therefore  it  must  gather  upon 
itself,  the  same  hue  and  the  same  hateful- 
ness which  it  has  imparted  to  the  other. 
This  were  altogether  reversing  the  pro- 
perty of  a  foil,  which  is  certainly  not  to 
obscure  but  to  heighten  the  opposite  ex- 
cellence. And  the  same  of  sin  and  of  the 
law.  The  law  is  the  ruler  which  marks 
and  exposes  the  crookedness  of  sin — not 
because  crooked  itself,  but  because  pre- 
cisely and  purely  rectilinear.  And  it  is 
the  light  which  reveals  the  blackness  and 
the  darkness  of  sin — not  because  these 
are  its  own  properties,  but  because  of  its 
clear  and  lucid  transparency.  And  it  is 
the  bright  exemplar  of  virtue,  which  re- 
bukes and  vilifies  all  the  wickedness  that 
it  looks  upon, — not  surely  because  of  any 
vileness  imputable  to  it ;  but  because  of 
the  force  wherewith  it  causes  this  imputa- 
tion to  descend,  from  the  elevation  of  its 
own  unclouded  purity,  on  the  dross  and 
the  degradation  and  the  tarnish  by  which 
it  is  surrounded.  So  that  to  the  question, 
'Is  the  law  therefore  sin  because  it  makes 
sin  known,' — the  answer  is  No.  It  makes 
sin  known,  not  because  of  any  participa- 
tion at  all  in  its  character,  but  because  of 
its  strong  and  total  dissimilarity. 

V.  8.  But  from  the  first  clause  of  this 
verse  it  would  appear,  that  the  law  does 
more  than  make  the  deformity  more  no- 
ticeable and  more  odious  than  before.  It 
is  even  the  occasion  of  aggravating  that 
deformity,  by  making  sin  more  actively 
rebellious,  and  causing  it  to  be  the  more 
foul  and  more  abundant  in  its  deeds  of 
atrocity.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the 
fact,  that  the.  law  of  God  does  not  cure 
what  the  apostle  here  calls  the  concupis- 
cence of  men,  or  in  other  words  the  de- 
sire of  man's  heart  towards  any  forbidden 
indulgence ;  and  this  desire  not  being 
cured  by  the  law,  is  just  thereby  heated 
and  exasperated  the  more.  The  very  re 
morse  that  follows  in  the  train  of  any  vio- 
lation, is  of  itself  a  constant  feeder  of  th 
mind  with  such  suggestions  and  image? 
as  serve  to  renew  the  temptation  to  whatj 
is  evil.  It  is  ever  bringing  the  though 
into  contact  with  such  objects  as  before 
overcame  the  purposes  of  the  inner  man, 
and  may  again  overcome  them — and  the 
very  consciousness  of  having  broken  a 
law,  by  perpetually  adhering  to  the  heart 
and  pervading  it  with  the  conviction  of 
sin,  is  just  as  perpetually  operating  on  the 
heart  with  the  excitements  of  sin.  The 
man  who  does  what  is  morally  wrong,  and 
thinks  no  more  of  it,  may  never  repeat 
transgression  till  its  outward  influences 
have  again  come  about  him,  after  it  may 
be,  the  interval  of  many  days  or  months, 
and  prevailed  over  him  as  before.    But 


lel 

!S,|. 


LECTURE   XL. CHAPTER   VII,    7 13. 


211 


the  man  who  is  conscious-stricken  because 
of  his  iniquity,  and  who  is  ever  brooding 
under  a  sense  of  guilt  and  degradation, 
and  who  ever  and  anon  recurs  to  it  as  the 
ceaseless  topic  of  his  many  cogitations 
and  many  cares — Such  a  man  has  the 
image  of  allurement  present  to  his 
thoughts,  and  that  too  during  the  whole 
extent  of  those  frequent  and  lengthened 
intervals  of  time,  when  they  are  not  pre- 
sent to  his  senses.  And  thus  does  the  law 
turn  out  an  occasional  cause,  why  with 
him  there  should  be  both  a  more  intense 
and  a  more  abiding  fermentation  of  all 
the  sinful  appetites  of  our  nature, — than 
with  another,  who,  reckless  of  law  and  un- 
disturbed by  its  accusing  voice,  just  lives 
at  random  and  more  under  the  impulse  of 
outward  events  than  of  his  own  inward 
propensities  and  inward  processes.  And, 
what  adds  to  the  helplessness  of  this  whole 
calamity  is,  that,  while  the  law  thus 
scourges  the  unhappy  victim  of  remorse, 
it  gives  him  no  strength  and  no  encourage- 
ment for  the  warfare.  It  gives  a  new  as- 
sailing force  to  his  enemies,  but  no  force 
of  resistance  to  himself, — because  depriv- 
ing him  of  the  inspiring  energy  that  is  in 
hope,  it  gives  him  in  its  place  the  dread 
and  the  desperation  of  an  outlaw.  It  tells 
how  by  its  unrelenting  power  and  its  ir- 
revocable curse,  that  he  is  undone  ;  and 
he,  by  a  process  that  in  fact  is  oft  exem- 
plified in  the  sad  history  of  many  an 
apostate,  may,  just  because  of  his  sensibil- 
ities at  one  time  to  the  law  of  God,  have 
now  become  the  more  sunken  in  all  pro- 
fligacy, the  more  daring  and  determined 
in  all  wickedness. 

And  yet  the  law  here  is  not  in  fault.  It 
is  sin  which  is  in  fault.  The  law  is  not 
the  proper  and  primary  fountain  of  all 
this  mischief  It  is  sin  which  look  occa- 
sion by  the  law — which,  at  sight  of  the 
law,  strengthened  itself  the  more  in  its 
own  character  ;  and  felt  a  more  decided 
impulse  than  ever,  to  the  emission  of  all 
those  influences  on  the  heart  of  man,  by 
which  all  manner  of  concupiscence  is 
wrought  therein.  Which  of  the  two  par- 
ties then,  whether  is  it  sin  or  the  law,  that 
deserves  the  blame  and  the  odiousness  1 
It  is  conceivable  of  the  worthless  repro- 
bate, that  he  may  be  brought  into  the 
presence  of  him  who  stands  high  and 
pure  and  undoubted  in  all  moral  estima- 
tion ;  and  that  he  sickens,  either  with 
envy  or  in  despair,  at  the  contemplation 
of  an  excellence  which  he  cannot  reach  ; 
and  that  the  reaction  which  descends 
upon  him  from  the  elevation  of  another's 
virtue  he  is  now  looking  to,  may  but 
fortify  him  with  greater  spite  and  tena- 
ciousness  than  ever  in  all  his  purposes  of 
evil.  Though  such  be  practically  the 
"esult  of  such  an  interview,  will  not  the 


sainted  holiness  and  integrity  of  the  good 
man,  still  shine  out  in  the  same  cloudless 
and  unimpeached  lustre  as  before?  and 
will  not  all  the  hardening  and  all  the 
resoluteness  of  depravity  which  his  pre- 
sence has  created  in  the  bosom  of  another, 
just  serve  to  bring  down  upon  that  other 
a  still  feller  and  heavier  imputation ! 
And  it  is  just  so  with  the  two  parties, 
whose  merits  the  apostle  is  employed  in 
adjusting  in  the  passage  before  us.  It  is 
not  the  commandment  which  works  all 
manner  of  concupiscence.  But  it  is  sin 
which  taketh  occasion  by  the  command- 
ment; and  it  all  goes  to  aggravate  the 
moral  hideousness  of  our  nature,  that,  on 
the  approach  of  so  pure  and  righteous  a 
visitor  as  the  law  of  God,  it  is  thereby 
prompted  to  break  forth  into  more  auda- 
cious rebellion,  and  to  give  itself  up  to 
the  excesses  of  a  more  loose  and  lawless 
abandonment. 

And  it  is  in  this  sense,  and  in  this  sense 
only,  that  the  law  is  the  occasion  of  death 
to  those  who  have  disobeyed  it.  This 
sore  infliction  is  primarily  and  properly 
due  to  sin,  which  taketh  occasion  by  the 
law.  It  is  conceivable,  as  we  have  al- 
ready said,  that  the  very  company  of  a 
man  of  righteousness,  might  so  distance 
and  so  degrade  in  his  own  eyes  a  man  of 
iniquity — as  that,  with  the  desperate  feel- 
ing of  an  outcast  from  all  honourable 
estimation,  he  might  henceforth  give  him- 
self over  to  the  full  riot  and  extravagance 
of  villany.  He  might  even  under  this 
process  of  depravation  have  become  a 
murderer;  and  so  entailed  upon  himself  a 
death  of  vengeance,  for  the  death  of  vio- 
lence that  he  inflicted  upon  another.  But 
who  would  ever  think  of  laying  either  his 
own  blood,  or  the  blood  of  his  victim,  to 
the  door  of  him  whose  excellence  had 
only  called  out  into  more  open  decision 
and'  display  the  hatefulness  of  his  own 
character]  Even  though  this  man  of 
righteousness  had  been  his  judge,  and  had 
passed  upon  him  the  sentence  of  execu- 
tion for  his  crimes — yet  who  does  not  see, 
that  his  crimes  are  all  his  own;  and  that 
even  though  provoked  into  being  by  the 
view  of  another's  worth,  or  by  the  galling 
prohibitions  of  the  righteous  example  or 
of  the  righteous  authority  tbrj.  had  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  him — tiia;  ftill  this 
only  served  to  blazor.  and  to  enhance  his 
own  turpitude,  without  transferring  one 
particle  either  of  its  guilt  or  of  its  foulness 
to  the  pure  and  honourable  arbiter  of  his 
destiny  ]  And  so  again  of  the  parties — 
even  sin  and  the  law.  The  law  is  the 
exemplar  of  perfect  virtue,  and  it  is  the 
expounder  of  perfect  virtue  ;  and  she  may 
further  be  regarded  as  the  executioner  of 
virtuous  wrath  on  all  who  have  disowned 
and  have  defied  her.    And  if  so  be,  that 


212 


LECTURE   XL. CHAPTER    VII,    7 — 13. 


they  have  been  excited  to  a  prouder  and 
more  tumultuous  defiance,  by  the  very 
restraints  which  the  presence  of  the  law 
has  imposed  upon  them — this  just  makes 
their  sin  more  exceeding  sinful  ;  both 
bringing  it  out  to  more  glaring  exhibition, 
and  stamping  a  deeper  atrocity  upon  its 
character. 

Thus  much  for  the  first  clause  of  this 
8th  verse — and,  as  we  want  not  to  repeat 
more  than  enough,  we  would  make  these 
illustrations  serve  for  the  10th,  11th,  and 
13th  verses,  which  we  now  read  out  in 
your  hearing — only  adding  one  observa- 
tion about  sin  taking  occasion  by  the 
commandment  to  deceive  in  order  to  des- 
troy. It  slays  its  victim  by  a  process  of 
deception,  of  which  deception  the  law  is 
made  the  instrument.  It  may  do  this  in 
various  ways  and  by  various  wiles.  As 
the  man's  remorse  is  continually  leading 
him  to  brood  over  the  transgression — so 
sin  may  take  advantage  of  this  employ- 
ment, and  follow  it  up  by  leading  the  man 
to  dwell  as  constantly  on  the  temptation 
which  led  to  it.  Or  it  may  represent  the 
man  to  himself  as  the  doomed  and  irre- 
coverable victim  of  a  law,  that  can  never 
be  appeased  by  any  subsequent  obedience 
— and  thus,  through  means  of  this  law 
again,  may  it  drive  him  onward  to  the 
profligate  excesses  of  a  ruthless  desperado. 
Or,  changing  its  device  and  its  policy, 
may  it  soothe  him  in  a  favourite  though 
forbidden  indulgence,  by  setting  forth  to 
his  remembrance  the  many  offerings 
which  he  hath  already  rendered  to  this 
same  law ;  and  the  many  conformities  of 
Honesty,  or  Temperance,  or  Compassion, 
or  Courteousness,  by  which  he  still  con- 
tinues to  do  it  honour.  And  lastly,  it  may 
even  turn  his  very  compunction  into  a 
matter  of  complacency ;  and  persuade 
the  man,  that,  in  defect  of  the  homage  of 
his  obedience  to  the  law,  it  is  at  least  well 
that  he  gives  it  the  homage  of  his  regret 
for  his  many  violations — and  so  with  a 
feeling  of  very  tolerable  security,  may  he 
spend  his  life  in  a  constant  alternation  of 
sinning  and  sorrowing;  of  first  offending 
his  conscience  by  the  freedoms  of  his 
life,  and  then  of  quieting  it  again  by  the 
feelings  of  a  bosom,  where  all  sense  of 
the  commandment  and  of  its  obligations 
has  not  yet  decayed  into  utter  annihila- 
tion. And  in  these  various  wa)^s,  may  a 
process  of  depravation  be  going  on,  under 
the  guise  of  much  solemn  and  reverential 
acknowledgment ;  and  the  man  be  be- 
trayed inVi  peace  where  there  is  no  peace  ; 
and  sin  be  ripening  into  full  ascendancy, 
even  where  its  triumphs  are  mingled  with 
the  terrors  and  the  sighs  of  penitency  ; 
and  at  length,  through  the  medium  of 
many  legal  formalities  and  legal  feelings, 
acquiring  a  supreme  authority  in  that 


heart  which  is  deceitful  above  all  things 
and  desperately  wicked. 

We  now  direct  your  attention  to  the 
last  clause  of  the  eighth  verse.  "  For 
without  the  law  sin  was  dead" — dead  in 
respect  of  all  power  to  condemn  you,  had 
there  been  actually  no  law,  or  had  its 
authority  been  really  extinguished  ;  and 
dead  in  respect  of  its  inability  to  stir  up 
the  alarms  of  condemnation  in  your  heart, 
had  the  sense  or  feeling  of  its  authority 
been  extinguished  :  and,  in  both  cases, 
dead  as  to  its  power  of  seducing  or  en- 
slaving you,  by  means  of  a  remorse  that 
were  thus  obliterated,  or  of  terrors  that 
would  thus  never  agitate  the  bosom.  All 
this,  on  the  supposition  of  being  without 
the  law,  or  without  any  sense  in  your 
heart  either  of  its  high  requisitions,  or  of 
the  high  and  unalterable  sanctions  which 
enforced  the  observation  of  them.  And 
in  the  next  verse  Paul  is  visited  with  the 
remembrance  of  his  own  state,  in  a  for- 
mer period  of  his  history — when  ignorant 
as  he  was  of  the  exceeding  breadth  of 
God's  commandment ;  when  unaware  of 
the  reach  which  it  took,  into  the  very 
secrecy  of  his  affections  and  desires ; 
when,  not  adverting  to  its  character  as  a 
searching  and  a  spiritual  law,  he  looked 
forward  to  a  life  of  favour  here  and  of 
blessedness  hereafter,  on  the  strength  of 
his  many  outward  compliances  and  his 
many  literal  observations.  He  was  thus 
alive  without  the  law  once  ;  and  it  was 
not  till  the  commandment  came — not  till 
it  revealed  to  him  the  whole  extent  of  its 
authority  and  its  cognizance — not  till  he 
was  made  to  see  what  its  lofty  demands 
were,  and  what  his  wretched  and  irreco- 
verable deficiencies  therefrom — Not  till 
then  was  it,  that  sin  revived  in  him  ;  that 
its  terrors  and  its  convictions  aAvoke  upon 
his  soul ;  that  it  stirred  him  up  to  such 
restless  and  unavailing  struggles,  as  short- 
ened not  his  distance  from  perfection : 
And  perhaps  while  it  whetted  his  remorse, 
gave  a  darker  and  more  desperate  charac- 
ter to  his  rebellion  ;  or  at  all  events  dis- 
posted  him  from  the  proud  security  of  his 
old  imaginations  ;  and  made  him  see,  that, 
instead  of  a  victorious  claimant  for  the 
rewards  of  the  law,  he  was  the  trembling 
victim  of  its  menaces  and  its  penalties. 

V.  9.  The  state  that  Paul  here  describes 
as  being  at  one  time  his  own,  is  in  fact 
the  prevalent  state  of  the  world.  The  men 
of  it  live  in  tolerable  comfort  and  security 
all  their  days ;  and  that,  just  because 
blind  to  those  awful  and  besetting  reali- 
ties by  which  they  are  encompassed — and 
dead  to  the  tender  invitations  of  the  gos- 
pel, only  because  dead  to  the  terrifying 
menaces  of  the  law.  They  are  without 
all  adequate  sense  of  its  obligations,  or  of 
the  power  and  certainty  of  His  wrath  who 


LECTURE   XL. CUAPTER   VII,    7 13. 


213 


established  it ;  and  who  will  see  to  it  that 
its  authority  shall  be  maintained,  and  its 
many  threats  and  many  proclamations 
shall  one  and  all  of  them  be  verified.  It 
is  because  the  sinner  is  without  the  law, 
J  or  without  any  strong  and  affective  con- 
viction of  all  the  places  in  his  heart  and 
in  his  history  to  which  its  government  ex- 
tends— that  he  sees  not  the  danger  of  the 
condition  which  he  occupies,  nor  reflects 
upon  himself  as  a  transgressor,  whose 
condemnation  even  unto  spiritual  and 
everlasting  death  is  altogether  due  to  its 
violated  honours.  Not  till  the  law  came, 
did  Paul  look  upon  himself  as  a  doomed 
and  devoted  malefactor,  thankful  for  the 
offered  pardon  of  the  gospel,  and  humbly 
acquiescing  in  its  proposals  and  its  ways 
for  his  acceptance  with  God.  And  thus  it 
is  that  we  count  it  so  highly  important, 
when  the  Spirit  lends  His  efficacy  to  our 
demonstrations  of  the  might  and  majesty 
of  the  divine  law — when  He  thereby 
arouses  the  careless  sinner  out  of  his 
lethargies,  and  causes  him  to  see  that 
there  is  a  coming  wrath  from  which  there 
is  no  escaping  but  by  an  offered  gospel — 
when  by  the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  He  per- 
suades the  man  to  flee  for  refuge  to  the 
hope  set  before  him  there — when  He  opens 
his  eyes  to  the  dread  exhibition  of  his  own 
guilt,  and  of  the  fiery  vengeance  that  out 
of  Christ  and  away  from  his  cross  is  sure 
to  overtake  it — when  He  thus  pursues  him 
as  with  an  arrow  sticking  fast,  and  lets 
him  not  alone,  till,  an  awed  and  a  hum- 
bled penitent,  he  is  glad  to  stretch  forth 
his  hand  to  the  propitiation  which  God 
hath  set  forth  unto  the  world,  and  so  to 
wash  out  his  sins  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb. 

V.  12.  The  apostle  had  already  de- 
livered the  law  from  all  charge  of  odious- 
ness,  because  of  the  death  which  it  in- 
flicted ;  and  because  of  the  sin  which  it 
exposed,  and  even  excited  with  greater 
fierceness  and  power  in  a  sinner's  heart. 
And  now  does  he  render  it  the  positive 
homage  of  all  that  acknowledgment, 
which  was  due  to  its  real  character — as 
the  tablet  or  the  representation  of  all 
moral  excellence — bodied  forth  from  the 
conceptions  of  the  Divinity  Himself,  into 
an  authoritative  model  of  perfection — and 
(had  man  taken  upon  his  soul  the  fair 
and  the  full  impression  of  it)  conveying 
from  Him  who  is  the  fountain-head  of 
virtue,  the  lovely  impress  of  its  accom- 
plishments and  its  graces  to  the  creatures 
whom  He  had  formed.  If  the  law  be  the 
occasion  of  death,  or  of  more  fell  and 
frightful  depravity,  to  its  subjects — it  is 
not  because  of  any  evil  that  is  in  its  cha- 
racter ;  but  because  of  the  evil  of  that  sin 
which  is  in  their  nature.  Such  an  effect 
may  demonstrate  the  malignity  of  sin, 


or  show  more  strikingly  than  before  the 
exceeding  sinfulness  thereof.  But  it  can 
in  no  way  be  construed  into  an  impeach- 
ment against  the  law — which  stands  ex- 
onerated of  all  the  mischief,  that  ought 
properly  and  primarily  to  be  refei'red  to 
the  corruption  of  our  own  hearts.  That 
vice  should  gather  itself  into  an  attitude 
of  more  stout  and  shameless  defiance,  at 
the  sight  or  at  the  bidding  of  virtue — is 
indeed  a  fell  aggravation  of  all  the  enor- 
mities, wherewith  it  is  chargeable  ;  but 
still  virtue  shines  forth  with  untarnished 
lustre,  or  rather  enhanced  in  all  fair  and 
righteous  estimation,  when  thus  placed 
by  the  side  of  this  contiguous  worthless- 
ness :  Or  the  law  by  which  virtue  is  pour- 
trayed,  and  virtue  is  enacted,  still  retains 
her  primitive  and  endearing  characters 
of  being  wise  and  holy  and  just  and  good. 

This  may  lead  to  the  solution  of  a  ques- 
tion, by  which  the  legal  heart  of  man 
often  feels  itself  embarrassed  and  exer- 
cised— a  question  which  we  have  often 
attempted  to  treat  and  to  resolve  in  your 
hearing;  and  by  which  we  may  have 
succeeded  in  laying  for  a  season  the  ob- 
stinate legalism  of  nature.  But  it  recurs 
again  with  its  unquelled  difficulties,  and 
its  unappeased  longings  after  a  reward 
and  a  righteousness  of  its  own  ;  and,  with 
its  eye  open  to  the  palpable  truth,  that 
God  still  urges  upon  us  that  very  law,  by 
which  our  justification  is  impossible — 
that,  under  the  economy  of  the  gospel, 
works  are  still  in  imperative  demand, 
even  after  grace  has  been  proclaimed  to 
us  as  the  only  M'ay  of  salvation — the  per- 
plexity from  which  it  wants  to  be  unrid- 
dled is.  Why  should  the  law  that  is  now 
deposed  from  the  office  to  which  it  was  at 
one  time  ordained  of  being  a  minister 
unto  life;  and  has  now  become  a  minister 
unto  death — why  should  it  still  be  kept  up 
in  authority  and  importance,  and  obe- 
dience to  it  be  as  strenuously  requii'ed, 
and  a  conformity  of  character  to  it  be 
held  as  indispensable,  under  our  present 
dispensation  as  under  the  old  one  ] 

In  order  that  God  should  will  our  obe- 
dience to  the  law,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
give  to  obedience  the  legal  importance 
and  efficacy  that  it  had  under  the  old  dis- 
pensafion.  All  that  is  necessary  to  make 
God  delight  in  the  morality  of  His  crea- 
tures, and  that  He  should  please  their 
observation  of  it,  is  that  this  morality  be 
to  Him  in  itself  a  gladdening  object  of 
contemplation.  There  was  a  material 
chaos  at  the  outset  of  our  present  system 
— out  of  which  the  Spirit  of  God  moving 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  educed  the 
loveliest  forms  of  hill  and  dale  and  mighty 
ocean  and  waving  forests,  and  all  that 
richness  of  bloom  and  verdure  and  vege- 
table beauty  which  serves  to  dress  and  to 


214 


LECXaRE   XL. CHAPTER   VII,    7 13. 


diversify  the  landscape  of  nature.  And 
it  is  said  liiat  God  saw  every  thing  to  be 
good,  and  rejoiced  over  the  worlcs  of  His 
creative  hand.  Now  there  was  no  legality 
whatever  in  this  most  obvious  nnd  intelli- 
gible process.  The  ornaments  of  a  flow- 
er,  or  the  gracefulness  of  a  tree,  or  the 
soft  magnilicence  of  a  whole  extended 
and  outspread  scenery — these  are  not  and 
cannot  be  the  otierings  of  inanimate  mat- 
ter, by  which  it  purchases  the  smile  and 
the  regards  of  the  Divinity.  And  yet  it  is 
with  the  smiles  of  complacency,  that  the 
Divinity  does  regard  them.  The  Almighty 
Artist  loves  to  behold  the  fair  composition 
that  He  Himself  has  made ;  and  wills 
each  of  His  works  to  be  perfect  in  its 
kind  ;  and  dwells  with  satisfaction  and 
joy  on  the  panorama  of  visible  excellence, 
that  He  has  spread  before  His  throne; 
and  rather  would  He  look  to  the  freshness 
of  its  many  decorations,  than  to  a  univer- 
sal blight  of  nature,  when  every  flovver 
should  sicken  upon  its  stalk,  and  all  those 
pencilled  hues  by  which  the  surface  of 
our  earth  is  adorned  should  be  swept 
away  by  the  pestilence  of  a  tainted  at- 
mosphere above  it.  So  that  in  a  case  to 
which  legality  is  quite  inapplicacle,  does 
God  prefer  His  creatures  to  be  of  one 
form  and  comeliness  rather  than  another 
— does  He  love  beauty  rather  than  defor- 
mity, and  harmony  rather  than  confusion  ; 
and  when  He  did  put  forth  on  the  dark 
and  chaotic  mass  of  warring  elements  the 
power  of  His  transforming  hand,  it  was 
to  spread  out  a  scene  of  loveliness  before 
Him,  and  ty  lavish  upon  it  the  gayest  and 
the  goodliest  adornments. 

And  Ihe  same  of  the  moral  taste  of  the 
Godhead.  He  loves  what  is  wise  and 
holy  and  just  and  good  in  the  world  of 
mind  ;  and  with  a  far  higher  affection  too, 
than  He  loves  what  is  fair  and  graceful 
and  comely  in  the  world  of  matter.  He 
has  a  pleasure  in  beholding  what  may  be 
styled  a  moral  comeliness  of  character; 
and  the  office  of  His  Spirit  at  this  mo- 
ment, is  to  evolve  this  beauteous  exhibi- 
tion out  of  the  chaos  of  ruined  and  rebel- 
lious humanity.  And  to  forward  this 
process,  it  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  be 
stimulated  to  exertion  by  the  moti\4es  of 
legalism.  All  that  is  necessary  is,  that 
man  be  submitted  to  the  transforming 
operations  of  the  divine  Spirit ;  and  that 
he  shall  willingly  follow  His. impulses,  at 
the  will  of  that  God  who  requires  it  of 
him.  And  must  God,  we  ask,  ere  He  can 
gratify  His  relish  for  the  higher  beauties 
of  morality  and  of  mind,  first  have  to 
make  a  bargain  ab6ut  it  with  His  crea- 
tures? Is  not  His  creative  hand  as  free  to 
follow  the  impulses  of  His  taste  for  the 
beauties  of  moral,  as  for  the  beauties  of 
material  landscape  1  Out  of  the  corporeal 


chaos  did  He,  in  obedience  to  His  love  of 
order  and  gracefulness  in  our  visible 
world,  educe  all  that  symmetry  and  splen 
dour  and  perfect  organization  by  which 
we  are  surrounded,  and  rejoices  over  < 
them.  This  was  His  will  of  matter,  everi  • 
its  harmonization.  And  in  like  manner 
does  He  now  operate  on  a  spiritual  chaos  ; 
and  out  of  the  malice  and  impurity  and 
rebellious  deviation  from  God,  and  all  the 
jarring  influences  by  which  it  is  agitated 
and  deformed,  does  He  educe  love  and 
peace  and  beauteous  accordancy  with  the 
perfect  law  of  heaven.  This  is  His  will  I 
of  mind,  even  its  sanctificatiun.  He  does  \ 
not  need  to  truckle  or  negociate  with  us 
upon  the  subject,  or  to  enter  into  any  such 
legal  understandmg  on  the  matter,  as  in 
fact  to  lay  the  burden  of  an  impossibility 
on  the  whole  process — for,  in  truth,  man 
has  forfeited  every  legal  reward ;  and 
incurred  every  legal  penalty — So  that  the 
whole  of  this  economy  must  be  set  aside, 
and  man  be  approached  by  some  new 
power,  and  be  plied  with  some  new  expe- 
dients, ere  he  can  be  restored  to  the  holi- 
ness and  the  excellence  in  which  he  was 
created.  Meanwhile  it  is  the  will  of  God 
that  he  should  be  restored;  and  just  as 
He  rejoiced  at  every  step  in  that  process, 
whereby  the  chaos  of  matter  was  evolved 
into  a  fair  and  orderly  system — so  does 
He  rejoice  in  that  process  by  which  we 
grow  unto  the  stature  uf  perfect  men  in 
Christ  Jesus;  and  He  looks  with  intent 
eye  on  the  church  that  He  is  now  forming 
out  of  the  world  and  on  every  member  of 
it — So  that,  released  though  yf)U  all  be 
from  the  old  legal  enforcements  of  that 
commandment  which  is  contained  in  or- 
dinances, still  is  it  the  thing  which  His 
heart  is  set  upon,  and  still  do  you  testify 
your  love  to  God  and  your  desire  to  com- 
ply with  His  will,  that  you  keep  his  com- 
mandments. 

It  is  thus,  and  on  this  principle,  that 
God  wills  you  to  be  holy  and  just  and 
good;  but  these  are  the  very  attributes 
which  the  text  gives  to  the  law,  or  to  the 
commandment — so  that  though  the  old 
relationship  between  you  and  the  law  is 
dissolved,  still  it  is  this  very  law  with 
the  requirements  of  which  you  are  to 
busy  yourselves,  during  the  whole  of 
your  abode  in  the  world ;  and  with  the 
graces  and  accomplishments  of  which 
you  must  appear  invested  before  Christ 
at  the  judgment-seat.  It  was  written  first 
on  tables  of  stone,  and  the  process  was 
then  that  you  should  fulfil  its  requisitions 
as  your  task,  and  be  paid  with  heaven  as 
a  reward.  It  is  now  written  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  on  the  tablets  of  your  heart ;  and 
the  process  is  now  that  you  are  made  to 
delight  in  the  law  after  the  inward  man— 
and  when  released,  as  you  will  be  by 


LECTURE   XL. CHAPTER   VII,    7 13. 


215 


death,  from  the  corruptions  of  the  out- 
ward man,  heaven  will  be  open  for  your 
admission  as  the  only  place  that  is  fitted 
to  harbour  and  to  regale  you.  You  know 
of  gold  that  it  has  two  functions.  With 
gold  you  may  purchase  a  privilege,  or 
with  gold  you  may  adorn  your  person. 
You  may  not  be  able  to  purchase  the 
king's  favour  with  gold ;  but  he  may 
grant  you  his  favour,  and  when  he  re- 
quires your  appearance  before  him,  it  is 
still  in  gold  he  may  require  you  to  be  in- 
vested. And  thus  of  the  law.  It  is  not 
by  your  own  righteous  conformity  there- 
to that  you  purchase  God's  favour;  for 


this  has  been  already  purchased  by  the 
pure  gold  of  the  Saviour's  righteousness, 
and  is  presented  to  all  who  believe  on 
Him.  But  still  it  is  with  your  own  per- 
sonal righteousness,  that  you  must  be 
gilded  and  adorned.  It  is  not  the  price 
wherewith  you  have  bought  heaven,  but 
it  is  the  attire  in  which  you  must  enter  it; 
and  thus  do  we  answer  the  question,  why 
it  is  that  the  law  is  still  kept  up  in  au- 
thority and  importance,  and  obedience  to 
it  is  as  strenuously  required,  and  a  con- 
formity of  character  to  it  is  held  as  indis- 
pensable, under  the  new  dispensation  as 
under  the  old  one. 


LECTURE  XLI. 


Romans  vii,  14 — 25. 


"  For  we  know  that  the  law  is  spiritual :  but  I  am  carnal,  sold  under  sin.  For  that  which  I  do  I  allow  not :  for  what 
I  would,  that  do  I  not ;  but  what  I  hate,  that  do  I.  If  then  I  do  that  which  I  would  not,  I  consent  unto  the  law  that 
it  is  good  Now  then,  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me.  For  I  know  that  in  me  (that  is,  in 
my  ilesli)  dwelleth  no  good  thing ;  for  to  will  is  present  with  me  :  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good  I  find 
not.  For  the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not ;  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that  I  do.  Now,  if  I  do  that  I  would  not, 
it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me.  I  find  then  a  law,  that,  when  I  would  do  good,  evil  is  pre- 
sent w^ith  me.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man:  but  I  see  another  law  in  my  members  war- 
ring against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  cnptivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members.  O 
wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  bmly  of  this  death  1  1  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.     So  then  with  the  mind  I  myself  serve  the  law  of  God,  but  with  the  flesh  the  law  of  sin." 


Ere  I  enter  into  detail  upon  these  verses, 
let  me  come  forth  with  a  preliminary  ar- 
gument upon  that  which  appears  to  be 
the  subject  of  them. 

There  is  one  thing  which  the  common 
experience  of  all,  whether  they  be  in  the 
faith  of  the  gospel  or  not,  must  have  made 
perfectly  familiar  to  them  ;  and  that  is 
the  exceeding  difference  which  they  have 
often  felt,  between  the  whole  tone  and 
temper  of  their  mind  at  one  time  from 
what  it  is  at  another  time.  There  are  many 
of  you  who  can  reccollect,  that  in  church, 
and  wilan  under  the  influence  of  a  power- 
ful demonstration  from  the  pulpit — you 
caught  something  like  the  elevation  and 
purity  of  heaven  upon  your  souls;  and  that 
then  when  you  passed  into  another  atmos- 
phere, whether  at  home  in  the  midst  of 
your  family,  or  abroad  among  the  colli- 
sions of  society  and  business,  the  whole  of 
this  ethereal  temperament  went  into  utter 
dissipation ;  and  you  became  a  peevish 
and  sensual  and  earthly  creature.  Some 
of  you  may  have  marked  it  well  how 
differently  it  fares  with  you  in  the  hour 
of  your  devotional  retirement,  and  in  the 
season  of  your  exposure  to  the  manifold 
urgencies  of  the  world — how  the  heart 
seems  to  have  passed  as  entirely  into 
another  mood  by  the  transition,  as  if  it 
had  been  transformed  into  another  heart 
altogether — that  in  the  one  state  you  can 


rise  on  the  wings  of  divine  contemplation, 
and  breathe  of  the  air  of  the  upper  sanc- 
tuary ;  and  in  the  other  you  sink  down  to 
the  common-place  of  tame  and  ordinary 
life,  and  become  as  other  men.  We  think 
that  this  may  have  been  the  finding  of 
many  who  are  not,  in  the  spiritual  and 
substantial  sense  of  the  term.  Christians 
at  all ;  but  who  in  the  mere  fervency  of 
natural  emotion,  can  be  put  into  some- 
thing like  a  glow  of  sacredness,  whether 
by  a  certain  power  of  sympathy  with  the 
preacher,  or  in  the  musings  and  medita- 
tive exercises  of  their  own  solitude.  It 
will  not  surprise  them  when  they  are  told 
of  two  principles  in  our  moral  constitu- 
tion— which,  by  the  ascendency  of  the 
one  or  the  other  of  them  for  the  time 
being,  may  cause  the  same  man  to  appear 
in  two  characters  that  are  not  only  differ- 
ent but  are  in  total  and  diametric  opposi- 
tion. Of  this  their  own  piety,  meagre 
and  capricious  and  merely  sentimental 
though  it  be,  may  have  given  them  a  very 
strong  experimental  illustration  :  And  so 
have  convinced  them  how  possible  it  is, 
that,  in  one  and  the  same  individual  of 
our  species,  there  may  be  one  set  of  ten- 
dencies, which  if  followed  out,  would 
liken  him  to  the  seraph  who  revels  among 
the  choirs  and  extacies  of  Paradise  ;  and 
also  another  set  of  tendencies,  which,  if 
-^Iso  followed  out,  would  liken  him  to  the 


216 


LECTURE    XLI. CHAPTER   Vn,    14 25. 


veriest  grub-worm  that  moils  for  lucre 
upon  earth,  or  finds  all  his  satisfaction  in 
the  basest  and  most  sordid  gratifications. 

But  we  further  conceive  that  the  same 
thing  may  be  rendered  palpable  to  those, 
who  are  so  far  alienated  in  worldliness,  as 
to  be  totally  unobservant  of  piety — whe- 
ther in  its  private  or  in  its  public  observa- 
tions ;  and  who,  apart  from  every  expe- 
rience of  their  own  frame  either  at  church 
or  in  the  closet,  may  still  have  been  sen- 
sible to  other  exhibitions  of  themselves, 
which  might  reconcile  them  to  the  doc- 
trine which  we  shall  forthwith  labour  to 
establish.  Even  they  have  often  been  ad- 
mitted to  such  a  view  of  human  nature 
upon  their  own  personal  character  and 
history,  as  might  prove  how  strangely 
compounded  it  is  of  diverse  and  opposite 
inclinations.  So  extensive  in  our  day  is 
the  class  of  novel-readers, — that  we  may 
have  the  chance  of  bearing  home  upon 
not  a  few  who  are  here  present,  when,  we 
appeal  to  a  very  common  experience 
among  those  who  are  most  enamoured  of 
this  species  of  literature — how  readily 
their  hearts  have  conformed,  to  all  that 
was  bright  or  beautiful  in  the  moral 
scenery  of  fiction — how  they  could  kindle 
into  its  heroism  ;  and  melt  into  its  tender- 
ness ;  and  weep  with  very  delight  over  its 
representations  of  worth,  or  generosity, 
or  devoted  attachment;  and  appear  for  a 
season,  and  while  under  the  power  of  that 
master-hand  which  pictures  out  virtue 
with  such  force  and  exquisiteness,  to  be 
assimilated  themselves  to  that  which  they 
so  vehemei^ly  admire.  And  yet  all  goeth 
to  flight,  when  again  ushered  as  before 
into  the  scenes  of  familiar  existence  ;  and 
the  mind  of  the  reader  is  speedily  vulgar- 
ized again,  to  the  level  of  all  that  is  tame 
and  ordinary  around  it — Insomuch,  that 
he,  who,  from  one  part  of  his  nature, 
could  rise  to  lofty  enthusiasm  while  en- 
gaged in  the  contemplation  of  rare  and 
romantic  excellence — could,  from  another 
part  of  his  nature,  pass  in  less  than  half 
an  hour  to  the  very  plainest  character- 
istics of  plain  and  every-day  humanity ; 
and  either  fret,  or  scold,  or  laugh,  or  give 
full  indulgence  to  every  one  of  those  very 
ordinary  passioirs,  which  come  out  of  the 
feelings  and  the  fellowship  of  very  ordi- 
nary men. 

There  is  one  principle  of  our  constitu- 
tion, that  tends  as  it  were  to  sublime  the 
heart  up  to  the  poetry  of  human  life  ;  and 
there  is  another  principle,  that,  operating 
as  a  drag,  weighs  the  heart  as  if  helplessly 
down  to  the  prose  of  it.  There  is  not  a 
man  who  mixes  literature  with  business, 
as  many  do  who  are  now  before  me,  that 
might  not  be  conscious  in  themselves  of 
two  warring  elements,  which,  if  they  were 
to  change  places,  so  that  the  one  which 


wont  to  be  the  superior  shall  become  the 
subject — it  would  make  a  new  creature  of 
him.  There  are  two  rival  appetites,  in 
being  at  least,  though  only  one  may  so 
domineer  as  to  have  all  the  power  and 
practical  ascendancy  over  the  character. 
i3ut  in  point  of  fact,  were  the  other  to  re- 
bel and  to  rise  into  a  gathering  strength, 
that  should  dethrone  the  old  tyrant  and 
establish  its  own  supremacy — then  would 
the  spirit  of  the  mind  undergo  an  entire 
renovation  ;  and  the  phrase  of  his  '  being 
born  again'  were  not  too  strong  a  one,  to 
express  the  transition  of  heart  and  of  ha- 
bit that  should  take  effect  upon  him.  But 
meanwhile  it  will  suffice  that  you  be 
aware  of  certain  moving  forces,  that  do 
exist  at  the  same  time  in  your  moral  eco- 
nomy ;  and  which  act  in  directions  that 
are  contradictory  the  one  to  the  other — ■ 
and  according  to  the  prevalence  of  which 
it  is,  that  you  may  appear  either  in  one 
light  to  the  eye  of  an  observer,  or  in  an- 
other that  is  altogether  opposite. 

We  have  heard  of  a  great  lady  pro- 
prietor in  one  of  our  slave  plantations, 
who  never  could  read  a  fictitious  tale  of 
suffering  but  with  tenderness  and  tears — 
yet  could  enforce  the  severest  punishments 
on  her  wretched  and  overdriven  negroes  ; 
and  could  look  unrelentingly  on,  while 
she  beheld  the  rigid  execution  of  them. 
This  may  be  an  extreme  case  ;  but  it  is 
no  anomaly  in  the  character  of  our  spe- 
cies. It  is  but  one  of  a  kindred  and  very 
extensive  class  of  phenomena  ;  and  which 
all  go  to  prove  such  to  be  the  nature  of 
man,  that  while  under  one  sort  of  influ- 
ence he  may  be  so  operated  upon  as  to 
exhibit  all  that  is  graceful  in  sensibility, 
he,  under  another  sort  of  influence,  may 
be  so  operated  upon  as  to  act  the  monster 
of  savage  cruelty  among  the  ill-fated  vic- 
tims who  are  under  him.  The  individual 
of  whom  we  have  now  reported  to  you, 
might,  of  all  others,  have  been  well  pre- 
pared to  admit  the  truth  of  that  doctrine, 
by  which  it  is  affirmed,  that,  under  a  cer- 
tain influence,  the  current  of  right  feel- 
ing may  flow  smoothly  and  spontaneously 
through  the  heart ;  while,  if  that  influence 
be  withdrawn  and  the  heart  be  abandoned 
in  consequence  to  itself,  it  may  evince, 
bj'  the  abundant  product  of  its  own  natu- 
ral atrocities,  how  deceitful  it  is  above  all 
things  and  how  desperately  wicked. 

A  very  conspicuous  instance  of  the  same 
thing  is  the  susceptibility  of  the  heart  to 
the  power  of  music.  You  have  seen  how 
the  song  that  breathed  through  every  line 
of  it  the  ardour  of  disinterested  friendship, 
and  a  generous  contempt  of  all  selfish- 
ness— you  have  seen  how  it  blended  into 
one  tide  of  emotion,  the  approving  sym- 
pathies of  a  whole  circle  of  companion- 
ship.   One  would  think,  on  looking  along 


LECTURE  XLI. CHAPTER  VU,  14 — 25 


217 


this  festive  board,  that,  with  the  harmony 
of  sounds,  there  was  a  harmony  of  kind- 
ness and  confidence  and  mutual  goodwill 
in  every  bosom ;  and  that  each,  awaken- 
ed as  it  were  to  a  fresh  moral  existence, 
had  been  suddenly  formed  as  by  enchant- 
ment, into  one  devoted  phalanx  of  sworn 
and  trusty  brotherhood.  It  is  hard  to 
imagine  that  on  the  morrow,  the  competi- 
tions and  the  concealments  and  the  jea- 
lousies of  rival  interest  will  be  as  busily 
active  as  before  ;  and  will  obliterate  every 
trace  of  the  present  enthusiasm.  And  yet 
there  is  in  it  no  hypocrisy  whatever.  It 
is  not  a  thing  put  on  of  artifice  ;  but  a 
t'ling  that  genuinely  and  honestly  hath 
;ome,  out  of  the  living  excitement  that  is 
flow  in  operation.  The  heart  is  actually 
attuned  to  the  very  cordiality  which  the 
music  has  inspired  ;  and  while  the  notes 
still  vibrate  on  the  ear,  the  play  of  high 
and  honourable  feelings  is  upheld  in  the 
bosom — till  the  last  echoes  have  died 
away  from  the  remembrance,  and  the 
man  again  lapses  into  the  same  cold  and 
creeping  and  selfish  creature  that  he  ever 
was. 

But  the  finest  recorded  example  of  this 
fascination,  is  that  of  the  harp  of  David 
on  the  dark  and  turbulent  spirit  of  Saul — 
nor  was  there  ever  a  more  striking  exhi- 
bition of  the  power  of  melody,  than  when 
the  native  outrageousness  of  this  mon- 
arch's temper  was  thereby  overborne. 
During  the  performance  of  the  son  of 
Jesse,  all  the  internal  fires  and  furies  by 
which  his  bosom  was  agitated,  seem  to 
have  been  lulled  into  peacefulness.  The 
tyrant  was  disarmed  ;  and,  as  if  the  cun- 
ningly played  instrument  had  conveyed 
of  its  own  sweetness  into  his  heart,  he 
became  meek  and  manageable  as  a  child. 
We  are  glad  that  out  of  Scripture  history, 
we  can  draw  such  a  case  of  illustration  ; 
and  we  now  proceed  to  unfold  the  uses  of 
it,  in  the  argument  that  lies  before  us. 

First  then,  it  is  said  of  Saul  that  he  was 
refreshed  and  became  well,  under  the 
operation  of  this  music.  In  which  case,  it 
was  his  duty  to  recur  to  it  in  every  hour 
of  necessity — to  call  in  the  harp,  on  the 
very  first  approaches  of  the  threatening 
visitation  upon  his  spirit ;  and  if  he  could 
not,  in  the  native  gentleness  of  his  own 
heart,  maintain  a  serenity  of  feeling  and 
conduct  to  all  around  him,  it  was  his  bu- 
siness ever  and  anon  to  ply  that  artifi- 
cial expedient,  by  which  alone  it  seems 
that  the  perennial  kindness  and  tranquil- 
lity of  his  feelings  could  at  all  be  up- 
holden. 

And  secondly,  you  may  further  con- 
ceive of  Saul  that  he  succeeded  in  this 
great  moral  achievement  upon  his  own 
spirit — that,  on  the  strength  of  the  foreign 
application  ever  at  hand  and  nevef  neg- 
28 


lected  by  him,  he  actually  won  the  con- 
quest over  the  rebellious  tendencies  of  his 
inner  man,  and  steadily  maintained  it; 
and,  as  the  effect  of  this  habitual  recur- 
rence to  the  soothing  air  by  which  all  the 
tumults  of  his  soul  were  pacified,  that 
there  was  benevolence  in  every  look,  and 
such  a  placid  softening  of  tone  and  man- 
ner, as  made  all  his  domestics  happy  and 
him  beloved  by  them  all. 

Now,  thirdly,  I  would  have  you  all  to 
consider  how  Saul  should  have  felt  as 
well  as  acted,  under  the  consciousness  of 
what  he  natively  and  originally  was.  He 
in  very  deed,  and  because  of  the  power 
that  lay  in  the  musical  instrument,  may 
have  both  imported  into  his  own  heart  all 
the  feelings,  and  diffused  among  those 
around  him  all  the  fruits  of  that  benignity 
which  had  thus  been  awakened.  But 
although  he  should  in  this  way  perpetu- 
ate the  mastery  of  a  good  and  gracious 
principle  in  his  soul — should  he  not  still 
have  been  base  in  his  own  eyes,  when  he 
bethought  him  of  the  quarter  from  which 
it  behoved  to  come  ! — that,  to  sustain  his 
moral  being,  he  had  to  live  on  supplies 
from  abroad,  because  in  himself  there  was 
the  foul  spirit  of  a  maniac  and  a  murder- 
er ;  and  it  would  have  become  this  very 
monarch,  even  at  the  time  when  he  most 
felt  the  play  of  kindness  in  his  own  heart, 
and  he  most  brightened  the  hearts  of 
others  by  the  courtesy  and  the  condescen- 
sion that  he  shed  over  them — even  then, 
was  it  most  his  part,  to  mourn  the  delin- 
quencies of  his  inner  man;  and  to  loathe 
the  savage  propensities  which  fain  would 
tumultuate  there,  in  dust  and  in  ashes. 

But  lastly,  do  you  not  perceive,  that,  in 
this  state  of  matters,  there  were  really  no 
mystery  at  all,  though  the  actual  serenity 
of  Saul's  temper  and  his  own  self-abhor- 
rence because  of  its  native  fierceness  and 
asperity  had  kept  pace  the  one  with  the 
other ;  and  that  in  the  very  proportion  of 
that  fearfulness  and  aversion  wherewith  he 
looked  to  himself,  because  of  his  inherent 
vices,  would  he  become  fruitful  in  all  the 
virtues  that  were  opposed  to  them  1  It 
were  just  the  humility  of  his  downward 
regards  upon  his  own  soul,  that  would  be 
the  instrument  of  raising  it  to  the  highest 
perfection  of  which  it  was  capable;  and 
because  he  had  no  trust  in  the  unborrow- 
ed energies  within,  that  he  would  fetch 
aliment  from  without,  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  the  growth  of  all  those  moralities 
whereof  he  was  most  destitute.  The'  harp 
would  be  his  perpetual  companion,  or 
never  beyond  the  reach  of  his  calling  for 
it.  That  sense  of  depravity,  which 
prompted  the  self-abasement  of  his  spirit^ 
would  prompt  an  increasing  recurrence 
to  that  by  which  its  outbreakings  were 
repressed ;  and  so  the  more  intense  Jiis 


218 


LECTURE  XLI. CHAPTER   VII,    14 — 25. 


detestation  of  his  own  character,  would 
be  the  vigour  and  the  efficacy  of  that 
alone  practical  expedient,  by  which  his 
character  was  converted  and  transformed. 

And  thus,  in  all  its  parts,  does  it  hold 
of  a  Christian.  He  knows  that  in  his  own 
proper  nature  dwelleth  no  good  thing. 
He  is  aware  of  his  native  ungodliness ; 
and  the  experience  of  every  day  brings 
fresh  and  more  humiliating  discoveries  of 
it  to  his  conscience.  He  feels  that  in  him- 
self he  is  like  Saul  without  the  harp — not 
perhaps  so  violent  and  vindictive  as  he 
was  among  his  fellows  ;  but  sharing  with 
the  whole  human  race  in  the  virulence  of 
their  antipathies  against  a  God  of  holi- 
ness. The  streams  of  his  disobedience 
may  not  be  of  the  same  tinge  and  impreg- 
nation as  that  of  the  Hebrew  king ;  but 
they  emanate  like  his  from  a  temple  of 
idolatry  in  the  heart,  that  would  con- 
stantly issue  forth  of  its  own  produce  on 
the  outward  history.  The  Christian  feels 
that  in  that  part  of  his  constitution  which 
is  properly  and  inherently  his  own,  there 
is  a  deeply-seated  corruption,  the  sense 
of  which  never  fails  to  abash  and  to  hum- 
ble him  ;  and  thus.  Christian  though  he 
be,  he  never  ceases  to  exclaim — '  Oh 
wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  this  law  of  sin,  from  this 
abiding  and  impetuous  tendency  to  evilV 

What  then,  it  may  be  asked,  is  it,  which 
serves  to  mark  him  as  a  Christian  1  Not 
most  assuredly  that  he  is  free  of  a  carnal 
nature,  tainted  all  over  with  fouUest  le- 
prosy— but  that  he  has  access  to  an  in- 
fluence without,  by  which  a  healing 
virtue  is  mingled  with  it,  and  all  its  rebel- 
lious tendencies  are  thereby  overborne. 
The  only  distinction  between  the  disciple 
and  the  unbeliever  is,  that  the  one  uses 
the  harp,  and  the  other  has  neither  faith 
in  its  efficacy  nor  desire  for  the  effect  of 
its  operation.  The  Christian  hath  learned 
whither  to  flee  in  every  hour  of  tempta- 
tion ;  and  thus  it  is  that  a  purifying  in- 
fluence descends  upon  his  soul.  It  cometh 
not  through  the  medium  of  the  ear,  and 
upon  the  vehicle  of  sounds;  but  it  cometh 
through  the  mediumof  the  understanding, 
and  upon  the  vehicle  of  thoughts.  It  is 
not  by  calling  the  music  that  he  loves 
into  his  presence  ;  but  by  calling  the 
truth  that  he  believes  into  his  memory — it 
is  thus  that  he  harmonises  the  else  disor- 
derly alfections  of  his  heart ;  and  while 
he  feels  that  all  within  is  corruption,  he 
at  the  same  time  knows  of  an  agency 
without  by  which  the  mutiny  of  its  sinful 
appetites  is  staid. 

There  was  a  personal  agent  called  in 
by  Saul,  when  he  had  to  be  calmed  out 
of  his  wild  perturbations — even  the  son  of 
Jesse  ;  and  this  he  did  by  evolving  a  cer- 
tain harmony  of  sounds  on  the  ear  of  the 


Jewish  monarch.  And  so  He  is  a  living 
and  a  personal  agent,  who  overrules  the 
sinful  and  the  wayward  propensities  of  a 
believer's  heart;  but  this  He  does  by 
evolving  certain  truths  on  the  believer's 
understanding.  In  the  former  case,  the 
power  to  soothe  lay  materially  and  di- 
rectly in  the  music — though,  to  bring  it 
into  contact  with  the  organ  of  hearing, 
there  needed  one  to  perform  it.  In  the 
latter  case,  the  power  to  sanctify  lies 
materially  and  directly  in  the  doctrine — 
though,  to  bring  it  into  contact  with  the 
organ  of  mental  perception,  there  needeth 
one  to  present  it — even  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  office  it  is  to  bring  all  things  to 
our  remembrance.  And  so,  my  brethren, 
when  assailed  by  temptation  from  with- 
out, or  like  to  be  overborne  by  the  tyranny 
of  your  own  evil  inclinations,  is  it  your 
part  to  summon  gospel  truth  into  the  pre- 
sence of  your  mind  ;  and,  depending  on 
the  Holy  Ghost,  to  go  forth  and  meet  His 
manifestations,  as  He  takes  of  the  things 
of  Christ  and  shows  them  unto  your  soul ; 
and,  precious  fruit  of  your  believing  me- 
ditation on  the  realities  of  our  most  holy 
faith,  will  you  be  sure  to  find,  as  you 
look  forward  with  hope  to  that  mercy 
which  is  unto  eternal  life,  that  the  heart 
will  be  purified  thereby.  It  will  be  kept 
in  the  love  of  God  ;  and  this  will  attune 
it  out  of  all  discord  and  disorder.  But 
never,  throughout  the  whole  of  this  pro- 
cess, will  it  be  led  to  count  on  the  worth 
or  the  power  of  its  own  internal  energies. 
The  sense  of  its  depravity  will  ever  be 
present  to  the  conscience ;  and  hanging 
on  an  influence  that  is  foreign  to  itself, 
will  it  feel  as  helplessly  dependent  on  a 
medicine  from  without,  as  did  Saul  when 
he  summoned  to  his  apartment  that  melody 
which  charmed  all  the  heat  and  vindic- 
tiveness  of  his  spirit  away  from  him.  It  is 
thus  that  the  believer  while  he  looks  upon 
himself  as  nothing,  or  rather  loathes  him- 
self as  a  diseased  sinner,  is  ever  labouring 
to  medicate  his  soul  from  those  springs 
of  moral  and  spiritual  health  which  are 
without  him  and  above  him — looking  to 
that  outward  mercy  which  has  been 
provided  for  his  worthlessness,  and  pray- 
ing for  that  refreshment  and  revelation  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  are  so  richly  pro- 
vided for  all  who  ask  in  faith. 

We  think  that  there  must  be  many  here 
present,  who  might  be  made  to  recognise, 
and  we  trust  some  who  have  actually 
proved  in  their  own  persons,  the  efficacy 
of  this  expedient — how  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  can  attemper  the  soul  into  a  unison 
with  its  spirit — And  more  especially  in 
that  one  truth  which  is  the  first  that  the 
apostle  bids  us  keep  at  all  times  in  our 
memory,  even  that  Christ  died  for  our 
sins  atcording  to  the  Scriptures — how  in 


LECTURE   XLI. CHAPTER   VII,    14 — 25. 


219 


this  precious  saying,  when  reckoned  upon 
as  faithful  and  regarded  as  worthy  of  all 
acceptation,  tliere  is  a  power  to  still  and 
overawe  the  heart  out  of  its  rebellious 
tendencies — So  that  when  a  trusted  Sa- 
viour is  present  to  the  thoughts,  the  sin  of 
our  nature  is  by  a  moral  necessity  dis- 
armed of  its  practical  ascendancy  over 
us.  We  trust  that  with  some  who  hear 
us,  it  has  been  found  to  hold  experimen- 
tally— how  a  sense  of  the  mercy  of  God 
in  Christ  annihilates  the  whole  space  of 
separation  that  there  was  between  God 
and  the  soul,  and  so  dissipates  all  its 
ungodliness — how  walking  before  Him 
in  the  light  and  peace  of  conscious  for- 
giveness, the  spirit  of  bondage  has  fled 
away,  and  there  have  come  in  its  place 
the  love  and  the  trust  and  the  joy  of 
reconciled  children — how  whenever  he 
bethinks  him  of  God  having  passed  over 
the  magnitude  of  his  own  provocations,  he 
finds  that  achievement  easy,  which  to 
nature  is  dilficult,  of  maintaining  the 
gentleness  of  his  spirit  under  the  sorest 
provocations  of  his  fellow-men — how  in 
dwelling  on  the  agony  of  that  endurance 
that  was  laid  upon  Christ  for  sinners,  he 
too  can  learn  to  suffer  and  to  grow  in  all 
those  graces  which  are  best  taught  in  the 
school  of  tribulation — how  it  is  when 
beholding  the  cross  of  our  atonement,  that 
he  is  most  solemnized  into  a  reverence  for 
the  sacredness  of  the  Godhead,  and  is 
most  awed  into  a  fearfulness  of  the  sin 
that  was  expiated  there — Above  all,  when 
he  looks  onward  to  the  glories  of  that 
inheritance  which  Christ  hath  purchased 
by  His  blood,  and  the  gates  of  which  He 
has  unbarred  for  the  welcome  access  of 
the  guiltiest  of  us  all — how  it  is  that  the 
powers  of  the  coming  world  win  the  mas- 
tery in  his  spirit,  over  the  powers  of  the 
present  one  ;  that  he  sits  loose  to  the  van- 
ities and  the  interests  of  a  scene  which 
passelh  speedily  away  ;  and,  now  feeling 
eternity  to  be  his  destined  home  and  the 
virtues  of  eternity  to  be  his'  incumbent 
preparation,  he  holds  a  perpetual  warfare 
with  those  passions  that  war  against  the 
soul,  and  bears  on  every  footstep  of  his 
pilgrimage  on  earth  the  impress  of  that 
heaven  for  v/hich  he  hopes  and  of  that 
holiness  to  which  he  is  aspiring. 

We  would  conclude  these  preliminary 
remarks  with  three  distinct  observations. 

And  firsU  it  is  hoped  that  some  of  you 
may  be  led  to  perceive  from  them — how 
it  is,  that,  by  means  of  a  power  external 
to  the  mind  of  man  yet  brought  from  with- 
out to  bear  upon  it,  he  may  be  so  trans- 
formed as  to  become  a  new  creature.  If 
the  eloquence  of  a  Christian  minister  can 
for  a  time  lift  the  soul,  as  it  were,  above 
itself — or  if  a  pleasing  and  pathetic  no- 
velist can  transport  the  imagination  of  his 


reader,  and  so  assort  his  feelings  to  them 
as  that,  while  the  allusion  lasts,  he  shall 
be  refined  and  removed  above  the  level 
of  our  ordinary  world — or  if  poetry  can 
bear  him  upward  to  a  purer  moral  ele- 
ment, than  he  can  breathe  among  his 
fellow-mortals — or,  lastly,  if  music,  that  so 
charmed  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  king 
out  of  all  its  ferocity,  is  still  found,  so 
long  as  it  plays  upon  the  ear,  to  attune 
the  heart  to  nobler  and  better  feelings  than 
those  by  which  it  is  habitually  occupied — • 
Shall  we  wonder,  that,  upon  faith  realising 
the  promises  and  the  prospects  of  the 
gospel,  the  heart  shall  be  translated  into  a 
new  state,  when  thus  visited  as  it  were  by 
the  sense  and  the  impression  of  its  new 
circumstances]  What  music  can  be 
sweeter  to  the  soul,  than  when  peace  is 
whispered  to  it  from  on  high ;  or  what 
lovelier  vision  can  be  offered  to  its  contem- 
plation, than  that  of  heaven's  Lord  and 
of  heaven's  family ;  or  what  more  fitted 
to  lay  the  coarse  and  boisterous  agitations 
of  a  present  world,  than  the  light  which 
has  pierced  across  the  grave  and  revealed 
the  peaceful  world  that  is  beyond  it  ? 
Simply  grant  that  the  veil  has  been  lifted 
from  the  eyes  of  guilty  man  ;  and  that  he 
now  sees  what  he  never  wont  to  see — the 
love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  re- 
mission of  sins,  and  an  open  path  to  the 
bliss  of  eternity,  and  the  glories  of  a  pur- 
chased inheritance  there,  and  here  all  the 
graces  of  our  required  preparation — let 
him  see  that  these,  which  before  stood  at 
an  impracticable  distance,  are  now 
brought  nigh  unto  him  and  have  become 
all  his  own — Is  it  at  all  to  be  marvelled  at 
— when  the  romance  of  music  and  elo- 
quence  and  imagination  and  poetry,  ad- 
drest  to  the  heart  of  man,  can  so  subli- 
mate its  affections  for  a  period  above  all 
the  passions  and  vulgarities  of  familiar 
life — with  this  fact  of  the  human  constitu- 
tion so  plainly  before  our  eyes — are  we  to 
listen  with  incredulity,  if  told,  that  when 
the  truths  of  Christianity  burst  forth  upon 
the  believer  in  all  the  magnificence  of 
their  lofty  bearing  and  in  all  the  might  of 
their  now  apprehended  reality,  they  so 
refine  his  every  affection  and  so  elevate 
the  whole  tone  of  his  character,  that  all 
old  things  are  henceforth  done  away  and 
all  things  become  new? 

Now,  secondly.,  it  is  the  office  of  God's 
Spirit  thus  to  picture  forth  to  the  eye  of 
the  believer  these  truths  of  the  gospel,  in 
all  the  reality  and  power  of  application 
which  belong  to  them.  It  is  He  who  takes 
of  the  things  of  Christ ;  and,  showing  them 
unto  the  soul,  causes  the  imagery  of  faith 
to  overbear  the  impressions  of  sight.  And 
the  man  who  is  thus  acted  tipon,  looketh 
beyond  what  is  seen  and  temporal  to  what 
is  unseen  and  eternal.    It  is  from  a  source 


320 


LECTURE   XLI. — CHAPTER   Vn,    14 — 25. 


which  is  out  of  himself,  that  he  fetches  an 
influence  which  never  fails  to  soothe  and 
to  sanctify  the  corrupt  and  distempered 
spirit ;  and,  as  it  was  the  duty  of  Saul  on 
the  threatening  of  every  dark  visitation  to 
require  the  music  of  that  harp  which  he 
could  at  all  times  summon  by  the  word  of 
command  into  his  presence,  so  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  sinner  in  every  time  of  need 
or  of  temptation,  to  invoke  that  Spirit, 
who  never  is  withheld  from  the  prayers 
of  those  who  sincerely  ask  Him.  When 
like  to  be  assailed  by  the  power  of  sin  to 
an  overthrow,  this  is  the  instrument  of  aid 
and  of  defence  that  will  never  fail  you ; 
and  let  the  storms  whether  of  the  furious 
or  of  the  wayward  passions  of  our  nature 
be  what  they  may,  this  is  the  agent,  at  the 
bidding  of  whose  still  but  omnipotent 
voice,  an  influence  of  peace  and  purity 
descendeth  upon  the  heart,  and  it  becom- 
eth  a  great  calm. 

But  lastly,  the  way  in  which  all  this 
bears  upon  the  passage  before  us,  is  by 
helping  us  to  the  determination  of  a  con- 
troversy— whether  the  soliloquy  whereof 
it  consists,  be  that  of  Paul  in  his  own  pro- 
per person,  or  of  Paul  in  the  person  of 
an  unconverted  man]  How,  it  may  be 
thought,  could  this  holy  apostle  take  to 
himself,  the  blame  of  so  much  vileness 
and  exceeding  turpitude,  as  are  made  to 
characterize  him  who  is  supposed  to  utter 
this  eff'usion'?  How  could  it  be  said  of 
him  who  fought  the  good  fight,  that  he 
was  sold  under  sin  ;  and  that  there  dwelt 
no  good  thing  in  his  flesh  ;  and  that  there 
was  a  law  in  him,  which  would  have  led 
him  in  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  and  of 
death ;  and  that,  wretched  under  a  mass 
of  corruption  from  which  he  could  not 
deliver  himself,  he  had  to  cry  out,  under 
the  extremity  of  anxious  helplessness,  lesi 
it  should  have  wholly  overwhelmed  him  ? 
Can  all  this  be  true  of  the  man,  in  whom 
Christianity  beheld  the  very  noblest  of  her 
specimens  ;  who  ere  he  died  could  claim 
the  victory  as  his  own  ;  and  who,  to  obtain 
it,  was  throughout  the  whole  of  his  dis- 
cipleship  the  most  unwearied  in  vigilance 
and  the  most  strenuous  in  warfare? 

Yes,  there  was  a  fight  and  it  turned  out 
to  be  ultimately  a  successful  one.  But 
who  were  the  parties  in  it  1  They  were 
the  grace  of  God  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 


the  other  the  inherent  corruption  of  man  ; 
and  the  very  reason  why  Paul  plied  so 
laboriously  and  at  length  prevailed  with 
the  former,  was  because  he  felt  such 
loathing  and  such  self-abomination  for  the 
latter.  This  is  a  mystery  of  the  Christian 
life  which  the  world  apprehendeth  not ; 
nor  are  they  able  to  discern  why  the  same 
individual  should  become  every  day 
more  profound  in  humility,  and  yet  more 
graceful  in  positive  holiness — why  he 
should  be  ever  mourning  more  heavily 
than  before  under  a  sense  of  his  worth- 
lessness,  and  that  at  the  very  time  when 
the  real  worth  of  his  character  is  matur- 
ing and  building  up  unto  eternity. 

It  is  not  understood,  how  the  strugglings 
of  the  inner  man  bring  every  Christian 
who  feels  them  into  a  more  familiar  ac- 
quaintance than  before  with  the  adverse 
elements  in  the  conflict ;  and  that  as  the 
spirit  lusteth  against  the  flesh  and  the 
flesh  against  the  spirit,  just  in  proportion 
to  the  felt  preciousness  of  the  one,  is  the 
felt  burden  and  odiousness  of  the  other. 
It  is  because  he  loathes  so  much  the  earth- 
liness  of  what  is  naturally  and  originally 
his  own,  that  he  longs  so  much  for  the 
visitation  of  a  heavenly  influence  from 
above.  The  sense  of  poverty  is  the  very 
impulse  that  sends  him  to  the  fountain  of 
abundance  ;  and  the  detestation  he  feels 
of  the  sin  that  dwells  in  him,  is  the  best 
guarantee  that  this  sin  shall  not  have  the 
dominion  over  him.  With  these  princi- 
ples do  we  feel  ourselves  prepared  for 
entering  into  more  full  elucidation  of  the 
passage  before  us ;  nor  will  you,  I  trust, 
be  any  more  perplexed  when  you  read  of 
him  who  delighted  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inward  man,  and  who  disallowed  all 
that  was  evil,  and  who  had  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  dwelling  in  him — how  at  the  same 
time  he  mourned  his  vile  body,  and 
groaned  being  burdened  under  a  sense  of 
that  sore  moral  leprosy  by  which  it  was 
pervaded.  He  had  no  confidence  in  him- 
self; but  he  rejoiced  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 
He  was  in  weakness,  and  in  fear,  and  in 
much  trembling  ;  but  when  he  was  weak 
then  was  he  strong — for  when  he  spake 
of  his  infirmities,  the  power  of  Christ  was 
made  to  rest  upon  him.  "  I  will  make 
my  grace  sufficient  for  thee.  I  will  per- 
fect my  strength  in  thy  weakness." 


LECTURE   XLII. — CH.U'TEIl   VII,    14,    15, 


221 


LECTURE  XLII. 


Romans  vii,  14,  15. 

"  For  we  know  that  the  law  is  spiritual ;  but  I  am  carnal,  sold  under  sin.     For  that  which  I  do,  I  allow  not : 
what  1  would,  that  do  I  not;  but  what  1  hate,  that  I  do." 


for 


The  first  thing  to  be  remarked  here,  is 
the  transition  which  the  apostle  makes  at 
this  verse  into  another  tense.  It  looks  as 
if  from  the  7th  verse  to  the  14th,  he,  using 
the  past  tense,  was  describing  the  state  of 
matters  antecedent  to  his  conversion,  and 
showing  what  his  case  was  under  the  law  ; 
but  that  now,  sliding  into  the  use  of  the 
present  tense,  he  is  describing  his  experi- 
ence as  a  believer :  And  this  is  one  argu- 
ment for  Paul  speaking  here  in  his  own 
person,  and  not  inthatof  anunregenerate 
man. 

'  The  law  is  spiritual.'  It  has  authority 
over  the  desires  of  the  inner  man.  It  holds 
a  sinful  wish  to  be  criminal,  as  well  as  a 
sinful  performance.  It  finds  matter  for 
condemnation  in  the  state  of  the  will,  as 
Avell  as  in  the  deeds  of  the  outward  hi.story. 
It  demands  punishment,  for  example,  not 
merely  on  the  action  by  which  I  wrest 
another's  property ;  but  on  the  affection 
by  which  I  covet  it.  Paul  once  thought 
himself  free  of  all  offences,  in  regard  to  a 
neighbour's  rights,  because  he  had  never 
put  forth  the  hand  of  violence,  or  plied 
any  device  of  fraudulency  against  them. 
But  when  he  looked  to  the  spiritual  nature 
of  the  commandment,  in  that  it  interdicted 
him  even  from  the  longings  of  a  secret 
appetite  for  that  which  was  not  rightfully 
his  own — then,  conscious  that  with  all  the 
abstinence  of  his  outer  man  from  the  acts 
of  dishonesty  there  was  still  a  secret  pro- 
pe,nsity  in  his  heart  towards  the  gains  or 
the  fruits,  he  felt  himself,  when  standing 
at  the  bar  of  this  purer  and  loftier  juris- 
prudence, to  be  indeed  a  transgressor. 
And  so,  in  the  general,  there  may  be  no 
disobedience  on  the  part  of  the  outer  man 
to  any  of  God's  commandments  ;  and  yet 
there  may  be,  all  the  while,  an  utter  dis- 
taste for  them  on  the  part  of  the  inner 
man — and  this  is  what  the  law  takes  cog- 
nizance of,  in  virtue  of  its  spiritual  cha- 
racter, and  pronounces  to  be  sinful.  To 
do  what  is  bidden  with  the  hand,  is  not 
enough  to  satisfy  such  a  law — if  the  strug- 
gling inclination  of  the  heart  be  against 
it.  And  above  all  will  it  charge  the  deep- 
est guilt  on  a  man — because  of  his  disaf- 
fection towards  God — because  of  a  love 
for  the  creature,  that  has  deposed  from  its 
rightful  ascendancy  over  him  the  love  of 
the  Creator — because  of  that  moral  an- 
archy and  misrule  in  the  constitution  of 
his  spirit,  whereby,  with  its  relish  for  the 


gifts  of  Providence,  it  has  a  disrelish  and 
disregard  for  the  Giver  of  them  ;  and  be- 
cause while  it  may  yield  many  compli- 
ances with  the  law  of  God  at  the  impulse 
of  dread  or  of  danger  or  of  habit,  it  yields 
not  to  God  Himself  the  offering  of  a  spon- 
taneous devotion,  the  tribute  of  an  intel- 
ligent or  of  a  willing  reverence. 

Perhaps  my  best  recommendation  to 
you,  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  a  more 
thorough  discernment  of  God's  law  in  the 
spirituality  of  its  character,  is  that  you 
peruse  with  faithful  application  to  your 
own  heart  the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew — 
where,  article  by  article,  you  have  the 
comparison  between  a  spiritual  and  what 
may  be  called  a  carnal  commandment ; 
and  from  which  you  will  at  once  per- 
ceive, how  possible  it  is,  that,  with  a  most 
rigid  and  undeviating  faithfulness  in  re- 
gard to  the  latter,  there  may  be  an  utter 
deficiency  from  the  former  in  all  its 
requirements — and  how  truly  the  same 
individual  may  say  of  himself,  that,  when 
in  the  flesh,  he,  touching  the  righteousness 
that  is  of  the  law,  was  blameless ;  and 
yet,  when  advanced  and  elevated  above 
this  state  and  now  in  the  spirit,  he  may 
say,  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  law  of  sin  in  my 
members !  You  see  how,  in  proportion  to 
his  high  sense  of  the  law,  he  may  have  a 
low  sense  of  himself;  and  that,  just  as 
one  advances  in  the  discernment  of  its 
purity  and  in  the  delicacy  of  his  recoil  at 
the  slightest  deviations  therefrom,  which 
surely  mark  his  progressive  sanctification 
— the  more  readily  will  he  break  forth 
into  exclamations  of  shame  and  self- 
abhorrence  :  Or  the  loftier  his  positive 
ascent  on  the  heights  of  sacredness,  the 
more  fearful  will  he  be  of  all  those  drags 
and  downward  tendencies  by  which  he 
still  is  encompassed ;  and  which,  if  not 
felt  to  be  most  hazardous  as  well  as  most 
humbling,  may  not  only  cause  to  slip  the 
footsteps  of  the  heavenward  traveller; 
but  may  precipitate  him  from  the  emi- 
nence that  he  has  gotten,  into  the  lowest 
depths  of  wretched  and  hopeless  apos- 
tacy. 

'I  am  carnal' — It  is  on  the  principles 
just  now  uttered,  that  Paul  may  have 
made  this  affirmation  of  himself.  The 
same  man  who  could  say  of  all  the  good 
that  was  done — "  nevertheless  not  me  but 
the  grace  of  God  that  is  in  me" — Surely 


222 


LECTURE   XLIL CHAPTER   Vlt,    14,    15. 


this  man,  who  thus  knew  what  he  should 
refer  to  God's  grace  and  what  he  should 
refer  to  his  own  separate  and  unaided 
self,  might,  even  after  this  grace  had 
become  the  habitual  visitant  or  inmate  of 
his  heart,  still  look  to  his  own  soul ;  and, 
conceiving  of  it  as  apart  or  disjoined  from 
the  fountain  oat  of  which  he  draws  the 
supplies  of  its  nourishment,  might  well 
say  that  'I  am  carnal.'  Suppose  for  a 
moment  that  the  branch  of  a  tree  were 
endowed  with  a  separate  consciousness 
of  its  own — then,  however  lovely  in  blos- 
som or  richly -laden  with  fruit,  it  may 
feel  of  the  whole  efflorescence  which 
adorns  it,  that  it  was  both  derived  and  is 
upholden,  by  the  flow  of  a  succulence 
from  the  stem  ;  and  it  may  know,  that,  if 
severed  therefrom,  it  would  forthwith 
wither  into  decay,  and  that  all  the  goodly 
honours  wherewith  it  was  invested  would 
drop  away  from  it.  The  twofold  con- 
sciousness of  what  it  would  be  in  itself, 
and  of  what  it  is  in  the  tree,  might  force 
the  very  utterance  that  was  emitted  by  a 
Christian  disciple  when  he  said,  "  I  am 
dead  nevertheless  I  live."  "Yet  not  I" 
adds  the  apostle  "  but  Christ  liveth  in  me." 
I  apart  from  Him  without  whom  I  can  do 
nothing — I  disjoined  from  the  Saviour 
who  compares  Himself  to  a  tree  and  us 
to  the  branches — 1  who  in  Christ  am  a 
new  creature — out  of  Christ  am  dead  and 
out  of  Him  am  carnal. 

The  Scripture  phrase  "to  be  in  the 
flesh  "  when  descriptive  of  character  is 
applied  in  sacred  writ  only  to  the  unre- 
generate.  "  They  who  are  in  the  flesh 
cannot  please  God."  "  You  are  not  in  the 
flesh  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you."  But  the 
Scripture  term  carnal  is  sometimes  ap- 
plied to  a  man  after  his  conversion.  A 
man  when  newly  born  again  is  a  babe ; 
yet  to  such  did  Paul  apply  this  epithet, 
"  I  could  not  speak  unto  you  as  unto 
spiritual  but  as  unto  carnal,  even  as  unto 
babes  in  Christ.  For  ye  are  yet  carnal, 
for  whereas  there  is  among  you  envying 
and  strife  and  divisions,  are  ye  not  carnal 
and  walk  as  men  V  Only  think  of  a 
Christian  as  made  up  of  two  ingredients, 
the  one  consisting  of  all  that  he  inherits 
by  nature,  the  other  consisting  of  all  that 
is  superinduced  on  him  by  grace.  Think 
of  his  inward  and  experimental  life  as 
consisting  of  a  struggle  between  these 
ingredients,  in  which  the  one  does  habit- 
ually and  will  at  length  ultimately  and 
completely  prevail.  But  the  wrong  prin- 
ciple belonging  properly  and  primitively 
to  the  man  himself,  and  the  right  principle 
being  derived  from  without  through  the 
channel  of  believing  prayer,  or  the  exer- 
cise of  faith  in  Christ  Jesus — how  natural 
is  it  in  these  circumstances,  for  every 


Christian  to  regard  the  one  as  the  home 
article,  and  the  other  as  a  foreign  article 
for  which  he  stands  indebted  to  a  fountain 
that  is  abroad — and  whereunto  it  is  his 
business  to  resort  perpetually.  He  is  like 
Saul  operated  upon  by  the  harp  of  the 
son  of  Jesse ;  and  as  the  one  might  well 
have  said,  even  in  the  kindest  and  gentlest 
mood  to  which  the  warblings  of  the  in- 
strument had  brought  him,  that  in  myself 
I  am  a  firebrand  of  rage  and  vindictive- 
ness — so  the  other,  conscious  that  disjoin- 
ed from  the  grace  and  truth  which  come 
by  Jesus  Christ  he  is  an  ungodly  and  an 
unheavcnly  creature,  might  as  well  say 
that  in  myself  I  am  an  alienated  rebel — 
in  myself  I  am  altogether  carnal. 

Let  me  separate  by  ever  so  little  from 
Christ,  then  is  this  corrupt  nature  ever  in 
readiness  to  put  forth  its  propensities — Or 
even  let  me  always  abide  in  Him— let  me 
in  no  one  instance  lose  my  hold  of  Him — 
conceive  me  to  be  placed  on  the  very 
height  of  Christian  perfection,  and  that 
just  because  I  at  all  times  am  steadfastly 
and  solidly  established  on  the  deepest 
basis  of  Christian  dependence — Yet  still 
with  the  assurance  in  my  mind,  that, 
should  I  let  the  dependence  go,  self  would 
recover  the  ascendency  and  that  the  as- 
cendency of  self  would  be  the  ascendency 
of  sin,  it  is  not  too  strong  an  inference 
that  self  is  carnal ;  or  even  that  self  is 
sold  under  sin,  as  being,  apart  from  the 
Saviour,  its  helpless  and  irrecoverable 
slave.  It  is  said  of  Ahab  that  there  was 
none  like  unto  him;  for  he  did  sell  him- 
self to  work  wickedness  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord.  In  him  you  have  a  character, 
where  corruption  was  the  dominant  and 
the  entire  and  the  unresisted  principle  of 
his  constitution.  He  was  the  old  man  all 
over — who  loved  his  state  of  captivity, 
instead  of  lamenting  it ;  and  of  whom  it 
never  could  be  said,  that  he  felt  the  sin 
of  his  nature  to  be  a  burden,  or  that  he 
longed  to  be  delivered  from  it,  or  that  he 
delighted  in  the  law  of  God  after  the 
inner  man,  and  sighed  after  the  subju- 
gation or  rather  the  extirpation  of  every 
tumultuous  and  adverse  element  of  evil 
that  was  in  his  outer  man.  His  mind 
went  wholly  along  with  the  wicked  and 
wayward  inclinations  that  nature  had 
given  him ;  and  here  lay  the  difference 
between  him  and  Paul,  that,  with  the  lat- 
ter, there  was  gotten  up  a  new  creature 
all  whose  energies  and  desires  were  in  a 
state  of  warfare  with  those  of  the  old 
man ;  and  in  this  passage  we  have  the 
cries  and  the  agonies  of  the  battle,  till  it 
closes  with  the  final  shout  of  victory,  "  I 
thank  God  through  Jesus  my  Lord."  Still, 
viewing  the  old  man  as  properly  his  own, 
and  the  new  creature  as  a  present  or  a 
production  from  above — well  might  the 


LECTURE   XLII. — CHAPTER   VII,    14,    15. 


223 


apostle  say,  not  in  the  character  of  what 
he  was  by  derivation  from  the  Lord  his 
sanctifyer,  but  in  the  character  of  what 
he  originally  and  essentially  was  in  him- 
self, that  I  am  carnal  and  I  am  sold 
under  sin. 

V.  15.  To  understand  this  verse,  and  to 
see  that  it  is  the  utterance  not  of  a  wilful 
sinner  bvit  of  an  honest  and  aspiring  dis- 
ciple— remember  that  it  is  the  soliloquy 
of  one,  who  had  just  recognised  the  spirit- 
ual character  of  the  law  of  God,  and  who 
was  exercising  and  judging  and  confess- 
ing himself  according  to  ihe  standard  of 
that  law.  There  is  at  least  one  moi'al 
property,  that  must,  in  the  midst  of  all 
his  recorded  deliciencies,  be  ascribed  to 
him.  He  willed  the  conformity  of  him- 
self to  God's  holy  commandment.  The 
prescription  that  lies  upon  him  and  upon 
all  is  ".be  ye  perfect  "  and  if  perfection 
was  not  his  achievement,  it  was  at  least 
his  aim.  His  prevailing  wish  was  to  be 
altogether  as  he  ought ;  and  if  he  did  not 
succeed  in  being  so — he  at  least  aspired 
at  being  so.  The  habitual  longing  of  his 
heart  was,  without  reserve  and  without 
hypocrisy,  towards  the  law  of  God.  Tliere 
was  a  pure  and  a  lofty  ambition  which  ac- 
tuated his  soul;  and  the  object  of  that 
ambition  was  that  he  might  serve  God 
without  a  flaw,  and  reach  an  unspotted 
holiness.  He  may  have  been  thwarted  in 
ihe  ambition — he  may  have  been  so  cross- 
ed and  impeded  in  liis  movements  as  to 
i%ve  come  greatly  short  of  it — yet  still  the 
aTibition  did  exist,  and  evinced  at  once  its 
strength  and  its  perpetuity,  both  by  the 
bitterness  wherewitli  he  mourned  over  his 
own  failures,  and  by  the  fresh  and  repeat- 
ed efforts  wherewiih  he  laboured  to  re- 
deem them.  In  a  word  there  was  one 
principle  of  this  man's  constitution,  that 
was  all  active  and  awake  on  the  side  of 
holiness — that  bore  a  genuine  love  to  vir- 
tue, and  made  constant  efforts  to  realize 
it — that  could  not  rest  while  its  own  por- 
trait was  one  of  unfinished  excellence  ; 
and  just  like  ihe  accomplished  artist,  in 
proportion  to  his  nice  and  delicate  sense 
of  beauty,  were  his  grief  and  his  intoler- 
ance at  the  blemishes  wherewith  his  per- 
formance was  stained.  It  is  he  who  sets 
before  him  the  loftiest  standard  of  worth, 
and  who  is  most  jealous  and  unremitting 
in  the  pains  that  he  takes  to  equalize  it — 
it  is  he  who  most  droops  and  is  dejected 
under  a  sense  of  his  deficiency  therefrom. 
It  is  from  him  that  we  may  look  for  most 
frequent  humblings  of  spirit,  and  for  the 
deepest  visitations  upon  his  heart  of  a 
sense  of  sin  and  shortcoming ;  and  that, 
not  because  he  is  beneath  other  men  in 
his  powers  of  execution,  but  because  he 
is  beyond  them  in  his  powers  of  concep- 
tion, and  in  the  largeness  of  his  desires 


after  the  supremacy  of  all  grace  and  all 
goodness. 

That  the  soliloquist  of  the  passage  had 
this  generous  and  aspiring  tendency  is 
evident.  If  faults  he  had,  he  had  no  tole- 
ration for  them;  but  rather  the  fellest 
antipathy — 'that  which  I  do  I  allow  not, 
— what  I  hate  that  do  I.'  If  he  fell  short 
of  moral  and  spiritual  greatness,  still  he 
honestly  aspired  and  habitually  pressed 
towards  it.  '  What  I  would  that  I  do  not,' 
and  "to  will  is  present  with  me,"  and  "I 
would  do  good,"  and  that  good  is  the  law 
which  has  the  consent  of  my  approbation, 
and  "in  this  law  I  delight  after  the  inward 
man" — so  tliat  "  with  my  mind  I  serve  it." 
Now  could  you  apply  any  one  of  these 
affirmations  to  such  a  man  as  Ahab?  If 
they  hold  true  of  one  character  and  do 
not  hold  true  of  another,  is  there  not  the 
utmost  of  a  real  and  practical  difference 
between  the  characters?  Could  Ahab 
have  said  that  it  is  no  more  I  who  do  it 
but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me?  Does  it  not 
impress  you  with  a  most  wide  and  palpa- 
ble distinction,  when  you  see  one  man 
solacing  himself  in  full  complacency  with 
a  sinful  indulgence,  and  another  man 
struggling  with  all  his  might  against  the 
sinful  tendency  which  leads  to  it?  The 
former  comes  willingly  under  the  power 
of  sin  in  his  constitution — the  other  detests 
and  mourns  over  the  presence  of  it  there. 
They  are  alike  in  both  of  them  having  a 
corrupt  nature.  They  are  unlike  in  that 
one  has  been  furnished  with  a  new  and 
holy  nature,  which  does  not  immediately 
extinguish  the  former,  but  takes  place 
beside  it  until  death,  and  bears  a  principle 
of  unsparing  and  unquenchable  hostility 
towards  it.  A  man  conscious  to  himself 
of  this  state  of<composition,  takes  the  side 
of  his  new  nature,  and  can  say  of  the 
rebellious  movements  of  the  old  man,  "it 
is  not  I  who  do  them  but  sin  that  dwelleth 
iti  me."  Ahab  could  not  have  said  so, 
but  Paul  could.  In  the  former,  sin  and 
self  were  on  terms  of  perfect  agreement — 
so  that  his  heart  was  fully  set  in  him  to 
do  that  which  was  evil.  In  the  latter,  the 
original  self  was  set  aside,  and  kept  under, 
and  loathed  because  of  its  abominations, 
and  striven  against  as  the  worst  of  ene- 
mies, and  loaded  with  epithets  of  abuse, 
and  charged  with  the  designs  and  the 
dispositions  of  perpetual  mischief.  And 
so,  throughout  the  whole  of  this  soliloquy, 
is  it  reproached  with  being  carnal  and 
sold  under  sin,  with  doing  that  which  is 
unallowable  and  undesirable  and  evil  and 
hateful — with  omitting  to  do  what  is  good, 
and  being  without  the  skill  and  the  power 
to  perform  it — with  being  utterly  destitute 
of  any  good  thing — with  keeping  up  its 
execrated  residence,  even  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Christian  who  loathed  it;  and,  ever 


224 


LECTURE  XLII. CHAPTER  VII,  14,  15. 


present  there,  warring  against  the  sugges- 
tions of  a  better  principle ;  and  bent  on 
taking  captive  the  whole  man  to  the  law 
of  that  sin  which  was  in  his  members — So 
as  that  the  flesh  was  wholly  enlisted  on 
the  side  of  this  hateful  service ;  and  such 
a  conflict  upheld  among  the  belligerent 
powers  and  principles  that  were  in  a 
believer's  frame,  as  burdened  him  with  a 
sense  of  wretchedness,  and  made  him  cry 
out  for  deliverance  therefrom. 

Take  this  along  with  you,  and  you  will 
be  able  to  appreciate  what  the  confessions 
are  that  Paul  makes  of  his  own  sinfulness. 
He  first  mourns  over  the  guilt  of  his  omis- 
sions, "  what  I  would  that  I  do  not" — "  how 
to  perform  that  which  is  good  I  find  not" 
— "the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not."  Ere 
yoii  estimate  the  flagrancy  of  his  omis- 
sions, think  of  this,  that  they  consist  in 
having  fallen  short  of  his  desires — not  that 
his  work  fell  short  of  that  of  other  men, 
but  that  it  fell  greatly  short  of  his  own  wil- 
lingness — not  that  he  neglected  any  one 
duty  which  could  obtain  for  him  credit  in 
society,  but  that  he  failed  in  bringing  his 
graces  and  his  exercises  up  to  the  balance 
of  the  sanctuary.  That  he  should  in  any 
one  instance  through  the  day,  have  lost 
the  frame  of  his  atiectionate  dependence 
towards  God,  or  have  let  a  sense  of  his 
obligations  to  Christ  depart  from  his  mind, 
or  have  slackened  his  diligence  in  the  way 
of  labouring  for  the  souls  of  his  fellow- 
creatures,  or  have  cooled  in  his  charity 
towards  those  who  were  around  him,  or 
have  failed  in  any  acts  and  expressions 
of  courteousness — these  were  enough  most 
tenderly  to  affect  such  a  heart  of  moral 
tenderness  as  he  had,  and  to  prompt  every 
confession  and  every  utterance  of  shame 
or  humiliation  or  remor^  that  is  here 
recorded.  What  some  might  mistake  as 
the  evidence  of  a  spiritual  decline  on  the 
part  of  the  apostle,  was  in  fact  the  evi- 
dence of  his  growth.  It  is  the  eff'usion  (f 
a  more  quick  and  cultured  sensibility 
than  fell  to  the  lot  of  ordinary  men  ;  and 
like  the  mortification  of  him,  who,  because 
the  most  consummate  of  all  artists,  is 
therefore  the  most  feelingly  alive  to  every 
deformity  and  every  deviation.  The 
inference  were  altogether  erroneous,  that 
because  Paul  went  beyond  other  men  in 
his  confessions,  he  therefore  went  beyond 
them  in  his  crimes.  The  point  in  which 
he  went  beyond  them  was,  not  in  crime, 
but  in  conscience  ;  and  the  conclusion  is 
— not  that  he  who  uttered  these  things 
was  a  reprobate,  against  whom  the  world 
could  allege  some  monstrous  or  unnatural 
defect  from  any  of  the  social  or  relative 
proprieties  of  life— but  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  .was  a  busy  and  earnest  and 


progressive  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
urged  on  by  a  sense  of  his  distance  from 
the  perfection  that  lay  before  him,  and 
charging  his  own  heart  with  a  wide  and 
woful  defect  from  the  sanctities  that  it 
felt  to  be  due  to  his  God. 

And  the  same  holds  true  in  regard  to 
his  confessions  of  positive  sinfulness. 
"  What  I  hate  that  I  do."  "  I  do  that  which 
I  would  not."  "  The  evil  which  I  would 
not  that  I  do" — Not  that  any  doings  of  his 
were  such  as  would  be  hateful  to  him  of 
an  ordinary  conscience,  not  that  the  world 
could  detect  in  them  a  flaw  of  odiousness. 
It  was  at  the  tribunal  of  his  own  con- 
science, that  they  were  deemed  to  be 
reprehensible.  It  was  in  the  eye  of  one 
now  enlightened  in  the  law  of  Gor  and 
made  alive  to  it,  that  the  sins  of  his  own 
heart  bore  upon  them  an  aspect  of  such 
exceeding  sinfulness.  It  was  because  of 
that  quicker  sensibility  that  he  now  had, 
as  he  moved  forward  in  his  spiritual  edu- 
cation, that  he  now  felt  more  of  tender- 
ness and  alarm,  about  the  secret  workings 
of  pride  and  selfishness  and  anger  and 
carnality  in  his  inner  man  ;  and  such  an 
eff'usion  as  that  before  us,  which  has  been 
so  strangely  ascribed  to  a  personified  out- 
cast from  all  grace  and  from  all  godliness, 
is  one  that  only  could  have  proceeded 
from  the  mouth  of  an  experienced  Chris- 
tian, and  is  the  best  evidence  of  his  pro- 
gress. No  unchristianised  man  could 
have  felt  that  delight  in  God's  law,  and 
that  love  for  its  precepts,  and  that  active 
zeal  on  the  side  of  obedience,  which  are 
all  profest  in  the  soliloquy  that  is  now 
under  consideration;  and,  they  would  in- 
sure, as  they  do  with  every  Christian,  a 
real  and  habitual  progress  in  the  virtues 
and  accomplishments  of  the  new  creature. 
But  just  in  proportion  as  the  desire  after 
spiritual  excellence  is  nourished  into 
greater  force  and  intensity  in  the  one  de- 
partment of  his  now  complex  nature — so 
must  be  the  detestation  that  is  felt  for 
every  degree  or  remainder  of  evil,  that 
exists  in  the  other  department  of  it.  And 
not  till  the  union  of  the  two  is  terminated 
by  death — not  till  that  tabernacle  is  broken 
up,  which  festers  throughout  with  the 
moral  virus,  that  entered  at  the  sin  of  our 
first  parent,  and  was  transmitted  to  all  his 
posterity — not  till  these  bodies  have  moul- 
dered in  the  grave,  and  are  raised  anew 
in  incorruption  and  in  honour — not  till 
then  shall  the  desire  and  the  doing,  the 
principle  and  the  performance  be  fully 
adequate  the  one  unto  the  other ;  and 
then,  emancipated  from  the  drag  and  the 
oppression  that  here  encumber  us,  we 
shall  be  translated  into  the  glorious  liberty 
of  the  children  of  God. 


LECTURE   XLIII. CHAPTER.    VIX,    16,    17. 


225 


LECTURE  XLIII. 


Romans  vii,  IG,  17. 

"  If  then  I  do  that  which  I  would  not,  T  consent  unto  the  law  that  it  is  good.     Now  then,  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it. 

but  sin  that  dwclleth  in  me." 


It  might  save  a  wovld  of  illustration  in 
the  busines.s  of  interpreting  this  pa.s.sage, 
were  we  sure  of  addressing  ourselves  to 
the  experience  of  all  cur  hearers.  But  we 
fear  of  some  of  you,  that  you  have  no  in- 
ternal conflict  in  the  work  of  your  sanc- 
tification  at  all-r-that  you  are  under  the 
donainion  of  but  one  ruler,  even  of  self, 
that  ever  lends  a  willing  ear,  and  yields 
a  ready  obedience  to  its  own  humours  and 
appetites  and  interests;  and  that,  living 
just  as  you  list,  you  feel  no  struggle  be- 
tween your  principles  and  your  propen- 
sities— even  because  you  live  without  God 
in  the  world.  And  furthermore  we  fear 
of  others  of  you,  that  you  have  taken  up 
your  rest  among  the  forms  of  an  external 
religion,  or  among  the  terms  of  an  inert 
orthodoxy,  which  play  around  the  ear, 
without  having  reached  a  practical  im- 
pulse to  the  heart ;  and  which  lead  you  to 
solace  your.selves  with  the  privileges  of 
an  imaginary  belief,  instead  of  landing 
you  in  the  prosecution  of  a  real  and  ever- 
doing  business — which  is  to  cleanse  your- 
selves from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and 
of  the  spirit,  and  to  perfect  your  holiness 
in  the  fear  of  God.  It  is  only  the  man 
who  has  embarked  upon  this  work  in 
good  earnest — it  is  only  he  whose  con- 
science will  thoroughly  respond  to  the 
narrative  which  the  apostle  here  gives,  of 
the  broils  and  the  tumults  that  take  place 
among  the  adverse  powers  which  are  in 
the  bosom  of  every  true  Christian.  For 
Christian  though  he  be,  he  is  not  yet  a 
just  man  made  perfect ;  but  a  just  man 
lighting  his  way  onward  unto  perfection, 
through  the  downward  tendencies  of  a 
corruption  that  is  present  with  him,  and 
cleaves  to  him  even  till  death  shall  set 
him  free.  And  again,  a  fallen  and  de- 
praved mortal  though  he  be,  he  is  not 
now  of  the  wholly  carnal  and  corrupt  na- 
ture that  he  once  was  ;  but  a  spirit  has 
been  infused  into  him,  wherewith  to  make 
head  against  his  rebellious  affections 
which  still  continue  to  solicit,  though  not 
permitted  to  seduce  him,  to  that  degrading 
slavery,  against  which  he  has  now  en- 
tered into  a  war  of  resistance,  that  will  at 
length  conduct  him  to  freedom  and  to 
victory.  The  passage  now  before  us  is 
taken  up  with  the  history  of  this  war.  It 
is  a  narrative  of  that  battle  which  arises 
from  the  flesh  lusting  against  the  spirit, 
and  the  spirit  against  the  flesh — a  process 
29 


of  unintelligible  mystery,  we  doubt  not, 
to  those  who  have  "not  personally  shared 
in  it ;  but  coming  intimately  home  to  the 
experience  of  those,  who  have  learned  to 
strive  and  to  run  and  to  endure  hardship 
as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Yet,  as  we  have  said  before,  it  were 
well  if  by  any  means  we  could  give  a 
plausible  though  distant  conception  to 
those  who  are  without,  of  a  matter  where- 
with every  established  and  well-exercised 
Christian  is  quite  familiar.  It  looks,  I 
have  no  doubt,  an  apparent  puzzle  to  the 
understandings  of  many,  that  a  man 
should  do  what  is  wrong  while  he  wills 
what  is  right  ;  and,  more  especially,  that 
he  all  the  while  should  be  honestly  griev- 
ing because  of  the  one,  and  as  honestly 
aspiring  and  pressing  forwards,  nay  mak- 
ing real  practical  advances,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  other.  And  yet  you  can  surely 
ligure  to  yourself  the  artist,  who,  whether 
in  painting  or  in  poetry  or  in  music,  la- 
bours, yet  labours  in  vain,  to  do  full  jus- 
tice to  that  model  of  high  excellence 
which  his  imagination  dvvells  upon.  He 
does  not  the  things  that  he  would,  and  he 
does  the  things  that  he  would  not.  There 
is  a  lofty  sta'ndard  to  which  he  is  con- 
stantly aspiring  and  even  constantly  ap- 
proximating— yet  along  the  whole  of  this 
path  of  genius,"  there  is  a  perpetual  sense 
of  failure  ;  and  a  humbling  comparison 
of  what  has  been  already  attained  v/ilh 
what  is  yet  seen  in  the  distance  before  it ; 
and  a  vivid  acknowledgment  of  the  great 
deficiency  that  there  is  between  the  exe- 
cution of  the  hand,  and  those  unreached 
creations  of  the  lUncy  that  are  still  float- 
ing in  the  head  :  And  thus  an  agony  and 
a  disappointment  aad  a  self-reproval,  be- 
cause of  indolence  and  carelessness  and 
aversion  to  the  tatigues  of  .watchful  and 
intense  study — all  mi.xed  up  you  will  ob- 
serve with  a  towering  ambition,  nay  with 
a  rapid  and  successful  march  along  this 
walk  of  scholarship.  How  often  may  it 
be  said  of  him  that,  he  does  the  things 
which  he  would  not,  when  one  slovenly- 
line  or  one  careless  touch  of  the  pencil 
has  escaped  from  him  ;  and  when  he  falls 
short  of  those  pains  and  that  sustained 
labour,  by  which  he  hopes  to  rear  a  work 
for  immortality.  Yet  is  he  making  steady 
and  sensible  advances  all  the  while.  This 
lofty  esteem  of  all  that  is  great  and 
gigantic  in  art,  is  the  very  step  in  his 


226 


LECTVRE  XLIU. CHAPTER  VII,  16,  17. 


mind  to  a  lowly  estimation  of  all  that  he 
has  yet  done  for  it ;  and  both  these  to- 
gether are  the  urgent  forces,  by  which  he 
is  carried  upwards  to  a  station  among  the 
men  of  renown  and  admirable  genius  who 
have  gone  before  him.  Now  what  is  true 
of  the  scholarship  of  art,  is  just  as  true  of 
the  scholarship  of  religion.  There  is  a 
model  of  unattained  perfection  in  the  eye 
of  its  faithful  devotees,  even  the  pure  and 
right  and  absolutely  beautiful  and  holy 
law  of  God  ;  and  this  they  constantly 
labour  to  realize  in  their  lives,  and  so  to 
build  up,  each  in  his  own  person,  a  befit- 
ting inhabitant  for  the  realms  of  eternity. 
But  while  they  love  this  law,  they  are 
loaded  with  a  weight  of  indolence  and 
carnality  and  earthly  affections,  which 
cumber  their  ascent  thitherward  ;  and 
just  in  proportion  to  the  delight  which 
they  take  in  the  contemplation  of  its 
heaven-born  excellence,  are  the  despon- 
dency and  the  shame  wherewith  they  re- 
gard their  own  mean  and  meagre  imita- 
tions of  it.  Yet  who  does  not  see,  that, 
out  of  the  believer's  will  pitching  so  high, 
and  the  believer's  work  lagging  so  miser- 
•ably  after  it,  there  cometh  that  very  ac- 
tivity which  guides  and  guarantees  his 
progress  towards  Zion — that  therefore  it 
is,  that  he  is  led  to  ply  with  greater  dili- 
gence the  armour  which  at  length  Avins 
him  the  victory — that  the  babe  in  Christ  is 
cradled,  as  it  were,  in  the  agitation  of  these 
warring  elements — that  his  spiritual  am- 
bition is  just  the  more  whetted  and  fos- 
tered into  strength,  by  the  obstacles 
through  which  it  has  to  tight  its  way — and 
rising  from  every  fall  with  a  fresh  onset 
of  help  from  the  sanctuary,  does  he  pro- 
ceed from  step  to  step,  till  he  have  finished 
the  faith,  till  he  have  reached  the  prize  of 
his  high  calling. 

Paul,  ere  he  was  a  Christian,  was 
blameless  in  the  whole  righteousness  of 
the  law — so  far  as  he  then  knew  or  then 
understood  of  its  requirements.  His  con- 
duct was  up  to  the  level  of  his  conscience  ; 
and  what  he  did  was  adequate  to  the  sense 
that  was  in  him  of  what  he  ought  to  do. 
But  on  his  becoming  a  Christian,  he  got 
a  spiritual  insight  of  the  holy  law  of  God, 
and  then  began  the  warfare  of  the  text — 
for  then  it  was  that  his  conscience  outran 
his  conduct ;  and  that  he  could  not  over- 
take by  his  doings,  what  his  now  enlight- 
ened morality  told  him  were  his  duties. 
There  was  nothing  in  this  change  actually 
to  degrade  the  life  and  character  of  Paul ; 
but  there  was  much  in  it  to  degrade  them 
in  his  own  eyes.  He  formerly  walked  on 
what  he  felt  to  be  an  even  platform  of 
righteousness  ;  but  now  the  platform  was 
as  lifted  above  him,  and  he  was  left  to  toil 
his  upward  way  on  a  steep  ascent  that 
had  been  raised  for  conducting  him  there- 


to. Then  all  he  did  was  as  he  would ; 
and  the  work  and  the  will  were  on  terms 
of  even  fellowship  with  each  other.  But 
what  he  now  did  was  as  he  would  not; 
for  he  was  aiming  and  stretching  toward 
a  height  that  he  had  not  gained,  and  till 
he  arrived  at  which  he  could  not  be  satis- 
fied. The  view  that  he  had  now  gotten  of 
the  law  did  not  make  him  shorter  of  it 
than  before ;  but  it  made  him  feel  that  he 
was  shorter.  He  was  still  the  same  blame- 
less and  respectable  man  of  society  that 
he  had  ever  been  ;  nor  do  we  think  that 
even  in  his  days  of  darkness,  any  deed  of 
intemperance  or  profligacy  or  fraud  could 
at  all  be  imputed  to  him.  The  confes- 
sions which  are  recorded  here,  are  not 
those  of  a  degraded  criminal  ;  but  those  of 
a  struggling  and  heavenly-minded  Chris- 
tian, who  was  now  forcing  his  way  among 
the  sins  and  the  sanctities  of  the  inner 
man,  and,  far  above  the  level  of  our  ordi- 
nary world,  was  soaring  amid  the  spiritual 
alternations  of  cloud  and  of  sunshine  up 
to  the  heights  of  angelic  sacredness. 

Figure  then  a  man  to  be  under  the  as- 
pirings of  such  a  will  on  the  one  hand, 
but  these  often  deadened  and  brought 
down  by  the  weight  of  a  perverse  consti- 
tutional bias  upon  the  other;  and  there 
are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  he  is  ex- 
posed to  the  doingof  that  v/hich  he  would 
not.  Should  he  wander  in  prayer — should 
the  crosses  of  this  world  ever  cast  him 
down  from  the  buoyancy  of  his  confidence 
in  God — should  he,  on  being  overtaken 
with  a  fault,  detect  upon  his  spirit  a  keen- 
er edge  of  sensibility  to  the  disgrace  that 
he  had  incurred  among  his  fellows  upon 
earth,  than  to  the  rebuke  that  he  ha.s 
brought  upon  himself  from  the  Law-giver 
in  heaven — should  the  provocations  of  dis- 
honesty, or  the  hostile  devices  of  malicious 
and  successful  cunning,  or  the  unexpect- 
ed evolutions  of  ingratitude,  or  even  the 
teazing  and  troublesome  annoyances  of 
interruption — should  any  of  these  tempta- 
tions, wherewith  society  is  constantly  ex- 
ercising its  own  members,  ever  transport 
him  away  from  meekness  and  patience- 
and  charity  and  unwearied  kindness — 
Then  on  that  high  walk  of  principle  upon- 
which  he  is  labouring  to  uphold  himself, 
will  he  have  to  mourn  that  he  doeth  the 
things  which  he  would  not ;  and  ever  as 
he  proceeds,  will  he  still  find  that  there 
are  conquests  and  achievements  of  greater 
dilficulty  in  reserve  for  him.  It  argues  a 
very  exalted  Christianity,  when  the  glory 
of  God  is  the  habitual  and  paramount  im- 
pidse,  that  gives  movement  to  the  footsteps 
of  our  history  in  the  world.  But,  think 
you,  that,  when  a  man's  heart  comes  to  bo 
visited  by  this  ambition,  that  then  it  is  he 
makes  his  escape  from  the  complaint  of 
doing  what  he  would  not !     It  only  thick- 


LECTURE   XLIII. CHAPTER    VII,    16,   17. 


22T 


ens  the  contest,  and  multiplies  the  chances 
of  mortification,  and  furnishes  new  topics 
of  humility  to  the   disciple — and   in  the 
very  proportion  too  that  he  urges  and  as- 
cends and  strikes  loftier  aims  along  the 
course  of  his  progressive  holiness.     And 
•  so  it  follows,  that  he  who  is  highest  in  ac- 
quirement is  sure  to  be  deepest  in  lowly 
and  contrite  tenderness — for  just  as  the 
desires  of  his  spirit  mount  higher,  will  the 
damp  and  the  deadness  and  the  obstruc- 
tions of  the  flesh  be  more  felt  as  a  grief 
and   an   encumbrance   to    him.     So   that 
while  in   the   body,  this  soliloquy  of  t!ic 
apostle   will  be  all   his  own;  and  so  far 
from  conceiving  of  it  as  the  appropriate 
utterance  for  a  natural  and  unconverted 
man — it  is  just  as  we  are  the  more  saintly, 
that  we  shall  feel  our  readiness  to  coalesce 
with   it   as   the    fittest   vehicle   of  fiearts 
smitten  with  the  love  of  purest  excellence, 
yet  burdened  under  a  sense  of  distance 
and  deficiency  therefrom.     And  thus  it  is, 
that  the  toil-worn  veteran  has  been  known 
to  weep  upon  his  death-bed ;  and  to  long 
for  an  escape  from  this  sore  conflict,  be- 
tween the  elements  of  his  compound  na- 
ture ;  and  to  be  in  exceeding  weariness  for 
his  emancipation   from    that   vile    body, 
which  brings  a  soil  and  a  taint  and  a  tar- 
nish upon  all  his  offerings ;  and  to  feel 
how  greatly  better  it  were  that  he  should 
be    with    Christ,  and   expatiate   at    large 
among  those  unclouded  eminences  where 
the  spirits  of  the  perfect  dwell,  and   are 
admitted  among  the  glories  of  that  un- 
spotted holiness  which  now  is  inaccessible. 
For  here,  the  accursed  nature  is  still  pre- 
sent, and  galling  with  its  offensive  solicita- 
tions    the     regenerated    spirit — so    that 
when   weighed  down    by   indolence ;    or 
frozen  into  apathy ;  or  betrayed  into  un- 
charitable    thoughts     and     uncharitable 
wishes ;  or  led  to  seek  the  desires  of  its 
own  selfishness  more  than  God's  honour, 
to  rejoice  in  its  exemption  from  punish- 
ment more  than  to  aspire  after  its  exemp- 
tion from  sin,  to  be  more  vehement  for  the 
object  of  being  safe  than  for  the  object  of 
being   sanctified — The   consciousness  of 
these,  which  give  no  disturbance  either  to 
the  unchristian  man  or  to  the  Christian  in 
his  infancy,  is  still  in  reserve  to  humble 
and  keep  down  even  the  most  accomplish- 
ed  believer;  to   assure    him   still  of  the 
many  things  that  he  does  which  he  would 
not ;  to  keep  him  at  the  post  of  depend- 
ence, where  he  may  join  with  the  apostle 
in  mourning  over  his  own  wretchedness, 
and  with  the  psalmist  in  exclaiming  "  Who 
can  understand  his  errors,  cleanse  thou 
me  from  secret  faults :  Search  me  O  God 
and  know  my  heart,  try  me  and  know  my 
thoughts,  and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked 
way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  ever- 
lasting." 


I      In  the  case  of  an  unconverted  man,  the 
flesh  is  weak  and  the  spirit  is  not  willing ; 
and  so  there  is  no  conflict — nothing  that 
can  force  those  outcries  of  shame  and  re- 
morse  and    Mtter  lamentation,   that   we 
have  in  the  passage  before  us.     With  a*\ 
Christian,  the  flesh  is  weak  too  but  the 
spirit  is  willing;  and  under  its  influence 
there  must  from  the  necessary  connection 
that  there  is  between  the  human  faculties, 
there  must  from  the  desires  of  his  heart 
be  such  a  plenteous  efflux  of  doings  upon 
his  history,  as  shall  make  his  life  distin- 
guishable" in  the  world,  and  most  distin- 
guishable on  the  day  of  judgment,  from 
the  life  of  an   unbeliever.     But  still   his 
desires  will  outstrip  his  doings,  and  the 
will  that  he  conceives  shoot  greatly  ahead 
of  the  work  that  ho  performs — and  thus, 
will  he  not  only  leave  undone  much  of 
what  he  would,  but,  even  in  the  language 
of  our  present  verse,  do  many  things  that 
he  would  not.    Cut  I  call  you  particularly 
to  notice  that  the  will  must  be  there — that 
he  is  not  regenerated  at   all   unless  the 
will,  honestly  and  genuinely  and  without 
the  hypocrisy   of  all  mental  reservation, 
be   there.     If   he   have   any   interest  in 
Christ,  any  part  in  the  promises  or  the 
influences  of  His  new  economy,  the  incli- 
nation which  prompts  to  a  resolute  and 
unsparing  warfare  with  all  iniquity  must 
be  there.     The  man  who  uses  the  degen- 
eracy of  his  nature  as  a  plea  for  sinful 
indulgence — the  man  who  makes  a  cloak 
of  his  corruption  wherewith  to  shelter  its 
deceits  and  deformities,  instead  of  hating 
the  spotted  garment  with  his  utmost  soul 
and  labouring  to  unwind  himself  from  all 
its  entanglements — the  man  who  loves  the 
play  of  orthodoxy  in  his  head,  and  stickles 
for  his  own  depravity  as  the  most  favour- 
ite of  its  articles,  while  he  continues  to 
cherish  it  in  his  heart  or  to  roll  it  under 
his  tongue  as  a  sweet  morsel — That  man 
is  going  to  the  grave  with  a  lie  in  his 
right  hand  ;  and  the  piercing  eye  of  his 
Judge,  who  now  discerns  his  latent  worth- 
lessness,  will  at  length  drag  it  forth  to 
open  day,  and  expose  it  to  shame  and  to 
everlasting  contempt.     That   the  will  be 
on  the  side  of  virtue  is  indispensable  to 
Christian  uprightness.    Wanting  this,  you 
want  the  primary  and  essential  element  of 
regeneration — You  are  not  born  again — 
you  shall  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  God 

God  knows  how  to  distinguish  the  maa 
of  Christian  uprightness,  even  amid  all  his 
imperfections,  from  another  who,  not  very 
visibly  dissimilar  in  outward  history,  is 
nevertheless  destitute  of  an  honest,  habit- 
ual, and  heart-felt  desirousness  after  the 
doing  of  His  will.  Let  me  suppose  two 
yoked  and  harnessed  vehicles,  both  upon 
a  road  of  ruggedness  and  difficulty,  and 
where  at  last  each  was  brought  to  a  dead 


228 


LECTURE   XLIII. — CHAPTER    VII,    16,   17. 


Stand.  They  are  alike  in  the  one  palpable 
circumstance  of  making  no  progress  ;  and, 
were  this  the  only  ground  upon  which  a 
judgment  could  be  formed,  it  might  be 
concluded  of  the  drivers  that  they  were 
alike  remiss,  or  of  tlie  animals  under  them 
that  they  were  alike  spiritless  and  indo- 
lent. And  yet  on  a  narmwer  comparison 
of  the  two,  it  niuy  be  observed  from  the 
loose  traces  of  the  one,  tiuit  all  exertion 
had  been  given  up — while  with  the  other 
there  was  the  full  tension  of  a  resolute 
and  sustained  cncrgj',  pressing  at  the 
instant  against  the  obstructions  of  tJie 
road,  and  perhaps  with  the  perseverance- 
of  a  few  minutes  carrying  it  over  Ihem. 
Both,  for  the  time  being,  are  stationary  ; 
and  yet  the  one  is  as  distinct  as  possible 
fi'om  the  other,  in  respect  of  the  push  and 
the  .struggle  to  get  forward,  and  the  forth- 
putting  of  strenuous  inclination  on  the 
part  of  all  the  living  agents  who  are  con- 
cerned. And  so,  my  brethren,  of  the 
Christian  course.  It  is  not  altogether  by 
the  sensible  motion,  nor  yet  altogether  by 
the  place  of  advancement  at  which  you 
have  arrived,  that  you  are  to  estimate  the 
genuineness  of  the  Christian  character. 
Man  may  not  see  all  the  springs  and 
traces  of  this  moral  mechanism,  but  God 
sees  them  ;  and  he  knows  whether  all  is 
slack  and  careless  within  you,  or  whether 
there  be  the  full  stretch  of  a  single  and 
honest  determination  on  the  side  of  obe- 
dience. Think  no.t,  that  He  is  in  want  of 
materials  for  judging  and  decidincj  upon 
this  question.  Think  not  that  He,  of 
whom  it  is  said  that  He  weigheth  the 
spirits  of  all  those  whose  ways  are  clean 
in  their  own  eyes,  and  that  He  pondereth 
the  hearts  as  well  as  the  goings  of  His 
creatures,  and  that  from  His  throne  in 
heaven  His  eyes  behold  and  His  eye-lids 
try  the  children  of  men — think  not  that 
He  will  lose  His  discernment  of  the.  in- 
ward principle,  amid  all  the  drags  and 
corruptions  and  obstacles  wherewith  a 
believer  is  encompassed  upon  his  path. 
He  knoweth  how  to  separate  the  chaff 
from  the  wheat,  and  hov/  to  set  His  ap- 
propriate mark  on  the  upright  and  on  the 
hypocrite.  You  know  in  what  direction 
you  should  move,  even  towards  that  which 
is  good  and  away  from  that  which  is  evil. 
God  knows  if  you  are  intently  and  sin- 
cerely prosecuting  this  career  ;  for  under 
all  the  mistiness  of  the  human  understand- 
ing, nevertheless  the  foundation  of  God 
standcth  sure,  having  this  seal,  "the  Lord 
knoweth  them  that  are  His — And,  let  every 
one  that  nanieth  the  name  of  Christ  de- 
part from  iniquity." 

And  so,  amid  all  the  besetting  infirmi- 
ties of  a  nature  tainted  with  evil,  which 
Paul  had  as  well  as  others,  he  had  what 
unconverted  sinners   have   not,  a  desire 


and  a  conatus  after  all  holy  obedience. 
He  consented  unto  the  law  that  it  was 
good,  not  assented  but  consented — did  not 
simply  approve  of  the  things  that  are 
more  excellent  as  the  Jews  with  whom  he 
reasoned,  but  had  a  liking  to  the  things 
that  are  more  excellent.  His  will  was  on 
the  side  of  the  law  that  he  loved  ;  and  not 
on  the  side  of  that  transgression  which  he 
hated,  at  the  very  time  perhaps  that  he 
had  been  surprised  into  it.  He  consented 
unto  the  law  that  it  was  good,  and  his- 
delight  was  in  the  law  after  the  inward 
man,  and  with  his  mind  he  served  the  law 
of  God.  And  God  has  a  judging  and  a 
discerning  eye  upon  all  these  tendencies, 
lie  knows  most  clearly  the  difference 
between  him  who  has  them,  and  him  who 
has  them  not.  There  is  a  real  and  sub- 
stantial distinction  between  the  two  char- 
acters, which  is  quite  palpable  to  our 
heavenly  Judge,  and  will  guide  Him  to  an 
unerring  decision  on  the  day  of  reckon- 
ing. If  not  so  palpable  to  yourselves,  it 
should  just  make  you  the  more  earnest  in 
labouring  to  work  out  your  assurance; 
and  to  watch  against  the  deceitful  and 
unknown  hypocrisy,  that  may  be  lurking 
under  the  plausibilities  of  an  orthodox 
profession  ;  and  to  be  altogether  on  the 
alert  and  on  the  alarm  against  all  those 
treacherous  inclinations,  that,  if  not  rooted 
out,  must  at  least  be  most  vigilantly 
guarded,  and  on  every  appearance  which 
they  do  put  forth  must  be  vigorously  over- 
borne. The  adherence  of  the  mind  must 
be  to  the  l;iw  of  God.  The  affectionate 
consent  of  the  heart  must  be  towards  it. 
All  the  feelings  and  faculties  of  the  inward 
man  must  be  on  the  side  of  obedience; 
and  if  such  be  indeed  our  spiritual  me- 
chanism, we  shall  be  impelled  forward, 
through  the  many  impc^dimeiits  of  a  per- 
verse and  w.)fully  derai^.ged  nature,  on 
the  path  of  new  obedience — rising,  as  the 
upright  ever  do,  from  the  falls  which  they 
experience;  and  urgmg  our  laborious 
and  oft-interrupted  way  to  that  land, 
where  the  soul  that  has  holy  desires  shall 
mec-'t  with  a  body  that  has  b(;en  delivered 
of  its  moral  leprosy,  we  shall  pass  from 
strength  to  strength  till  we  appear  perfect 
before  God  in  Zion. 

V.  17.  There  is  a  peculiarity  here  that 
is  worth  adverting  to.  St.  Paul,  throughout 
the  wiiole  of  this  passage,  utters  the  con- 
sciousness that  is  in  him,  of  the  two  oppo- 
site principles  which  resided  and  which 
rivalled,  the  one  with  the  other,  for  do- 
minion over  his  now  compound  because 
now  regenerated  nature.  And  it  is  re-  ,  ■ 
markable    how    he    sometimes   identifies  I 

himself  with  the  first  of  these  ingredients,  » 

and  sometimes  with  the  second  of  them. 
In  speaking  of  the  movements  of  the  flesh, 
he  sometimes   says  that  it  is  I  who  put 


LECTURE  XLin. CHArTER  VII,  16,  17. 


229 


forth  these  movements.  "I  am  carnal 
and  sold  under  sin."  "I  do  that  which  1 
hate."  "I  do  that  which  I  would  not." 
"In  me — that  is  in  my  flesh,  but  still  you 
will  perceive  so  identifying  for  a  time  the 
flesh  with  himself  as  to  say  of  this  flesh 
that  it  is  mc — In  me  dwelleth  no  good 
thing."  And  lastly,  "I  do  the  evil  that  J 
would  not"  and  "  J  And  not  how  to  perform 
that  which  is  good." 

Now  here  you  will  perceive,  that,  in  all 
these  quotations,  he  charges  on  his  own 
proper  and  personal  self,  the  corrupt 
feelings  and  instigations  that  the  flesh 
gives  rise  to.  And  it  is  true  that  these  all 
do  emanate  from  the  original  part  of  his 
nature  ;  and  the  other  or  the  gracious  part 
of  it,  came  by  a  subsequent  accession  to 
him.  It  is  a  thing  superinduced  at  con- 
version, and  may  be  regarded  more  in  the 
light  of  an  element  imported  from  abroad, 
which  no  doubt  it  was  his  part  to  cherish 
to  the  uttermost ;  but  which  still  was  a 
Bort  of  foreigner  in  his  constitution  that 
did  not  primarily  and  essentiallv  belong 
-o  it. 

Yet  notwitstanding  this,  I  would  have 
you  to  notice,  how  he  shifts  the  applica- 
tion of  the  pronoun  I ;  and  tran.-itijrs  it 
from  the  corrupt  to  the  spiritual  ingre- 
dient of  his  nature.  It  is  I  who  would  do 
that  which  is  good.  It  is  I  who  hate  that 
which  is  evil.  It  is  I  who  consent  unto 
the  law  ;  and  finally  it  is  I  who  delight  in 
the  law  of  God  after  the  inner  man.  Thus 
it  is,  if  I  may  so  speak,  that  Paul  inter- 
changes himself  between  the  two  conflict- 
ing elements  that  were  within  him — at 
one  time  regarding  the  better  of  the  two 
elements  as  a  visitant  from  without  whom 
he  longed  to  detain,  and  charging  upon 
his  own  person  all  the  baseness  and 
misery  of  its  antagonist — at  another  bit- 
terly complaining  of  the  worse  element 
as  a  burden  wherefrom  he  longed  to  be 
delivered,  and  actually  vindicating  hin> 
self  from  its  corrupt  movements  by  ex- 
pressly saying  that  it  was  not  I.  And,  to 
fetch  an  example  from  another  part  of  his 
writings,  we  hold  it  to  be  truly  remarkable 
that,  while  in  the  passage  before  us  he 
says  of  that  which  is  evil  in  him  '  it  is  no 
more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in 
me' — there  is  a  different  passage  where 
he  says  of  that  v/hich  is  good  in  him 
'nevertheless  not  me,  but  the  grace  of 
\     God  that  is  in  me.' 

We  thus  bring  together  these  afiirma- 
tions  of  the  apostle,  hoping  that  it  may 
have  the  effect  of  making  more  manifest 
to  you — that  state  of  composition  in  which 
every  Christian  is,  who  hath  been  visited 
with  spiritual  life  from  on  high,  and  yet 
is  compassed  about  with  the  infirmities  of 
an  earthly  tabernacle.    In  virtue  of  the 


original  ingredient  of  this  composition,  he 
does  well  to  be  humbled  under  a  sense 
of  his  own  iimatc  and  inherent  worthless- 
ness.  And  yet  it  is  true,  that  in  virtue  of 
the  second  or  posterior  ingredient — his 
taste,  and  his  understanding,  and  his 
deliberate  choice,  and  the  higher  powers 
and  faculties  of  his  moral  system,  are  now 
all  on  the  side  of  new  obedience.  Never- 
theless it  is  well  for  him  to  look  often 
unto  the  rock  v/honcc  he  was  hewn  ;  and, 
thinking  of  the  quarter  whence  he  derives 
all  his  heaven-born  virtues,  to  say  of  them 
that  they  had  not  their  origin  in  me — and 
it  is  also  well  for  him,  while  he  regards 
the  duties  of  the  Christian  life  and  the 
graces  of  the  Christian  charactei",  to  say 
that  these  are  what  /love  to  perform,  and 
these  are  what  /hope  to  realise. 

And  the  apostle,  at  the  end  of  this  chap- 
ter, lays  before  us  the  distinction  between 
the  two  parts  of  the  Christian  nature — 
when  he  says, that  with  the  mind  I  myself 
serve  the  law  of  God,  and  v/ith  the  flesh 
the  law  of  sin.  But  ever  remember,  that 
it  is  the  part  of  the  former  to  keep  the 
latter  under  the  power  of  its  presiding 
authority.  The  latter,  on  this  side  of 
tim.;,  is  ever  present  with  us ;  but  for  all 
that,  it  may  not  prevail  over  us.  It  may 
often  be  felt  in  its  hateful  instigations ; 
but  ;t  mustnot  on  thataccount  be  followed 
in  the  waywardness  of  its  devious  and 
unlawful  movements.  Were  there  no 
counteracting  force  I  would  serve  it;  but, 
with  that  force  in  operation  over  me  and 
because  I  am  under  grace,  sin  may  have 
a  dwelling-place  but  it  shall  not  have  the 
dominion. 

When  the  matter  is  taken  up  as  a  mat- 
ter of  humiliation,  then  it  cannot  be  too 
strongly  insisted  upon,  that  it  is  I  who 
am  the  sinner ;  that  to  myself,  properly 
and  primarily,  bclongeth  all  that  is  vile 
and  worthless  in  my  constitution  ;  that, 
even  at  the  very  time  I  am  brightening 
into  the  character  of  heaven,  I  am  ever 
reminded  by  the  conscience  within  me 
of  an  inherent  depravity  that  be  all  my 
own :  and,  even  though  this  corruption  is 
fast  dying  towards  its  final  and  complete 
disappearance,  yet  that  it  is  under  the 
power  of  an  influence  that  cometh  all 
from  another.  He  who  can  say  that  by 
the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am,  may  in 
fact  have  reached  a  lofty  eminence  of 
that  ascent  which  rcacheth  unto  perfec- 
tion ;  and  yet  with  truth  may  think  and 
feel,  that,  in  himself,  he  is  altogether  void 
of  godliness.  The  shame  of  his  original 
nature  still  adheres  to  him;  and,  although 
it  be  fast  giving  way  to  the  ascendant' 
power  of  another  and  a  nobler  nature,  yet, 
knowing  whence  it  is  that  he  hath  derived 
both  its  being  and  its  growth,  the  graces 


230 


LECTURE    XLUI. CHAPTER    VU,    16,    17. 


and  the  ornaments  of  the  spiritual  life  are 
but  to  him  a  matter  of  gratitude,  and  not 
at  all  of  glorying. 

On  the  other  hand,  when,  instead  of 
being  talten  up  as  a  topic  of  humiliation 
it  is  taken  up  as  a  topic  of  aspiring 
earnestness,  it  cannot  be  too  strongly 
urged  on  every  Christian,  that  ho  should 
be  able  honestly  and  heartily  to  say  of 
himself,  I  desire  after  holiness — in  very 
sincerity  and  truth  it  is  tlie  fondest  aim 
of  my  existence,  to  be  what  I  ought  and 
to  do  what  1  ought — for  the  furtherance 
of  the  same  would  I  pray  and  watch  and 
keep  rny  unceasing  post  both  of  vigilance 
and  exertion — I  take  the  side  of  all  that  is 
good  and  gracious  in  my  constitution  ; 
and  against  whatever  still  adheres  to  me 
of  the  um'enewed  and  the  carnal,  do  I  feel 
an  utter  and  irreconcilable  enmity.  His 
mind  is  with  the  law  of  God  ;  and  though 
the  tendencies  of  his  flesh  be  with  the  law 
of  sin,  yet,  sustained  by  aid  from  the 
sanctuary,  does  he  both  will  and  is  enabled 
to  strive  against  these  tendencies  and  to 
overcome  them. 

It  is  under  such  a  feeling  of  what  he 
was  in  himself  on  the  one  hand,  and  such 
an  earnestness  to  be  released  from  the 
miseries  of  this  his  natural  condition  upon 
the  other,  that  Paul  cries  out  in  the  ago- 
nies of  his  internal  conflict — "  O  wretched 
man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death !"  And  I  would 
have  you  to  mark  how  instantaneous  the 
transition  is,  from  the  cry  of  distress  to 
the  gratitude  of  his  felt  and  immediate  de- 
liverance— "  I  thank  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  my  Lord."  This  we  hold  to  be 
the  exercise  of  every  true  Christian  in 
the  world.  Evil  is  present  with  him ;  and 
he  blames  none  but  himself  for  its  hateful 
and  degrading  instigations.  But  grace  is 
in  readiness,  not  to  sweep  away  this  evil 
as  to  its  existence,  but  to  subdue  it  as  to 
Its  prevalence  and  power;  and  while  he 
blames  none  but  himself  for  all  that  is 


corrupt,  he  thanks  none  but  God  in  Christ 
lor  all  that  is  gracious  and  good  in  him. 
To  use  an  old  but  expressive  phrase,  his 
soul  is  ever  travelling  between  his  own 
emptiness  and  Christ's  fullness;  and  like 
the  apostle  b(;fore  him  when  urged  with 
any  temptation,  lie  recurs  to  the  expedi- 
ent of  beseeching  the  Lord  earnestly  that 
it  might  depart  from  him.  And  the  an- 
swer to  this  petition  is  remarkable.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  temptation  was 
made  to  depart  from  him  ;  but  it  was  de- 
prived of  its  wonted  force  of  ascendency 
over  him.  It  was  not  by  the  extirpation 
of  the  evil,  but  by  the  counteracting 
strength  of  an  opposite  good,  that  the 
apostle  was  kept  upright  as  to  his  walk, 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  adverse  and  corrupt 
tendencies  of  his  will.  "  I  will  make  my 
grace  sufficient  for  thee,"  was  the  Lord's 
answer  to  him.  It  was  not  that  he  did  not 
still  feel  how  in  himself  he  was  weak. 
The  weakness  of  nature  remained  ;  but  in 
that  weakness  I  will  perfect  my  strength, 
says  the  Saviour.  And  so  it  is  we  believe 
to  the  end  of  our  days.  There  is  a  felt 
distinction  between  the  weakness  that  is 
in  ourselves,  and  the  strength  that  cometh 
upon  us  from  the  upper  sanctuary.  Even 
Paul  was  doomed  to  the  consciousness 
that  he  had  both  a  flesh  and  a  mind — the 
one  of  which  would  have  inclined  him 
wholly  to  the  love  and  to  the  law  of  sin  ; 
and  with  the  other  of  which  he  kept  the  cor- 
rupt tendency  that  still  abode  with  him  in 
check,  and  so  maintained  a  conduct  agree- 
able to  the  law  of  God.  Like  him,  my 
brethren,  let  us  have  no  confidence  in  the 
flesh,  and  like  him  let  us  rejoice  in  the 
Lord  Jesus;  and  so  shall  we  be  enabled 
to  serve  God  in  the  Spirit — realising  that 
comprehensive  description  which  he  gives 
of  a  Christian  when  he  says,  "  We  are  of 
the  circumcision,  who  serve  God  in  the 
Spirit,  and  rejoice  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh." 


LECTURE  XLIV. 


Romans  viii,  1.       • 

"Thtre  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after 

the  Spirit." 


The  term  '  now,'  may  be  understood  in 
two  senses — one  of  them  a  more  general, 
and  the  other  a  more  special.  It  may  be 
understood  as  it  respects  the  present  econ- 
omy of  the  gospel.  Now,  since  that  econ- 
omy has  been  instituted — now,  suice  the 


first  covenant  has  passed  away,  and  the 
second  has  been  substituted  in  its  place — 
now,  that  Christ  hath  born  the  vengeance 
of  the  law  upon  his  own  person,  and, 
having  thus  disposed  of  its  threatenings 
against  the  guilty,  can  now  address  the 


LECTURE   XLIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    1. 


231 


guilty  with  the  overtures  of  a  free  pardon 
and  a  linished  and  entire  reconciliation — 
Now  is  it  competent  for  sinners  to  em- 
brace these  overtures  ;  and  there  is  now  no 
•condemnation  to  those,  who,  having  so 
complied  vi'ith  them,  are  in  Christ  Jesus. 
It  is  thus  that  the  term  now  may  be  made 
to  respect  the  current  period  in  the  history 
of  God's  administration — the  reign  of 
grace  under  which  we  at  present  are,  in 
-contradistinction  to  the  former  regimen 
of  the  law  which  has  been  superseded. 

Or  it  may  be  understood  more  specially, 
as  referring  to  the  present  moment  in  the 
■history  of  an  individual  believer.  He  is 
now  freed  from  condemnation — not  as  if 
the  sentence  of  acquittal  were  still  in  de- 
pendence, but  as  if  that  sentence  had  al- 
ready passed — not  as  if  he  had  to  look,  per- 
haps doubtfully,  and  ambiguously  forward 
to  some  future  day,  when  a  verdict  of  ex- 
culpation shall  be  pronounced  upon  him; 
t)ut  as  if  he  stood  exculpated  before  God 
even  now,  and  even  now  might  rejoice  in 
the  forgiveness  of  all  his  trespasses. 

We  think  that,  in  the  clause  before  us, 
the  term  now  reaches  the  full  extent  of 
this  signification.  When  a  sinner  closes 
with  Christ,  God  takes  him  on  the  instant 
into  reconciliation ;  and  from  that  time 
are  his  sins  washed  out  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb.  I  will  remember  them  no 
more.  I  will  make  no  more  mention  of 
them  ;  and  they  are  among  the  things  that 
are  behind,  and  which  ought  to  be  forgot- 
ten. The  believer  should  feel  his  con- 
science to  be  relieved  from  the  guilt  and 
from  the  dread  of  them  ;  and,  instead  of 
being  any  longer  burdened  with  them  as 
60  many  debts  subject  to  a  count  and 
reckoning  on  some  future  day,  he  has  a 
most  legitimate  warrant  for  looking  on  the 
account  as  closed,  and  that  there  is  a  full 
settlement  and  discharge  because  of  them 
between  him  and  God.  We  have  heard 
that  it  is  wrong  in  a  believer  to  live  be- 
neath his  privileges,  and  we  fully  agree 
in  so  thinking.  We  know  not  how  the 
spirit  of  bondage  is  ever  to  be  done  away, 
or  the  joy  of  the  gospel  ever  made  to 
spring  up  in  the  heart,  if,  still  beset  with 
the  entanglement  of  his  scruples  and  of 
his  fears,  he  shall  suspend  the  remission 
of  his  sins  on  any  thing  else  than  on  the 
blood  of  Jesus.  Now  all  that  is  told  of 
that  blood  should  assure  him  of  a  present 
justification  ;  and  this  should  send  an  in- 
stant peace  into  his  bosom  ;  and  like  the 
jailor  of  old,  should  he  on  hearing  of  the 
power  and  property  thereof  forthwith  and 
from  that  moment  rejoice.  Be  translated 
then  into  the  sense  of  God  being  at  peace 
with  you.  Receive  the  forgiveness  of 
your  sins,  through  Him  whom  God  hath 
set  forth  as  a  propitiation.  Look  unto 
Christ  lifted  up  for  the  offences  of  the 


world  ;  and  be  encouraged  in  the  thought, 
that  the  whole  weight  of  your  offences 
has  indeed  been  born  away  from  your- 
self, and  indeed  been  laid  upon  another. 
It  is  on  the  strength  of  this  simple  exhibi- 
tion, that  I  should  like  to  assure  you  of 
pardon  ;  nor  would  1  embarrass  the  mat- 
ter with  any  conditions,  or  hang  it  on  any 
dark  and  uncertain  futurities  that  may  lie 
before  you.  Christ  hath  made  atonement, 
and  with  it  God  is  satisfied ;  and  if  so, 
well  may  you  be  satisfied — delighting 
yourselves  greatly  in  the  abundance  of 
peace,  and  going  forth  even  now  in  the 
light  and  the  liberty  of  your  present  en- 
largement. 

But  the  verse  further  proceeds  to  inform 
us,  who  they  are  that  have  this  inestima- 
ble privilege ;  and  the  first  circumstance 
of  description  which  it  brings  forward  re- 
specting them,  is,  that  they  are  in  Christ. 
There  are  some,  who  actuated  by  the  dis- 
taste of  nature  towards  gospel  truth  in  all 
its  depth  and  all  its  peculiarity,  under- 
stand this  phrase  in  a  way  that  is  but 
vaguely  and  feebly  expressive  of  its  real 
meaning.  They  have  no  tolerance  for 
the  doctrine  of  a  vital  and  mystical  union 
between  Christ  as  the  head,  and  Christians 
as  the  members  who  receive  from  Him 
both  their  guidance  and  their  nourish- 
ment ;  and  they  fear  lest  fanaticism  should 
betray  them  into  some  of  her  illusions,  by 
carrying  too  far  the  analogy  between  a 
vine  and  its  branches ;  and  so  they  get 
over  the  phrase  of  being  in  Christ,  and  get 
quit  of  all  that  special  intimacy  of  alli- 
ance with  the  Saviour  which  it  is  fitted  to 
convey,  by  the  very  general  interpretation 
that  to  be  in  Christ  is  just  tantamount  to 
being  a  Christian.  And  so  it  is,  if  you  un- 
derstand a  Christian  in  the  full  sense  and 
significancy  of  that  high  denomination  : 
But  then  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes  against 
the  closeness  of  that  personal  and  sub- 
stantial attachment,  which  we  every  where 
read  of,  as  subsisting  between  the  Re- 
deemer and  those  who  are  the  fruit  of  the 
travail  of  His  own  soul ;  nor  are  we  jea- 
lously to  exclude  from  our  minds  the  im- 
pression of  that  very  near  relationship, 
which  is  suggested  by  the  following  pas- 
sages— "  But  of  Him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  wisdom  and 
righteousness  and  sanctification  and  re- 
demption." "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ  he 
is  a  new  creature."  "  The  dead  in  Christ 
shall  rise  first."  "  We  are  in  Him  that  is 
true,  even  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ" 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 
Lord."  "  He  that  abideth  in  me  and  I  in 
him  the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." 
"  And  be  found  in  Him  not  having  my  own 
righteousness."  , 

But  lest  we  should  wander  into  a  region 
of  mist  and  of  obscurity,  let  us  not  forget, 


232 


LECTURE   XLIV. CHAPTER    VIII,    1. 


that,  for  the  purpose  of  being  admitted 
into  this  state  of  commLuiity  with  the  Sa- 
viour, the  one  distinct  and  intelligible 
thing  which  yoLi  have  to  do  is  to  believe 
in  Ilini.  There  is  nothing  mystical  in  the 
act  by  which  you  award  to  Ilim  credit  for 
His  declarations  ;  and  this  is  the  act  by 
which  you  are  grafted  in  the  Saviour. 
Whatever  this  matter  of  your  union  with 
Christ  be,  it  all  hinges  upon  your  faith  in 
Him — which  faith  is  the  great  ti(^  of  rela- 
tionship betwixt  you.  As  you  hold  fast 
the  beginning  of  your  confidence,  and  per- 
severe therein,  the  tie  will  be  strengthened 
— the  relationship  will  become  more  inti- 
mate— the  communications  of  mutual  re- 
gard will  become  more  frequent,  and  more 
familiar  to  your  experience — every  day 
you  live  might  bring  you  into  more  in- 
tense acquaintanceship  with  the  Saviour, 
and  that  on  the  strength  of  your  faithful 
applications  to  Ilim,  and  of  His  sure  and 
faithful  responses  unto  you — And  thus,  by 
certain  exercises  and  feelings  which  cer- 
tainly are  not  recondite  in  themselves 
might  you  arrive  at  a  state  of  fellowship 
with  Christ;  which  fellowship,  in  the  de- 
scription of  it,  might  be  very  recondite 
both  to  those  who  stand  without,  and  even 
to  those  who  have  got  no  farther  than  to 
the  threshold  of  Christian  experience.  By 
the  simple  expedients  of  believing  prayer  ; 
and  the  habitual  commitment  of  yourself 
to  the  Lord  your  Saviour,  in  circumstances 
of  trial  or  difficulty  ;  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  your  heart's  regard  and  grati- 
tude, because  of  all  the  favours  that  you 
have  gotten  at  His  hand  ;  and  the  strenu- 
ous maintainance  within  you  of  that 
peace  which  He  hath  purchased  by  His 
blood,  and  of  that  purity  by  which  His 
will  is  complied  with  and  His  doctrine  is 
adorned — by  these  you  may  so  over-shoot 
the  expei'ience  of  other  men,  as  to  have 
attained  a  sense  and  a  discernment  of  in- 
corporation with  the  Saviour,  wherewith 
they  are  not  yet  prepared  to  sympathise. 
All  this,  though  not  yet  realized  by  many 
of  you,  is  surely  conceivable  by  many  of 
you  ;  but  meanwhile,  and  lest  ye  should 
think  of  some  remote  and  inaccessible 
mystery  which  it  were  utterly  hopeless 
for  you  to  aspire  after,  I  v/ould  have  you 
all  to  remark,  that,  though  the  territory 
of  Christian  experience  may  not  be  plain 
to  you,  yet  the  way  is  plain  by  which  you 
arrive  at  it — that,  more  particularly,  you 
you  are  conducted  to  the  state  of  being  in 
Christ  simply  by  believing  in  him:  And 
so,  there  ought  to  be  nothing  more  unin- 
telligible in  the  verse,  '  that  there  is  no 
condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ 
Jesus,'  than  in  the  verse,  "He  that  belicv- 
eth  on  Him  is  not  condemned,  but  he  that 
believeth  not  is  bondemned  already,  be- 


cause he  hath  not  believed  on  the  name  of 
the  only-begotten  Son  of  God." 

But  there  is  another  circumstance  of 
description  that  attaches  to  those  unto 
whom  there  is  no  condemnation.  This  is 
the  privilege  of  those  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus;  and  further,  who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

Now  here  I  must  come  forth  with  a  spe- 
cial demand  upon  your  attention.  We 
are  not  fond  of  those  less  manageable  to- 
pics in  theology,  that  call  either  for  an 
elaborate  exposition  on  the  part  of  the 
minister,  or  for  a  very  strenuous  and  sus- 
tained effort  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the 
hearers ;  and  nothing  else  can  reconcile 
us  to  them,  than  their  practical  bearing 
upon  the  comfort  or  the  holiness  of  Chris- 
tians. For  it  is  at  the  same  time  most 
true,  that  a  thing  may  at  once  be  both 
profound  and  important.  It  may  lie  deep ; 
and  yet,  like  the  precious  metals,  be  of 
use  in  the  familiar  currency  of  the  busi- 
ness of  religion.  The  work  of  godliness 
presses  all  the  faculties  into  its  service ; 
and  lays  a  tax  on  the  understanding  of 
man,  as  well  as  upon  his  heart  "and  his 
conscience.  Insomuch  that  we  are  bid- 
den to  give  earnest  heed,  and  to  hearken 
diligently,  and  to  search  for  sacred  wis- 
dom as  for  hidden  treasure,  and  to  medi- 
tate on  these  things,  and  to  give  ourselves 
wholly  thereunto,  and  to  study  and  strive 
and  stir  ourselves  up  that  we  may  lay 
hold  of  them.  And  we  do  think  that  such 
passages  as  these,  might  mitigate  some- 
what the  prejudice  of  many  against  the 
scholastic  air  of  certain  of  our  theological 
disquisitions — as  leading  us  to  suspect  that 
perhaps  in  some  instances,  and  more 
especially  in  the  work  of  rightly  divi- 
ding  the  word  of  truth,  the  thing  is  un- 
avoidable. 

You  will  therefore  suffer  me  I  trust, 
when  I  say,  that,  of  the  two  circumstances 
in  the  description  of  those  who  are  free 
from  condemnation  which  are  presented 
to  our  notice  in  the  verse  before  us,  one 
of  them  is  the  cause  of  our  being  so  freed  ; 
and  the  other  is  not  the  cause  but  the  con- 
sequence. Both  of  these  invariably  meet 
on  the  person  of  him,  who  hath  been  ad- 
mitted to  the  pardon  and  acceptance  of 
the  gospel.  Every  one  who  is  so  admit- 
ted, is  in  Christ  .Tesus;  and  every  one  who 
is  so  admitted,  walketh  not  after  the  flesh 
but  after  the  Spirit.  But  it  is  of  real 
practical  importance  for  you  to  be  made 
aware,  that  one  of  these  circumstances 
goes  before  your  deliverance  from  guilt, 
and  the  other  comes  aft(;r  it.  Your  release 
from  condemnation  is  suspended  on  the 
first  circumstance  of  your  being  in  Christ 
Jesus.  But  it  is  not  so  suspended  on  the 
second  circumstance,  of  your  walking  not 


LECTURE    XLIV. CHAPTER    VIII,    1. 


233 


after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit.  The 
first  is  the  origin  of  your  justification — 
the  second  is  tlie  fruit  of  it.  You  secure 
your  hold  of  the  one,  by  keeping  hold  of 
Christ;  and  you  make  progress  in  the 
other,  by  walking  securely  before  Him  in 
the  light  of  His  friendly  countenance,  and 
with  the  willingness  of  a  grateful  and  de- 
voted heart  that  He. has  emancipated  from 
all  its  fears.  The  order  of  succession 
which  I  now  announce  to  you,  will  not 
interest  those  who  take  no  interest  in  their 
souls.  But  it  may  resolve  the  difficulty 
of  an  anxious  inquirer;  and  be  the  in- 
strument to  him,  both  of  his  translation 
into  peace,  and  of  his  translation  into 
progressive  holiness. 

For  mark  the  embarrassment  of  that 
disciple,  who,  instead  of  entering  upon 
forgiveness  even  now  by  a  league  of  faith 
and  fellowship  with  Christ ;  and  so  bring- 
ing his  person  under  the  first  of  these  two 
circumstances, — postpones  his  enjoyment 
of  this  privilege  until  he  has  accomplished 
the  second  of  them,  and  is  satisfied  with 
himself  that  he  walketh  not  after  the  flesh 
but  after  the  Spirit.  Look,  I  pray  you,  to 
the  heavy  disadvantage  under  which  he 
toils  and  travails  at  the  work  of  new  obe- 
dience ;  and  how  the  spirit  of  bondage  is 
{  sure  to  be  perpetuated  within  him,  so  long 
as  he  persists  in  his  wrong  imagination  ; 
and  how  still  the  conditions  of  an  imprac- 
ticable law  must  continue  to  oppress  his 
conscience,  and  to  goad  him  onward  in  a 
service,  where  he  labours  in  the  very  fire 
and  wearies  himself  for  very  vanity  ;  and 
how  working,  as  he  in  fact  must  do,  for 
his  justiflcation  before  God,  he  cannot  ad- 
vance a  single  footstep  without  a  despair- 
ing eye  on  some  new  and  unsealed  heights 
of  virtue,  the  very  aspect  of  which  takes 
all  heart  and  all  energy  away  from  him. 
And  thus,  with  the  burden  upon  his  inner 
man  of  all  the  fears  and  disquietudes 
which  attach  to  the  old  legal  economy, 
will  he  either  spend  his  days  in  a  grievous 
servitude  which  fatigues  but  never  satis- 
fies ;  or  be  driven  from  very  weariness  to 
a  compromise  between  his  conscience  and 
his  conduct,  between  the  law  of  God  and 
his  own  garbled  conformity  thereunto — 
bringing  down  the  high  requisitions  of 
heaven  to  the  corrupt  standard  of  earth  : 
and  offering,  in  the  si»;ht  of  men  and  of 
angels,  a  polluted  obedience  as  a  rightful 
equivalent  for  the  rewards  and  the  hon- 
ours of  eternity.  He  must  either  do  this, 
or  be  haunted  and  pursued  to  the  end  of 
life,  by  all  the  perplexities  of  a  yet  unset- 
tled question  between  him  and  God;  and 
'he  sense  of  his  manifold  deficiencies  will 
never  cease  either  to  pain  or  to  paralyse 
him  ;  and  still  much  of  the  drudgery  of 
obedience  may  reluctantly  be  borne,  but 
nought  of  the  delight  of  obedience  will  be 
30 


there — there  may  be  the  outward  compli- 
ance of  a  slave,  but  none  of  the  inward 
graces  or  aspirations  of  a  saint.  The  truth 
is,  that  if  this  immunity  from  condemna- 
tion, instead  of  being  a  thing  given  to  us 
because  we  are  in  Christ,  is  a  thing  pur- 
chased by  us  because  of  our  walking  not 
after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit — then 
will  consf.ience  ever  be  suggesting  to  us 
that,  the  purchase  has  not  been  made 
good  ;  and  all  the  jealousies  of  a  bargain 
will  ever  and  anon  rise  up  between  the 
parties  ;  and  a  cold  or  mercenary  feeling 
will  put  to  flight  the  good  will,  and  the 
confidence,  and  the  spontaneous  regard, 
which  are  the  alone  worthy  ingredients  of 
all  acceptable  godliness ;  and,  after  all 
the  offerings  that  may  have  been  rendered 
by  the  hand,  the  sterling  tribute  of  the 
heart  will  be  withholden.  God  will  be 
feared,  or  He  will  be  distrusted ;  but  He 
cannot  be  loved  under  such  an  economy  ; 
so  that,  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
strenuous  and  sustained  exertion  after  a 
righteousness  which  is  by  the  law,  the 
law  is  dishonoured  at  every  breath  in  the 
first  and  greatest  of  her  commandments. 

There  is  a  better  way  of  ordering  this 
matter ;  and  it  is  a  way  laid  down  by 
Him,  who  is  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation. The  gospel  carries  in  it  a  full  and 
immediate  tender  of  pardon  unto  sinners. 
Deliverance  from  condemnation  is  not  the 
goal,  but  the  starting-post  of  the  Chris- 
tian race ;  and,  instead  of  labouring  to 
make  good  the  remote  and  inaccessible 
station  where  forgiveness  shall  be  award- 
ed to  him,  he  is  sent  forth  with  the  inspi- 
ration of  one  who  knows  himself  forgiven 
on  the  way  of  all  the  commandments. 
All  are  invited  to  come  unto  Christ,  and  to 
be  in  Christ ;  and  from  that  moment  the 
believer's  guilt  is  washed  away  ;  and  a 
full  deed  of  amnesty  is  put  into  his  hand  ; 
and,  lightened  of  all  his  fears,  he  goes 
forth  upon  his  course  rejoicing.  The 
tenure  of  his  discipleship,  is,  'not  that 
with  him  there  is  soine  future  chance  of 
pardon,  but  unto  him  that  now  there  is  no 
condemnation  ;  and  this,  like  the  loosing 
of  a  bond,  sets  him  free  for  all  the  services 
of  new  obedience.  It  opens  an  ingress  to 
his  heart  lor  attections,  which  never  else 
could  have  found  company  there  ;  and 
the  creature  knowing  himself  to  be  safe, 
and  delivered  from  the  engrossment  of  his 
before  slavish  apprehensions,  can  now 
with  new-born  liberty  walk  after  the 
Spirit  on  the  path  of  a  progressive  holiness. 
It  is  because  he  knows  the  truth  that  the 
truth  has  now  made  him  free.  It  is  not  a 
regeneration  originating  with  himself,  that 
has  reconciled  him  unto  God — but  it  is  a 
sense  of  his  reconciliation,  it  is  this  which 
has  regenerated  him.  His  new  walk  is 
not  the  cause  of  his  agreement  with  God. 


234 


LECTURE   XLIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    1. 


It  is  the  consequence  which  has  emanated 
therefrom. 

It  is  the  free  grace  of  the  gospel,  which 
awakens  every  man  who  receives  it,  to  the 
•charm  of  new  moral  existence.  Faith  is 
the  quickening  touch,  whereby  the  before 
<iormant  energies  of  our  nature  are  put 
into  motion.  It  is  faith  which  ushers  love 
into  the  heart,  and  love  gives  impulse  to 
the  inert  and  sluggish  mechanism  of  the 
human  faculties.  With  the  despairing 
sense  in  his  bosom  of  a  good  wholly  un- 
attainable, the  man  feels  himself  weighed 
down  to  inaction  and  to  apathy.  But 
when  the  good  is  offered  to  him  freely 
and  he  by  faith  lays  hold  of  it — then,  de- 
livered at  once  from  the  cold  and  creep- 
ing spirit  of  bondage,  does  he  break  forth 
in  the  full  vigour  of  his  emancipated  pow- 
ers. What  before  was  a  matter  of  anxious 
iincertainty,  and  without  either  hope  or 
affection  to  animate,  becomes  a  matter  of 
confidence  and  alacrity  and  good  will. 
And  this  is  the  great  secret  of  that  promp- 
titude and  that  power  wherewith  the  gos- 
pel urges  on  its  disciples  to  the  cidtivation 
of  its  heaven-born  virtues,  to  the  faithful- 
ness and  the  activity  of  its  bidden  services. 

Make  the  transition,  my  brethren,  from 
death  unto  life,  by  simply  laying  hold  on 
the  gospel  offer  of  reconciliation.  After 
placing  your  full  reliance  upon  this,  then 
run  with  all  your  might  on  that  heaven- 
ward path  of  righteousness  and  purity  and 
love  which  leadeth  unto  the  upper  para- 
dise. First  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  then  be 
doing  good.  A  workman  to  whom  a  tool 
is  indispensable — you  would  never  bid 
him  work  for  the  tool,  but  you  would  put 
the  tool  into  his  hand  and  bid  him  work 
by  it.  Faith  is  the  alone  spiritual  tool, 
by  which  you  can  accomplish  any  right 
spiritual  preparation.  How  can  I  love 
God — how  can  1  maintain  the  gentleness 
of  my  spirit,  under  provocations  the  most 
artful  and  the  most  galling — how  can  I 
keep  up  the  serenity  of  the  inner  man, 
while  the  voice  of  calumny  is  abroad  ;  or 
a  visible  alienation  sits  upon  every  coun- 
tenance ;  or  plans  misgive  and  prospects 
lour  and  look  dreary  on  every  side  of  me  ; 
or,  forsaken  by  all  that  is  sweet  and  sooth- 
ing in  human  companionship,  I  have 
nought  to  lean  upon  but  God  as  the  friend 
whom  I  have  chosen,  and  Heaven  as  the 
home  of  my  fondest  expectations  1  The 
answer  of  the  new  Testament  is — "  Only 
believe — all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth."  This  is  the  tool  for  all 
the  high  moral  achievements  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  thus  it  is  that  your  being  now 
in  Christ,  with  a  present  freeness  from 
condemnation,  forms  an  essential  step- 
ping-stone to  your  walking  no  more  after 
the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

But — mark  it  well,  my  brethren.    This 


distinction  between  the  consequence  and 
the  cause,  though  it  gives  to  the  obedience 
of  a  believer  its  proper  place,  does  not 
make  that  obedience  less  sure.  What  the 
worldly  or  hypocritical  professor  thinks  to 
be  faith,  is  nought  but  fancy  or  something 
worse,  if  it  be  not  followed  by  the  walk 
of  godliness.  It  is  just  as  true  as  if  your 
virtue  were  the  price  of  your  salvation — 
that  there  will  be  no  salvation  for  you,  if 
you  have  no  virtue.  There  will  be  a  per- 
sonal distinction  between  those  in  the  last 
day  who  stand  on  the  right,  and  those  who 
stand  on  the  left  of  the  judgment-seat; 
and  the  distinction  will  be,  that,  whereas 
the  one  abounded  in  good,  so  the  other 
abounded  in  evil  deeds  done  in  their  body. 
All  that  we  have  said  was  not  with  a  view 
to  supersede  the  moralities  of  practical 
righteousness,  but  to  set  you  on  the  proper 
way  by  which  to  arrive  at  them.  The 
ultimate  design  of  the  gospel  economy  is 
to  make  those  who  sit  under  it  zealous  of 
good  works ;  and  the  reason  why  we 
should  like  the  sense  of  your  deliverance 
from  guilt  to  be  introduced  even  now  by 
faith  into  your  bosoms,  is,  that  we  esteem 
it  the  only  instrument  for  reviving  within 
you  the  love  of  God,  or  for  causing  to 
break  forth  upon  your  visible  conduct  the 
efflorescence  of  all  that  is  virtuous  and 
pure  and  praiseworthy. 

To  conclude  my  remarks  upon  this 
verse  which  has  detained  us  so  long,  I 
would  have  you  to  be  aware  of  this  most 
important  consideration — that  the  same 
believer  who  is  represented  here  as  walk- 
ing not  after  the  flesh,  is  the  very  indivi- 
dual who  would  take  up  the  soliloquy  of 
the  last  chapter  ;  and  have  full  share  and 
full  sympathy,  with  the  toil,  and  the  con- 
flict, and  all  the  inward  bitterness  because 
of  sin,  that  ai-e  represented  therein.  The 
same  man  who  feels  the  motions  of  the 
flesh,  walks  not  after  the  flesh.  The  same 
man  who  is  harassed  with  the  instiga- 
tions of  sin,  resists  and  refuses  to  follow 
them.  He  who  was  burdened,  even  to  a 
sense  of  wretchedness,  with  the  hateful 
presence  of  his  wayward  and  licentious 
desires,  would  not  submit  to  their  tyranny  ; 
and  while  kept  in  a  state  of  constant 
vigilance  and  alarm  because  of  the  war- 
ring elements  in  his  bosom,  yet  does  he 
so  fight  as  that  the  evil  which  is  in  his 
heart  shall  not  have  the  mastery  over  his 
conduct — So  that,  amid  the  opposing  ten- 
dencies and  inclinations  which  beset  his 
will,  still  his  walk  is  the  walk  of  new 
obedience — not  being  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spirit.  "Every  man  is  templed," 
says  the  apostle  James,  "  when  he  is 
drawn  away  of  his  own  lusts  and  enticed. 
Then  when  lust  hath  conceived  it  bring- 
eth  forth  sin,  and  sin  when  it  is  finished 
bringeth   forth  death."    The  believer  is 


LECTURE   XLIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    1. 


235 


often  so  tempted,  and  even  to  his  own  sad 
grief  and  humiliation  may  he  have  des- 
cribed the  previous  steps  of  this  process  ; 
but  never  is  the  process  so  finished  as  to 
terminate  in  death.  He  struggles  against 
sin,  and  he  prevails  over  it.  There  may 
be  a  sore  and  a  desperate  contest  in  the 
inner  man  ;  but  the  result  of  it  is  a  body 
kept  under  subjection,  whose  hands  are 
made  the  instruments  of  righteousness, 
and  whose  feet  are  found  in  the  way  of 
all  God's  commandments.  Take  my 
brethren  the  patent  and  accessible  way 
that  lies  so  openly  and  so  invitingly 
before  you.  Wash  out  your  sins  even 
now  in  the  blood  of  God's  everlasting 
covenant.  Come  and  taste  of  the  sure 
mercies  of  David.  Receive  the  forgive- 
ness of  your  sins;  and,  when  delivered 


from  the  weight  and  oppression  of  your 
guilt — that  sore  spiritual  palsy,  then  arise 
and  walk.  Tidings  of  great  joy  should 
make  you  joyful ;  and  the  tidings  where- 
with 1  am  fraught  are  of  that  remission 
from  sin  which  I  now  preach  unto  you, 
and  which  may  be  preached  to  every 
creature  under  heaven.  The  effect  it  had 
on  believers  of  old  was  an  instantaneous 
joy ;  and  so  should  be  the  effect  on  all 
now  who  believe  the  same  gospel.  And 
joy  my  brethren  carries  a  vigour  and  an 
inspiration  along  with  it.  There  is  a 
might  of  practical  energy  in  the  impulse 
which  it  communicates  ;  and  it  is  when 
the  heart  is  enlarged  thereby,  that  the 
feet  run  with  alacrity  in  the  way  of  all 
the  commandments. 


LECTURE  XLV. 


Romans  viii,  3. 
"For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 


It  is  of  great  importance  for  the  under- 
standing of  this  verse,  that  you  be  made 
acquainted  with  the  two  different  senses 
that  belong  to  the  word  law.  At  one  time 
it  signifies  an  authoritative  code,  framed 
by  a  master  for  the  regulation  and  obe- 
dience of  those  who  are  subject  to  him. 
And  so  we  understand  it  when  we  speak 
of  the  law  of  God,  whether  by  this  we 
mean  His  universal  moral  law  or  any 
system  of  local  and  temporary  enactments 
— such  as  those  which  were  embodied  for 
the  special  government  of  the  Jews,  and 
have  obtained  the  general  denomination 
of  the  Mosaic  law  or  the  ceremonial  law. 
According  to  this  meaning  of  it,  it  stands 
related  to  jurisprudence — established  by 
one  party  who  have  the  right  or  the  power 
of  command,  and  submitted  to  by  another 
party  on  whom  lies  the  duty  or  the  neces- 
sity of  obedience.  The  laws  of  the  Medes 
and  Persians — the  laws  of  any  country — 
and,  in  a  word,  any  rule  put  forth  by 
authority  and  enforced  by  sanctions, 
whether  it  has  issued  from  the  Divine 
Governor,  or  from  those  who  have  the 
reins  of  civil  or  political  authority  upon 
earth — All  are  expressed  by  the  same 
term  and  in  the  same  sense  of  the  term. 
But  there  is  still  another  and  very  fre- 
quent meaning  of  this  word,  apart  alto- 
gether from  jurisprudence — a  meaning 
applicable  in  cases  where  there  is  no 
obedience  of  living  and  accountable  crea- 
tures at  all;  and  a  meaning  in  which  it 


might  be  used  and  understood  even  by 
the  Atheist,  who  denied  the  being  or  the 
power  of  a  living  Sovereign  who  presided 
over  nature,  and  established  the  various 
successions  that  go  on  with  such  order 
and  regularity  around  us.  It  is  quite 
consistent  with  the  use  of  language,  to 
speak  of  the  laws  of  nature — denoting 
thereby  the  process  by  which  events 
follow  each  other,  in  a  train  of  certain 
and  unvarying  accompaniment — Such  for 
example  as  the  law  of  falling  bodies — the 
law  of  reflexion  from  polished  surfaces — 
the  laws  of  the  vegetable  kingdom;  and 
even  in  this  sense  may  we  speak  of  the 
laws  of  the  human  mind,  as  altogether 
distinct  from  that  law  of  God  to  which  it 
is  morally  and  rightfully  subject  in  the 
way  of  jurisprudence.  By  one  of  these 
laws  its  thoughts  follow  each  other  in  a 
certain  order  that  might  almost  be  pre- 
dicted— so  that  if  one  thought  be  present 
to  it,  it  is  sure  to  suggest  another  thought ; 
and  this  is  called  the  law  of  association. 
And  so  in  proportion  as  we  make  an  inti- 
mate study  of  ourselves,  shall  we  find 
certain  methods  of  procedure,  in  the  order 
of  which  the  feelings  and  the  faculties 
and  the  habits  of  man  are  found  to  go 
forward  ;  and  all  these  may  be  announced 
by  metaphysicians  and  moralists  as  the 
laws  of  human  nature.  The  law  which 
willing  and  accountable  creatures  are 
bound  to  obey  is  one  thing.  The  law, 
in  virtue    of   which    creatures  whether 


236 


LECTURE   XLV.— CHAPTER    VIII,    ii. 


animate  or  inanimate  are  found  at  all 
times  to  make  the  same  exhibition  in  the 
same  circumstances,  is  another. 

At  the  same  lime  it  is  not  difficult  to 
perceive,  how  one  and  the  same  term 
came  to  be  applied  to  things  so  distinct 
in  themselves.  Foi'  you  will  observe  that 
law,  according  to  the  tirst  sense  of  it,  is 
not  applicable  lo  a  single  command  that 
may  have  issued  from  me  at  one  time,  and 
perhaps  may  never  be  repeated.  It  is 
true  that  this  one  commandment,  like  all 
the  others,  is  obeyed,  because  of  that 
general  law  by  which  the  servant  is  bound 
to  fiillil  the  Vi'ill  of  his  master.  Yet  you 
would  not  say  of  the  special  command- 
ment itself  that  it  was  a  law  ;  nor  dous  it 
attain  the  rank  of  such  a  denomination, 
unless  the  thing  enjoined  by  it  be  a  habit 
or  a  practice  of  invariable  observation. 
Thus  the  order  that  the  door  of  eaeh 
apartment  shall  be  shut  in  the  act  of 
leaving  it — or  that  none  of  the  family 
shall  be  missing  after  a  particular  hour  in 
the  evening — or  that  tSabbath  shall  be 
spent  by  all  the  domestics  either  in  church 
or  in  the  exercises  of  household  piety — 
These  may  be  characterised  as  the  laws 
of  the  family — not  the  random  and  for- 
tuitous orders  of  the  current  day,  but 
orders  of  standing  force  and  oblig-ation 
for  all  the  days  of  the  year  ;  and  in  virtue 
of  which  you  may  be  sure  to  lind  the 
same  uniform  conduct  on  the  part  of 
those  who  are  subject  to  the  law,  in  the 
same  certain  circumstances  that  the  law 
hath  specified. 

Now  it  is  this  common  circumstance  of 
uniformity  which  hath  so  extended  the 
application  of  the  term  law,  as  to  present 
it  to  us  in  the  second  sense  which  I  have 
endeavoured  to  explain.  Should  you  drop 
a  piece  of  heavy  matter  from  your  hand, 
nothing  more  certain  nor  more  constant 
than  the  descent  which  it  will  make  to 
the  ground — just  as  if  constrained  so  to 
do  by  the  authority  of  a  universal  enact- 
ment on  the  subject,  and  hence  the  law 
of  gravitation.  Or  if  space  be  allowed 
for  its  downward  movement,  nothing 
more  certain  or  uniform  than  the  way  in 
which  it  quickens  its  descent — just  as  if 
bidden  to  make  greater  speed,  and  hence 
the  la^  of  acceleration  in  falling  bodies. 
Or  if  light  be  made  to  fall  by  a  certain 
path  on  a  smooth  and  polished  surface, 
nothing  more  mathematically  sure  than 
the  path  by  which  it  will  be  given  back 
again  to  the  eye  of  him  who  looks  to  the 
image  that  has  thus  been  formed,  and 
hence  in  optics  the  law  of  reflexion.  Or 
if  a  substance  float  upon  the  water,  noth- 
ing more  rigidly  and  invariably  accur.ite 
than  that  the  quantity  of  tluid  displact-d 
is  equal  in  weight  to  that  of  the  body 
which  is  supported ;  and  all  this  from  a 


law  in  hydrostatics.  Now  there  is  a  like 
constancy  running  throughout  the  whole 
of  nature,  and  any  of  her  uniform  proces- 
ses is  referred  to  the  operation  of  a  law — 
just  as  if  she  sat  with  the  authority  of  a 
mistress  over  her  mute  and  unconscious 
subjects,  and  as  if  th(!y  by  the  regularity 
of  their  movements  did  willing  and  rever- 
ential homage  to  the  authority  of  her 
regulations.  But  you  will  perceive  where- 
in it  is  that  the  difference  lies.  The  one 
kind  of  law  is  framed  by  a  living  master 
for  the  obedience  of  living  subjects,  and 
may  be  called  juridical  law.  The  other 
is  framed  by  a  living  master  also,  for 
amid  the  diversity  of  operations  it  is  God 
who  worketh  all  in  all ;  but  it  is  not  by  a 
compliance  of  the  will  that  an  obedience 
is  rendered  thereunto — it  is  by  the  force 
of  those  natural  principles  wherewith  the 
things  in  question  are  endowed,  and  in 
virtue  of  which  they  move  and  act  and 
operate  in  that  one  way  which  is  agree- 
able to  their  nature.  This  kind  of  law 
would  by  philosophers  be  called  physical 
law.  The  one  is  a  preceptive  rule  for  the 
government  of  willing  and  accountable 
creatures.  The  other  is  an  operative 
principle  residing  in  every  creature,  be  it 
animate  or  be  it  inanimate;  and  determi- 
ning it  by  its  own  force  to  certain  uniform 
processes. 

Now  the  question  comes  to  be,  in  which 
of  these  two  senses  shall  we  understand 
this  term  law  in  the  text  before  us.  We 
think  that  though  it  occurs  twice,  both  of 
these  must  be  understood  in  the  same 
sense,  and  both  indeed  appear  to  be 
determined  to  the  same  sense  by  the  rela- 
tion in  which  they  stand  as  rivals  or  as 
opposites.  When  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus  makes  us 'free  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  of  death,  it  is  either  by 
the  authority  of  one  master  prevailing 
over  the  authority  of  another  master  ;  or 
by  the  force  of  one  influencing  principle 
within  us  prevailing  over  the  force  of 
another  such  principle.  To  determine 
which  of  these  two  it  is,  we  shall  begin 
with  the  consideration  of  the  law  of  sin 
and  death,  which  though  it  comes  last  in 
the  verse,  is  first  in  the  order  of  ascend- 
ancy over  the  human  mind  ;  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  thraldom  under  which  it 
brings  us,  may  lead  us  to  think  aright 
of  the  nature  of  our  deliverance  there- 
from. 

It  must  be  quite  obvious  then  to  you  all, 
that  the  law  of  sin  and  death  is  not  a  law 
that  is  enacted  in  the  way  of  jurispru- 
dence ;  but,  like  every  othor  law  of 
nature,  it  is  an  operative  principle  that 
worketh  certain  effects  and  emanates 
certain  processes  in  the  subject  where  it 
resides.  It  is  neither  more  nor  less  in 
fact  than  the  sinful  tendency  of  our  con- 


LECTURE    XLV. CHAPTER.    VIII,    2. 


237 


stitution ;  and  is  quite  the  same  with 
what  in  the  preceding  chapter  is  terrried 
the  law  of  sin  that  is  in  our  membei's.  It 
is  called  a  law,  because,  like  the  laws  of 
gravitation  or  magnetism  or  electricity,  it 
impels  those  upon  whom  it  acts  in  a  cer- 
tain given  direction  ;  and  has  indeed  the 
power  and  the  property  of  a  moving  force 
expressly  ascribed  to  it,  when  it  is  said 
to  war  against  the  law  of  the  mind,  and 
to  be  incessantly  aiming  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  its  own  mastery  over  those 
whom  it  tries  to  lead  captive  and  to  en- 
slave. And  to  keep  up  this  conception 
of  a  law  in  the  second  sense  of  it,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  death  is  as  much  the 
natural  consequence  of  sin,  as  it  is  the 
penalty  of  sin — that  it  forms  the  termina- 
tion of  an  historical  process  by  a  law  that 
regulates  the  succession  of  events,  as  well 
as  the  termination  of  a  juridical  process 
under  the  power  and  authority  of  a  law- 
giver— that  regarded  in  its  true  character 
as  the  extinction  of  the  life  of  gfcdliness 
in  the  soul ;  as  the  death  of  all  spiritual 
joy  ;  as  the  darkness  and  the  misery  of  a 
heart,  where  vice  and  selfishness  and 
carnality  are  the  alone  occupiers  ;  as  that 
moral  hell,  the  rudiments  of  wlrich  every 
unconverted  man  carries  about  with  him 
here,  and  the  settled  maturity  of  which  he 
will  bear  with  him  to  the  place  of  con- 
demnation hereafter;  as  that  state  of  dis- 
tance and  disruption  from  God,  which 
may  now  be  supportable  so  long  as  earth 
spreads  its  interests  and  gratifications 
before  us,  but  which  so  soon  as  earth 
passeth  away  will  leave  the  soul  in  deso- 
lation and  terror  and  without  a  satisfying 
portion  throughout  eternity — Such  a  death 
as  this,  comes  as  regularly  and  as  surely 
in  the  train  of  our  captivity  to  sin,  and  by 
the  operation  of  a  law,  in  the  moral  or 
spiritual  department  of  nature — as  the 
fruit  of  any  tree,  or  the  produce  of  any 
husbandry,  does  by  the  laws  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom.  The  sinful  tendency  that 
worketh  in  man  bringeth  forth  fruit  unto 
death;  just  as  the  vegetative  tendency 
that  is  in  the  foxglove  bringeth  forth 
poison.  In  both  it  is  a  fruit  of  bitterness ; 
and  in  both  the  effect  of  an  established 
law, — apart  from  the  awards  and  the 
retributions  of  a  Lawgiver. 

Now  the  way  in  which  this  tendenc)'^  is 
counteracted,  is  just  by  an  opposite  ten- 
dency that  is  implanted  in  the  mind,  for 
the  purpose  of  making  head  against  it, 
and  of  at  length  prevailing  over  it.  The 
law  of  the  Spirit  of  life,  just  expresses  the 
tendency  and  the  result  of  an  operative 
principle  in  the  mind,  that  has  force 
enough  to  arrest  the  operation  of  the  law 
of  sin  and  death,  and  at  length  to  eman- 
cipate us  therefrom.  It  is  deposited  with- 
in as  the  germ  of  a  new  character  ;  and 


in  virtue  of  which  there  are  evolved  the 
desire,  and  the  purpose,  and  the  activities, 
and  at  length  all  the  conquests  and  all  the 
achievements  of  a  life  of  holiness.  The 
affection  of  the  old  man  meets  with  a  new 
afiection  to  combat  and  to  overmatch  it. 
If  the  originating  prirunple  of  sin  might 
be  reduced  to  one  brief  expression,  and 
so  be  shortly  designed  the  love  of  the 
creature — the  originating  principle  of  the 
spiritual  life  might  also  be  briefly  and 
summarily  designed  the  love  of  the  Cre- 
ator. These  two  appetites  are  in  a  state 
of  un'-easing-  hostility.  ■  The  flesh  lusteth 
against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against 
the  flesh.  The  law  of  sin  and  of  death 
warreth  against  the  law  of  the  mind;  and 
this  law  of  the  mind  in  the  preceding  con- 
text, is  just  tlie  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
the  verse  that  is  now  before  us. 

Let  me  now  come  forth  in  succession 
with  a  few  distinct  remarks  upon  this. 
verse,  with  a  view  to  con)plete  our  under- 
standing of  it. 

First,  You  are  already  aware  how  it  is 
the  Spirit  of  God  that  infuses  this  prin- 
ciple into  the  mind,  and  sets  agoing  the 
law  of  its  operation.  Hence  it  may  pro- 
perly be  denominated  the  law  of  the  Spi- 
rit— even  as  the  opposite  process  against 
which  it  has  to  struggle  and  at  length  to 
vanquish,  is  called  the  law  of  sin — a  new 
tendency  imparted  to  the  soul  for  the  pur- 
pose of  arresting  the  old  tendency  and  at 
length  of  extinguishing  it ;  and  called  the 
law  of  the  Spirit,  just  because  referable 
to  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  whose  agency  ii  is 
that  the  new  affection  has  been  inspired, 
that  the  new  moral  force  has  been  made 
to  actuate  the  soul  and  give  another  di- 
rection than  before  to  the  whole  history. 

But  secondly — why  is  it  called  the  law 
of  the  Spirit  of  life  ]  Just  because  he  in 
whom  this  law  is  set  agoing  is  spiritually 
minded  ;  and  as  to  be  carnally  minded  is 
death,  so  to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life. 
It  is  the  law  of  the  Spii'it,  because  of  the 
agent  who  sets  this  law  agoing  in  the  soul. 
It  is  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life,  because 
of  the  new  state  into  which  it  ushers  the 
soul.  It  is  like  the  awakening  of  man  to 
a  new  moral  existence,  when  he  is  awak- 
ened to  the  love  of  that  God-  whom  before 
he  was  glad  to  forget;  and  of  whom  he 
never  thought  but  as  a  Being  shrouded  in 
unapproachable  majesty,  and  compassed 
about  with  the  jealousies  of  a  law  that  had 
been  violated.  It  is  like  a  resurrection 
from  the  grave,  when,  quickened  and 
aroused  from  the  deep  oblivion  of  nature, 
man  enters  into  living  fellowship  with  his 
God  ;  and  He,  who  ere  now  had  been  re- 
garded with  terror  or  utterly  disregarded, 
hath  at  length  reclaimed  unto  Himself  all 
our  trust  and  all  our  tenderness.  It  is  the 
introduction  of  a  before  earthly  creature 


238 


LECTURE   XLV. CHAPTER   VIII,    2. 


into  a  region  of  other  prospects  and  other 
manifestations,  when  now  lie  can  eye  eter- 
nity with  hope,  and  look  up  with  confi- 
dence to  the  Lord  and  Disposer  of  his 
eternity.  It  is  like  imparting  to  him  an- 
other breath,  and  enduing  him  as  it  were 
with  another  vitality,  when,  for  the  ani- 
mal and  the  earthly  desires  which  once 
monopolised  all  his  affections,  there  spring 
up  in  his  bosom  the  desire  of  spiritual 
excellence,  and  a  love  that  reachelh  unto 
all,  and  the  new  moral  ambition  that  the 
image  of  the  Godhead  be  again  implanted 
upon  his  character.  There  is  now  a  sa- 
tisfaction and  a  harmony  within,  a  rightly 
going  mechanism  of  the  soul  that  is  in 
unison  with  the  great  purposes  of  his  be- 
ing, a  refreshing  sense  of  that  native  enjoy- 
ment which  goodness  and  righteousnes  and 
truth  arc  ever  sure  to  bring  along  with 
them,  the  sunshine  of  a  heart  at  peace 
and  of  a  heart  inhaling  the  purity  of  holy 
and  celestial  aspirations — all  which  make 
him  feel  as  if  he  had  entered  on  a  life 
that  was  new  ;  and  in  comparison  with 
which  the  whole  of  his  former  existence 
appears  corrupt  to  him  as  a  sepulchre, 
and  worthless  as  nonentity  itself  It  is 
only  now  that  he  has  begun  to  live,  be- 
cause now  hath  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  begun  to  operate  in  his  bosom  ;  and 
only  now  hath  that  well  of  water  been 
struck  out  in  his  heart,  which  to  him,  even 
in  the  life  that  now  is,  is  precious  as  the 
elixirof  immortality  and  springeth  up  unto 
life  everlasting. 

And  thirdly,  wlien  is  it  that  this  visita- 
tion of  the  Spirit  descendeth  upon  the 
soul  ]  When  is  it  that  this  new  law  is  set 
up  within  it ;  and  so  a  power  or  a  ten- 
dency is  established  there,  that  arrests  and 
at  length  subjugates  the  old  one!  We 
think  that  the  answer  is  to  be  gathered 
from  the  single  expression  of  the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  What- 
ever the  import  of  the  phrase  in  Christ 
Jesus  may  be,  it  is  when  so  in  Him  that 
this  law  taketh  effect  upon  us.  As  surely 
as  when  you  enter  a  garden  of  sweets, 
one  of  your  senses  becomes  awakened  to 
the  perfumes  wherewith  its  air  is  impreg- 
nated— as  surely  as  when  emerging  from 
the  darkness  of  a  close  apartment  to  the 
glories  of  an  unclouded  day,  another  of 
your  senses  is  awakened  to  the  light  and 
beauty  of  all  that  is  visible — So  surely 
when  you  enter  within  the  ft)ld  of  Christ's 
mediatorship,  and  are  so  united  with  Him 
as  to  be  in  Him  according  to  the  bible 
signification  of  this  phrase,  then  is  it  that 
there  is  an  awakening  of  the  inner  man 
to  the  beauties  of  holiness.  We  refer  to 
a  law  of  nature,  the  impression  of  every 
scene,  in  which  he  is  situated,  on  the 
senses  of  the  observer ;  and  it  is  also  by 
the  operation  of  such  a  law,  that,  if  in 


Christ  Jesus,  we  become  subject  to  a  quick- 
ening and  a  reviving  touch  that  raises  us 
to  spiritual  life,  and  maketh  us  susceptible 
of  all  its  joys  and  all  its  aspirations.  We 
have  the  innnutability  of  nature's  laws,  or 
rather  the  immutability  of  Him  who  pre- 
sideth  over  the  constancy  of  nature's  pro- 
cesscis,  as  our  guarantee  for  an  ordination 
which  can  never  fail — that  he  who  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  is  a  new  creature,  that  he 
who  is  in  Christ  Jesus  walketh  not  after 
the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

But  fourthly — what  have  we  to  do  that 
we  may  attain  the  condition  of  being  in 
Christ  Jesus  J  I  know  of  no  other  answer 
than  that  you  have  to  believe  in  Him.  1 
know  of  no  other  instrument  by  which 
the  disciple  is  graffed  in  Christ  Jesus, 
even  as  the  branches  are  in  the  vine,  than 
faith.  And  certain  it  is  that  a  connection 
is  often  directly  afhrmcd  in  the  Bible,  be- 
tween the  act  of  believing  and  the  de- 
scent of  a  quickening  and  sanctifying  in- 
fluence from  above.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
given  to  those  who  believe.  The  promise 
of  the  Spirit  is  unto  faith.  In  whom  after 
that  ye  believed  ye  were  sealed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  promise.  While  Peter  yet 
spake  these  words,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on 
all  them  that  heard.  Ye  shall  know  the 
truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free. 
Jesus  is  the  Light  of  the  world,  and  the 
Light  is  the  life  of  men — All  pointing  to  a 
law  of  connection  between  our  belief  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  our  being 
set  at  liberty  by  a  divine  power  for  a  life 
of  new  and  holy  obedience. 

And  again,  to  recur  to  the  term  law  as 
having  the  same  sense  in  this  verse  that 
physical  law  or  a  law  of  nature  has. 
VVhat  a  security  does  it  hold  out  for  the 
sanctification  of  every  believer  !  If  we 
believe  we  are  in  Christ  Jesus — if  we  are 
in  Christ  Jesus  the  Spirit  will  put  forth 
such  an  energy  as  shall  overmatch  the 
corrupt  principle  that  is  within  us,  and  set 
us  free  from  its  tyranny — And  all  this  in 
virtue  of  an  ordination  so  certain  and  so 
unfailing,  as  to  rank  with  those  laws 
which  have  stamped  an  unalterable  con- 
stancy on  all  the  processes  that  are  going 
on  around  us.  There  is  nought  that  so 
arrests  the  admiration  of  philosophers  as 
the  inflexibility  of  nature — the  certainty 
wherewith  the  observations  of  the  past 
may  be  turned  into  propheciiis  for  tho 
future — the  sure  evolution  of  the  sann; 
phenomena  in  the  same  circumstances ; 
and  how,  without  one  hair-breadth  of  de- 
viation, the  same  trains  and  the  same  suc- 
cessions will  be  repeated  over  again  till 
the  end  of  the  world.  It  is  thus  that  the 
seasons  roll  in  their  unchanging  courses  ; 
and  that  the  mighty  orbs  of  the  firmament 
maintain  their  periods  of  invariable  con- 
stancy ;  and  that  astronomers,  presuming 


LECTURE    XLV. CHAPTER    VIII,    ^. 


230 


on  the  uniformity  or  nature  in  all  her 
processes,  can,  to  within  a  second  of  de- 
viation, compute  the  positions  and  the 
distances  and  the  eclipses  of  these  heaven- 
ly bodies  for  thousands  of  the  years  that 
are  to  come — And  not  only  so ;  but, 
throughout  all  the  departments  of  nature 
to  which  the  eye  of  man  hath  had  access 
upon  earth,  do  we  witness  a  uniformity 
rigid  as  fate,  and  that  without  a  miracle 
is  never  violated — insomuch  that  some  are 
the  philosophers  who  have  made  a  divi- 
nity of  Nature;  and  Avho,  conceiving  that 
had  there  been  a  God  there  would  have 
been  more  of  freedom  and  of  fluctuation 
in  the  appearances  of  things,  have  affirm- 
ed this  universe,  instead  of  a  creation,  to 
be  the  product  of  some  mysterious  and 
eternal  necessity,  under  which  all  things 
move  onward  without  change  and  with- 
out deviation.  But  the  Christian  knows 
better  how  to  explain  the  generality  and 
the  certainty  of  nature's  laws,  and  that  is 
not  because  Nature  is  unchangeable,  but 
because  God  is  unchangeable.  What  has 
been  once  done  has  been  best  done,  and 
cannot  be  amended  ;  and  so  in  the  same 
circumstances  will  it  again  and  again  and 
again  be  repeated.  It  is  the  perfect  and 
unerring  wisdom  of  nature's  God,  which 
has  banished  all  caprice,  and  stamped 
such  a  reigning  consistency  on  the  whole 
of  nature's  processes  :  And  when  we  find 
that  each  of  these  processes  is  denomi- 
nated a  law  ;  and  that  this  very  term,  in 
this  very  sense  of  it,  is  employed  to  ex- 
press the  union  that  there  is  between  be- 
lief in  Christ  and  the  putting  forth  of  a 
renewing  and  a  sanctifying  influence  on 
the  believer — I  fear  not  lest  the  obedience 
of  the  gospel  should  lead  to  Antinomian- 
ism  ;  but  grant  me  only  a  true  faith  in 
the  mind  of  an  aspirant  after  heaven,  and 
there  will  I  confidently  look  for  virtue  and 
for  holiness. 

Both  the  certainty  of  Nature  and  the 
certainty  of  God's  word  are  very  finely 
expressed  together  in  the  book  of  Psalms. 
"For  ever,  O  Lord,  thy  word  is  settled  in 
heaven.  Thy  faithfulness  unto  all  gene- 
rations ;  thou  hast  established  the  earth 
and  it  abideth.  They  continue  this  day 
according  to  thine  ordinances,  for  all  thy 
servants." 

And  therefore  would  I  have  you  to  be 
ever  dwelling  upon  that  truth,  the  belief 
of  which  it  is  that  brings  down  the  Spirit 
of  God  upon  your  souls  ;  and  the  very 
presence  of  which  to  the  mind,  bears  a 
charm  and  a  moral  energy  along  with  it. 
It  is  a  thing  of  mystery  to  the  general 
world  ;  but  to  the  Christian  indeed,  it  is  a 
thing  of  experience  and  not  of  mystery. 
Never  does  the  way  of  new  obedience  lie 
more  invitingly  clear  and  open  before 
him,  than  when  he  finds  the  guilt  and  the 


reckoning  of  his  past  iniquities,  whereby 
its  entrance  was  formerly  beset,  all  done 
away  through  the  power  of  the  great  gos- 
pel sacrifice.  And  never  does  he  move 
with  such  alacrity  at  the  bidding  of  the 
Saviour,  as  when  under  a  s'  nse  of  the 
purchased  reconciliation,  he  leels  the  debt 
of  obligation  to  Him  for  all  his  peace  in 
time,  and  all  his  hopes  in  eternity.  And 
never  does  the  vigorous  inspiration  of  light 
and  love  and  fr€?edom  come  so  copiously 
upon  him  from  the  upper  sanctuary,  as 
when  praying  with  confidence  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  he  obtains  from  Him  the 
presence  of  the  witness  and  the  comforter. 
The  powers  and  principles  of  the  new 
creature,  are  all  alimented  by  these  vari- 
ous exercises  of  faith  ;  and  so  the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  makes 
him  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

But  to  conclude.  This  freedom  will  be 
perfect  in  heaven,  but  on  earth  it  is  not  so. 
Here  it  is  not  that  freedom  by  which  you 
are  rid  of  the  presence  of  sin.  It  is  only 
that  freedom  by  which  you  are  rid  of  its 
tyranny.  While  you  are  in  the  body,  you 
will  be  vexed  with  its  solicitations  ;  and 
surprised  perhaps  into  an  occasional  over- 
throw ;  and  at  all  events  be  so  annoyed 
by  its  near  and  besetting  artifices,  that 
you  must  never  let  down  the  vigilance  of 
a  prepared  and  determined  warrior.  The 
process  by  which  sin  leadeth  unto  death, 
consists  of  various  steps,  from  the  lust, 
which  conceiveth  and  bringeth  forth — and 
at  length,  if  not  arrested,  will  finish  in 
deeds  and  habits  of  sinfulness,  which  land 
the  unhappy  apostate  in  destruction.  By 
the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life,  you  will  be 
kept  free  of  this  awful  catastrophe ;  but 
not  without  many  a  weary  struggle  against 
sin  in  its  incipient  tendencies,  that  these 
tendencies  may  be  kept  in  check — against 
sin  in  its  restless  appetites,  that  these  ap- 
petites may  be  denied  and  at  length  starv- 
ed into  utter  mortification — against  sin  in 
its  tempting  thoughts  and  tempting  imagi- 
nations, that  the  desires  of  the  spirit  as 
well  as  the  deeds  of  the  body  may  be 
chastened  into  obedience,  and  thus  your 
holiness  be  perfected.  It  will  be  freedom, 
no  doubt ;  but  the  freedom  of  a  country 
that  has  taken  up  arms  against  its  tyrants 
or  its  invaders — of  a  country  that  has  re- 
fused submission,  but  must  fight  to  main- 
tain its  independence — of  a  country  from 
whose  gates  the  battle  has  not  yet  been 
turned  away,  but  where  the  enemy  is  still 
in  force,  and  the  watchfulness  of  all  is 
kept  alive  by  the  perpetual  alarm  of  hos- 
tile designs  and  hostile  movements.  "But 
ye  are  of  God  little  children  and  shall 
overcome,  because  greater  is  He  that  is  in 
you  than  he  that  is  in  the  world.  And  this 
is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  wo^ld<^ 
even  your  faith." 


240 


LECTURE   XLVI.— CHAPTER   VIII,    3,    4. 


LECTURE  XLVI. 


Romans  viii,  3,  4. 


"  For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God,  sending  his  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of 
sinful  llesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  ;  that  the  righteousness  of  tlie law  might  be  fulfiilcd  in  us,  who 
walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit." 


We  have  already  cxplainnd  the  distinc- 
tion between  a  physical  law,  whereby  is 
established  that  ord^^r  of  succession,  in 
which  one  event  follows  another;  and  a 
juridical  law,  or  a  law  of  authority,  for 
the  government  of  rational  and  respon- 
sible creaturc^s.  In  the  verse  immediately 
preceding,  the  word  occurs  twice  ;  but  at 
each  time  with  such  an  annexed  specifica- 
tion, as  points  to  the  former  rather  than  to 
the  latter  meaning  of  the  term.  There  is 
first  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus,  which  marks,  we  think,  that  esta- 
blished order  in  the  Divine  administration 
of  grace,  whereby,  all  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus  have  a  reviving  and  a  sanctifying 
influence  put  forth  upon  them.  There  is 
then  tlie  law  of  sin  and  of  death,  which 
marks  another  of  those  constant  succes- 
sions, that  obtain  either  between  two 
events,  or  two  states  in  the  history  of  any 
individual — even  that  by  which  sin  is  fol- 
lowed up  with  an  extinction  of  the  spiri- 
tual life,  with  an  utter  incapacity  for  sa- 
cred employments  or  sacred  delights  ;  and 
when  superadded  to  the  negation  of  all 
those  sensibilities  that  enter  into  the  hap- 
piness of  heaven,  you  have  as  the  natu- 
ral consequences  of  sin,  the  agony  of 
self-reproach,  the  undying  worm  of  a  con- 
science that  never  ceases  to  haunt  and  to 
upbraid  you. 

But  you  will  observe  that  the  term  law 
in  the  verse  before  us,  is  used  generally 
and  without  any  accompaniments.  We 
are  not  aware  of  any  passage  in  the  Bible, 
where,  if  so  introduced,  it  does  not  signify 
that  law  which  God  hath  instituted  for  the 
moral  government  of  his  creatures;  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  it  is  to  be  un- 
derstood in  this  juridical  sense  on  the  pre- 
sent occasion.  'For  what  the  law  could 
not  do  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the 
flesh,  God  sending  His  own  Son  in  the 
flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the 
flesh.' 

But  what  is  it  that  the  law  could  not 
do!  The  answer  to  this  is,  we  think,  to 
be  gathered  from  the  next  verse.  It  could 
not  accomplish  that  end  for  the  bringing 
about  of  which,  God  sent  His  Son  into  the 
world,  and  executed  upon  Him  the  con- 
demnation that  we  had  incurred  ;  and  this 
He  did,  it  is  said,  that  the  righteousness 
of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us.  This 
then  is  what  the  law  failed  to  achieve.    It 


could  not  fulfil  in  us  its  own  righteous- 
ness. It  could  not  cause  us  to  exemplify 
that  which  itself  had  enacted.  It  could 
not  fashion  us,  the  children  of  men,  ac- 
cording to  its  own  pure  and  beautiful  mo- 
del ;  and,  all  perfect  in  excellence  as  its 
light  was,  it  could  not  obtain  the  unsullied 
reflection  of  it,  from  the  living  history  of 
any  of  our  species.  As  to  any  efficiency 
upon  us,  it  was  a  dead  letter  ;  and  did  as 
little  'for  the  morality  of  the  world,  as  if 
struck  with  impotency  itself,  it  had  been 
bereft  of  all  dignity  and  been  reduced  to 
a  dishonoured  thing,  without  the  means  or 
the  right  of  vindication.  Tiie  law  issued 
forth,  and  with  much  of  circumstance  too, 
its  precepts  and  its  promulgations.  But  it 
is  quite  palpable  that  man  did  not  obey; 
and,  whether  we  look  to  the  wickedness 
which  stalketh  abroad  and  at  large  over 
the  face  of  the  earth,  or  rest  the  question 
on  each  individual  who  breathes  upon  it — 
that  the  righteousness  thereof,  instead  of 
being  fulfilled,  has  been  utterly  and  uni- 
versally fallen  from. 

But  the  apostle  introduces  a  caution 
here,  that  he  might  not  appear  toderogale 
from  the  law,  by  ascribing  to  it  any 
proper  or  inherent  impotency.  And,  for 
this  purpose,  he  lets  us  know,  what  the 
precise  quarter  was  in  which  the  failure 
originated — not  then  that  the  law  was 
weak  in  itself,  but  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh.  To  the  law,  there 
belong  a  native  power  and  efficiency,  in 
all  its  lessons  and  all  its  (Enforcements, 
which  is  admirably  fitted  U)  work  out  a 
righteousness  on  the  character  of  those  to 
whom  it  is  addrest.  For  this  purpose, 
there  is  no  want  of  force  or  of  fitness  in  the 
agent ;  but  there  may  be  a  want  of  fitness 
in  the  subject  upon  which  it  operates.  It 
is  no  reflection  on  the  penmanship  of  a 
beautiful  writer,  that  he  can  give  no  ade- 
quate specimen  of  his  art,  on  the  coarse 
or  absorbent  paper,  which  will  take  on 
no  fair  impression  of  the  character  that 
he  traces  upon  its  surface.  Nor  is  it  any 
reflection  on  the  power  of  an  accomplished 
artist,  that  he  can  raise  no  monument 
thereof,  from  the  stone  which  crumbles  at 
every  touch,  and  so  is  incapable  of  being 
moulded  into  the  exquisite  form  of  his 
own  faultless  and  finished  idea.  And  so 
of  the  law,  when  it  atiempts  to  realize  a 
portrait  of  moral  excellence  on  the  ground- 


LECTURE  XLVI. — CHAPTER  VIH,  3,  4. 


241 


work  of  our  nature.  It  is  because  of  the 
groundwork,  and  not  of  the  law,  that  the 
attempt  has  failed ;  and  so  when  he  tells 
us  of  what  the  law  could  not  do,  lest  we 
should  be  ietl  to  imagine  that  this  was 
from  any  want  offeree  or  capacity  in  the 
law,  he  adds  'in  that  it  was  weak  through 
the  flesh.' 

And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  righteousness  of  the  law  in 
us,  was  a  thing  to  be  desired — not  merely 
that  in  us  a  beauteous  moral  spectacle 
might  be  reared,  and  so  the  universe 
become  richer  as  it  were  than  before  in 
worth  and  in  virtue ;  but  that  our  right- 
eousness should  be  of  such  a  kind  as 
would  satisfy  the  law,  as  would  render  to 
the  law  its  due,  as  would  secure  all  the 
homage  that  rightfully  belongs  to  it.  This 
you  will  perceive  is  a  distinq^  object  from 
the  former.  That  the  law  should  impress 
the  worth  and  the  loveliness  of  its  own 
virtues  upon  our  character,  is  one  thing. 
That  the  law  should  in  us  achieve  the 
vindication  of  its  own  honour,  is  another. 
It  could  not  do  the  first,  through  the  weak- 
ness of  the  flesh.  And  as  little  can  it  do 
the  second,  excepting  in  those  on  whom  it 
wreaks  the  vengeance  of  its  insulted 
authority.  It  may  be  said  to  fulfil  its  own 
righteousness,  in  those  to  whom  it  serves 
as  the  ministry  of  condemnation.  It,  in 
the  act  of  punishment,  gives  full  proof  of 
its  own  awful  and  unviulable  majesty.  It 
is  a  work  of  righteousness  on  the  part  of 
the  law,  when  it  pours  forth  the  wrath, 
and  executes  the  penalty  that  are  due  to 
disobedience.  There  is  then  open  demon- 
stration made,  of  its  strict  and  sacred 
character;  and  the  charge  of  impotency 
cannot  be  preferred  against  the  law,  as  to 
the  manifestation  and  fulfilment  of  its 
righteousness.  It  does  not  work  in  the 
persons  of  the  impenitent,  the  virtues 
which  it  enjoins,  nor  fulfil  in  this  sense 
its  own  righteousness  upon  them.  But  it 
wreaks  upon  these  persons  the  vengeance 
which  it  threatens;  and  in  this  sense,  may 
be  said  to  makefulfilment  of  its  righteous- 
ness. In  the  persons  again  of  those  who 
walk  after  the  Spirit,  the  virtues  enjoined 
by  the  law  are  eifectually  wrought ;  but 
how,  would  we  ask,  can  the  law,  in  refer- 
ence to  them,  acquit  itself  of  its  juridical 
honours'? — for  they  too  have  offended. 
The  experience  of  every  struggling  Chris- 
tian in  the  world,  bears  testimony  to  his 
many  violations.  There  is,  all  his  life 
long,  a  shortcoming  from  the  law's  strict- 
ness and  the  law's  purity.  There  is  a 
constant  oflence  rendered  by  us  in  these 
vile  bodies,  against  that  commandment 
Avhich  will  admit  of  no  compromise,  and 
suffer  no  degradation.  So  that  even  though 
the  personal  workmanship  of  righteous- 
ness should  be  in  progress — though  the 
31 


moral  picture  should  be  gradually  bright- 
ening, into  a  faultless  conformity  to  that 
pattern  that  hath  been  shown  us  from  the 
mount — though  at  length  our  likeness  to 
the  law  should  be  consummated — Yet  is 
that  very  law  subject  even  now  to  perpet- 
ual affronts  from  us,  on  its  holiness  and 
majesty;  and  the  question  remains,  how, 
in  these  circumstances,  shall  its  righteous- 
ness be  vindicated  upon  us — even  though 
we  do  walk  after  the  Spirit,  and  do  not 
walk  after  the  flesh? 

You  all  understand,  I  trust,  how  it  is 
that  the  gospel  adjusts  this  deficiency.  It 
is  stated  in  the  verse  before  us ;  and 
though  stated  often,  it  is  like  ointment, 
which,  though  often  poured  forth,  is 
always  the  same  and  always  precious. 
There  was  something  more,  you  will  per- 
ceive, than  a  Spirit  necessary  to  work  in 
us  a  personal  righteousness — a  sacrifice 
was  necessary  to  make  atonement  for  our 
personal  guilt.  Though  the  former  ope- 
ration were  to  prosper  onward  every  day, 
to  its  full  and  final  accomplishment — yet, 
without  the  latter  provision,  there  would 
have  been  still  the  spectacle  held  forth 
of  a  degraded  law  and  a  dishonoured 
lawgiver.  The  righteousness  of  the  law 
might  have  been  fulfilled,  in  regard  to  the 
impress  made  by  it  on  the  character  of 
man  ;  but  it  would  not  have  been  fulfilled, 
in  regard  to  the  perfect  and  undeviating 
adherence  due  by  man  at  all  times  to  its 
own  authority.  And  so,  to  use  the  expres- 
sion of  the  apostle  John,  the  Saviour 
came  not  by  water  only,  but  by  water 
and  blood.  It  was  not  enough  to  regene- 
rate, it  was  also  necessary  to  atone.  With- 
out the  shedding  forth  of  the  Spirit  there 
would  have  been  no  righteousness  infused  : 
But  without  the  shedding  of  blood  there 
could  have  been  no  righteousness  imputed. 
There  behoved  to  be  the  one,  for  the 
renewal  of  man  unto  obedience ;  and 
there  behoved  to  be  the  other,  for  the 
remission  of  his  sins  :  And  those  are  the 
weightiest  verses  of  the  Bible,  where,  in 
one  short  and  memorable  sentence,  both 
are  propounded  to  us,  as  the  essentials  of 
a  sinner's  restoration. 

Now  the  passage  before  us,  is  one  out 
of  many  exemplifications,  that  may  be 
given  us  of  this  twofold  announcement. 
It  might  be  rendered  clearer  to  you,  per- 
haps, by  a  short  paraphrase.  'For  what 
the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh,  God  did,  by  sending  his 
own  Son,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh, 
and  for  a  sin-offering — so  as  thereby  to 
condemn  sin  in  the  flesh.  And  this  he 
did,  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law 
might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not 
after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit.' 

You  will  observe  here,  that  the  first 
step,  was  to  make  ample  reparation  for 


242 


LECTURE  XLVI. CHAPTER  Vm,  3,  4. 


,^  the  injuries  sustained  by  the  law;  and  so 
by  satisfying  its  rights,  making  a  full  vin- 
dication of  its  righteousness.  Ere  the  sin- 
ner could  be  operated  upon  so  as  to  be 
transformed,  the  law  which  he  had  brok- 
en, it  would  appear,  behoved  to  have  com- 
pensation for  the  outrage  done  to  it.  There 
was  a  need  be  that  the  threatened  penalty 
shouhi  not  be  arrested,  but  have  its  course 
— that  it  should  break  forth  into  the  open 
and  manifest  discharge,  which  might  an- 
nounce to  the  world  both  the  evil  of  sin, 
and  the  truth  and  justice  of  that  God  who 
had  uttered  His  proclamations  against  it  : 
And  there  seems  to  be  a  further,  though 
perhaps  to  us  an  inscrutable  propriety,  in 
the  chastisement  of  our  peace  having 
been  borne  by  one,  who  bore  our  nature 
— in  the  Son  having  been  sent,  under  no 
other  likeness  than  the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh — in  humanity  having  had  to  suffer 
the  vengeance  which  humanity  incurred. 
And  though  it  called  for  the  strength  of 
the  Godhead  to  bear  the  burden  of  our 
world's  atonement — yet  seemeth  there  to 
have  been,  in  order  to  the  effect  of  this 
great  mystery,  some  deep  necessity  that 
we  cannot  fully  penetrate,  why  it  should 
be  laid  on  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and 
who  took  not  upon  Him  the  nature  of  an- 
gels, but  the  nature  of  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham. 

And  so  the  incarnate  God  suffered  for 
our  world.  For  this  purpose,  did  He  be- 
come flesh  of  our  flesh,  and  bone  of  our 
bone.  There  were  laid  upon  Him  the 
iniquities  of  n,  all  ;  and  from  the  intelli- 
gible symptoi  sofa  sore  and  cruel  agony, 
that  even  the  iivine  energies  of  His  na- 
ture did  not  overbear,  may  we  conclude 
that  the  ranso:ii  has  been  fully  paid — and 
so  the  worth  and  authority  of  the  law 
have  been  fully  magnified. 

And  this,  it  would  appear,  is  an  essen- 
tial step  to  our  sanctification.  There  be- 
hoved to  be  this  satisfaction  rendered  to 
the  law,  ere  they  who  had  transgressed  it 
could  be  turned  to  its  love  and  its  willing 
obedience.  That  law  which  was  written 
on  tables  of  stone,  had  to  be  appeased  for 
its  violated  honour,  ere  it  was  transferred 
into  the  fleshly  tablets  of  our  heart,  and 
became  there  the  spontaneous  and  ema- 
nating principle  of  all  goodness.  The 
blood  of  remission  had  to  be  shed,  ere  the 
water  of  regeneration  could  be  poured 
forth ;  and  so  the  Son  of  God  came  in  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  became  a  sin- 
offering,  and  sustained  the  whole  weight 
of  sin's  condemnation — And,  after  ascend- 
ing from  the  grave,  had  that  Holy  Ghost 
committed  unto  Him,  who  was  not  given 
in  abundance  to  men  till  the  Son  of  man 
was  glorified — and  it  is  under  the  power 
of  this  mighty  agent,  that  all  who  put 


their  trust  in  Him,  are  enabled  to  waUc 
not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

Thus  historically,  the  atonement  by 
Jesus  Christ  took  place,  before  that  more 
abundant  minist;;aion  of  the  Spirit,  wiiich 
obtains  under  he  economy  of  the  gospel 
— And  so  a'  .>  personally,  a  belief  in  that 
atonemerl  has  the  precedency  to  a  sanc- 
tifying operation  over  the  sinner's  heart 
Not  till  we  accept  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
Lord  our  righteousness,  shall  we  experi- 
ence Him  to  be  the  Lord  our  strength. 
Not  till  we  put  faith  in  that  blood  by 
which  our  guilt  is  washed  away,  shall  we 
be  free  to  love  the  Being  whom  before  we 
were  afraid  of.  Not  till  pardon  is  made 
known,  shall  we  be  loosened  from  the 
bonds  of  despair,  or  at  least  of  that  cal- 
lous indifference — And  it  is  only  through 
a  pardon  w^ch  is  sealed  by  the  blood  of 
a  divine  expiation,  that  to  peace  with  God 
we  can  add  a  practical  and  purifying 
sense  of  the  holiness  of  God.  It  is  thus 
that  a  belief  in  the  propitiation,  is  as  sure 
to  regenerate  as  it  is  to  reconcile  ;  and  the 
knowledge  that  Christ  was  condemned  in 
the  flesh  for  our  offences,  is  that  which 
gives  impulse  to  that  heavenly  career,  ia 
which  we  walk  no  longer  after  the  flesh 
but  after  the  Spirit. 

We  read  in  one  epistle  of  the  ministra- 
tion of  condemnation  and  the  ministratior. 
of  righteousness.  The  former  is  that 
which  takes  place  under  the  law,  when  its 
denunciations  have  their  course;  and,  as 
all  are  guilty,  all  are  liable  to  the  tre- 
mendous penalties  of  guilt.  The  apostle 
says  of  this  ministration,  that  it  is  glori- 
ous; and  glorious  certainly  in  the  exhi- 
bition which  it  gives  of  the  Godhead — of 
that  sacredness  which  admits  of  no  stain, 
and  would  recoil  from  the  most  distant 
approaches  of  evil — of  that  pure  and  lofty 
throne,  whence  every  award  comes  forth 
with  authority  inflexible — of  that  recti- 
tude which  will  not  hold  compromise  with 
iniquity  at  all,  and,  rather  than  suffer  it  to 
draw  near,  will  send  out  flames  from  the 
awful  sanctuary  of  its  habitation  to  burn 
up  and  to  destroy  it — of  that  jealousy, 
which,  like  a  consuming  fire,  spreadeth 
abroad  among  the  hosts  of  the  rebellious, 
so  that  not  one  shall  remain  a  monument 
of  God's  connivance  at  that  which  He  ut- 
terly abhors — of  a  dread  intolerance  for 
moral  evil,  even  in  the  slightest  shades 
and  degrees  of  it,  so  that,  rather  than 
deign  one  look  of  acceptance  to  sin,  every 
sinner  must  irrevocably  perish.  In  all 
this,  says  the  apostle,  there  is  a  glory — 
yet  there  is  another  ministration,  even  one 
of  righteousness,  which  excelleth  in  glory. 
It  is  that  which  takes  place  under  the  gos- 
pel ;  and  under  which  all  the  former  glory 
is    kept    entire,    nay    enhanced    into  a 


LECTURE    XLVI. — CHAPTER    VIII,    3,    4. 


21$ 


brighter  manifestation.  For  there  too,  is 
the  Law  made  honourable ;  and  there  the 
Lawgiver  is  evinced  to  be  inflexibly  just, 
md  jealous  of  the  authority  of  His  go- 
vernment ;  and  there  the  sacredness  of 
Heaven's  jurisprudence  is  made  to  shine 
forth,  if  not  in  the  punishment  of  sin,  at 
least  in  the  atonement  which  has  been 
made  for  it ;  and  there  the  vengeance  due 
to  guilt  appeareth  more  strikingly  than 
before,  by  its  transference  from  the  head 
of  the  sinner  to  the  head  of  the  illustrious 
Substitute,  who  trembled  and  suffered  and 
died  in  his  stead.  The  glories  of  truth 
and  of  holiness  are  more  highly  illustra- 
ted under  our  new  economy  than  under 
the  old  one,  and  with  this  additional  glory 
which  is  all  its  own — that  there  mercy  sits 
in  benignant  triumph  among  the  now  vin- 
dicated attributes  of  the  Godhead;  and 
sinners,  who  else  would  have  been  swept 
away  into  an  eternity  of  pain  and  of  deep 
oblivion,  are  transformed  anew  into  the 
righteousness  which  they  had  lost,  have 
their  place  again  in  the  family  of 'God — 
a  part  among  the  hallelujahs  of  the  un- 
fallen. 

Let  me  conclude  with  two  practical 
observations.  In  the  first  place  see,  how, 
in  order  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law 
might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  it  is  not  enough 
that  we  walk  as  spiritual  men.  The  more 
spiritual  in  fact  that  you  are,  the  greater 
will  your  sensibility  be  to  the  remaining 
deficiencies  of  your  heart  and  temper  and 
conversation — the  more  oppressive  will  be 
your  consciousness  of  the  weight  of  your 
still  unquelled  carnality — the  more  affect- 
ing will  be  your  remembrance,  every 
evening,  of  the  slips  and  the  shortcomings 
of  the  day  that  hath  past  over  you — So 
that  if  you  only  had  to  do  with  the  law, 
and  if  its  righteousness  were  the  condition 
of  your  acceptance  with  God — you,  though 
making  daily  progress  even  unto  perfec- 
tion, would,  by  every  new  addition  to 
your  spiritual  tenderness,  be  only  aggra- 
vating your  despair.  There  behoved  to 
be  a  daily  remembrance  of  sin  ;  and  this, 
if  unmixed  with  faith  in  the  great  propi- 
tiation, would  leave  you  heartless  and 
hopeless  as  to  all  the  purposes  of  obe- 
dience. So  that  to  the  last  half-hour  even 
of  a  most  triumphant  course  in  sanctiti- 
cation,  you  must  never  lose  sight  of  Him 
on  whom  has  been  laid  the  condemnation 
of  all  your  offences — the  confessions  that 
you  make,  (and  you  will  have  to  make 
them  perpetually)  must  be  over  the  head 
of  the  great  Sacrifice — you  must  still 
keep  by  your  great  High  Priest,  as  the 
anchor  of  your  soul ;  and  never  for  a 
moment  transfer  your  dependence  from 
Him  to  your  own  righteousness — you 
must  look  for  all  your  acceptance  only  in 
the  Beloved ;  and  count  for  your  justifica- 


tion before  God,  on  nothing  else  than  on 
Jesus  Christ  and  on  Him  crucified. 

Now,  this  comes  to  be  a  mystery,  which 
the  world  can  never  be  made  to  under- 
stand by  explanation ;  and  which  it  is 
only  for  a  Christian  to  realize  in  his  owa 
experience.  There  are  constant  alterna- 
tions of  sin  and  of  sorrow,  in  the  histoiy 
of  every  believer ;  and  the  guilt  of  the 
daily  transgression  is  actually  washed 
away,  in  this  case,  by  the  evening  ac- 
knowledgment— the  act  of  confession  on 
his  part,  being  in  very  deed  followed  up 
by  an  act  of  forgiveness  on  the  part  of 
God.  "For  if  any  man  confess  his  sins, 
God  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  him  his 
sins."  And  then  the  singularity  is,  (yet  if 
you  have  no  part  in  that  singularity  you 
are  no  Christian)  it  is,  that,  under  this 
process  of  daily  offending,  and  daily 
application  to  that  blood  by  which  it  is 
again  obliterated,  there  should,  on  the 
part  of  the  disciple,  be  so  fearful  an  avoi- 
dance of  evil — siich  a  dread  of  sin,  and  so 
grievous  a  discomfort  when  he  falls  into 
It — as  honest  an  aspiring  after  his  own 
personal  righteousness,  as  if  it  formed  the 
price  of  his  salvation ;  and,  withal,  the 
same  busy  performance  of  duty  that  be- 
hoved to  take  place,  had  the  old  economy 
of  the  law  been  again  set  up,  and  heaven 
to  be  challenged  upon  the  merit  of  our 
own  obedience.  Yes  !  my  brethren,  it  is 
the  wondrous  property  of  the  gospel,  that, 
while  it  speaks  peace  to  the  sinner,  it 
charms  the  power  of  sin  away  from  his 
heart — inducing  him  to  love  the  law,  at 
the  very  time  that  it  holds  out  an  impu- 
nity for  all  its  violations;  and,  with  the 
soft  whispers  of  reconciliation  that  it 
sends  into  the  offender's  ear,  sending  along 
with  it  a  moral  suasion  into  his  heart, 
that  gains  it  over  to  the  side  of  all  the 
commandments. 

And  hence  my  second  remark  is,  that, 
however  zealously  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  must  be  contended  for  as  the  alone 
plea  of  a  sinner's  acceptance,  yet  that  the 
benefit  thereof  rests  upon  none  save  those, 
who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the 
Spirit.  Light  wh^^re  it  may,  it  must  carry 
a  sanctifying  power  along  with  it;  and 
you  have  no  part  nor  lot  in  the  matter,  if 
you  are  not  pressing  onward  in  grace  and 
in  all  godliness.  It  is  not  enough,  that 
upon  Christ  all  its  honours  have  been 
amply  vindicated — upon  yo'.  vvno  believe 
in  Christ  all  its  virtues  musi  De  engraven  ; 
and  it  is  thus,  and  inus  alone,  that  there 
is  brought  about  a  complete  and  a  satis- 
fying fulfilment  of  its  righteousness.  The 
law  is  not  made  void  by  faith,  but  by 
faith  it  is  established ;  and  while,  on  the 
one  hand,  all  the  outrage  done  to  it  when 
written  on  tables  of  stone,  has  been  re- 
paired  by  the  noblest  of  satisfactions — oa 


244 


LECTURE    XLVI. CHAPTER   Vllt.    3,    4. 


the  other  hand,  does  it  come  forth  again '  cross  of  Christ ;  but  the  hand  of  Jesus 
in  all  the  brightness  of  a  new  and  a  living  j  Christ  as  the  Lord  their  sanctifior  is  ever 
lustre,  by  its  being  now  written  on  the  on  the  persons  of  those  who  believe  in 
fleshly  tablets  of  our  heart.  The  hand- 1  Him — beautifying  them  with  His  salva- 
writing  of  ordinances  that  was  against  |  tion,  and  spreading  over  their  characters 
us,  and  contrary  to  us,  has  been  taken  i  all  the  graces  of  holiness. 
out  of  the  way,  having  been  nailed  to  the  I 


LECTURE  XLVII. 


Romans  viii,  5. 


"For  they  that  are  after  the  flesh  do  mind  the  things  of  the  flesh  ;  but  they  tliat  are  after  the  Spirit  the  things  of  the 

Spirit." 


I  SHOULD  like  if  I  could  give  you  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  difference  that  there 
is,  between  your  simply  dwelling  in  the 
flesh  as  your  tenement — and  your  beirtg 
immersed,  with  the  practical  consent  of 
your  will  and  mind,  in  those  pursuits  and 
pleasures  which  are  natural  to  the  tlesh. 
And  the  first  thing  which  might  occur,  for 
the  illustration  of  this  difference,  is,  to 
offer,  as  expressive  of  it,  that  distinction 
of  meaning  wl)ich  one  feels  between  the 
two  phrases,  '  to  be  in  the  flesh '  and  '  to  be 
after  the  flesh.'  The  one  may  be  thought 
simply  to  imply,  that  the  flesh  is  the  place 
of  the  soul's  present  residence ;  and  the 
other,  that  all  the  soul's  inclinations  and 
energies,  are  in  full  prosecutionof  those 
objects  which  minister  to  the  appetites  of 
the  flesh.  But  then  you  have  the  very 
phrase  of  being  in  the  flesh  applied  in 
Scripture  not  to  the  state  of  one  who  bare- 
ly occupies  the  flesh  as  his  present  taber- 
nacle, but  of  one  who  delights  in  the  flesh 
as  his  congenial  and  much  loved  element. 
And  it  must  be  in  this  latter  sense  of  the 
phrase  that  it  occurs  at  the  distance  of  a 
very  few  verses  from  the  one  now  submit- 
ted to  you — when  it  is  said  that  they  who 
are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God ;  and 
when  it  is  further  said,  that  ye  are  not  in 
the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  remarked, 
that,  in  other  passages  of  the  Bible,  the 
phrase  of  being  in  the  flesh  denotes  the 
soul's  simple  occupation  of  a  fleshly  tab- 
ernacle, a.11  not  the  soul's  immersion  in 
fleshly  habiis  -r  fleshly  desires.  The 
apostle  who  said  thai  Christ  liveth  in  me, 
also  says  I  live  in  the  nesh  ;  and  that  to 
abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for  you. 
In  this  sense  too  even  Jesus  Christ  was 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh  ;  and  it  was  a 
most  essential  point  of  orthodoxy  that  He 
had  come  in  the  flesh.  In  both  of  these 
instances,  flesh  viras  the  temporary  abode ; 


but  in  neither  of  them  was  it  the  chosen 
or  the  much  loved  home.  It  is  true  of 
both,  that,  though  in  the  flesh,  they  walk- 
ed not  after  the  flesh ;  and  though  we 
have  not  been  so  fortunate,  as  to  find  the 
former  phrase  to  be  in  the  Bible  univer- 
sally characteristic  of  notliing  more  than 
simple  occupancy — yet  we  believe  of  the 
latter  phrase,  that  it  is  uniformly  descrip- 
tive of  that  state,  in  which  a  man  aban- 
dons himself  to  the  propensities  of  nature, 
and  lives  in  the  full  prosecution  of  its 
delights  or  its  interests. 

And  the  distinction  between  these  two 
things,  is  very  well  marked  by  the  apostle 
within  the  compass  of  one  verse.  "  Though 
we  walk  in  the  flesh,  we  do  not  walk  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh — we  do  not  war  after 
the  flesh." 

And  it  is  well,  that,  in  this  fifth  verse, 
we  have  a  descriptive  clause,  by  which 
we  are  presented  with  something  like  a 
definition  of  being  after  the  flesh.  They 
who  are  after  the  flesh,  mind  the  things 
of  it.  It  is  not  that  the  flesh  assails  them 
with  its  suggestions,  for  this  it  d(jes,  and 
often  as  forcibly  with  those  who  resist  the 
suggestions  as  with  those  who  yield  to 
them.  But  it  is  that  their  mind  follows 
after  the  flesh — that  they  make  a  study 
and  a  business  of  its  enjoyments — thai 
they  prosecute  them  in  thought,  in  pur- 
pose, and  in  will.  Some  there  are  who 
dwell  in  the  flc^sh,  and  so  are  surrounded 
with  the  importunity  of  its  delights  and 
temptations;  but  who  nevertheless  abide 
in  the  firm  attitude  of  wiihstanding  them 
all.  Their  mind  is  not  after  the  flesh,  but 
in  opposition  to  it.  But  for  these  some, 
there  are  many  who  are  dragged  willing- 
ly along  in  that  very  direction  in  which 
the  flesh  draws  them — who,  not  only  re- 
sign themselves  implicitly  to  the  force  of 
its  instigations ;  but  who,  even  in  their 
hours  of  calm  and  dispassionate  exemp- 
tion from  them,  are  in  some  way  labouring 


LECTURE   XLVII. CHAPTER    VIII,    5. 


245 


or  devising  for  the  pleasures  and  accom- 
modations of  the  perishable  body — whose 
mind,  both  in  its  likings  and  in  the  exer- 
cises of  its  faculties,  is  wholly  given  over 
to  the  pursuit  of  these  things.  What  the 
things  are,  we  may  learn  from  the  apostle 
John — when  he  bids  us  love  not  the  world 
neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world  ; 
and  when  he  comprehends  these  things 
in  the  one  summary  description  of  all 
that  is  in  the  world,  which  he  maketh  to 
consist  of  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  lust 
of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life.  Thus 
are  we  to  understand  of  all  those  who  are 
after  the  flesh,  that  either  as  slaves,  they 
are  tyrannized  over  by  the  master-idols  of 
Sfensuality  or  avarice  or  ambition;  Or 
that,  with  a  sort  of  free  and  more  sov- 
ereign agency,  they  at  least  give  them- 
selves up  to  the  object  of  providing  for 
these  gratifications — that,  if  not  dragged 
after  them  by  the  force  of  appetite,  they 
at  least  drive  after  them,  and  that,  of  spon- 
taneous and  withal  of  steady  and  settled 
choice.  And  thus,  in  the  habitual  prefer- 
ence of  their  mind  as  well  as  in  the  pro- 
pensities of  their  animal  system,  are  they 
altogether  entitled  to  the  denomination  of 
worldly. 

And  there  is  one  thing  that  you  would 
do  well  to  advert  unto.  It  is  not  necessa- 
ry that  you  mind  all  the  things  of  the 
flesh,  in  order  to  constitute  you  a  carnal 
man.  It  is  enough  to  fasten  this  charac- 
ter upon  you,  that  you  have  given  your- 
self over  to  the  indulgence  or  the  pursuit, 
even  of  so  few  as  one  of  these  things.  A 
miser  may  not  be  a  debauchee,  and  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  may  be  an  aspiring 
politician.  But  whatever  the  reigning  pas- 
sion may  be,  if  it  have  the  effect  of  attach- 
ing you  to  some  one  object  that  is  in  the 
world,  and  which  with  the  world  will  ter- 
minate and  perish — then  still  your  mind 
is  in  subjection  to  an  idol,  and  the  death 
of  the  carnally  minded  is  your  inheritance 
and  your  doom.  Be  not  deceived  then,  ye 
men,  who  engrossed  with  the  cares  and  ob- 
servant of  all  the  sobrieties  of  business,  are 
not  addicted  to  the  profligacies  of  dissipa- 
tion— nor  ye,  who,  heedless  of  wealth's 
accumulations,  can  mix  an  occasional 
generosity  with  the  squanderings  of  in- 
temperance and  riot — nor  ye,  who,  alike 
exempted  from  sordid  avarice  or  debasing 
sensuality,  have  yet,  in  the  pursuit  of  an 
ascendancy  over  the  minds  and  the  meas- 
ures of  your  fellow-men,  made  power  the 
reighing  felicitj''  of  your  existence — nor 
yet  even  j'e,  who,  without  any  settled  aim 
after  one  or  other  of  these  gratifications, 
fluctuate  in  giddy  unconcern  from  one  of 
this  world's  frivol iiies  to  another.  None 
of  you  mind  all  the  things  of  the  flesh  ; 
yet  each  of  you  minds  one  or  other  of 
these  things,  and  that  to  the  entire  practi- 


cal exclusion  of  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
from  the  preference  of  your  habitual  re- 
gards. We  do  not  charge  you  with  a 
devotion  of  heart  to  all  those  things  in 
the  world,  which  are  opposite  to  the  love 
of  the  Father — any  more  than  we  charge 
you,  with  idolatrously  falling  down  in 
obeisance  to  all  the  divinities  of  a  heathen 
polytheism.  But  still  if  only  one  of  these 
divinities  be  your  god,  this  were  enough 
to  constitute  you  an  idolater,  and  to  con- 
vict you  of  a  sacrilegious  disownal  of  the 
King  who  is  eternal  and  immutable.  And 
so  your  one  earthly  appetite,  though  free 
from  the  tyranny  of  all  the  others — your 
one  habit  of  ungodliness,  though  it  be  the 
only  one  that  breaks  out  into  visible  ex- 
pression in  the  history  of  your  life — of 
itself  renders  you  a  carnal  man  ;  of  itself 
exiles  you  from  the  spiritual  territory  ;  of 
itself  proves  that  you  are  still  one  of  the 
children  of  this  world,  and  that  you  have 
not  passed  from  death  unto  life. 

'  They  who  are  after  the  Spirit  mind  the 
things  of  the  Spirit.'  The  man  to  whom 
this  character  belongeth  is  as  effectually 
tabernacled  in  flesh,  as  he  who  is  alto- 
gether carnal ;  and  the  natural  tendencies 
of  his  constitution  to  evil,  may  be  as  strong 
and  as  urgent  as  those  of  the  latter.  By 
temperament,  for  instance,  he  may  have 
as  great  a  taste  for  luxur)' — by  original 
disposition,  he  might  be  as  apt  to  rejoice 
in  grandeur  or  in  wealth  ;  and  there  be 
spontaneously  within  him,  the  same  kind- 
lings of  ambition,  or  the  same  grovellings 
of  sensual  and  avaricious  desire.  But 
though  he  feels  these  impulses,  yet  he 
walketh  not  after  them  ;  and  that  just  be- 
cause his  mind  is  wholly  set  against  them 
— whereas  the  mind  of  the  other  goeth 
wholly  along  with  them.  It  is  the  direc- 
tion of  that  sovereign  faculty  the  will, 
which  explains  the  difference.  If  this  be 
enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  flesh,  as  it  is 
with  every  unconverted  man,  then  he  sin- 
neth  wilfully.  If  this  be  enlisted  on  the 
side  of  the  Spirit,  as  it  is  with  every  man 
who  hath  truly  turned  him  unto  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ — then  he  may  sin  accident- 
ally ;  and,  in  some  moment  of  sleep  or  of 
surprise,  he  may  be  overtaken  ;  and  ere 
the  win,  as  it  were,  has  had  time  to  rally 
and  to  recover,  some  outpost  may  have 
been  carried,  and  even  some  advantage 
have  been  gained  to  the  length  of  a  most 
humiliating  overthrow.  But  deep  is  the 
grief  that  is  thereby  awakened  ;  and  stren- 
uous is  the  resistance,  that  is  thereby 
summoned  into  the  future  warfare  ;  and 
heavy  is  that  mourning  of  sackcloth  and 
of  ashes,  wherewith  the  soul  of  the  peni- 
tent offender  is  afflicted  ;  and  though  he 
hath  stumbled  on  the  way  of  temptation, 
yet  utterly  he  refuses  to  walk  therein — so 
giving  testimony  to  the  mode,  in  which 


246 


LECTURE    XLVU. CHAPTER   vni,    6. 


the  leading  tendencies  of  his  spirit  have 
most  painfully  and  most  offensively  been 
thwarted  by  the  momentary  power  and 
assault  of  his  great  adversary ;  and  that 
the  whole  drift  of  his  choosing  and  deUb- 
erating  and  purposing  faculties,  is  indeed 
on  the  side  of  God  and  the  side  of  right- 
eousness. 

The  remark  that  we  made  however 
about  the  things  of  the  flesh,  is  not  appli- 
cable to  the  things  of  the  Spirit.  A  giving 
up  of  the  mind  to  but  one  thing  of  the 
flesh,  makes  you  a  carnal  man.  But  a 
spiritual  man  gives  himself  up  not  to  one 
thing,  but  to  all  the  things  of  the  Spirit. 
To  be  the  servant  of  any  other  master 
than  God,  marks  you  an  idolater ;  and, 
for  this  purpose,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
you  should  obey  all  the  masters  who  are 
apart  from  God  or  hostile  to  God.  But  to 
be  the  servant  of  God  Himself,  you  must 
obey  Him  in  all  things — you  must  aspire 
at  least,  and  that  in  firmness  and  in  truth, 
at  universal  conformity — you  must  mind, 
not  merely  one  thing,  but  all  the  things 
which  he  authoritatively  lays  upon  you. 
And  these  are  just  the  things  of  the  Spirit, 
whose  fruit  is  not  in  any  one  branch  of 
righteousness,  or  in  any  specific  number 
of  them — but  whose  fruit  is  in  all  right- 
eousness and  goodness  and  truth.  His 
office  is  to  put  the  law  in  your  heart,  and 
so  to  give  you  a  taste  and  a  liking  for  all 
its  requirements.  It  is  not  enough  that 
you  maintain  the  sobrieties  of  human 
conduct,  if  not  its  equities  also.  It  is  not 
enough  that  you  be  strict  in  honour,  if 
not  also  kind  and  gentle  in  humanity.  It 
is  not  enough  that  you  excel  your  fellows 
in  all  the  virtues  of  society — you  must  be 
further  arrayed  in  the  virtues  of  sacred- 
ness.  And  neither  is  it  enough  that  a 
general  sabbath  complexion  be  upon  your 
history — You  must  proceed  on  Christiani- 
ty being  the  religion  of  your  life,  being  the 
guide  and  the  ornament  of  your  daily  con- 
versation— a  mingling  ingredient,  which 
diffuses  itself  throughout  the  mass  of  your 
ordinary  affairs — a  light  that  sheds  its 
pure  and  celestial  tint  over  the  whole  of 
your  path  ;  and  leaves  not  one  little  space 
in  the  field  of  humanity  unirradiated  by 
its  beams. 

You  have  already  heard  me  expatiate 


on  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  the  real 
state  and  character  of  one's  mind,  by  a 
direct  examination  of  it ;  and  if  the  im- 
mediate question  were  put  to  the  inner 
man,  whether  he  minded  the  things  of  the 
flesh  or  those  of  the  Spirit,  a  clear  an- 
swer might  not  so  readily  be  obtained — 
and  that,  more  especially,  as  they  who 
are  spiritual  often  feel  on  the  one  hand 
the  instigations  of  the  flesh ;  and  they 
who  are  carnal  have  at  times  the  visita- 
tion upon  their  heart,  of  a  wish  and  an 
aspiration  and  an  effort  however  ineffec- 
tual after  a  life  of  sacred ness.  It  is  well 
then,  that  this  verse  supplies  us  with  a 
test  for  the  resolving  of  this  ambiguity. 
They  who  mind  the  things  of  the  flesW| 
are  they  who  walk  after  the  flesh ;  and 
they  who  mind  the  things  of  the  Spirit, 
are  they  who  walk  after  the  Spirit.  With 
both  classes,  there  may  be  the  inward 
struggle  of  the  opposite  and  conflicting 
elements — the  one  not  being  totally  ex- 
empted from  evil  inclinations,  and  the 
other  not  being  totally  bereft  of  their  long- 
ings after  godliness.  When  we  look  only 
withm,  it  may  be  hard  to  say  from  the 
fight  that  is  going  on,  which  of  these 
two  elements  shall  prevail.  But  this  may 
be  decisively  gathered,  if  not  from  the 
battle  itself,  at  least  from  the  issue  of  the 
battle ;  or,  in  other  words,  from  the  way 
in  which  it  terminates  upon  the  conduct. 
The  spiritual  man  is  urged  by  the  corrupt 
propensities  of  his  nature — nevertheless 
he  follows  not  after  them,  and  this  from 
that  preponderance  of  motive  and  of 
inward  power  on  the  side  of  what  is  good, 
which  marks  his  mind  to  be  set  on  the 
things  of  the  Spirit.  The  carnal  man  is 
urged  by  the  voice  of  conscience,  and  its 
remonstrances  against  all  that  is  evil — 
nevertheless  he  obeys  it  not  in  deed,  and 
this  from  that  prevalency  of  force  and  of 
impulse  on  the  side  of  what  is  corrupt, 
which  marks  his  mind  to  be  set  on  the 
things  of  the  flesh.  The  working  of  the 
inner  mechanism  is  not  palpable.  But 
the  result  of  that  working  on  the  outward 
history  is  so ;  and  thus  from  the  stream 
do  we  learn  the  nature  of  the  fountain, 
and  by  the  test  of  man's  fruits  do  W9 
know  them. 


LECTURE  XLVin. CHAPTER  VHI,  6. 


247 


LECTURE   XL VIII. 


Romans  viii,  6. 
='  For  to  be  carnally  minded  is  death,  but  to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace." 


The  death  which  is  here  spoken  of,  is 
aomething  more  than  the  penal  death  tJ.at 
is  inflicted  on  transgressors,  in  the  way  of 
retribution.  It  is  not  a  future  but  a  pre- 
sent death  which  is  here  spoken  of;  and 
arises  from  the  obtuseness  or  the  extinc- 
tion of  certain  feelings  and  faculties  in 
the  soul,  which,  if  awake  to  their  corres- 
ponding objects,  would  uphold  a  life  of 
thoughts  and  sensations  and  regards,  al- 
together different  from  the  actual  life  of 
unregenerated  men.  To  the  higher  and 
spiritual  life  they  are  dead  even  now ; 
and,  to  estimate  the  soreness  of  this  depri- 
vation, just  figure  an  affectionate  fatlier 
to  have  a  paralysis  inflicted  on  all  those 
domestic  feelings,  which  bound  him  in 
love  and  endearment  to  the  members  of 
his  own  family.  Then  would  you  say  of 
him,  that  he  had  become  dead  to  the  joys 
and  the  interests  of  home — that  perhaps 
he  was  still  alive  to  the  gratifications  of 
sense  and  of  profligacy,  but  that  what 
went  to  constitute  the  main  charm  of  his 
existence  had  now  gone  into  annihilation 
— that  to  what  at  one  time  was  the  highest 
pleasurable  feeling  of  his  consciousness, 
he  had  become  as  torpid  as  if  he  had 
literally  expired — and  that  thus  he  was 
labouring  under  all  the  calamity  of  a 
death,  to  that  which  occupies  a  high  place 
among  the  delight:,  of  the  feeling  and  the 
friendly  and  the  amiable.  And  it  is  in  a 
sense  analogous  to  this,  that  we  are  to 
understand  the  present  death  of  all  those 
who  are  carnally  minded — not  a  death  to 
any  of  the  impressions  that  are  made 
upon  their  senses  from  without — not  a 
death  to  the  animal  enjoyments  of  which 
men  are  capable — not  even,  it  may  be,  a 
death  to  many  of  the  nobler  delights 
either  of  the  heart  or  of  the  understanding 
— But  a  death  to  that  which  when  really 
felt  and  enjoyed,  is  found  to  be  the  su- 
preme felicity  of  a  man — a  death  to  all 
that  is  spiritual — an  utter  extinction  of 
those  capacities  by  which  we  are  fitted 
to  prove  those  heavenly  and  seraphic 
extacies,  that  would  liken  us  to  angels — a 
hopeless  apathy  in  all  that  regards  our 
love  to  God,  and  to  all  that  righteousness 
which  bears  upon  it  the  impress  of  the 
upper  sanctuary.  It  is  our  dormancy  to 
these,  which  constitutes  the  death  that  is 
here  spoken  of;  and  in  virtue  of  which 
man  is  bereft,  if  not  of  his  being,  at  least 
of  the  great  end  of  his  being  which  is  to 
glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  him  for  ever. 


And  you  may  further  see  how  it  is — 
that  such  a  death  is  not  merely  a  thing  of 
negation,  but  a  thing  of  positive  wretch- 
edness. For  with  the  want  of  all  that  is 
sacred  or  spiritual  about  him,  there  is  still 
a  remainder  of  feeling,  which  makes  him 
sensible  of  his  want — a  general  restless- 
ness of  the  soul,  on  whose  capacities  there 
has  been  inflicted  a  sore  mutilation ;  and 
from  whose  aspirings  after  undefinable 
good,  the  object  is  ever  melting  away  into 
hopeless  and  inaccessible  distance — a  re- 
morse and  a  terror  about  invisible  things, 
which  are  ever  and  anon  breaking  forth, 
even  amid  the  busy  appliance  of  this 
world's  opiates  to  stifle;  and  overbear 
them.  And  there  are  other  miseries,  that 
are  sure  to  spring  up  from  those  carnal 
sensibilities  which  have  undergone  no 
death — from  the  pride  that  is  met  with 
incessant  rebuke  and  mortification,  by  the 
equal  pride  of  our  fellow-men — from  the 
selfishness  that  comes  into  collision,  with 
all  the  selfishness  of  the  unregenerated 
society  around  it — from  the  moral  agonies 
which*  essentially  adhere  to  malice  and 
hatred  and  revenge — from  the  shame  that 
is  annexed,  even  on  earth,  to  the  pursuits 
of  licentiousness — from  the  torture  that 
lieth  in  its  passions,  and  the  gloomy  deso- 
lation of  heart  which  follows  the  indul- 
gence of  them — All  these  give  to  the  sinner 
his  foretaste  of  hell  on  this  side  of  death  ; 
and,  whether  they  be  aggravated  or  not 
by  the  fire  and  the  brimstone  and  the 
arbitrary  inflictions  that  are  conceived  to 
be  discharged  upon  him  in  the  place  of 
vengeance — still  they  are  enough,  when 
earth  is  swept  away,  with  all  its  refuges 
of  amusement  and  business  and  guilty 
dissipation,  in  which  the  mind  can  now 
be  lulled  into  a  forgetful ness  of  itself — 
they  are  enough  to  entail  upon  the  second 
and  the  eternal  death,  a  burden  of  enor- 
mous and  incalculable  wretchedness — a 
curse  so  felt  and  so  agonized  under  by 
the  outcasts  of  condemnation,  as  to  make 
the  utterance  of  Cain  their  theme  of  wail- 
ing and  of  weeping  through  all  eternity, 
even  that  their  punishment  is  greater 
than  they  can  bear. 

From  what  we  have  said  of  the  death 
of  those  who  are  carnally,  you  will  be  at 
no  loss  to  understand  what  is  meant  by 
the  life  of  those  who  are  spiritually  mind- 
ed. We  read  of  those  who  are  alienated 
from  the  life  of  God,  and  to  this  it  is  that 
the  spiritual  find  readmittance.     They 


248 


LECTURE  XLVm. CHAPTER  VIU,  6. 


before  stood  afar  off,  and  now  are  brought 
nigh.  The  blood  of  Christ  hath  conse- 
crated for  them  a  way  of  access ;  and  the 
fruit  of  tiiat  access  is  delight  in  God — the 
charm  of  a  conlidence,  which  they  never 
felt  before,  in  His  friendly  and  fatherly 
regard  to  them — a  new  moral  gladness  in 
the  contemplation  of  that  character,  which 
now  stands  revealed  in  all  its  graces, 
while  it  is  disarmed  of  all  its  terrors — an 
assimilation  of  their  own  character  to 
His ;  and  so  a  taste  for  charity  and  truth 
and  holiness ;  and  a  joy,  both  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  all  these  virtues,  and  in  the 
possession  of  a  heart  at  growing  unison 
■with  the  mind  and  will  of  the  Godhead. 
These  are  the  ingredients  of  a  present 
life,  which  is  the  token  and  the  foretaste 
of  life  everlasting — an  existence  in  the 
feelings  and  concern*  of  which,  all  earthly 
existence  is  tasteless  and  unsatisfying ; 
and  to  be  awakened  whereunto,  is  a  tran- 
sition as  great  and  more  joyful  than  for  a 
dead  man  to  be  awakened  from  his  grave. 
But  let  me  pass  on  from  the  life  to  the 
peace  of  those  who  are  spiritually  minded. 
There  are  two  great  causes  of  disturbance, 
to  which  the  peace  of  the  heart  is  exposed. 
The  first  is  a  brooding  anxiety,  lest  we 
shall  be  bereft  or  disappointed  of  some 
object  on  which  our  desires  are  set.  The 
second  is  the  agitation  felt  by  all  who 
have  a  taste  for  human  kindness ;  and 
which  taste  is  most  painfully  agonised, 
amid  the  fierceness  and  the  tumult  and 
the  din  of  human  controversy.  You  will 
at  once  perceive  how  the  man  who  is 
spiritually-minded,  rises  above  the  first 
of  these  disquietudes — for  there  is  an 
object  paramount  to  all  which  engrosses 
the  care  of  a  worldly  man,  and  on  which 
his  desires  are  supremely  .set;  and  so 
what  to  others  are  overwhelming  mortifi- 
cations, to  him  are  but  the  passing  annoy- 
ances of  a  journey  ;  and  the  same  revolu- 
tion of  fortune  which  would  plunge  the 
earthly  in  despair,  leaves  to  him  who  is 
heavenly  a  splendid  reversion  of  hope 
and  of  happiness.  So  that  neither  can 
the  actual  visitation  of  any  disaster  so 
utterly  discomfort  him ;  nor  can  the  ap- 
prehension of  its  coming  so  torment  his 
bosom,  with  the  dark  imagery  of  poverty 
and  ruin  and  blasted  anticipations.  To 
him  there  is  an  open  vista,  through  which 
he  might  descry  a  harbour  and  a  home, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  stormy  passage 
that  leads  to  it;  and  this  he  finds  enough 
to  bear  him  up,  under  all  that  vexes  and 
dispirits  other  men.  The  pure  and  lofty 
serene  which  lies  beyond  the  grave,  gives 
a  serene  to  his  own  bosom.  The  main 
question  of  his  being  is  settled;  and  that 
enables  him  to  sit  loose,  and  to  be  lightly 
affected,  by  all  the  inferior  questions. 
His  soul  is  at  anchor ;  and  so  he  is  kept 


steady,  under  all  the  fluctuations  that 
would  make  utter  shipwreck  of  the  desires 
or  the  delights  of  the  worldly.  He  is  freed 
from  the  cares  of  fame,  or  of  fortune,  or 
of  any  other  interest  upon  earth ;  and 
with  a  mind  engrossed  by  that  which  is 
spiritual,  and  without  room  in  it  for  the 
anxieties  of  what  is  seert  and  temporal, 
he,  in  as  far  as  these  anxieties  are  con- 
cerned, is  at  peace. 

1  know  not  a  finer  illustration  of  this 
topic,  than  one  which  may  be  gathered  fronn 
a  recorded  conversation,  between  Dr.  Ca- 
rey the  missionary  at  Serampore  and  a 
wealthy  merchant  in  Calcutta.  One  of 
his  clerks  had  determined  to  give  up  all 
the  prospects  and  emoluments  of  a  lucra- 
tive situation,  and  henceforth  devote  him- 
self to  the  work  of  evangelising  the  hea- 
then. His  employer,  to  whom  this  looked 
a  very  odd  and  inexplicable  resolution, 
called  on  Dr.  Carey  ;  and  enquired  from 
him  the  terms,  and  the  advantages,  and 
the  preferments  of  this  new  line,  to 
which  a  very  favourite  servant  whom  ho 
was  exceedingly  loath  to  part  with  was 
now  on  the  eve  of  betaking  himself;  and 
was  very  much  startled  to  understand, 
that  it  was  altogether  a  life  of  labour,  and 
that  there  was  no  earthly  remuneration 
wliatever — that,  in  truth,  it  was  not  com- 
petent for  any  member  of  their  mission  to 
have  property  at  all — that  beyond  those 
things  which  are  needful  for  the  body, 
there  was  not  an  enjoyment  within  the 
power  or  purchase  of  money,  which  any 
one  of  them  thought  of  aspiring  after — 
that  each  of  them,  free  from  care  like  a 
commoner  of  nature,  trusted  that  as  the 
day  came  tlie  provision  would  come,  and 
never  yet  had  been  disappointed  of  their 
confidence — that,  with  hearts  set  on  their 
own  eternity  and  the  eternity  of  their  fel- 
low-creatures, they  had  neither  time  nor 
space  for  the  workings  of  this  world's  am- 
bition. So  that,  however  occupied  about 
the  concerns  of  the  soul,  each  felt  light  as 
the  bird  upon  a  thorn,  about  the  food  and 
the  raiment  and  the  suOiciency  of  coming 
days,  all  which  they  cast  upon  Provi- 
dence, and  had  ever  yet  found  that  Provi- 
dence was  indeed  worthy  of  their  reli- 
ance. There  is  a  very  deep  interest  to 
my  mind  in  such  a  dialogue,  between  a 
devoted  missionary  and  a  busy  active  as- 
piring merchant ;  but  the  chief  interest 
of  it  lay  in  the  confession  of  the  latter, 
who  seems  to  have  been  visited  with  a 
glimpse  of  the  secret  of  true  happiness, 
and  that  after  all  he  himself  was  not  on 
the  way  to  it — whose  own  experience  told 
him  that,  prosperous  as  he  was,  there  was 
a  plague  in  his  very  prosperity  that 
marred  his  enjoyment  of  it — that  the 
thousand  crosses  and  hazards  and  entan- 
glements of  mercantile  adventure,  had 


LECTURE   XLVIII. CHAPTER   VUI,    6. 


249 


kept  him  perpetually  on  the  rack,  and 
rifled  his  heart  of  all  those  substantial 
sweets  by  which  alone  it  can  be  purely  and 
permanently  gladdened.  And  from  him 
it  was  indeed  an  affecting  testimony — 
when,  on  contrasting  his  own  life  of  tur- 
moil and  vexation  and  checkered  variety, 
with  the  simple  but  lofty  aims  and  settled 
dependence  and  unencumbered  because 
wholly  unambitious  hearts  of  these  pious 
missionaries,  he  fetched  a  deep  sigh  and 
said  it  was  indeed  a  most  enticing  cause* 

And  some  of  you  perhaps,  though  not 
spiritual  men,  may  have  caught  a  like 
glimpse  of  the  peace  that  the  spiritually- 
minded  enjoy  in  the  recurrence  of  your 
weekly  Sabbath — the  very  chime  of  whose 
morning  bells  may  have  the  etfect  of  tran- 
quillising  you  under  the  weight  of  this 
world's  cares  ;  and  even  from  the  pulpit 
ministrations  may  there  descend  a  power 
to  soothe  and  to  sweeten  and  to  elevate 
your  bosoms,  and,  while  it  continues  to 
operate,  may  all  the  perplexities  of  your 
business  and  common  life  be  forgotten. 
Now  just  figure  this  influence,  which  with 
you  may  be  flitting  and  momentary  like  a 
vision  of  romance — just  figure  it  to  be  sub- 
stantiated into  a  practical  and  a  perma- 
nent habit  of  heavenly-mindedness,  and 
then  you  have  the  peace  of  the  spiritual 
realised  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
their  every-day  history. 

There  is  another  cause,  by  which  the 
peace  of  many  a  heart  is  sadly  torn — not 
by  the  fear  of  future  misfortune  but  by 
the  actual  feeling  of  present  malice  and 
hostility — by  being  doomed  to  breathe  in 
the  rough  atmosphere  of  debate ;  and 
having  to  witness  the  withering  coldness 
and  alienation  that  sit  on  the  human 
countenance,  as  well  as  to  hear  the  jar- 
ring discords  of  rancour  and  controversy 
when  they  come  forth  in  unfriendly  ut- 
terance from  human  lips.  There  are 
some  minds  to  which  the  frown,  and  the 
fierceness,  and  the  incessant  threatenings 
of  this  moral  warfare,  are  utterly  insup- 
portable— some  who  have  a  taste  for  cor- 
diality and  cannot  be  happy,  when  its 
smile  and  its  softness  and  all  its  blessed 
charities  are  withdrawn  from  them — who, 
rather  than  be  placed  in  the  midst  of  un- 
kindred  spirits,  would  give  up  society  and 
seek  for  recreation  and  repose  among  the 
peaceful  glories  of  nature — who  long  to 
be  embowered  amid  the  sweets  of  a  soli- 
tude and  a  stillness,  into  which  the  din  of 
this  fatiguing  world  would  never  enter ; 
and  where,  in  the  calm  delights  of  medi- 
tation and  piety,  they  might  lull  their 
hearts  into  the  forgetfulness  of  all  its  in- 
justice and  all  its  violence.  It  must  have 
been  some  such  affection  as  this  that 
prompted  the  Archbishop  Leighton,  when 
ne  breathed  out  his  desires  for  the  lodge 
32 


of  a  wayfaring  man  in  the  wilderness; 
and  that  haunted  the  whole  public  life  of 
Luther,  who,  though  dragged  forth  to  the 
combats  and  the  exposures  of  a  very  wide 
arena,  yet  felt  all  along  how  uncongenial 
they  were  to  the  right  condition  and  well- 
being  of  the  human  spirit ;  and  so  did  he 
unceasingly  aspire  after  a  tranquillity 
which  he  was  never  permitted  to  enjoy — 
a  nursling  of  that  storm  which  he  had 
enough  of  softness  most  utterly  to  hate, 
and  enough  of  intrepidity  most  manfully 
to  brave — by  nature  a  lover  of  quietness, 
yet  by  Providence  had  he  his  discipline 
and  his  doom  amongst  life's  most  boister- 
ous agitations.  ^ 

There  is  nought  in  the  character  of  the 
spiritually-minded,  that  exempts  them 
from  the  outward  disturbance,  which  has 
its  source  in  the  ha%ed  and  hostility  of 
other  men  ;  but  there  is  so  much  in  this 
character  chat  gives  an  inward  stability, 
and  sustains  the  patience  and  the  hope  of 
our  souls  even  under  the  most  outrageous 
ebullitions  of  human  malignity,  as  most 
nobly  to  accredit  the  declaration  of  our 
text — that  to  be  spiritually-minded  is  not 
only  life  but  peace.  For  there  is  the  sense 
of  a  present  God,  in  the  feeling  of  whose 
love  there  is  a  sunshine  which  the  world 
knoweth  not,  and  which  even  the  lour  of 
a  hostile  world  in  arms  cannot  utterly 
darken ;  and  there  is  the  prospect  of  a 
future  heaven,  in  whose  sheltering  bosom 
it  is  known  that  the  toil  and  the  turbulence 
of  this  weary  pilgrimage  will  soon  be 
over ;  and  there  is  even  a  charity,  that 
mellows  our  present  sensation  of  painful- 
ness,  and  makes  the  revolt  that  is  awaken- 
ed by  the  coarse  and  vulgar  exhibition  of 
human  asperity  to  be  somewhat  more  to- 
lerable— for  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive, 
how  much  of  delusion  at  all  times  mingles 
with  the  impetuosity  of  irritated  feelings; 
and  that  were  there  more  of  mutual  know- 
ledge among  the  individuals  of  our  spe- 
cies, there  would  be  vastly  more  of  mu- 
tual candour  and  amenity  and  love ;  and 
that  the  Saviour's  plea  in  behalf  of  His 
enemies,  is  in  some  sense  applicable  to  all 
the  enemies  that  we  have  in  the  world — 
"They  know  not  what  they  do."  The 
menace  and  the  fury  and  the  fell  vin- 
dictiveness  that  look  all  so  formidable,  are 
as  much  due  to  an  infirmity  of  the  under- 
standing as  to  a  diabolical  propensity  of 
the  heart ;  and  it  does  alleviate  the  offence 
that  is  given  to  our  moral  taste  by  the 
spectacle  of  malevolence,  when  one  re- 
flects that  malice  is  not  its  only  ingredient 
— that  it  often  hangs  as  much  by  an  error 
of  judgment,  as  by  a  perversity  of  the 
moral  nature — that  it  needs  only  to  be  en- 
lightened in  order  to  be  rectified  ;  and  that 
therefore  there  may  be  hope  of  deliver- 
ance from  the  ferocity  of  one's  antagonists 


250 


LECTURE   XLVIXI. CHAPT'CR   VIII,    6. 


even  in  this  world,  as  well  as  a  sure  and 
everlasting  escape  from  it  in  those  regions 
of  beauty  and  of  bliss,  around  which  there 
is  an  impassable  barrier  of  protection 
against  all  that  ortendeth — where,  after 
having  crossed  the  stormy  passage  of  this 
world,  the  spirit  will  have  to  repose  itself 
in  peace  and  charity  for  ever. 
In  one  word,  and  for  the  full  vindication 


of  our  text,  let  it  be  observed,  that,  though 
in  the  character  of  being  spiritually-mind- 
ed there  is  no  immunity  from  the  tribula- 
tions that  are  in  the  world,  yet  there  is  a 
hiding-place  and  a  refuge  where  the  spi- 
ritual alone  can  find  entry — so  that  though 
in  the  world  they  do  have  tribulations,  yet 
well  may  they  be  of  good  cheer,  for  in 
Christ  they  do  have  peace. 


LECTURE  XLIX. 

Romans  viii,  7,  8. 

*' Because  the  carnal  minvs  enmity  against  God;  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be. 
So  then  they  that  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God." 


But  it  might  appear  from  the  7th  verse, 
that  the  peace  spoken  of  in  the  last  verse 
is  peace  with  God — for  the  enmity  which 
is  here  ascribed  to  the  opposite  state  of 
being  carnally  minded,  is  enmity  against 
God.  Where  there  is  enmity  between  two 
parties,  each  is  displeased  with  the  other  ; 
and  the  enmity  of  the  carnal  mind  thus 
involves  in  it  two  distinct  particulars. 
First,  it  implies  a  feeling  on  the  part  of 
him  who  is  its  owner  of  hostility  against 
God,  and  this  necessarily  comes  out  of  the 
very  definition  of  the  carnal  mind.  It 
were  a  contradiction  in  terms,  to  say  other- 
wise of  the  carnal  mind  than  that  it  was 
enmity  against  God — for  how,  if  all  its 
preferences  be  toward  the  creature,  can  it 
be  otherwise  affected  toward  that  Creator, 
who  looks  with  a  jealous  eye  on  all  such 
preference,  and  fastens  upon  it  the  guilt 
of  idolatry — how,  if  its  regards  are  wholly 
directed  to  sense  and  time,  can  it  be  other- 
wise than  in  a  state  of  disregard  to  Him 
who  is  a  spirit  and  invisible?  If  the  law 
of  God  be  a  law  of  supreme  love  toward 
himself,  how  is  it  possible  for  that  mind  to 
be  in  subjection  to  such  a  l;iw,  whose  af- 
fections are  wholly  set  on  the  things  and 
the  interests  of  a  passing  world?  It  not 
only  is  not  subject  to  this  law,  but  it  can- 
not be  so — else  it  were  no  longer  carnal. 
It  would  instantly  be  stripped  of  this  epi- 
thet, and  become  a  different  thing  from 
what  it  was  before,  did  it  undergo  a  trans- 
ference in  its  likings  from  the  things  that 
arc  made  to  Him  who  is  the  maker  of  them 
all.  It  has  all  the  certainty  in  it  of  an 
identical  proposition,  when  it  is  said  of  the 
carnal  mind  that  it  neither  is  nor  can  be 
subject  to  God's  law.  Ere  it  become  sub- 
ject, it  must  resign  its  present  nature  and 
be  carnal  no  longer.  The  epithet  then 
will  not  apply  to  it ;  and  though  a  mind 
before  carnal  should  now  have  gathered 


upon  it  the  character  of  heaven,  and  be- 
come a  devoted  and  willing  and  most  af- 
fectionate subject  under  the  government 
of  God — still  it  holds  true  of  the  carnal 
mind  that  it  is  not  so  subject,  neither  in- 
deed can  be. 

But  it  is  not  only  logically  true,  that 
the  carnal  mind  cannot  be  subject  to 
God's  law — the  same  thing  is  also  true 
physically  and  experimentally.  There  is 
no  power  in  the  mind  by  which  it  can 
change  itself.  It  has  a  natural  sovereign- 
ty, we  admit,  which  extends  a  certain  way 
over  the  doings  of  the  outer  man  ;  but  it 
has  no  such  sovereignty  over  the  desires 
of  the  inner  man.  It  can,  for  example, 
constrain  the  man  in  whom  it  resides  to 
eat  a  sour  apple  rather  than  a  sweet.  But 
it  cannot  constrain  him  to  like  a  sour  ap- 
ple rather  than  a  sweet.  There  are  many 
things  which  it  finds  to  be  practicable, 
which  it  does  not  find  to  be  palatable; 
and  it  has  just  as  little  power  over  the 
taste  and  affections  of  the  mind  toward 
God,  as  it  has  over  the  bodily  organ  of 
taste,  or  the  law  of  its  various  relishes  for 
the  various  food  which  is  offered  to  it. 
There  are  a  thousand  religious-looking 
things  which  can  be  done  ;  but,  without 
such  a  renewal  of  the  spirit  as  the  spirit 
itself  cannot  achieve — these  things  cannot 
be  delighted  in,  cannot  be  rejoiced  in. 
But  if  not  rejoiced  in,  they  really  are  not 
religious,  however  religious  they  may- 
look.  And  this  is  the  great  moral  help- 
lessness, under  which  we  labour.  We 
can  compel  our  feet  to  the  house  of  God, 
but  we  cannot  compel  our  feelings  to  a 
sacred  pleasure  in  its  exercises.  VVe  can 
take  a  voluntary  part  in  the  music  of  its 
psalms,  but  we  cannot  force  into  our 
hearts  the  melody  of  praise.  We  can  bid 
our  hands  away  from  depredation  and 
violence,  but  we  cannot  bid  away  the  ap- 


LECTURE   XLIX. CHAPTER   VIII,    7,    8. 


251 


petite  of  covetousness  from  our  bosoms. 
We  can  refrain  ourselves  from  the  inflic- 
tion of  all  outward  hurt  upon  our  neigh- 
bour; but  tell  me,  if  we  can  so  muster 
and  so  dispose  of  our  affections  at  the 
word  of  command,  as  that  we  shall  love 
him  as  we  do  ourselves.  And,  ascending 
from  the  second  great  commandment  to 
the  first  great  commandment  of  the  law, 
we  can,  it  may  be  thought,  keep  the  Sab- 
baths of  the  Lord  and  acquit  ourselves  of 
many  of  the  drudgeries  of  a  carnal  obe- 
dience— while,  instead  of  loving  Him  with 
all  our  heart  and  soul  and  strength  and 
mind,  there  exists  against  Him  an  antipa- 
thy, which  we  can  no  more  extirpate,  than 
we  can  cause  a  sycamine  tree  to  be 
plucked  up  by  the  roots  at  the  utterance 
of  a  voice — So  that,  in  reference  to  the 
law  which  claims  a  supremacy  over  the 
heart,  and  taketh  cognizance  of  all  its 
affections,  we  are  not  and  we  cannot  be 
subject  to  it. 

And  here  I  am  sensible,  that,  when  I 
charge  you  with  a  positive  enmity  against 
God — when  I  say  that  He  is  not  merely 
the  object  of  indifference,  but  of  hatred — 
when  I  affirm  of  the  human  heart,  not 
merely  a  light  and  heedless  unconcern 
about  Him,  but  also  the  virulency  of  a 
strong  hostile  affection  against  Him — I 
might  not,  in  all  this  assertion,  obtain  the 
exact  or  the  willing  respondency  of  your 
own  consciences.  You  may  be  ready  to 
answer,  that,  really  we  are  not  at  all 
aware  of  any  thing  half  so  foul  or  so 
enormous  at  work  in  our  bosoms,  as  any 
ill-will  towards  God.  We  may  be  abun- 
dantly regardless  of  Him  and  of  His 
laws  ;  but  we  feel  not  any  thing  that  ap- 
proaches to  a  resentful  emotion  excited 
within  us  by  His  name.  We  may  not 
think  of  Him  often  ;  and  perhaps  are  very 
well  satisfied  to  do  without  Him,  if  He 
Avould  but  let  us  alone.  But,  examine 
ourselves  as  we  may,  we  can  detect  no 
affirmative  malignity  in  our  affections  to- 
wards Him  ;  and  for  once  we  have  lighted 
upon  a  case,  where  the  dogmata  of  a  stern 
theology  are  really  not  at  one  with  the 
decisions  of  our  own  intimate  and  per- 
sonal experience. 

Now  on  this  we  have  to  observe,  that 
the  greatest  enemy  whom  you  have  in 
the  world  will  excite  no  malevolent  feel- 
ing in  your  heart,  so  long  as  you  do  not 
think  of  him.  All  the  time  that  he  is  ab- 
sent from  your  remembrance,  he  has  no 
more  power  to  stir  up  the  painful  and  the 
bitter  feeling  of  hostility  within  you,  than 
if  he  were  blotted  out  from  the  map  of 
existence.  And  so  let  it  not  be  wondered 
at,  that  you  should  not  be  ruffled  out  of 
your  complacency  by  the  thought  of  God, 
when  in  fact,  for  days  or  hours  together, 
the  thought  is  utterly  away  from  you — 


that  no  acrimony  about  Him  should  ever 
disturb  you,  during  the  whole  of  that  pe- 
riod, when  at  play  or  pleasing  yourselves 
with  His  gifts,  the  giver  is  wholly  un- 
minded — that,  instead  of  carrying  the  tone 
or  the  aspect  of  an  enraged  adversary  to- 
ward God  or  any  one  else,  you  should 
simply  appear  in  the  light  of  an  easy 
comfortable  good-humoured  man,  while, 
busied  with  the  enjoyments  of  life,  you 
have  no  room  in  your  regards  for  Him 
who  gave  the  life,  and  scattered  these  en- 
joyments over  it.  When  one  is  in  a  deep 
and  dreamless  slumber,  his  very  resent- 
ments are  hushed,  along  with  all  his  other 
sensibilities,  into  oblivion  ;  and  though  in 
the  latent  dormitory  within,  there  should 
lie  a  fell  and  unextinguishable  hatred 
against  the  deadliest  of  his  foes,  yet  even 
the  presence  of  that  fae  would  awaken  no 
asperity  ;  and,  while  under  the  immediate 
eye  of  him  who  with  implacable  revenge 
he  could  call  forth  to  the  field  of  mutual 
extermination,  might  he  lie  in  all  the 
meekness  of  infancy.  And  so  of  you  who 
are  not  awake  unto  God — who  are  sunk 
in  dullest  apathy  about  Him  and  all  His 
concerns — who,  profoundly  asleep  and 
forgetful,  are  really  no  judges  of  the  re- 
coil that  would  come  upon  your  spirits, 
did  He  but  stand  before  you  in  all  His 
characters  of  uncompromising  truth,  and 
inflexible  justice,  and  sacred  jealousy,  and 
awful  unapproachable  holiness.  By  the 
thought  of  this  Being  you  are  not  disturb- 
ed, because,  steeped  in  the  lethargy  of 
nature,  it  is  a  thought  that  does  not  come 
with  a  realizing  touch  upon  your  percep- 
tions. You  may  even  hear  His  name,  and 
this  may  stir  up  some  vague  conception 
of  an  unseen  Spirit ;  and  you  still  may 
have  no  feeling  of  that  enmity  which  our 
text  has  charged  upon  you.  But  the  con- 
ception of  whom  or  of  what  we  would 
ask  ] — Is  it  of  the  true  God  in  His  true 
attributes — or  a  being  of  your  own  imag- 
ination ]  Is  it  of  that  God  who  is  a  Spirit 
and  claims  of  you  those  spiritual  services 
v/hich  are  due  unto  the  character  that  be- 
longs to  Him  1  Is  it  of  Him,  the  very 
view  and  aspect  of  whom  would  mar  all 
your  earthly  gratifications,  or  put  them 
utterly  to  flight,  because  of  His  para- 
mount demand  for  the  affections  and  pur- 
suits of  godliness?  Oh  how  little  do  we 
know  of  ourselves,  or  of  the  mysteries  of 
our  inner  man,  which  may  lie  hid  and 
dormant  for  years — till  some  untried  cir- 
cumstances shall  form  the  occasion  that 
proves  us,  and  reveals  to  us  all  which  is 
in  our  hearts.  And  thus  the  manifestation 
to  our  understandings  of  God,  not  as  we 
fancy  Him  to  be,  but  of  God  as  He  actu- 
ally is,  would  call  forth  of  its  hiding-place 
the  unappeasable  enmity  of  nature  against 
Him ;    and  would  make  it  plain  to  the 


252 


LECTURE   XLIX. CHAPTER    VIII,    7,    8. 


conscience  of  the  carnal  man,  how  little 
sufferance  he  hath  for  the  God  that  would 
bereave  him  of  his  present  affections,  and 
implant  others  in  their  room.  The  disrel- 
ish would  be  just  as  strong,  as  are  the  dis- 
relish and  opposition  between  the  life  of 
sense  and  the  life  of  faith.  Did  God  re- 
veal Himself  now  to  the  unconverted  sin- 
ner, He  would  strike  the  same  arrow  into 
his  heart,  that  will  be  felt  by  the  con- 
demned sinner,  who  eyes  on  the  day  of 
reckoning  the  sacredness  and  the  majesty 
of  that  Being  whom  he  has  offended.  You 
have  heard  Him  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear, 
and  yet  remain  unconvinced  of  nature's 
enmity.  Could  you  say  with  Job  that  now 
mine  eye  seeth,  then  would  you  see  cause 
with  him,  wherefore  you  should  abhor 
yourself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  in  ashes. 
V.  8.  My  remarks  have  been  hitherto 
on  the  hostility  that  is  in  our  hearts  to- 
wards God  ;  but  this  verse  leads  us  to 
consider  the  hostility  that  is  in  God's  heart 
towards  us.  If  we  cannot  please  God  we 
necessarily  displease  Him ;  nor  need  we 
to  marvel,  why  all  they  who  are  in  the 
flesh  are  the  objects  of  Hisdissatisfaciion. 
We  may  be  still  in  the  flesh,  yet  do  a 
thousand  things,  as  I  said  before,  that,  in 
the  letter  and  in  the  exterior  of  them,  bear 
a  visible  conformity  to  God's  will,  and  yet 
cannot  be  pleasing  to  Him.  They  may 
be  done  from  the  dread  of  His  power — 
they  may  be  done  under  the  trembling 
apprehension  of  a  threatened  penalty — 
they  may  be  done  to  appease  the  restless- 
ness of  an  alarmed  conscience — they  may 
be  done  under  the  influence  of  a  religion 
that  derives  all  its  power  over  us  from, 
education  or  custom,  or  the  exactions  of  a 
required  and  established  decency  ;  and 
yet  not  be  done  with  the  concurrence  oi' 
the  heart,  not  be  done  from  a  liking  either 
to  the  task  or  to  the  bidder  of  it,  not  from 
a  delight  in  the  commandment  but  from 
the  slavish  fear  of  that  master  who  issued 
it.  And  however  multiplied  the  offerings 
may  be,  which  we  laid  on  the  altar  of 
such  a  reluctant  obedience  as  this,  they 
will  not  and  cannot  be  pleasing  to  God. 
Would  any  father  amongst  you  be  satisfi- 
ed with  such  a  style  of  compliance  and 
submission  from  your  own  children? 
Would  the  labour  of  their  hands  be 
counted  enough,  though  the  love  of  their 
hearts  was  withheld  from  you  ]  Would 
you  think  that  you  had  all  out  of  them 
which  was  desirable,  because  you  had  as 
much  of  drudgery  as  was  laid  upon  them 
— however  grievous  you  said  was  the  dis- 
taste which  they  felt  for  you  and  for  all 
your  requirements  1  If  it  were  quite  pal- 
pable, that  their  inclinations  were  in  a 
state  of  revolt  against  you — would  you 
think  it  ample  compensation,  that  you  still 
could  restrain  their  outward  movements, 


and  by  the  force  or  terror  of  your  author- 
ity, could  compel  from  them  the  homage 
of  all  their  services  ;  Oh  let  us  know  it 
you  could  sit  down  in  complacency,  be 
cause  of  such  an  obedience  from  your 
own  children?  And  if  you  but  saw  that 
in  their  hearts,  they  were  inly  pining  and 
murmuring  and  feeling  resentfully,  be- 
cause of  the  utter  repugnance  which  they 
felt  to  you  and  to  your  exactions,  were  it 
not  the  most  wretched  of  all  atonements, 
that  still  the  bidding  was  executed,  and 
still  the  task  was  performed  by  them  ? 

And  it  is  thus  that  I  would  like  to  reach 
the  hearts  of  the  careless,  with  the  alarm 
of  a  guilt  and  a  danger,  far  greater  than 
they  have  ever  been  awn  re  of.  I  should 
like  them  to  understand,  that  they  are 
indeed  the  haters  of  God — that  they  hate 
Him  for  what  he  is,  and  hate  Him  for 
what  He  requires  at  their  hands  ;  and 
though  this  hostile  propensity  of  theirs 
lies  hid  in  deep  insensibility,  whon,  amidst 
the  bustle  and  the  engrossment  and  the 
intense  pursuits  or  gratifications  of  the 
v.orld,  there  is  nothing  to  call  it  out  into 
distinct  exhibition — yet  that  a  demonstra- 
tion  of  the  divine  will  or  the  divine  char- 
acter is  all  which  is  needed,  to  bring  up 
the  latent  virulence  that  is  lurking  in  the 
bosom,  and  to  convict  the  now  placid 
and  amiable  man  that  he  is  indeed  an 
enemy  to  his  Maker.  And  in  these  cir- 
cumstances, is  his  Maker  too  an  enemy 
to  him.  The  frown  of  an  offended  Law- 
giver resteth  on  every  one,  who  lives  in 
habitual  violation  of  His  first  and  greatest 
commandment.  There  is  a  day  of  reck- 
oning that  awaits  him.  There  is  a  true 
and  unerring  judgment  which  is  in  reserve 
for  him.  That  enmity  which  now  perhaps 
is  a  secret  to  himself,  will  become  mani- 
fest on  the  great  occasion  when  the  se- 
crets of  all  hearts  shall  be  laid  open  ;  and 
the  justice  of  God  will  then  be  vindicated, 
in  dealing  with  him  as  an  enemy.  Such 
is  the  condition,  and  such  are  the  prospects 
of  all  who  remain  what  Nature  made 
them — who,  still  in  the  flesh,  have  not 
been  translated  to  that  new  moral  exis- 
tence into  which  all  are  ushered  who  are 
born  again  ;  and  who  by  simply  being 
lovers  of  the  creature  more  than  of  the 
Creator,  prove  themselves  to  be  still 
carnally  minded  and  to  be  the  heirs  of 
death. 

And  it  is  only  by  taking  a  deep  view 
of  the  disease,  that  you  can  be  led  ade- 
quately to  estimate  the  remedy.  There 
is  a  way  of  transition  from  the  carnal  to 
the  spiritual.  There  is  a  distinct  and 
applicable  call,  that  may  be  addressed 
even  to  the  farthest  off  in  alienation  ;  and 
which,  if  he  will  hear  and  follow,  shall 
transform  him  from  one  of  the  children 
of  this  world  to  one  of  the  children  of 


LECTURE  XLIX. CHAPTER  VHI,  7,  8. 


253 


light.  The  trumpet  giveth  not  an  uncer- 
tain sound,  for  it  declares  the  remission 
of  sin  through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  and 
repentance  through  the  Spirit  which  is  at 
His  giving;  and  your  faith  in  the  one 
will  infallibly  bring  down  upon  you,  all 
the  aids  and  influences  of  the  other.  To 
you  who  are  afar  off,  is  this  salvation 
preached ;  and  the  grand  connecting  tie 
by  which  it  is  secured  and  appropriated 
to  your  soul,  is  simply  the  credit  that  you 
give  to  the  word  of  this  testimony.  Many 
feel  not  the  disease ;  and  so  all  the  pro- 
clamations of  grace  pass  unheeded  by. 
Many  listen  to  them  as  they  would  to  a 
pleasant  song;  but  the  form  of  sound 
words  is  enough  for  them,  and  the  reali- 
ties which  these  words  express  never  find 
admittance  into  their  bosoms.  But  some 
there  are  whose  ears  and  whose  eyes  are 
opened — who  are  made  to  hear  with  effect, 
and  to  behold  the  wondrous  things  that 
are  contained  in  the  word  of  God.  With 
them  the  gospel  is  something  more  than 
a  sound  or  an  imagination.    To  them  it 


bears  all  the  character  of  a  great  authen- 
tic transaction  between  Heaven  and  Earth. 
And  they  see  God  as  God  in  Christ  wait- 
ing to  be  gracious ;  and  they  no  longer 
stand  in  dread  of  a  justice  that  is  nov^ 
most  abundantly  satisfied ;  and  they  can 
brave  the  contemplation  of  all  the  attri- 
butes, wherewith  mercy  to  themselves  is 
now  blended  in  fullest  harmony  ;  and 
they  rejoice  to  behold  that  the  throne  of 
Heaven  is  at  once  upheld  in  all  its  august 
dignity,  and  yet  that  even  the  chief  of 
sinners  has  a  warrant  to  approach  it ;  and 
while  they  take  to  themselves  the  security 
that  is  guaranteed  by  the  atonement  on 
the  cross,  they  feel  how  that  very  atone- 
ment affords  most  entire  illustration  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  Godhead.  And  thus, 
uniting  peace  to  their  own  souls  with 
glory  to  God  in  the  highest;  they  expe- 
rience a  love  which  was  before  unfelt, 
which  weans  them  from  all  their  idola- 
trous affections,  and  translates  them  from 
the  state  of  the  carnally  to  that  of  the 
spiritually  minded. 


LECTURE  L. 


Romans  viii,  9. 

"  But  ye  are  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.    Now,  if  any  man  hav6 
not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his." 


There  is  nought  more  undeniable,  than 
the  antipathy  of  nature  to  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  the  gospel.  This,  it  is  likely, 
may  have  been  felt  by  many  of  your- 
selves— and  many  have  been  the  devices 
of  human  ingenuity,  for  mitigating  the 
offensive  features  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.  We  are  not  sure  but  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Spirit  calls  out  a  more  painful 
revolt  from  the  children  of  this  world, 
than  even  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrifice. 
At  least,  the  attempts  and  plausibilities 
have  been  just  as  frequent,  for  explaining 
it  away.  And  this,  perhaps,  is  the  right 
place,  for  adverting  to  the  way  in  which 
it  has  been  endeavoured,  to  make  all  that 
is  revealed  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  His 
regenerating  influence  upon  man,  more 
palatable  than  it  naturally  is  to  unrenewed 
taste — more  fitted  to  satisfy  the  demand 
which  obtains  for  a  religion,  that  shall  be 
altogether  rational  and  devoid  of  mystery. 

Agreeably  to  this  it  has  been  affirmed, 
that  to  have  the  Spirit  of  God  implies  no 
personal  visitation  by  Him  upon  the  soul ; 
and,  more  particularly,  no  indwelling  on 
His  part  in  man,  as  His  residence  or  as 
His  habitation.  One,  it  is  thought,  may 
be  rightly  enough  said  to  have  the  Spirit 


of  God,  if,  from  any  cause  whatever,  it  so 
happens  that  there  be  a  resemblance  of 
character  and  disposition  and  principle 
between  him  and  the  Divinity — just  as 
any  active  and  devoted  philanthropist  of 
our  day  may  be  said  to  have  the  spirit  of 
Howard,  without  its  ever  being  imagined, 
that  there  has  been  any  transmigration 
into  his  body  of  that  soul  by  which  the 
body  of  Howard  was  animated.  All  that 
is  intended  is,  that  there  is  a  common  or 
kindred  character  between  the  one  phil- 
anthropist and  the  other — just  as  we  would 
say  of  a  philosopher,  that  he  had  the 
spirit  of  Newton  ;  or  of  a  daring  conspi- 
rator that  he  had  the  soul  of  Cataline. 
And  thus  has  it  been  attempted  to  gloss 
over  the  truth,  that  there  is  in  the  souls 
of  believers  an  actual  occupancy  by  a 
Spirit  from  on  high,  or  even  so  much  as 
the  communication  of  any  influence  from 
the  one  to  the  other  ;  and  to  have  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  understood  as  nothing 
more,  than  to  be  in  the  possession  of  god- 
like excellencies  or  virtues — that  to  have 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  nothing  more,  than 
just  to  have  the  like  mind  in  us  that  was 
also  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 
It  is  their  favourite  imagination  of  the 


254 


LECTURE   L. CHAPTER   VIII,   9. 


sufliciency  of  human  nature,  which  at- 
taches them  to  this  style  of  interpretation. 
They  look  upon  it  as  a  nature  liable  to 
the  errors  and  infirmities  of  an  occasional 
waywardness — but  radically  and  substan- 
tially as  sound ;  and  possessed  within 
itself  of  energies  and  principles  enough, 
for  the  attainment  of  all  that  spiritual 
excellence  which  qualifies  for  heaven. 
They  deem  it  to  be  in  the  power  of  ordi- 
nary moral  suasion  from  without,  to  guide 
and  accomplish  humanity  for  the  joys  of 
an  everlasting  state ;  and  they  utterly 
repudiate  the  conception  of  any  thing  so 
altogether  visionary  in  their  eyes,  as  that 
of  a  new  and  preternatural  infusion  from 
above,  by  which  the  mind  of  man  is 
translbrmed — and  an  impulse  given,  dia- 
metrically opposite  to  the  bias  of  those 
native  and  original  propensities  which 
belong  to  it.  They  count,  in  fact,  upon 
no  greater  transition,  than  from  what  is 
held  base  and  dishonourable  in  our  world, 
to  what  is  held  in  it  worthy  of  moral 
estimation.  Now  the  fact  is  undeniable, 
that  there  are  very  many  who  stand  in  no 
need  of  any  such  transition  at  all ;  how- 
ever great  the  revolution  of  principle  must 
be — by  which,  Irom  the  creatures  of  sight 
and  of  sense  and  of  mere  earthliness,  we 
are  led  to  walk  by  faith — to  be  habitually 
and  practically  conversant  with  the  things 
of  an  unseen  world — to  hold  the  concerns 
of  immortality,  as  paramount  to  all  the 
pursuits  and  interests  of  a  fleeting  pil- 
grimage ;  and,  above  all,  to  have  a  con- 
tinual respect  unto  God  as  the  supreme 
Master  both  of  our  affections  and  of  our 
performances — as  the  Being  with  whom 
we  most  emphatically  have  to  do.  Now 
you,  1  trust,  are  aware  of  the  necessity  of 
this  transition — of  the  magnitude  of  that 
change  which  all  must  undergo,  ere  they 
are  fit  for  that  heaven,  the  delights  and 
the  occupations  of  which  are  at  such 
variance  with  the  delights  and  occupa- 
tions of  this  planet,  now  in  a  state  of  exile 
from  heaven's  family.  And  in  proportion 
as  you  highly  estimate  the  requisite  trans- 
formation, so  will  you  highly  estimate  ' 
the  requisite  power  for  carrying  it  Uito 
accomplishment;  and  you  will  be  pre- 
pared for  all  the  descriptions  which  the 
Bible  gives,  of  the  utter  helplessness  of 
man  in  himself  for  so  mighty  and  decisive 
a  change  upon  his  own  constitution — that 
just  as  there  is  nought  of  energy  in  a  dead 
body  for  the  revival  of  itself,  but  the 
principle  of  animation  must  come  to  it 
from  without — so  we,  to  be  quickened 
unto  a  right  sense  of  spiritual  things,  and 
to  be  made  alive  to  the  power  of  them, 
must  be  the  subjects  of  a  foreign  or  ad- 
ventitious influence,  which  has  no  original 
residence  in  our  nature;  must  be  born 
again ;   must  have  the  Spirit  of  God  to 


dwell  in  us ;  must  be  operated  upon  by 
an  energy  as  distinct  and  separate  from 
our  own  proper  selves,  as  the  body  of 
Christ  was:  And  accordingl}-  are  we  told 
in  one  of  these  verses,  that  it  is  He  who 
raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  who  also 
quickens  our  mortal  bodies  by  the  Spirit 
which  dwolleth  in  us. 

It  is  this,  in  fact,  which  advances  our 
state  from  that  of  being  in  the  flesh  to  that 
of  our  being  in  the  Spirit.  We  are  in  the 
latter  state — if  so  be  that  the  Spirit  of 
God.dwell  in  us.  It  is  upon  the  entrance 
of  Him,  who  bloweth  where  He  listeth, 
that  the  whole  of  this  great  translation 
hinges;  and  it  is  well  that  you  know,  in 
all  its  certainty  and  distinctness,  what 
that  event  is  by  which  we  are  called  out 
from  death  unto  life — from  being  one  of 
the  children  of  this  world,  to  being  one  of 
the  children  of  God's  kingdom. 

'  Now  if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  he  is  none  of  His.'  Still  to  have 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  here  to  be  under- 
stood, not  in  the  light  of  our  possessing  a 
kindred  character  to  that  of  Christ,  but  of 
our  being  the  subjects  of  an  actual  and 
personal  inhabitation  by  the  Spirit.  The 
Spirit  of  God  may  be  denominated  the 
Spirit  of  Christ — either  because  the  Holy 
Ghost  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son  ;  or,  more  particularly,  because  the 
Son,  now  that  He  is  exalted  at  the  Fa- 
ther's right  hand,  is  entrusted  with  the 
dispensation  of  Him.  You  know  the 
order  of  this  economy  in  the  work  of  our 
redemption.  Christ  finished  on  earth  the 
work  that  was  given  Him  to  do.  Ho 
yielded,  in  our  stead,  a  perfect  obedience 
to  the  law  of  God  ;  and  He  suffered,  in 
our  stead,  all  the  penalties  that  were  an- 
nexed to  its  violation.  And  having  thus 
wrought  our  acceptance  with  God,  He 
attained  as  His  reward,  the  power  of 
sanctifying  all  those  whom  lie  had  saved. 
That  instrument  was  put  into  His  hands, 
by  which  He  could  wash  away  the  pollu- 
tion of  that  sin,  whose  guilt  he  had  ex- 
piated— and  by  which  He  could   beautify 

.in  all  the  lustre  of  heaven's  graces, 
those  for  whom  He  had  purchased  a  right 
of  admittance  into  heaven's  family.  Our 
renewal  unto  holiness  and  virtue,  is,  in 
fact,  part  of  the  fruit  of  the  travail  of  His 
soul ;  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  accom- 
plished, is,  by  the  forthgoing  of  the  Spirit 
at  the  bidding  or  will  of  our  exalted 
Saviour.  When  He  ascended  on  high,  it 
is  said,  that  He  led  captivity  captive,  and 
obtained  gifts  for  men,  even  for  the  re- 
bellious; and  the  most  supereminent  of 
these  gifts  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  through 
Christ  that  the  washing  of  regeneration, 
and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  are 
shed  upon  us  abundantly.  It  is  when  the 
Spirit  descends  upon  us,  that  the  power 


LECTURE    L. CHAPTER   VIII,   9.. 


255 


of  Christ  is  said  to  rest  upon  us.  Hence 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
are  equivalent,  the  one  to  the  other.  And 
as  the  Saviour  uniformly  regenerates  all 
whoir  He  redeems — as  the  conjunction  is 
invariable,  between  the  penalty  being 
lifted  otf  from  our  persons,  and  a  purify- 
ing influence  being  laid  upon  our  charac- 
ters— as  it  is  true,  even  in  the  moral  sense 
of  the  term,  that  if  He  wash  us  not  we 
have  no  part  in  Him — The  truth  is  inevi- 
table, and  cannot  be  too  urgently  im- 
pressed on  all  our  consciences,  that  if  any 
man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  he  is 
none  of  His. 

But  though  it  must  not  be  denied,  that 
to  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  implies  the 
entrance  and  the  abode  of  a  personal 
visitor  with  the  soul,  yet  we  have  no  other 
way  of  ascertaining  that  we  have  been  thus 
privileged,  but  by  our  having  become  like 
in  character  with  the  Saviour.  We  can 
only  judge  of  His  being  in  us,  by  the  im- 
press He  has  made  upon  us.  He  often 
enters  without  one  note  of  preparation, 
like  the  wind  that  bloweth  where  he  list- 
eth,  and  we  know  not  whence  he  cometh. 
It  is  by  the  fruit  alone  that  we  know  ;  and 
there  is  not  another  method  of  verifying 
that  He  has  been  at  work  with  our  souls, 
but  by  the  workmanship  that  is  manifest 
thereupon.  So  that  though  to  have  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  be  something  more  than 
that  our  Spirit  is  like  unto  His — yet  it  is 
by  the  latter  only  as  the  effect,  that  we 
can  infer  the  operation  of  the  Saviour  as 
the  cause.  And  therefore  the  question, 
whether  you  belong  to  the  Saviour  or  not, 
still  hinges  upon  the  question — whether 
there  be  the  same  mind  in  you  that  was 
also  in  the  Lord  Jesus. 

And  therefore  it  is  thus  that  we  ought 
to  examine  ourselves.  That  we  may 
know  what  to  pray  for,  we  should  advert 
to  the  work  of  God's  Spirit  upon  our 
soul — as  that  by  which  alone  the  requisite 
transformation  into  another  character  can 
take  effect  upon  us.  But  then  to  fix  and 
ascertain  the  question,  whether  there  have 
been  any  such  work,  we  have  nought  to 
do  but  to  read  the  lineaments  of  that  char- 
acter. It  is  right  to  be  humbled  into  the 
impression  of  our  own  original  and  utter 
worthlessness,  as  destitute  of  any  good 
thing  ;  and,  as  wanting  the  power  in  our- 
selves, either  to  import  what  is  good  from 
abroad,  or  to  raise  it  from  within  by  any 
operation  which  lies  within  the  compass 
of  nature's  mechanism.  It  is  but  proper 
for  us  to  know,  that  for  all  that  is  of  spi- 
ritual worth  or  estimation  belonging  to 
us,  we  stand  indebted  to  an  influence  that 
is  exterior  to  ourselves,  and  that  comes  to 
us  from  abroad — so  as  that  each  may  say 
with  the  apostle,  "Nevertheless  not  me 
but  the  grace  of  God  that  is  in  me."    Yet 


ought  it  never  to  be  forgotten,  that  gene- 
rally it  is  by  the  result  of  the  visitation, 
and  not  by  any  sensible  circumstances 
attendant  upon  the  time  of  it,  that  we 
come  to  know  whether  the  Spirit  of  God 
be  really  in  us  or  not.  It  hinges  on  the 
question,  whether  we  are  like  unto  God 
or  like  unto  Christ,  who  is  His  image,  and 
was  His  sensible  representative  in  the 
world ;  and  thus  the  most  direct  way  of 
settling  the  inquiry,  is  to  compare  our 
character  with  that  of  the  Saviour — our 
history  with  the  history  and  doings  of 
Christ  upon  the  earth. 

And  yet  at  present  we  should  not  like 
to  discourage   any,  from  their  intended 
approach  to  His  sacrament,*  because  of 
the  width  and  magnitude  of  that  actual 
dissimilarity,  which  obtains  between  their 
Saviour  and   themselves.     They  cannot 
dare  to  affirm,  that  they  have  yet  grown 
up   unto   the  stature  of   perfect   men  in 
Christ  Jesus.     They  perhaps  are  nought 
but   humbled   and   abashed — when    they 
compare   their   own   attainments   of  pa- 
tience, and  piety,  and  unwearied  benefi- 
cence, with  those  of  that  high  and  heaven- 
ly exemplar,  who  is  set  before  them  in 
the  gospel.    They  could   not  venture  to 
sit  down  and  participate  in  the  coming 
festival,  if  the  question  turned  on  such  a 
family   likeness   between   them   and  the 
Master   of  the  entertainment,   as  would 
mark  them  to  be  children  of  the  same 
God,  and  members  of  the  same  spiritual 
brotherhood  ;  and  therefore  let  us  assure 
them,  that  their  right  to  place  themselves 
at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  is  nc ;.  an  argu- 
ment of  degree  as  to  their  actual  progress 
in  the  divine  life,  but  a  question  of  princi- 
ple as  to  their  aims  and  their  desires  after 
it.    Do  they  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness 1     Do  they  look  unto  Christ,  not 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  confidence,  but 
also  for  the  purpose  of  imitation?     Is  it 
the  honest  aspiration  of  their  souls,  under 
all   the   helplessness  they  feel,  and   the 
burden  of  their  deficiencies  over  which 
they  mourn  and  are   in  heaviness — that 
they  might  indeed  be  visited  by  a  more 
copious  descent  of  the  Spirit's  influence, 
and  so  attain  a  higher  conformity  to  the 
image  of  the  Saviour.     Then  sure,  as  we 
are,  that  Christ  would  not  have  spurned 
them  from  His  presence,  had  He  still  been 
sojourning  amongst  us  in  the  world — nei- 
their  can  we  interdict  the  approaches  of 
such   unto  the  Saviour,  through  one  of 
His  own  bidden  and  appointed  ordinances. 
The  Sacrament  we  hold  to  be  not  merely 
a  privilege,  but  a  means  of  grace — a  pri- 
vilege to  all,  who  choose  the  Saviour  as 
their  alone  dependence  for  time  and  for 


*  Delivered  shortly  before  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
sapper. 


256 


LECTURE   LI. CHAPTEi?   VUI,    10. 


eternity;  and  a  means  of  grace  to  all, 
who,  humbled  at  their  distance  and  defi- 
ciency from  the  perfections  of  the  sanc- 
tuary above,  seek  to  the  instituted  ordi- 
nances of  the  scene  of  preparation  below, 
for  the  advancement  of  their  meetness  for 
the  inheritance.  Even  for  that  very  Spi- 
rit, the  presence  of  which  you  long  to  as- 
certain, I  would  bid  you  come  to  this 
place  of  meeting  ;  and  see  whe  ler  the 
blessing  will  not  be  shed  forth  uj  >n  yoh. 
Turn  unto  me,  saith  God,  and  I  v  .il  pov  • 
out  my  Spirit.  And  sure  w  are,  tl- 
there  is  not  a  likelier  attitude  f  eceiv 
the  full  and  the  free  suppliet  it,  than 
when  you  look  in  faith  to  the  -^  ^nsecrated 


symbols  of  that  atonement,  through  which 
alone  it  is  that  a  sinner  may  draw  nigh — 
and  over  which  alone  it  is,  that  a  holy 
God  can  rejoice  over  you.  Come — but 
come  with  a  sincere  purpose.  Come  in 
honesty.  Come  aware  of  the  total  reno- 
vation which  your  personal  Christianity 
implies.  Come  free  of  all  those  superfi- 
cial and  meagre  conceptions  of  it,  which 
arre  so  current  in  the  midst  of  this  really 
-Infidel  world.  Come  resolved  to  be  and 
to  do  all  that  the  Master  of  the  assembly 
would  have  you  ;  and  look  unto  Him  for 
the  perfection  of  His  own  work  upon 
your  character,  that  in  you  He  may  see 
the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied. 


LECTURE  LI. 


Romans  viii,  10. 
"  And  if  Christ  be  in  you,  the  body  is  dead  because  of  sin ;  but  the  spirit  is  life  because  of  righteousness." 


I  HAVE  already  affirmed,  that  to  have 
Christ  in  us,  is  tantamount  to  the  Spirit 
being  in  us.  Christ  dwells  in  us  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  is  not  because  of  this  that 
the  body  is  dead  ;  but  it  is  because  of  sin. 
The  work  of  the  Spirit  in  us  does  not 
counteract  the  temporal  death  of  the  body, 
however  much  it  may  counteract  the  se- 
cond or  eternal  death  to  which  the  soul 
would  have  else  been  liable.  It  does  not 
pour  the  elixir  of  immortality  into  the 
material  frame — however  much  it  may 
strengthen  and  prepare  the  imperishable 
spirit  for  its  immortal  well-being.  Still, 
after  Christ  has  taken  up  his  abode  within 
us  and  hath  made  a  temple  of  our  body, 
it  is  a  temple  that  is  to  be  destroyed. 
There  remaineth  a  virus  in  the  fabric,  that 
sooner  or  later  will  work  its  dissolution  ; 
and  as  the  law  of  temporal  death  is  still 
unrepealed,  even  in  the  case  of  those 
whom  Christ  hath  redeemed  from  the 
curse  of  the  law  ;  and  as,  in  harmony 
with  this  palpable  fact,  there  is  still  the 
doctrine  that  sin  lurks  and  lingers  in  the 
moral  system  even  after  the  renovation 
which  the  Spirit  hath  given  to  it — this  sug- 
gests a  very  important  analogy,  from  the 
farther  prosecution  of  which  we  may  per- 
haps gather,  not  a  useless  speculation,  but 
a  substantial  and  a  practical  benefit. 

Suppose  for  a  moment  that  the  body, 
by  some  preternatural  operation,  were 
wholly  delivered  of  its  corrupt  ingredient 
— that  the  sinful  tendencies  which  reside 
there  were  not  only  kept  in  check,  but 
eradicated,  so  that  all  its  appetites  were  at 
one  with  the  desires  of  a  pure  and  perfect 


spirit — Then  there  would  be  nothing  to 
hinder  our  reception  even  now  into  the 
courts  of  the  celestial.  With  such  a  har- 
mony in  our  moral  system  as  a  soul  all 
whose  aspirations  were  on  the  side  of  ho- 
liness, and  nothing  to  thwart  these  aspira- 
tions in  the  materialism  by  which  it  was 
encompassed,  we  see  nought  awanting  to 
constitute  a  heavenly  or  an  angelic  cha- 
racter— nor  do  we  understand  why  death 
should  in  that  case  interpose  between  our 
state  of  being  upon  earth,  and  our  state 
of  blessedness  for  ever.  And  accordingly, 
we  read  that  on  Nature's  dissolution,  when 
the  dead  shall  rise  from  their  graves  in  tri- 
umph, they  who  remain  alive  and  v,  ho  have 
never  fallen  asleep  must,  to  become  incor- 
ruptible also,  at  least  be  changnd.  The 
change  on  those  who  are  alive  and  caught 
up  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  does  for 
them  what  the  death  and  the  resurrection 
do  for  those  who  have  been  saints  upon 
earth,  ere  they  ascend  as  embodied  saints 
into  heaven.  It  is  on  the  corruptible  put- 
ting  on  in9orruption,  that  the  mortal  puts 
on  immortality  ;  and  the  reason  why  even 
those  in  whom  Christ  dwells  have  still  a 
death  to  undergo,  is  that  sin,  though  it  no 
longer  tyrannizes,  still  adheres  to  them — 
and  the  wearing  down  of  the  body  by 
disease,  and  the  arrest  that  is  laid  on  all 
the  functions  and  operations  of  its  physi- 
ology, and  the  transformation  of  it  into 
inanimate  matter,  and  the  mouldering  of 
it  into  dust,  and  then  its  reascent  from  the 
grave  in  which  it  for  ages  mny  have  lain 
— These  it  would  appear  are  the  steps  of 
a  refining  process,  whereby  the  now  vile 


LECTURE  LI. — CHAPTER  VIH,    10. 


257 


body  is  changed  into  a  glorious  one  ;  and 
the  regenerated  spirit  is  furnished  with  its 
suitable  equipment  for  the  delights  and 
the  services  of  eternity. 

To  the  question  then,  why  is  it,  that, 
though  Christ  dwells  in  us,  still  the  body 
is  dead  or  liable  to  death — the  answer  is, 
'  because  of  sin  ;'  and  from  this  very  an- 
swer do  we  gather,  that  sin  is  still  present 
with  every  believer  in  the  world,  and  cs 
universally  present  too  as  death  is  univer 
Bal.  In  regard  to  temporal  death,  there  is 
one  lot  we  know  that  falleth  to  the  wicked 
and  the  righteous.  And  therefore  though 
these  two  classes  do  not  stand  alike  re- 
lated to  sin,  yet  both  are  so  related  to  it 
as  to  partake  in  common  of  the  mortal- 
ity, which,  ere  they  are  so  changed  as  to 
become  incorruptible,  all  it  appears  must 
undergo. 

The  righteous,  we  all  see,  die  in  com- 
mon with  the  wicked ;  and  the  text  tells 
us  that  the  death  of  the  body  is  because 
of  sin.  There  must  therefore  be  some- 
thing that  respects  sin,  which  the  right- 
eous hold  in  common  with  the  wicked — 
seeing  that,  because  of  it,  there  is  a  com- 
mon suffering  which  both  do  undergo. 
What  then  is  this  common  relation  which 
they  hold  to  sin  as  the  cause,  and  in  virtue 
of  which  they  have  a  common  participa- 
tion in  that  bodily  death  that  is  here  re- 
presented as  the  consequence  1 

In  the  first  place,  it  cannot  surely  be 
that  it  is  still  inflicted  on  both  as  the  judi- 
cial sentence  which  has  been  attached  to 
transgression.  It  is  very  true,  the  an- 
nouncement from  the  first  has  been,  that 
he  who  sinneth  shall  die ;  and  that,  in  re- 
ference to  all  from  whom  the  condemna- 
tion hath  not  been  turned  away,  temporal 
death  may  be  regarded- as  forming  a  part 
of  their  sentence.  But  it  cannot  surely  be 
viewed  in  this  light,  in. reference  to  those 
of  whom  the  Bible  says  that  unto  them 
there  is  no  condemnation  ;  in  reference  to 
those  who  savingly  believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  so  have  the  benefit  of 
that  expiation  which  He  hath  rendered, 
and  of  that  everlasting  righteousness 
which  He  hath  brought  in.  It  cannot  for 
a  moment  be  thought,  that  any  suffering 
of  theirs  is  at  all  requisite  to  complete 
that  great  satisfaction  which  was  made  on 
Calvary  for  the  sins  of  the  faithful.  It  is 
said  of  Him,  who  by  one  offering  hath 
perfected  the  work  of  our  reconciliation 
and  made  an  end  of  iniquity,  that  He  trod 
the  wine  press  alone  and  that  of  the  peo- 
ple there  was  none  with  Him.  To  Him 
belongs  the  whole  glory  of  our  atonement. 
He  bore  it  all,  for  He  looked  and  there  was 
none  to  help.  He  wondered  that  there  was 
none  to  uphold ;  and  then  did  His  own  arm 
bring  salvation.  It  cannot  be  that  by  any 
death  of  ours  then,  we  eke  out,  as  it  were, 
33. 


the  satisfaction  which  hath  been  already 
rendered  for  sin ;  and   when  Paul  says 
that  he  fills  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ   in   his   flesh,  it  can 
never  be  that  by  any  sufferings  which  the 
believer  can  endure,  not  even  by  the  last 
and  most  appalling  of  them  all,  he  makes 
good  any  deficiency  in  that  great  act,  by 
which,  and  by  which  alone,  transgression 
was  fir  shed,  and  the  controversy  between 
God  ai  1  the  sinner,  is  for  ever  set  at  rest. 
.  The    leaning  then  of  a  believer's  death, 
•'    not  to  e  piate  the  guilt  of  his  sin — it  is 
root  c      ,the  existence  of  it.   It  is  not  to 
cancel  h.     punishment,  for  that  is  already 
done — it  i^_,  to  give  the  finishing  blow,  as 
it  were,  to  tnc  crucifixion  of  its  power.    It 
is  not  inflicted  upon  him  as  the  last  dis- 
charge of  the  wrath  of  God,  after  which 
he   is   conclusively   delivered   therefrom. 
But  it  is  sent  to  him  as  a  release  from  the 
plague  and  the  presence  of  that  corrup- 
tion, which  adheres  it  would  seem,  as  long 
as  the  body  adheres  to  us.    It  has  not,  it 
would   appear,  been   made   part  of   the 
economy  of  grace,  that,  on  our  entering 
within  its  limits  by  accepting  of  the  gospel, 
we   are   forthwith   delivered  from   those 
ceaseless  and  besetting  tendencies,  which 
attach  to  our  present  bodily  constitution. 
This  could  have  been  done  without  death. 
If  a  man,   on   the  moment   of  believing, 
were  just  to  be  suddenly  changed,  in  the 
way  that  they  shall  be  who  are  alive  at 
the  last  day,  and  are  caught  up  alive  to 
meet  our  Lord  in  the  air — then  at  once 
would  he  have  been  made  sinless  in  the 
material  framework,  as  well  as  sinless  in 
the  regenerated  part  of  his  nature ;  and 
without   the   stepping-stones  of  a  death, 
and  a  resolution  of  his  body  into  sepul- 
chral rottenness  and  dust,  and  a  resurrec- 
tion of  it  free  from  the  taint  by  which  it 
now  is  pervaded — without  these  stepping- 
stones  at  all,  might  he  at  once  have  winged 
his  ascent  into  heaven,  and  had  its  gate 
opened  to  him — because  now,  as  free  from 
the  presence  of  sin  as  he  was  from  its  pen- 
alty.   And   thus,  without   passing  at  all 
through  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  might  he  have  been  put  into  imme- 
diate preparation  for  the  pure  and  lofty 
communions  of  paradise.  This  might  have 
been   the  order  of  God's   administration, 
but  it  is  not  so  in  fact.    He  hath  arranged 
it  otherwise.    He  hath  thought  fit,  instead 
of  working  a  miraculous  change  on  the 
appetites  of  the  body,  to  work  that  change 
on  the  principles  and  desires  of  the  spirit 
— to  renew  the  inner  man,  but  to  perpet- 
uate for  a  season  the  outer  man.  He  hath 
thought  fit  to  make  that  Gospel  by  which 
peace  is  established  between  God  and  the 
believer — still  to  make  it  the  harbinger, 
not  of  peace  but  of  war,  among  the  ele- 
ments of  that  moral  system  which  is  in 


258 


LECTURE    LI. CHAPTER   VIII,    IQ. 


the  believer  himself.  There  might  have 
been  an  instaiitaneous  transition,  to  all 
the  repose  and  liurmony  and  serene  tri- 
umph of  a  virtue,  that  actuated  every 
faculty  of  the  mind  ;  and  met  with  noth- 
ing to  thwart  or  to  impede  its  dictates,  in 
the  vile  alfections  of  a  body  that  still 
would  grovel,  were  it  permitted,  among 
its  own  base  and  sordid  gratilications. 
But  this  is  not  the  way  in  which  it  hath 
appeared  meet  unto  the  wisdom  of  God, 
that  our  translation  shall  take  place  from 
earth  to  heaven.  Like  the  processes  both 
of  His  natural  and  His  mural  kingdom, 
this  is  accomplished  not  instantly  but 
gradually  ;  and  there  is  a  long  intervening 
series  of  conflicts  and  exercises  througli 
life,  and  a  death  and  a  burial  and  a  re- 
surrection after  it,  ere  the  whole  body  and 
soul  and  spirit  shall  be  fully  matured  for 
the  high  fellowships  of  eternity.  And 
meanwhile,  what  Christ  said  of  the  world, 
holds  true  of  every  individual  who  re- 
ceives Him — "  I  came  not  to  bring  peace 
but  a  sword."  I  came  to  raise  an  internal 
war  among  the  feelings  and  the  faculties 
of  those  who  believe  in  me.  I  came  to 
infuse  a  new  principle  within  the  lim- 
its of  their  moral  economy,  against  which 
all  the  powers  and  principles  of  the 
old  man  will  rise  up  in  battle-array ; 
and,  instead  of  that  harmony  within 
which  is  felt  by  the  seraph  above,  and 
even  felt  by  manj^  a  secure  and  satisfied 
sinner  below — there  will  be  the  war  of 
rival  tendencies,  by  which  the  believer's 
heart  shall  be  kept  in  constant  agitation  ; 
there  will  be  all  the  pains  and  perplexi- 
ties of  many  a  sore  conflict  within  ;  thei'e 
will  be  an  agony  so  tierce  as  to  have  been 
imaged  in  Scripture  by  a  crucifixion  ; 
there  will  not  it  is  true  be  unmitigated 
suifering — tiiere  will  be  a  mixture  of  tri- 
umph and  of  tumult  throughout  the  period 
of  that  singular  transition  which  each  be- 
liever must  undergo — of  triumph  to  that 
spirit  which  is  now  made  willing,  and  of 
anguish  to  that  body  which  is  now  made 
a  sacrifice. 

You  sec  then,  I  trust,  what  that  is  of  sin, 
which  is  common  here  to  the  children  of 
light,  and  the  children  of  this  world  ;  and 
what  that  is  which  constitutes  the  distinc- 
tion between  them.  While  both  are  alive 
upon  earth,  they  have  both  one  kind  of 
body  ;  and  just  as  the  eye  of  each  takes  in 
the  same  impression  from  the  same  objects 
standing  visibly  before  it,  so  are  the  ap- 
petites of  each  liable  to  the  same  inclina- 
tion from  the  allurement  of  the  same 
objects  when  brought  within  their  reach. 
The  unhappy  drunkard,  who,  at  the  very 
sight  of  his  inflaming  beverage,  is  visited 
with  an  affection  thereunto  which  he  finds 
to  be  uncontrollable — suppose  him  to  be 
made  a  convert  at  this  moment,  there  is 


no  change  impressed  by  it  upon  his  organ 
of  taste.  The  relation  that  now  subsists 
between  his  palate  and  the  liquor  that  has 
so  long  and  so  frequently  regaled  it,  is  the 
same  as  before — the  desire  for  it  is  not 
extinguished ;  and  the  physical  affinity 
that  now  is  between  the  appetite  and  its 
wonted  indulgence,  is  not  now  changed 
into  a  physical  repulsion.  In  the  act  of 
regeneration,  the  bodily  affection  is  not 
eradicated  ;  but  there  is  infused  into  the 
moral  system  a  power  for  keeping  it  in 
check  :  And,  long  after  that  this  old  man 
hath  become  a  new  creature,  we  do  not  see 
that  the  propensity  which  at  one  time 
tyrannized  over  him,  is  clearly  and  con- 
clusively done  away.  It  is  not  rooted  out 
my  brethren.  It  is  only  resisted  ;  and  all 
that  regeneration  has  done  for  him  in  the 
world  is  to  give  him  that  moral  force  of 
determination  and  courage,  by  which  he 
is  enabled  to  resist  it  with  success.  He  is 
now  able  to  control  that  which  before 
was  uncontrollable. 

Were  this  and  all  his  other  rebel  appe- 
tites only  rooted  out  ;  and  were  he  under 
the  dominion  of  a  pure  and  holy  principle, 
and  of  it  alone,  to  serve  God  on  earth 
without  a  struggle — then  might  he  even 
now  be  borne  aloft  on  angelic  pinions; 
and  placed,  without  so  hideous  a  transi- 
tion as  that  of  failing  and  sickening  and 
dying,  in  the  city  which  hath  foundations. 
But  no:  this,  it  would  appear,  is  the  arena 
of  his  discipline  for  eternity  ;  and  it  is  so, 
by  being  an  arena  of  contest.  The  ele- 
ments of  moral  evil  are  not  purged  away 
from  his  corporeal  framework  ;  but  there 
is  a  spiritual  element  infused,  which,  if  it 
cannot  destroy  the  former,  will  at  least 
subordinate  them.  The  apostle  complained 
of  his  body  being  vile;  but  herein  he 
exercised  himself,  to  keep  that  body  under 
subjection,  lest  he  should  be  a  castaway 
He  is  like  unto  a  Heathen,  in  having  a 
vile  body.  He  is  unlike  unto  a  Heathen,  in 
having  now  a  spirit  within  him  by  which 
the  body  is  subjected.  Both  have  in  them 
the  desires  of  nature ;  but  the  one  fights 
with  these  desires,  and  the  other  fulfils 
them.  Both  are  lured  by  solicitations  to 
evil;  but  while  the  one  is  only  lured,  the 
other  is  led  by  them.  He  is  led  away 
with  divers  lusts.  He  is  led  away  with 
the  error  of  the  wicked,  and  so  falls  from 
his  stedfastness.  The  very  same  evil 
propensity  might  ofier  to  lead  both;  but 
while  the  one  consents  to  be  so  led,  the 
other  refuses.  He  gives  himself  up  to  be 
led  by  another  master.  In  the  language 
of  the  apostle,  he  is  led  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  so  approves  himself  lo  be  one 
of  God's  children.  He  is  led  by  the  Spirit, 
and  so  fulfiUeth  not  the  lusts  of  the  flesh. 
You  also  see  what  the  use  of  death  is  to 
a  Christian.    It  is  not  laid  upon  him  as  a 


LECTURE    LI. — CHAPTER.    VIII,    10. 


259 


sentence  of  condemnation.  The  whole 
weight  of  that  sentence  is  already  borne. 
It  is  not  to  complete  his  justification. 
That  is  already  perfected  for  ever  by  the 
one  offering.  It  is  to  release  him  in  fact 
from  his  warfare.  It  is  to  deliver  him 
from  the  presence  of  his  great  enemy.  It 
is  to  remove  from  him  that  load  under 
which  he  now  groans  being  burdened, 
and  which  forced  from  the  holy  apostle 
the  exclamation  of  his  wretchedness.  It 
is  to  assure  him  who  hath  fought  the 
good  fight,  and  hath  finished  his  course, 
that  the  battle  is  now  ended,  and  that  now 
the  repose  and  the  triumph  of  victory 
await  him.  To  the  last  hour  of  his  life, 
it  is  the  same  foul  and  tainted  body  that 
it  ever  was  ;  and  his  only  achievement 
upon  it,  is  not  that  he  hath  purified  its 
nature,  but  that  he  hath  not  suffered  it  to 
have  the  mastery.  He  has  all  along  been 
upheld  against  its  encroachments,  by  the 
vigour  of  a  counteracting  principle  within, 
even  of  that  Spirit  which  is  life  because 
of  righteousness.  These  tw»  have  been 
in  perpetual  conflict  with  each  other,  from 
the  hour  of  the  heavenly  birth  to  the  hour 
of  the  earthly  dissolution  ;  and  the  way 
in  which  it  is  terminated,  is,  not  by  the 
body  in  its  present  state  being  transformed, 
but  by  the  body  in  its  present  state  being 
destroyed. 

The  fact  of  the  body  being  still  sub- 
jected to  death  because  of  sin,  is  the 
strongest  experimental  argument  that  can 
be  urged  for  heaven  being  a  place  to 
which  sin  can  find  no  entry.  It  is  not  in 
the  way  of  penalty  that  the  Christian  has 
to  die — for  the  whole  of  that  penalty  has 
already  been  sustained.  It  is  not  exacted 
from  him  as  the  payment  of  a  debt— for 
Christ  our  surety  hath  paid  a  full  and  a 
satisfying  ransom.  It  is  not  then  to  help 
out  the  justification  which  is  already 
complete  in  him — nor  to  remove  a  flaw 
from  that  title-deed  which  we  have  re- 
ceived perfect  from  His  hand.  It  stands 
connected,  in  short,  with  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  believer  ;  and  has  nought  to 
do  with  that  sentence  which  Christ  has 
fully  expiated,  with  that  legal  chastise- 
ment which  was  laid  upon  Him  who  bore 
it  all.  The  whole  amount  and  meaning 
of  it  is,  that  our  bodies  are  impregnated 
with  a  moral  virus  which  m.ight  be  dis- 
charged from  them,  it  is  certain,  by  a  fiat 
of  the  Almighty — even  as  with  those  who 
shall  be  found  alive  on  the  day  of  resur- 
rection. But  this  is  not  the  way  in  which 
God  hath  seen  meet  so  to  discharge  it.  It 
is  by  death  that  the  thing  is  to  be  done. 
It  is,  in  the  first  instance,  by  the  departure 
of  the  spirit  breaking  out  of  its  tainted 
and  leprous  prison-hold — and  then  by  the 
resolution  into  fragments  and  into  dust, 
of  this  materialism  that  its  tenement  hath 


abandoned — and  then  by  the  assembling 
again  of  all  its  particles,  but  without  the 
corrupt  infusion  that  formerly  pervaded 
it — And  so  the  transformation  of  the  whole 
into  what  is  now  called  a  glorified  body — 
a  body  like  unto  that  of  Christ,  and  free 
now  even  from  the  tendency  to  evil.  And 
not  till  the  whole  of  this  change  take 
effect  upon  it,  is  it  fit  for  admission  to  the 
upper  realms  of  love  and  purity  and 
righteousness.  The  justice  of  God  would 
have  recoiled  from  the  acceptance  of  a 
sinner,  and  so  an  expiation  had  to  be 
made ;  and  the  holiness  of  that  place 
where  God  dwelleth,  would  have  recoiled 
from  the  approaches  of  one  whose  cha- 
racter was  still  tainted  with  sin,  even 
though  its  guilt  had  been  expiated — and 
so  it  is,  that  there  must  be  a  sanctification 
as  well  as  an  atonement — there  must  be  a 
renewal  as  well  as  a  sacrifice.  For  the 
one,  Christ  had  to  suffer  and  to  die — for 
the  other  man  has  also  to  die,  and  so  to 
fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ.  And  it  is  indeed  a  most 
emphatic  demonstration  of  heaven's  sa- 
credness,  that,  to  protect  its  courts  from 
violation,  not  even  the  most  pure  and 
sainted  Christian  upon  earth,  can,  in  his 
present  earthly  garb,  find  admittance 
therein — that  loved  and  revered  as  he  is 
by  his  friends  and  his  family,  and  little 
as  they  see  about  him  of  that  which  is 
unworthy  even  of  fellowship  with  angels, 
still,  that  even  he  would  be  deemed  a 
nuisance  in  that  high  and  holy  place 
where  nothing  that  oticndeth  can  entpr — 
that  ere  the  gate  of  the  New  Jerusalem  be 
opened  for  his  spirit,  he  must  leave  his 
tainted  body  behind  him;  and  ere  he 
walk  embodied  there,  the  framework  that 
he  had  on  earth  must  first  be  taken  down, 
and  be  made  to  pass  in  mysterious  trans- 
formation, through  that  dismal  region  of 
skulls  and  of  skeletons,  where  the  moul- 
dering wreck  of  many  human  generations 
is  laid.  This  death,  which  even  the  holiest 
of  believers  have  to  undergo,  speaks 
loudly  both  to  the  loathsomeness  of  sin, 
and  to  the  sensitive  the  lofty  sacredness 
of  heaven  :  And  oh  how  should  it  teach 
all,  who  by  faith  have  admitted  the  hope 
of  glory  into  their  hearts,  that,  in  so 
doing,  they  have  embarked  on  a  warfare 
against  moral  evil — that  the  expectation 
of  bliss  in  heaven  is  at  utter  variance 
with  the  wilful  indulgence  of  sin  upon 
earth — and  that,  by  the  very  act  of  em- 
bracing the  Gospel,  they  have  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet  of  hostility  to  sin;  and 
they  must  struggle  against  it,  and  pray 
against  it,  and  prevail  against  it. 

Now  this  principle  of  hostility  to  sin 
wherewith  the  believer  is  actuated,  cometh 
down  upon  him  like  every  other  good  and 
perfect  gift  from  above.     All  that  is  evil 


260 


LECTURE   LI. — CHAPTER   VIII,    10. 


about  him  still  cometh  from  himself,  and 
from  the  vile  body  by  which  he  is  encom- 
passed. The  gracious  ingredient  of  his 
now  regenerated  nature,  does  not  extin- 
guish the  corrupt  ingredient  of  it.  It 
only,  as  it  were,  keeps  it  down ;  and, 
without  delivering  him  from  its  presence, 
delivers  him  from  its  prevalency  and  its 
power.  This  it  is  which  constitutes  the 
struggle  of  the  Christian  life.  This  is  the 
sore  conflict  which  is  carried  on  through 
many  discouragements,  and  perhaps  some 
defeats,  and  at  least  frequent  alternations 
and  variations  of  fortune.  Nevertheless, 
throughout  all  the  fluctuations  of  this  spirit- 
ual history,  the  seed  of  blissful  immortality 
is  there  ;  the  element  of  a  holy  and  celes- 
tial nature  is  at  work  ;  the  honest  aspira- 
tion after  God  and  godliness  will  never  be 
extinguished.  A  life  of  well-doing,  and 
a  produce  in  the  fruits  of  righteousness, 
will  force  their  way  among  all  the  im- 
pediments of  a  vile  materialism.  These 
two  rival  and  opposing  ingredients  will  at 
length  be  detached  the  one  from  the 
other ;  and  of  these  the  body  will  become 
dead  because  of  sin,  and  the  spirit  be  life 
because  of  righteousness. 

With   an  unconverted   man   there  are 
not  two  such  conflicting  elements.     The 
mind  and  the  body  are  at  one.    The  evil 
tendencies  are  given  way  to.  He  not  only 
submits  to  the  instigations  of  the  flesh  ; 
but,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  he  sows 
unto  the  flesh,  that  is,  he  devises  and  de- 
liberately provides  expedients  for  its  gra- 
tification— laying  up  for  the  flesh,  as  well 
as  fulfilling  the  lusts  thereof.     The  whole 
man  pulls  as  it  were  in  one  direction  ;  and 
that  is  a  direction  altogether  towards  the 
creature,  and  altogether  away  from  the 
Creator.    He  soweth  unto  the  flesh,  and 
of  the  flesh,  he  shall  reap  corruption.    As 
he  falleth,  so  shall  he  rise  ;  and  the  body 
wherewith  he  is  enveloped  on  the  day  of 
resurrection,  will  not,  like  that  of  the  glo- 
rified saint,  be  expurgated  of  its  tenden- 
cies to  evil :  But  as  he  indulged   them 
through  life,  so  will  they  rise  up  against 
him  in  the  full  vigour  of  their  absolute 
and  imperious  sway  ;  and  be  his  merci- 
less, his  inexorable  tormentors,  through 
all  eternity.    As  he  never  resisted  them 
with  effect  here,  so  there   will   he   find 
them  to  be  irresistible.    They  will  lord  it 
over  him  ;  and  he  be  the  miserable  slave 
of  vile  and  worthless  affections,  under  the 
sense  of  which  his  now  convicted  soul 
cannot  escape  from  the  agontes  of  re- 
morse, that  undying  worm,  which  gives 
to  hell  its  fiercest  anguish,  and  far  its 
sorest  tribulation.    He  thus  pursued  by  a 
fire  that  is  unquenchable  within,  and  a 
fear  without  of  that  holy  and  righteous 
countenance  that  is  now  turned  in  rebuke 
towards  him,  will  be  made  to  taste  of  that 


second  death  which  has  been  called  tho 
wages  of  sin,  because  it  is  both  its  penal 
and  its  natural  consummation. 

Not  so  with  him  whose  spirit  has  been 
made  righteous  ;  and  who  vexed  and  an- 
noyed with  the  urgencies  of  his  vile  body, 
has,  to  the  hour  of  death,  carried  on 
against  it  a  resolute  and  unsparing  war- 
fare. He  will  have  no  part  in  the  second 
death.  His  spirit  because  of  its  righteous- 
ness has  become  meet  for  that  life,  which 
is  both  spiritual  and  everlasting.  So  soon 
as  it  quits  its  earthly  tenement,  it  will  be 
with  Christ  in  Paradise,  where,  freed  from 
the  incumbrances  of  a  tainted  material- 
ism, it  will  instantly  find — that,  though  to 
live  for  a  season  in  the  flesh  was  needful 
and  salutary,  yet  to  have  departed  and  to 
be  with  Christ  is  far  better.  He  soweth 
to  the  Spirit  here,  and  hereafter  he  shall 
reap  of  the  Spirit  life  everlasting.  He  has 
the  very  evil  tendencies  which  the  other 
hath  who  soweth  unto  the  flesh  ;  but,  in- 
stead of  giving  to  them  his  consent,  he 
enters  with*  them  into  combat,  and  he 
fights  the  good  fight  which  terminates  in 
victory,  and  he  earns  the  blessedness  of 
him  that  overcometh,  and  of  him  that  en- 
dureth  unto  the  end.  Those  inclinations 
of  a  corrupt  nature,  which  the  other  pam- 
pered into  lordly  and  domineering  appe- 
tites, that  will  wield  for  ever  their  merci- 
less tyranny  over  him,  he  hath  in  every 
way  thwarted  and  buffeted  and  starved — 
so  that  though  still  alive  while  the  breath 
was  in  his  body,  and  he  had  even  to  weep 
their  presence  on  his  death-bed,  and  still 
to  mourn  even  then  the  carnalities  and 
the  spiritual  sins  which  he  could  not  ut- 
terly extinguish — yet  his  reward  is,  that, 
at  the  moment  of  his  dissolution,  they  will 
expire  for  ever  ;  and  not  be  raised  up 
again  to  be  his  plagues  and  his  persecu- 
tors through  eternity.  The  reward  is,  that 
his  risen  body  shall  also  be  a  regenerated 
body — that  all  about  him  shall  then  be  in 
fullest  harmony  with  the  desires  of- his 
glorified  spirit. — and  that  the  evil  instiga- 
tions which  so  perplex  and  disquiet  him 
on  earth,  shall  never  haunt  nor  harass 
him  in  heaven.  He  will  be  altogether 
freed  from  those  corrupt  elements,  which 
still  adhere  to  the  unbeliever  when  he 
arises  from  his  grave,  and  which  consti- 
tute in  fact  the  elements  of  his  moral  hell. 
There  will  be  nothing  adverse  to  the  love 
or  to  the  services  of  God  in  any  part  of 
his  constitution  ;  and  he  will  be  fully  ena- 
bled to  glorify  the  Lord,  with  his  soul  and 
body  and  spirit,  which  are  the  Lord's. 

This  is  not  an  idle  speculation.  It  may 
be  carried  personally  and  practically  to 
the  conscience.  Are  you  or  are  you  not 
engaged  in  a  warfare  with  moral  evil  1 
Are  you  busily  employed  in  the  work  of 
subduing  and  bringing  under  discipline, 


LECTURE   LI. CHAPTER.    VIII,    10. 


261 


all  the  irregularities  of  your  perverse  na- 
ture 1  Or,  instead  of  this,  are  you  in 
peace  with  yourself;  and  that  because  of 
the  friendly  terms,  in  which  your  spirit 
and  your  body  are  with  each  other  1  Re- 
member that  there  is  a  peace  where  there 
is  no  peace.  Do  you  imagine  that  you 
are  at  peace  with  God,  because  you  be- 
lieve the  Gospel?  Remember  that  Paul 
preached  the  Gospel,  yet,  had  he  not  kept 
the  body  under  subjection,  he  would  have 
been  a  castaway.  And  therefore  in  this 
did  he  always  exercise  himself,  mortify- 
ing his  affections  for  the  things  which  are 


beneath — and  this  not  only  the  grosser' 
affections  of  our  nature,  but  the  more  re- 
putable, the  more  refined,  the  affections 
for  wealth,  for  honour,  for  fame,  for  lite- 
rary reputation — for  these  too  are  among 
the  things  which  are  beneath — these  also 
will  perish  in  the  using — these  have  their 
place  on  earth,  and  have  no  place  in 
heaven  ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  spirit  being 
above  all  these,  and  resting  its  affections 
on  the  things  which  are  above,  it  is  only 
thus  that  it  will  be  made  to  inherit  life, 
and  because  of  its  righteousness. 


LECTURE  LII. 


,  Romans  viii,  11,  12. 

"  But  if  Ihe  Spirit  of  him  that  raised  uptfesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in  you,  he  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead 
shall  also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you.  Therefore,  brethren,  we  are  debtors,  not  to 
the  flesh,  to  live  after  the  flesh." 


V.  11.  In  the  last  verse  it  is  affirmed 
that  Christ  being  in  us  will  not  avail 
to  prevent  the  death  of  the  body  though 
it  will  avail  to  the  preparing  of  the 
soul  for  life  everlasting.  And  in  the 
present  verse,  the  apostle  recurs  to  the 
body,  and  now  affirms  that  it  too,  will  at 
length  have  a  benefit  conferred  on  it — 
that  neither  is  it  altogether  overlooked  in 
this  great  work  of  regeneration — that 
though  permitted  for  a  season  to  moulder 
in  the  dust,  and  though  every  vestige  of 
what  it  was  is  made  to  disappear ;  yet 
will  ii  emerge  from  the  hideous  receptacle 
in  which  it  lies,  and  come  forth  a  quick- 
ened and  a  glorified  body  on  the  day  of 
resurrection — that  though  the  present  oc- 
cupation of  it  by  God's  Holy  Spirit,  does 
not  save  it  from  decaying  into  a  loath- 
some spectacle  of  corruption  ;  yet  if  that 
Spirit  dwell  in  us  now,  it  will  again  ani- 
mate that  matter  which  has  gone  into  dis- 
solution— raising  it  to  a  new  framework, 
and  investing  it  as  before  with  all  those 
graces  which  are  expressive  of  the  life 
and  sensibility  within.  But  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  wicked  as  well  as  the 
righteous  are  to  rise  again — that  all  the 
dead  both  small  and  great  are  to  stand 
before  God — and  that  therefore  there  must 
be  a  something  which  peculiarizes  the 
resurrection  of  the  believer,  from  that  of 
a  sinful  and  unconverted  man.  Now  we 
know  of  no  other  peculiarity  than  this — 
that  his  body  shall  be  delivered  from  that 
moral  virus  against  which  he  struggled 
through  life,  and  by  overcoming  which  he 
is  to  be  rewarded  with  a  complete  and 
conclusive  exemption  from  its  presence 


for  ever — that  the  same  power  which 
helped  him  to  the  conquest,  will  rid  him 
altogether  of  his  enemy  ;  and  his  body 
will  be  so  purified  and  transformed,  as  to 
become  like  unto  the  glorious  body  of 
Christ.  The  wicked  are  not  so.  As  the 
tree  falleth  so  it  lies;  and  as  they  went 
to  their  graves  with  all  the  propensities 
of  corruption  unmitigated,  they  will  again 
come  forth  from  their  graves,  with  these 
propensities  in  lordly  and  despotic  rigour 
to  be  their  tyrants  and  their  tormentors 
through  all  eternity.  And  this,  I  imagine, 
will  explain  a  verse  which  enters  into  the 
prophetic  narrative  of  the  earthly  con- 
summation of  all  things — "  He  that  is  un- 
just let  him  be  unjust  still,  and  he  which 
is  filthy  let  him  be  filthy  still,  and  he  that 
is  i-ighteous  let  him  be  righteous  still,  and 
he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still." 

Now  it  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  re- 
marked'— that  the  very  same  agent  who 
raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  is  to  raise 
up  all  who  are  in  Christ  also.  That  He 
was  the  agent  employed  by  God  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  Saviour,  may,  I  think, 
be  gathered  from  this  passage,  where  it  is 
said,  that  He  was  declared  to  be  the  Son 
of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  Spi- 
rit  of  holiness  by  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead  ; — and  still  more  obviously  from 
the  text  (and  this  we  hold  to  be  the  reason 
why  it  is  said  of  Christ  ri.sen  from  the 
dead,  that  He  is  become  the  first-fruits  of 
them  who  slept) — "  Every  man  in  his  own 
order — Christ  the  first-fruits,  afterwards 
they  who  are  Christ's  at  his  coming." 
But  there  is  a  still  more  important  set  of 
passages  that  point,  we  think,  to  a  very 


262 


LECTURE   LI  [.-^CHAPTER   VIII,    11,    12. 


pleasing  analogy,  between  Christ's  resur- 
rection from  the  grave,  and  the  resurrec- 
tion of  our  souls  into  newness  of  life — 
that  ascribe  both  of  these  events  to  the 
operation  of  ihe  same  power;  and  regard 
it  as  aliite  the  functions  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
to  have  restored  the  natural  life  to  the 
body  of  the  Saviour,  when  it  lay  insensi- 
ble in  the  tomb — and  the  spiritual  to 
those  who  are  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins, 
but  are  awaliened  from  this  death  at  the 
moment  of  believing  in  Him.  And  thus  1 
■would  understand  it  of  Paul  that  he  longs 
to  make  sure  of  the  renewal  of  his  soul 
unto  holiness,  when  he  spealcs  of  his  de- 
sire to  know  Christ  and  the  power  of  His 
resurrection  ;  and  I  can  enter  into  the 
analogy  which  he  states  in  these  words, 
that,  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  in  the  glory  of  his  Fathei',  even  so 
we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life 
— and  that  thus  it  is  that  we  are  plant- 
ed together  with  Christ,  in  the  likeness  of 
His  resurrection.  We  read  in  various 
places  of  our  being  made  conformable  to 
His  death  by  dying  unto  sin  ;  and  so  are 
we  made  conformable  to  His  resurrection 
by  living  unto  righteousness.  The  thing 
is  still  more  expressly  affirmed  in  the 
epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  where  mention  is 
made  of  "  the  exceeding  greatness  of  God's 
power  to  US-ward  who  believe,  according 
to  the  working  of  his  mighty  power, 
which  he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he 
raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  set  him  at 
his  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  pla- 
ces, far  above  all  principalities  and  pow- 
ers and  might  and  dominion  and  every 
name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world 
but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come;  and 
hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  and 
given  him  to  be  head  over  all  things  to 
the  church,  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness 
of  Him  who  (illeth  all  in  all."  And  then 
he  adds,  "  you  hath  he  quickened  who 
were  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins " — 
"Even  when  we  are  dead  in  sins,  hath 
God  quickened  us  together  with  Christ." 

Now  this  analogy  between  the  raising 
of  the  body  and  the  regeneration  of  the 
soul,  both  of  which  are  ascribed  to  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  forcibly  re- 
minds us  of  the  history  of  the  material  cre- 
ation in  the  book  of  Genesis — where  it  is 
distinctly  affirmed,  that,  at  the  very  first 
footsteps  of  that  glorious  transformation, 
by  which  a  dark  and  disordered  chaos 
was  evolved  into  light  and  loveliness  and 
harmony,  that  then  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters.  And 
so  when  the  Spirit  begins  with  the  soul 
of  man,  it  is  a  perfect  chaos  of  moral 
darkness  and  disorder  on  which  it  has  to 
operate — whence  it  gradually  advances 
from  one  degree  of  grace  and  godliness 
unto  another,  till,  as  God  rejoiced  on  the 


seventh  day  over  that  which  a  little  before 
was  without  form  and  void,  so  God  rejoi- 
ces over  us,  when,  in  looking  to  the  pro- 
duct of  this  new  or  second  creation,  Ho 
sees  that  it  is  all  very  good.  You  know 
enough,  I  trust,  of  our  depravity  by  nature 
— to  admit  of  our  moral  world  that  it  is 
indeed  a  chaos — that,  though  there  be 
occasional  gleams  of  the  bright  and  the 
beautiful,  yet  that  the  great  master  sin  of 
ungodliness  stalks  triumphant  over  the 
face  of  society — that,  though,  as  in  every 
companionship  even  of  iniquity,  there 
must  be  recognised  principles  of  truth  and 
honour  and  fellowship  which  bind  togeth- 
er the  members  of  the  human  cpminon- 
wealth,  and  make  it  a  possible  thing  for 
society  to  subsist,  yet  that,  as  if  altogether 
broken  loose  from  the  great  original  of 
Being,  each  individually  hath  betaken 
himself  to  the  counsel  of  his  own  heart 
and  the  sight  of  his  own  eyes.  The  en- 
lightened assertors  of  a  native  and  origi- 
nal corruption  in  our  species,  never  dis- 
pute that  there  is  mucli  of  the  fair  and 
amiable  and  upright  in  human  intercourse; 
and  that  this  gives  rise  to  many  fine  and 
graceful  evolutions  in  the  walks  of  social 
life.  But  what  they  affirm,  and  they  deem 
that  they  have  the  e.xperimental  light  both 
of  observation  and  conscience  upon  their 
side,  is,  that  while  busily  engaged,  whe- 
ther in  the  virtues  or  in  the  vices  of  our 
intercourse  with  each  other,  we  one  and 
all  of  us  by  nature  have  renounced  our 
proper  intercourse  with  God — that,  inti- 
mately joined  as  we  are  to  our  fellows  of 
the  species  by  the  ties  of  patriotism  and 
neighbourhood  and  family  aJFcction,  we 
live  in  a  state  of  moral  and  spiritual  dis- 
junction from  God — that  just  as  if  the 
gravitation  that  bound  our  planet  to  the 
great  central  luminary  of  our  system 
were  suspended,  and  it  vvere  to  take  its 
own  random  way  in  space,  so  have  we 
broke  adrift  as  it  were  from  that  main 
attraction  to  which  all  the  duties  and  mo- 
ralities of  life  are  subordinate.  And  just 
as  the  stray  world  might  still  have  active 
physical  principles  of  his  own — its  cohe- 
sion, and  its  magnetism,  and  its  laws  of 
fluidity,  and  its  busy  atmospherical  pro- 
cesses, even  after  the  sun  had  ceased  to 
have  the  imperial  sway  over  it — So,  in 
our  stray  species,  are  there  a  thousand 
mutual  and  internal  principles  of  constant 
operation — the  resentment,  and  the  love, 
and  the  domestic  affinities,  and  the  dread 
of  authority,  and  the  delight  in  approba- 
tion, and  the  sense  of  shame,  and  the 
mighty  power  which  lies  in  the  awards 
of  the  general  voice — principles  these, 
which,  in  their  turn,  either  agitate  or 
arouse  or  restrain  or  even  embellish  the 
face  of  society — Yet  still  may  it  be  a 
society  altogether  without  the  regard  or 


LECTURE    LII. CHAPTER.   VIII,    11,    12. 


263 


the  reverence  of  God.  In  reference  to 
Him,  the  family  of  mankind  may  be  an  ex- 
iled  family  ;  and  wliiie  the  men  of  its  suc- 
cessive generations  pass  through  the  little 
hour  of  life,  some  deformed  by  earthly 
vices,  and  others  decked  in  the  ornaments 
of  an  earth-born  morality,  yet,  equally 
aloof  as  all  may  still  be  from  the  virtue 
of  that  great  relationship  which  is  be- 
tween the  thing  that  is  formed  and  Him 
who  hath  formed  it,  it  may  still  hold  true 
of  our  species,  that  we  by  nature  are  in 
a  state  of  disruption  from  God — asunder 
from  Him  as  to  all  right  and  habitual 
fellowship  in  time  ;  and,  if  we  decline  the 
reunion  which  He  himself  proposes,  likely 
to  remain  thus  asunder  from  the  great 
fountain  of  light  and  love  and  happiness 
through  all  eternity. 

Now  that  this  is  the  very  chaos  in 
which  humanity  is  involved,  we  hold  to 
be  pretty  obvious  from  the  broad  and 
general  aspect  of  society.  But  far  the 
most  useful  conviction  that  can  be  wrought 
upon  this  subject,  is  that  which  is  carried 
home  to  the  bosom  of  individuals,  by  a 
manifestation  of  their  own  heart  to  the 
conscience  of  each  of  them.  It  is  not 
possible  to  lay  open  the  characters  of  all 
to  the  inspection  of  any ;  but  it  may  be 
possible  to  lay  open  the  character  of  any 
man  to  the  inspection  of  himself — and 
thus  it  is,  that  far  the  most  profitable  of 
all  moral  demonstrations,  whether  from 
the  pulpit  or  from  the  press,  are  those 
which  reveal  to  each  individually  the  in- 
timacies of  his  own  spirit;  and  by  which 
he  is  enabled,  as  in  a  mirror,  to  recognise 
such  a  likeness  to  the  porli-ait  of  his  own 
inner  man  as  his  conscience  can  respond 
unto.  And  therefore  would  we  bid  each 
unconverted  man  who  is  now  present,  to 
enter  upon  this  recognizance  of  himself, 
and  to  see  whether  the  very  habit  of  his 
soul  is  not  a  habit  of  practical  alheism — 
whether  it  be  not  true  that  God  is  scarcely 
if  at  all  in  his  thoughts — whether  he  be 
not  an  utter  stranger  to  the  gait  and  the 
attitude  of  His  servant — and  whether  the 
question  is  ever  taken  up,  or  ever  brought 
to  a  conclusion,  that  is  afterwards  in  very 
deed  and  history  proceeded  on,  '  What  is 
the  will  of  God  in  the  matter  before  me  V 
We  do  not  charge  you  with  any  trans- 
gressions against  the  social  or  domestic 
principles  of  our  nature — any  more  than 
we  deny  of  a  rambling  planet  which  now 
flounders  its  capricious  and  unregulated 
way  in  space,  that  there  the  chemical 
affinities,  or  there  the  active  play  of  all 
those  influences  which  belong  to  its  own 
peculiar  and  physical  system  are  un- 
known. But  we  do  charge  you  with  the 
disownal  of  the  authority  of  God.  We 
affirm  that  against  Him  you  have  deeply 
revolted.    We  cannot  deny  that  many  of 


you  have  much  of  secular  worth  and  ex- 
cellence. But  we  deny  that  you  have  the 
least  tint  of  sacredness.  You  are  not  de- 
moralized out  of  all  virtue,  but  you  are 
desecrated  out  of  all  godliness ;  and  we 
appeal  to  the  distinctly  felt  current  of 
your  plans  and  purposes  and  desires,  or 
we  appeal  to  the  familiar  history  of  your 
every  day,  whether  the  will  of  God  be  the 
reigning  principle  of  your  mind,  whether 
God  can  be  said  to  have  the  rule  over  you. 
Now  Christianity  is  a  restorative  sys- 
tem. Its  object  is  to  reinstate  the  author- 
ity of  God  over  the  wills  and  consciences 
of  men  ;  and  by  this  great  and  ascendant 
power  of  moral  gravitation,  again  brought 
back  to  its  influence  over  our  heart,  to 
reclaim  our  wandering  species  into  that 
duteous  conformity  to  Himself  from  which 
they  have  departed  so  widely.  What  He 
wants  is  to  restore  us  to  our  wonted  place 
among  the  goodly  orbs  of  His  own  favour- 
ed and  unfallen  creation  ;  and  this  He 
does  simply  by  turning  away  ungodliness 
from  our  hearts.  It  is  to  set  up  that  an- 
cient and  primeval  law,  by  which  the 
creature  is  bound  to  recognise  the  Creator 
in  all  his  ways — so  that  instead  of  fluctu- 
ating as  heretofore  through  the  mazes  of 
error  and  wilfulness  and  sin,  he  might  walk 
with  assured  footsteps  on  that  right  aud  lof- 
ty path,  which  is  defined  by  Heaven's  ju- 
risprudence, and  to  which  he  is  willingly 
constrained  by  Heaven's  grace.  And  it  is 
thought,  that,  though  godliness  be  a  single 
principle  out  of  the  many  which  operate  on 
the  heart,  yet  that  upon  its  re-esfablish- 
ment  alone,  there  would  instantly  emanate 
a  peace  and  a  virtue  that  should  be  felt 
in  all  the  departments  of  our  nature.  The 
benevolence  would  be  stimulated,  and  the 
justice  become  greatly  more  strict  and 
sensitive,  and  the  temperance  and  purity 
be  more  guarded  than  ever,  and  the  ma- 
lignant propensities  be  kept  in  check  and 
at  last  exterminated — and  so  all  the  sec- 
ondary and  earthly  moralities,  which  may 
and  do  exist  without  godliness,  attain  by 
godliness,  a  far  more  effective  and  salu- 
tary ascendant  over  the  character  and 
interests  of  our  species.  Even  as  the 
planet,  that,  without  the  scope  of  the  law 
of  gravitation  to  the  sun,  has  deviated 
from  its  path,  yet  retained  the  principles 
which  be  at  work  throughout  its  mass  and 
upon  its  surface — restore  to  it  this  single 
law  which  for  a  season  has  been  suspend- 
ed and  you  do  a  great  deal  more  than 
simply  reclaim  it  to  the  old  elliptic  path 
which  it  was  wont  to  revolve  in.  You 
impress  and  you  vivify  all  the  operations 
of  the  terrestrial  mechanism — you  call 
those  tides  into  force  and  action,  which 
arouse  the  sluggish  ocean  out  of  its  un- 
wholesome stagnancy — and  you  set  afloat 
through  the  air  those  refreshing  currents 


264 


LECTURE   XLU. CHAPTER   VUI,    11,    12. 


by  which  its  purity  is  upholder! — and  you 
pour  abroad  that  beauteous  element  of 
light,  which,  with  its  accompanying 
warmtli  both  stimulates  all  the  processes, 
and  discloses  all  the  graces  and  the  laws 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom — And,  in  a  word, 
you,  by  this  single  restoration,  turn  the 
else  desolate  and  unpeopled  globe  into  a 
vast  habitation  of  life  and  of  enjoyment, 
Avhere  the  notes  of  cheerfulness  may  be 
heard  on  every  side ;  and  there  may  be 
seen  the  work  of  busy  design,  the  abodes 
of  industry  and  comfort,  the  temples  of 
piety. 

Now  it  is  the  Spirit  who  evolved  matter 
out  of  the  chaotic  state  ;  and  it  is  the 
Spirit  who  renews  a  living  body  out  of 
the  putrifaction  into  which  it  had  mould- 
ered ;  and  it  is  the  very  same  agent,  even 
the  Spirit  of  God,  who  renovates  the  heart 
of  man,  and  forms  him  anew  into  right- 
eousness and  true  holiness.  It  is  a  doctrine 
that  is  mightily  nauseated  in  this  our  day 
— forming,  as  it  does,  one  of  the  most 
offensive  peculiarities  of  the  Gospel ;  and 
perhaps  more  fitted  than  any  other  to  re- 
volt into  antipathy,  both  the  natural  and 
literary  taste  of  those  who  hear  of  it.  It 
is  therefore  the  more  desirable,  when  any 
thing  can  be  alleged,  which  might  propi- 
tiate you  in  its  favour.  And  surely — if 
you  can  be  at  all  affected  by  the  contrast 
between  the  loathsomeness  of  the  grave, 
and  the  gracefulness  of  a  living  form  in- 
vested with  the  bloom  and  vigour  of  im- 
mortality ;  or  between  the  turbulence  of 
warring  elements,  and  that  magniticent 
harmony  of  animate  and  inanimate  things 
which  has  been  made  to  emerge  therefrom 
into  our  goodly  world — this  should  enlist 
you  altogether  on  the  side  of  so  beneficent 
an  agency;  and,  instead  of  that  felt  and 
invisible  repugnance  wherewith  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  our  refiner  and 
as  our  sanctifier  is  listened  to  by  men,  you 
should  hail  these  informations  of  the  Bible, 
by  which  you  are  given  to  understand  that 
the  same  plastic  energy,  which  moved  on 
the  face  of  the  waters  at  the  beginning, 
and  has  since  moulded  the  very  dust  into 
organism  and  living  beauty — that  this  too  is 
the  principle  of  that  new  creation,  which, 
out  of  ruined  and  distempered  humanity, 
raises,  upon  every  true  disciple  of  Jesus, 
the  worth  and  the  excellence  that  fit  him 
for  immortality. 

But  better  than  all  speculation  on  this 
topic,  would  it  be  that  you  prized  the  op- 
eration of  the  Spirit  on  your  heart,  and 
that  you  earnestly  and  habitually  prayed 
for  it.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
too  much  neglected  in  practice.  It  is  not 
adverted  to,  that  all  acceptable  virtue  in 
man  is  the  product  of  a  creating  energy, 
that  is  actually  put  forth  upon  him  ;  and 
that  it  is  his  business  to  wrestle  in  suppli- 


cation with  Heaven,  that  it  may  indeed  be 
put  forth  upon  himself.  And  this  is  the 
order  in  which  the  graces  and  embellish- 
ments of  the  new  creature  spring  up  in 
the  believer.  Ere  God  will  pour  them  on 
his  person,  he  must  enquire  after  them. 
The  Spirit  of  grace  and  supplication  is 
generally  given,  ere  the  things  which  it  is 
your  part  to  supplicate  for  are  given.  And 
therefore  be  not  surprised  at  your  misera- 
ble progress  in  sanctification,  if  a  stranger 
to  the  habit  of  prayer.  Wonder  not  and 
complain  not,  that  strength  to  help  your 
infirmities  is  still  withheld,  if  you  have 
not  mi.xed  the  prayer  of  faith  with  your 
severe  yet  ineffectual  struggles  against  the 
power  of  corruption.  Think  not  that  you 
are  to  overcome,  if,  with  all  the  humble- 
ness of  a  needy  and  dependent  creature, 
you  do  not  look  up  to  a  power  that  is 
greater  than  your  own  ;  and  give  not  the 
glory  of  all  holiness  in  the  creature,  to 
that  high  and  heavenly  influence  which 
Cometh  down  from  the  Creator.  You  have 
never  yet  known  what  the  receipt  is  for 
making  you  virtuous,  if,  to  this  hour,  you 
have  been  ignorant  or  inexperienced  as 
to  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  Though  you 
should  have  tried  every  thing  else  beside  ; 
you  are  still  morally  in  a  state  of  helpless 
and  hopeless  disease.  And  therefore,  with 
all  the  eagerness  of  a  patient  who  has 
been  enquiring  and  experimenting  for 
years  about  the  right  method  of  being 
healed,  take  yourself  now  to  this  pre- 
scription ;  and  see  whether  a  blessing 
will  not  come  out  of  it.  And,  like  those 
medicines  which  are  of  daily  application, 
should  you  pray  without  ceasing.  It 
should  be  a  regimen  of  prayer.  Earnest 
prayer  and  vigorous  performance  should 
be  always  alternating  the  one  with  the 
other.  A  good  word  with  God  in  secret, 
qualifies  for  a  good  work  with  man  in 
society.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  your 
deeds  of  righteousness  with  the  hand,  will 
send  back  an  influence  upon  the  heart, 
that  shall  brighten  and  inflame  its  sacred- 
ness.  You  will  strive  mightily  according 
to  the  grace  of  God  that  worketh  in  you 
mightily.  The  Spirit  of  Ilim  that  raised 
up  Jesus  from  the  dead  will  dwell  in  you, 
if  you  make  Him  welcome ;  and  prayer 
may  be  regarded  as  your  invitation  to 
Him,  as  the  expression  of  your  welcome. 
And  the  Spirit  so  dwelling  will  be  indeed 
the  earnest  of  your  inheritance — He  v/ho 
quickens  you  from  the  death  of  trespasses 
and  sins  shall  quicken  your  mortal  bodies 
from  that  death  of  nature  which  comes 
upon  all  men. 

V.  12.  "  Therefore,  brethren,  we  are 
debtors,  not  to  the  flesh,  to  live  after  the 
flesh." 

The  debtor  is  bound  in  certain  duties 
or  obligations  to  his  creditor :  and  the 


LECTURE   LII. CHAPTER.   VIII,    11,    12. 


265 


Apostle  here  tells  us,  that  we  are  not  so 
bound  to  the  flesh.  It  has  its  demands 
upon  us,  and  it  would  fain  exact  our  com- 
pliance  with  them ;  but  this  is  a  compli- 
ance which  it  is  not  incumbent  upon  us 
to  render.  We  shall  not,  as  I  have  often 
affirmed  in  your  hearing,  be  released  on 
this  side  of  death  from  the  hateful  expos- 
ure of  having  to  feel  its  instigations  ;  but 
that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  follow 
these  instigations.  We  are  subject  here  to 
the  annoyance  of  being  oft  solicited  by  this 
tempter  ;  but  we  are  not  therefore  bound 
to  yield  ourselves  up  unto  him.  Living  as 
we  do  in  the  flesh,  we  are  at  all  times  in 
contact  with  its  near  and  besetting  urgen- 
cies ;  but  there  is  no  such  acquiescence 
due  on  our  part,  as  that  we  shall  live  after 
the  flesh.  This  last  is  the  debt  wherefrom 
the  text  releases  us — nay,  in  the  next 
verse,  the  most  forcible  motive  is  present- 
ed to  us,  why,  instead  of  acquiescing,  we 
should  resist  to  the  uttermost.  For  if  we 
live  after  the  flesh  we  shall  die. 

The  motive  in  fact  is  as  strong,  as  that 
which  Adam,  who  lived  under  the  first  co- 
venant, had  to  abstain  from  eating  the  for- 
bidden fruit.  In  the  day  thou  eatest 
thereof,  thou  shalt  die.  So  that  there  can- 
not be  a  more  gross  misunderstanding  of 
the  gospel  economy,  than  that  it  is  desti- 
tute of  as  plain  and  direct  and  intelligible 
sanctions  against  moral  evil,  as  those 
which  were  devised  for  upholding  the  le- 
gal economy.  Under  both  are  we  deter- 
red from  sin  by  the  threatening  of  death  ; 
and  the  only  difference  between  them  is, 
that — whereas  under  the  law  one  sin, 
however  lenient  in  its  character,  or  how- 
ever strong  and  sudden  the  temptations 
were  which  hurried  the  unhappy  victim 
onward  to  the  commission  of  it,  inferred 
the  whole  penalty — under  the  gospel, 
death  is  represented  to  be  the  effect  as 
well  as  the  penalty  of  such  a  character  as 
has  been  formed  in  us  by  the  habit  of  sin- 
ning, by  the  preference  on  our  part  of  a 
carnal  to  a  spiritual  life,  by  a  surrender 
of  ourselves  to  the  power  of  any  evil  af- 
fection— So  that,  instead  of  struggling 
against  it  and  barring  its  ascendancy  over 
us,  we  permit  the  ascendancy,  and  become 
the  slaves  of  one  against  whom  we  should 
have  fought  with  all  the  determination  and 
hatred  of  honest  enemies.  This  we  must 
either  do,  or  consent  to  live  after  the  flesh  ; 
and  against  the  latter  alternative  there  is 
lifted  under  the  dispensation  of  grace,  as 
clear  and  decisive  a  warning  of  terror,  as 
ever  was  lifted  under  the  dispensation  of 
works.  We  read  in  the  book  of  Genesis 
how  God  said  to  Adam,  that  in  the  day 
that  thou  eatest  of  the  tree  of  the  know- 
ledge of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  surely 
die.  And  in  this  epistle  to  the  Romans,  in 
this  most  complete  record  of  evangelical 
34 


truth,  and  amongst  all  its  rich  promises 
of  grace  and  pardon  and  remission  from 
every  legal  consequence  to  believers,  do 
we  also  read,  that  if  we  live  after  the  flesh 
we  shall  as  surely  die. 

But  while  there  is  this  resemblance  be- 
tween the  two  dispensations,  there  is  also 
a  difference  between  them ;  and  the  dif- 
ference might  be  illustrated  by  help  of 
another  text  taken  from  the  writings  of 
Paul,  and  one  of  those  very  few  in  which 
there  occurs  the  same  term,  debtor.  He 
says  of  a  judaizing  Christian  who  insisted 
on  the  rite  of  circumcision  as  being  essen- 
tial to  our  acceptance  with  God,  that,  if 
circumcised  upon  this  ground,  he  was  a 
debtor  to  do  the  whole  law ;  and  that,  in 
the  act  of  becoming  so,  he  would  fall  from 
grace,  and  cease  in  fact  to  have  the  privi- 
leges or  the  immunities  of  a  believer. 
Now  what  is  this  to  say,  but  that  a  Chris- 
tian is  not  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law, 
and  yet  he  is  a  debtor  to  live  not  after  the 
flesh  1  He  is  not  bound  to  the  faultless 
obedience  of  a  perfect  commandment ; 
and  yet  he  is  bound  to  a  hearty  and  sus- 
tained warfare  against  all  sin,  which  is  a 
violation  of  the  commandment.  He  is  no 
longer  under  the  economy  of  do  this  and 
live ;  and  yet  he  is  under  an  economy, 
where  if  he  give  himself  up  to  the  doing 
of  what  is  opposite  to  this,  he  shall  most 
inevitably  die.  ^ 

The  truth  is,  that  both  the  one  economy 
and  the  other  are  on  the  side  of  moral 
righteousness  ;  and  both  proceed  alike  on 
this  undoubted  position,  that  there  can  be 
no  fellowship  between  God  and  iniquity, 
and  that  the  heaven  where  He  and  His 
holy  angels  dwell,  is  a  place  where  not  a 
creature  can  find  admittance,  that  has 
upon  him  the  slightest  taint  or  remainder 
of  evil.  And  thus  the  law  condemned  the 
sinner  to  exile  from  heaven  ;  but,  after 
having  done  so,  it  could  not  restore  him 
thereunto.  It  had  no  provision  within  its 
limits,  by  which  it  could  either  annul  its 
own  threatenings ;  or  purge  away  from 
our  now  contaminated  race  that  foul  spirit- 
ual leprosy,  the  very  existence  of  which, 
apart  from  the  consideration  of  legal 
penalties  altogether,  barred  the  entrance 
of  mankind  from  the  habitations  of  un- 
spotted sacredness.  Under  its  continued 
administration,  we  had  no  release  from 
our  past  guilt,  and  no  remedy  from  either 
our  present  or  our  future  sinfulness  ;  and, 
in  these  vile  bodies,  how  was  it  possible 
to  escape  the  necessity  of  perpetual  addi- 
tions to  the  account  which  was  against  us 
— since,  in  the  high  reckoning  of  a  holy 
and  heart-searching  law,  the  ver)'  exist- 
ence of  an  evil  thought,  the  very  inroad 
of  a  wrong  or  licentious  imagination, 
would  be  deemed  and  dealt  with  as  the 
transgression  of  an  offender  1    And  there- 


266 


LECTURE   LII. CHAPTER   VIII,    11,    12. 


fore  it  was  that  this  economy  had  to  be 
suspended,  and  another  set  up  with  dis- 
tinct principles  and  provisions  of  its  own, 
that  might  render  it  competent  for  the 
sinner's  restoration  to  that  heaven  which 
he  had  forfeited,  and  for  admittance  into 
which  he  both  laboured  under  a  legal  and 
a  personal  incapacity.  There  needed  to 
be  a  skilful  adaptation  for  purposes  so 
very  mysterious,  that  angels  are  repre- 
sented as  looking  on  with  the  eye  of  eager 
and  unappeased  curiosity.  And  herein 
lay  tiie  profound,  the  unsearchable  wis- 
dom of  the  gospel,  by  which  the  guilt  of 
the  believer's  sin  was  cancelled,  and  by 
which  the  existence  of  it  upon  his  charac- 
ter is  at  length  done  away.  He  had  to  be 
saved  by  water  and  by  blood.  There  is 
an  atonement  to  do  away  the  curse  of  sin, 
and  there  is  a  purification  to  do  away  its 
defilement.  And  thus,  to  complete  our 
salvation,  was  it  not  enough  that  Christ 
bowed  His  head  unto  the  sacrifice.  When 
He  rose  again,  He  claimed,  as  the  fruit  of 
His  obedience  unto  the  death,  the  promise 
of  His  Father — the  Holy  Ghost  given  by 
Him  to  those  who  believe — the  power  over 
heaven  and  earth,  by  which  He  might 
subdue  all  things  unlo  Himself  j^and,  more 
especially,  by  which  He  might  aid  the 
moral  warfare  that  is  going  on  among  His 
disciples  here  below,  and  at  length  so 
change  their  vile  bodies  as  that  they  might 
be  fashioned  like  unto  His  glorious  body 
— So  that,  delivered  alike  from  the  pre- 
sence and  penalty  of  sin,  every  barrier 
may  be  removed,  and  every  hindrance 
may  be  done  away  to  unexceptionable 
admittance  within  the  limits  of  the  sanc- 
tuary that  is  above. 

Behold  then  the  very  nice  adaptation  to 
our  state  as  sinners,  of  that  gospel  eco- 
nomy whereby  the  legal  economy  has 
been  suspended  and  superseded — because 
to  our  condition,  as  the  wretched  outcasts 
of  a  violated  law,  it  brought  no  relief,  and 
could  bring  no  restoration.  Under  the 
former  dispensation,  every  sin,  however 
trivial  and  though  urged  to  it  by  the  beset- 
ting propensities  of  a  constitution  marred 
and  vitiated  since  the  fall,  plunged  us 
more  hopelessly  than  ever  in  guilt  and  in 


moral  helplessness.  Under  the  present 
dispensation,  we  are  not  without  sin ;  but 
the  sin  of  infirmity  is  not  like  the  sin  of 
wilfulness,  unto  death — and  there  has  been 
a  sacrifice  provided,  in  the  faith  of  which 
if  we  make  daily  confession  we  shall  have 
daily  forgiveness.  So  long  as  we  are  in 
these  accursed  bodies,  it  is  impossible 
ever  to  venfure  off  from  any  other  founda- 
tion for  our  acceptance  before  God,  than 
the  perfect  righteousness  of  Christ ;  and 
the  very  sin  of  our  nature  has  the  effect 
to  remind  us  of  our  dependence,  and  to 
keep  us  closely  and  tenaciously  thereupon. 
But,  meanwhile,  though  vexed  and  annoy- 
ed by  the  instigations  of  the  flesh,  we  are 
armed  with  a  resolution  and  a  strength 
and  an  affection  for  what  is  spiritual,  that 
shall  abundantly  secure  our  not  living 
after  the  flesh  ;  and  on  the  generous  mind 
of  the  new-born  Christian,  the  daily  infir- 
mities which  he  has  to  lay  at  the  throne 
of  grace,  so  far  from  working  an  indiffer- 
ence to  moral  righteousness,  only  shame 
and  stimulate  him  the  more  to  the  vigor- 
ous prosecution  of  it.  And  the  know- 
ledge, that,  though  the  infirmities  of  his 
flesh  will  be  pardoned,  yet  that  if  he  live 
after  the  flesh  he  will  die,  this  is  to  him  as 
direct  and  urgent  excitement,  as  ever  bore 
with  practical  effect  on  the  legal  aspirants 
after  a  reward  and  an  acceptance  of  their 
own.  And  thus  are  the  comfort  after  sin 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  impulse  to  re- 
newed holiness  on  the  other,  most  admir- 
ably blended  in  such  a  way,  as  best  to  suit 
those  who  are  weighed  down  with  a  cor- 
rupt materialism,  yet  are  furnished  with 
power  in  the  inner  man  to  war  against 
and  at  length  to  overcome  it ;  and  the  dis- 
ciple who  is  thus  employed  can,  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  draw  comfort  from  the 
saying  that  if  any  man  sin  we  have  an 
advocate  with  the  Father — and  derive  the 
energy  of  a  practical  impulse  from  the 
saying,  that  "if  any  man  sin  wilfully, 
after  that  he  hath  received  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more  sa- 
crifice for  sin,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking 
for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation  that 
shall  devour  the  adversaries." 


LECTURE    LIII. CHAPTER   VIII,    13 — 15. 


267 


LECTURE  LIU. 


Romans  viii,  13 — 15. 

"For  if  ye  live  after  the  flesh,  ye  shall  die  :  but  if  ye  through  the  Spirit  do  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall 
live.  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God.  For  ye  have  not  received  the  spirit 
of  bondage  again  to  fear ;  but  ye  have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father." 


V.  13.  "For  if  ye  live  after  the  flesh, 
ye  shall  die  :  but  if  ye  through  the  Spirit 
do  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall 
live." 

And  in  like  manner  as  the  threatenings 
under  the  law  and  the  gospel  may  be  com- 
pared with  each  other,  so  may  the  pro- 
mises or  the  rewards.  By  the  former  dis- 
pensation, he  who  fell  into  an  act  of  dis- 
obedience was  adjudged  to  die ;  and  by 
the  latter,  he  who  by  living  after  the  flesh 
lived  in  a  habit  of  disobedience  was  in 
like  manner  to  die.  It  is  well  that  we  are 
liberated  from  the  rigid  and  unbending 
economy  of  the  law  ;  for  thus  we  are  set 
free  from  the  fears,  and  the  scrupulosities, 
and  in  fact  the  utter  and  irretrievable  des- 
pair, which  would  have  paralysed  the 
whole  work  of  obedience.  But  it  is  also 
well,  that,  while  the  economy  of  the  gospel 
has  achiev/3d  our  deliverance  from  these, 
it  still  lifts  as  loud  a  testimony  on  the  side 
of  righteousness,  and  is  actuated  by  as 
determined  a  hostility  against  all  sin — so 
as  to  set  all  its  honest  disciples  upon  a 
most  resolved  and  persevering  opposition 
to  it.  Had  law  been  the  arbiter  of  this 
contest,  they  never,  in  the  vile  bodias 
wherewith  they  are  encompassed,  they 
never  could  have  obtained  the  meed  or  the 
honour  of  victory — each  error  being  an 
irrecoverable  defeat — each  infirmity  being 
a  death-blow  to  their  cause.  And  there- 
fore it  is  well  that  they  now  fight  under 
the  banners  of  another  umpire,  who  can 
see,  amid  all  the  frailties  of  the  old  and 
the  natural  constitution,  that  there  is  ris- 
ing and  strengthening  apace  a  force  of 
moral  resistance  against  the  urgencies  of 
corrupt  nature,  which  is  gradually  under- 
mining its  ascendancy,  and  at  length  will 
overthrow  it.  The  man  who  has  been  en- 
dowed with  this  force  from  on  high,  is 
ever  reminded  by  the  frailties  that  are 
within  of  his  daily  need  of  Christ's  pro- 
pitiation ;  and  would  give  up  the  battle  in 
despair,  had  he  not  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  to  build  upon.  Yet  he  never  for- 
gets that  the  battle  is  his  unceasing  occu- 
pation— that  the  gospel  which  has  dis- 
charged him  from  the  penalties  of  a  law 
that  he  is  ever  falling  short  of,  has  not 
discharged  him  from  this  warfare — that 
his  business  is  so  to  strive  against  all  the 
corruption  which  is  in  him,  as  to  make 
unceasing   approximation   to  the  purity 


and  perfection  of  this  very  law ;  and  that 
though  now  exempted  from  the  threat  if 
ye  fail  in  one  jot  or  tittle  thereof  ye  shall 
die — the  threat  is  still  against  him  and 
against  all  in  full  operation,  that  if,  cast- 
ing ofl"  the  authority  of  the  law,  ye  give 
yourselves  up  to  your  own  heart's  desire 
or  live  after  the  flesh  ye  shall  die. 

Now  the  like  analogy  and  the  like  dis- 
tinction may  be  observed  in  the  promises 
or  rewards  of  the  gospel,  when  compared 
with  those  of  the  law.  'The  apostle  says 
of  the  law,  that  it  is  not  of  faith,  but  the 
man  that  doeth  this  shall  live  ;  and  he 
saith  in  our  text  of  him  who  hath  em- 
braced that  gospel  which  supersedes  the 
law,  that  if  a  man  through  the  Spirit  do 
mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body  he  shall 
live.  There  is  a  doing  to  which  death  is 
annexed  with  as  great  certainty  under  the 
one  economy  as  under  the  other.  And 
there  is  also  a  doing  to  which  life  is  an- 
nexed with  as  great  certainty  under  the 
one  economy  as  under  the  other.  The 
'  do  this  and  live'  of  the  former  dispensa- 
tion ho\v>ever,  is  a  condition  which  has 
long  been  violated;  and  which,  in  our 
present  tainted  materialism,  we  never  can 
attain  unto;  and  which  therefore,  instead 
of  indicating  to  us  a  practical  avenue  to 
heaven,  is  like  a  flaming  sword  that  guards 
and  bars  in  every  way  our  access  there- 
unto. The  '  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body 
and  live'  of  the  latter  dispensation,  is  a 
condition  again  which  might  be  rendered  ; 
which  every  believer  in  the  grace  and 
righteousness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  will  be 
enabled  to  perform ;  which  from  this  mo- 
ment we  should  set  ourselves  forward  to 
for  the  purpose  of  making  it  good — and 
so  exhibit  in  our  history  as  direct  a  prac- 
tical impulse  taken  from  the  hopes  of  the 
gospel,  as  any  servant  from  the  prospect 
of  his  wages,  or  any  labourer  under  the 
covenant  of  works  could  take  from  the 
remunerations  of  the  law.  And  in  this 
warfare  against  the  body,  an  advantage 
may  sometimes  have  been  gained  by  it, 
such  an  advantage  as  the  law  would  have 
irretrievably  condemned  us  for,  and  de- 
clared against  us  all  the  ruin  and  disgrace 
of  a  fatal  overthrow  ;  but  such  an  advan- 
tage as  under  the  gospel  though  it  has 
cast  us  down  yet  will  not  destroy  us— but, 
after  perhaps  a  severe  discipline  of  mor- 
tification and  sorrow,  will  arm  us  with 


268 


LECTURE   LIU. CHAPTER  VIII,    13 — 15. 


fresh  resolution  for  the  contest;  and  in- 
spire into  us  a  more  cordial  hatred  against 
the  body  of  sin,  and  all  its  sinful  instiga- 
tions, than  ever  ;  and  give  to  the  heart  a 
more  burning  earnestness,  that  we  may 
not  only  recover  all  the  ground  which  we 
have  lost,  but  may  rise  more  aloft  than 
ever  above  all  the  gross  and  terrestrial 
ingredients  of  our  corrupt  nature — till, 
having  passed  through  a  series  of  watch- 
fulness and  endurance  and  busy  work- 
ing, and  so  having  made  full  proof  of  our 
discipleship,  we  can  say  with  the  apostle 
•vhen  the  time  of  our  departure  is  at  hand, 
*'I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have 
finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith 
— Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord 
the  righteous  judge  shall  give  me  on  that 
day,  and  not  to  me  only  but  also  unto  all 
such  as  love  his  appearing." 

From  the  expression  'to  mortify  the 
deeds  of  the  body'  I  may  here  advert  to 
that  law  of  our  moral  constitution,  by 
which  it  is  that  if  we  refuse  to  perform  a 
sinful  deed,  we  by  that  very  refusal 
weaken  the  sinful  desire  which  prompted 
it;  and  that  thus  by  mortifying  the  deeds 
you  mortify  the  desires.  Every  act  of 
sinful  indulgence,  arms  with  a  new  force 
of  ascendancy  the  sinful  inclination. 
Every  act  of  luxury  makes  you  more  the 
slave  of  the  table  than  before.  Every 
draught  of  the  alluring  beverage,  might 
bring  you  nearer  to  the  condition  of  him 
who  is  the  victim  of  a  habitual  intoxica- 
tion. Every  improper  licence  granted  to 
the  eye  or  the  imagination,  vsinks  you  into 
more  helpless  captivity  under  their  power. 
Every  compliance  with  lawless  appetite, 
enthrones  more  firmly  than  before  another 
oppressor,  another  tyrant  over  you.  And 
therefore  if  you  want  to  dethrone  the 
appetite,  refuse  the  indulgence;  if  you 
want  to  starve  and  enfeeble  the  desires  of 
the  inner  man,  mortify  the  deeds  of  the 
outer  man.  Begin  in  a  plain  way  the 
work  of  reformation.  And  let  it  be  the 
resolute  purpose  on  which  you  shall  put 
forth  all  the  manhood  of  your  soul,  that, 
however  you  may  be  solicited  by  the 
affections  that  are  within  to  that  which  is 
evil,  you  shall  not  give  the  actions  that 
are  without  to  their  hateful  service — that 
however  sin  may  have  been  desired,  sin 
shall  not  be  done  by  you — that  with  the 
control  which  you  have  over  the  hand  and 
the  tongue  and  all  the  organs  of  the  body, 
they  shall  with  you  not  be  the  instruments 
of  sin  but  the  instruments  of  righteous- 
ness: And  thus  it  is  that  the  corrupt  pro- 
pensities of  the  heart,  wearied  out  with 
resistance,  and  languishing  under  the  con- 
stant experience  of  hopeless  and  fruitless 
solicitatiin,  would  at  length  weaken  and 
expire.     The  body  would  be  mortified ; 


and  the  soul,  delivered  from  its  presence, 
and  again  translated  into  it  after  the  last 
taint  and  remainder  of  its  evil  nature  had 
been  done  away,  would  find  itself  in  a 
perfect  condition  for  the  joys  and  the  ser- 
vices of  life  everlasting. 

But  it  is  well  to  mark,  that,  in  order  to 
make  this  mortifying  of  the  deeds  of  the 
body  effectual  unto  life,  it  must  be  done 
through  the  Spirit.    For  the  very  same 
thing   might  in   great   measure   be   done 
without  special   grace  from  on  high,  in 
which  case  it  hath  no  fruit  in  immortality. 
How  many  are  the  evil  passions,  which 
can   at   least  be  restrained  by  the  pure 
force  of  a  natural  determination.    In  the 
pursuits  of  fortune,  or  of  ambition,  or  of 
war,  what  a  violence  a  man  can  put  upon 
himself — what  a  heroic  self-denial  he  is 
capable  of  carrying  into  full  operation — 
what  a  mastery  he  can  reach  over  some 
of  the  most  urgent  inclinations  of  nature  ; 
and  all  this  certainly  without  one  particle 
of  a  sanctifying  influence,  but  rather  by 
the  strength  and  power  of  one  unrenewed 
principle   lording  it  with  a  high  ascen- 
dancy over  all  the  rest.     To  make  then 
the  mortification  of  your  earthly  desires 
available  for   heaven,  there  must  be  an 
agency  from  the  Holy  Ghost — else  there 
is   nought  of  heaven's  character  in  the 
work,  and  will  be  nought  of  heaven's  re- 
ward to  it.     And  if  the  Holy  Ghost  indeed 
be  the  agent,  then   He  will  not  select  a 
few  of  our  carnal  tendencies  for  extermi- 
nation by  His  power ;  but  He  will  enter 
into  hostility  with  all  of  them — He  will 
check  the  sensuality  of  our  nature,  and 
lie    will   mortify  its  pride,  and  He  will 
check  its  impetuous  anger,  and  He  will 
wean  it  from   its  now   clinging  avarice. 
Let  it  be  your  care  then,  from  the  very 
first  moment  of  your  strenuous  resistance 
to  these  deeds  and  affections  of  evil — let 
it  be  your  care,  that,  instead  of  trusting  to 
the  energy  of  your  own   firm  and  high- 
minded  resolves,  you  invoke  the  constant 
supplies   of  aid  from  a   higher  quarter. 
Let  yours  be  a  life  of  prayer  along  with 
a  life  of  performance  ;  and  then  will  you 
strive  mightily,  but  according  at  the  same 
time  to  the  grace  of  God  that  worketh   in 
you  mightily. 

V.  14.  "  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  Cfod  they  are  the  sons  of  God." 

There  is  frequent  cognizance  taken  in 
the  Bible,  of  the  degrees  in  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  may  operate  on  the  heart 
of  man.  There  is  one  work  from  which 
He  ceases,  because  He  will  not  always 
strive  ;  and  there  is  another  work  which 
after  He  hath  begun.  He  will  carry  on 
even  unto  perfection.  There  is  a  tasting 
of  God's  Spirit  by  those  who  afterwards 
fall  away  ;  and  there  is  an  anointing  by 
God's   Spirit   that  remaineth.     It  is  this 


LECTURE   LUX. — CHAPTER    VIII,    13 — 15. 


269 


which  hath  given  room  to  the  distinction 
made  by  theologians,  between  the  saving 
and  the  ordinary  influences  of  the  Holy 
Ghost, — the  former  signifying  those  by 
which  a  man  is  etfectually  called  unto  the 
faith,  and  afterwards  completed  in  the 
sanctification  of  the  gospel ;  and  the  lat- 
ter signifying  those  by  which  he  is  made 
to  feel  the  stirrings  of  conviction,  and  a 
desire  and  even  a  partial  delight  in  many 
of  the  accompaniments  of  sacredness, 
which,  had  he  improved,  would  have  been 
followed  up  with  larger  measures  of  grace 
and  illumination — but  which  as  he  quench- 
ed, do  at  length  vanish  into  nothing,  and 
leave  him  short  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
In  these  circumstances  it  were  well,  if  any 
definite  or  satisfactory  mark  could  be  as- 
signed, by  which  to  discriminate  between 
the  one  set  of  influences  and  the  other — 
by  which  to  ascertain  whether  we  have 
only  so  much  of  this  heavenly  influence 
as  will  suffice  for  condemning  our  resist- 
ance to  it ;  or  so  much  as  will  carry  us 
forward  to  a  meetness  for  the  inheritance 
above,  as  will  be  effectual  for  salvation. 

Now  the  verse  before  us  supplies  us  with 
■he  test  that  is  wanted.  There  are  many 
who  are  solicited  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  yet 
who  are  not  led  by  Him — many  to  whom 
the  Spirit  offers  the  guidance  of  His  light 
and  of  His  direction,  but  who  refuse  that 
guidance — many,  we  believe  all,  to  whom 
the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  through  con- 
science that  ear  of  the  inner  man  the  in- 
timations of  His  will,  yet  most  of  whom 
have  not  followed  these  intimations.  They 
have  been  in  so  far  then  the  subjects  of 
the  Spirit's  operation,  as  to  have  been  per- 
haps in  converse,  and  even  occasionally 
in  desirous  and  delighted  converse  with 
Him  ;  but  they  have  not  given  themselves 
up  to  His  authoritative  voice.  They  have 
been  so  far  enlightened  by  Him,  yet  not 
led  by  Him.  The  man  who  through  all 
the  strugglings  of  remorse,  at  last  gives 
way  to  the  power  of  a  temptation,  has  had 
light  enough  to  forewarn  him  of  sin,  and 
light  enough  after  it  hath  been  committed 
to  reprove  himself  and  that  most  bitterly 
because  of  sin — and  yet  not  power  enough 
for  the  warfare  of  a  successful  resistance, 
so  as  not  merely  to  feel  what  is  right  but 
to  follow  it.  He  therefore  in  this  instance 
hath  not  mortified  the  deeds  of  his  body ; 
and  if  such  be  his  habit  he  liveth  after  the 
flesh  and  he  shall  die.  It  is  not  they  who 
mourn  over  the  sin,  that  is  practically  and 
permanently  indulged  in  ;  but  it  is  they 
who  mortify  the  sin  that  are  led  by  the 
Spirit :  And  it  is  by  this,  as  the  consecu- 
tive tie  which  binds  the  last  verse  to  the 
present  one,  that  the  reason  is  explained 
why  they  who  mortify  the  deeds  of  the 
body  shall  live.  They  who  do  so  are  led 
by  the  Spirit ;  and  they  who  are  led  by 


the  Spirit  are  the  sons  of  God, — the  heirs 
therefore  of  what  their  Father  hath  to  be- 
stow, which  is  life  everlasting. 

The  Scriptures  often  affirm  a  harmony 
between  two  positions,  which  the  first  and 
natural  apprehensions  of  men  would  lead 
them  to  regard  as  opposed  the  one  to  the 
other.  We  are  the  children  of  God  says 
the  Apostle  by  the  faith  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.  He  is  my  brother  and  my  sister 
says  Christ  Himself,  who  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  It  is  through 
the  redemption  of  the  gospel,  wherein  we 
obtain  a  part  and  interest  by  believing, 
that,  as  Paul  says  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ga- 
latians,  we  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  It 
is  when  through  the  Spirit  we  mortify  the 
deeds  of  the  body,  that  we  are  led  by  the 
Spirit ;  and,  as  he  says  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  are  the  sons  of  God.  You 
will  not  be  disturbed  by  the  utterance  of 
these  propositions  as  if  they  were  contra- 
dictory. You  know  in  the  first  instance, 
that  it  is  by  faith,  as  by  the  hand  of  the 
mind,  that  you  accept  of  the  offered  re- 
conciliation. You  know,  in  the  second  in- 
stance, that  it  is  by  the  hearing  of  faith, 
and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law,  that  the 
Spirit  Cometh.  You  know  in  the  third  in- 
stance, that  the  Spirit  which  so  cometh  is 
a  Spirit  of  might  and  good-will  for  all 
holy  obedience — so  that  through  Him  you 
are  enabled  to  mortify  the  deeds  of  the 
body.  And  this  last  is  not  the  cause  why 
you  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  the 
proof  that  you  actually  are  led  by  Him — 
a  proof  which,  if  wanting,  might  still 
argue  you  to  be  in  possession  of  His  or- 
dinary, but  not  in  possession  of  His  sanc- 
tifying, and  therefore  most  assuredly  not 
of  His  saving  influences ; — but  a  proof 
which  having,  is  to  you  the  best  evidence 
that  you  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  and  have 
therefore  received  from  God  the  seal  of 
being  one  of  His  children. 

when  you  adopt  one  as  a  son,  it  is  be- 
cause you  design  for  him  an  inheritance  ; 
and  one  can  conceive  something  to  be 
given  as  the  token  or  the  acknowledgment 
of  his  acquired  right  thereunto.  In  the 
act  of  hiring  a  servant,  there  is  often  a 
pledge  given  by  the  master ;  and  this  as- 
sures to  the  hireling  his  title  to  enter  at 
the  specified  time  upon  his  employment. 
Now  by  one  being  adopted  as  a  son  of 
God,  there  is  the  destination  for  him  of  a 
very  splendid  inheritance — even  one  of 
eternal  glory  in  the  heavens.  But  this  is 
only  entered  upon  at  the  term  of  death ; 
and  meanwhile,  previous  to  that,  there  is  a 
pledge  or  a  token  bestowed  upon  him,  and 
this  is  the  Spirit  of  God  which  is  styled 
by  way  of  eminence  the  promise  of  the 
Father,  and  which,  agreeably  to  the  ex- 
planation which  we  have  now  given,  is 
also  termed  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance. 


270 


LECTURE   Lm. CHAPTER    VIII,    13 — 15. 


This  is  that  grace  in  time,  which  is  both 
the  pledge  and  the  preparation  of  glory 
in  eternity ;  and  the  best  evidence  of  which 
is,  that,  enabled  to  mortify  all  those  evil 
desires  which  would  thwart  the  purposes 
of  a  holy  obedience,  you  are  thereby  ena- 
bled to  keep  the  commandments. 

But  there  is  a  certain  style  of  keeping 
the  commandments,  which  we  fear  is  not 
indicative  of  this  grace.  It  may  be  done 
in  a  scrupulous,  fearful,  and  painstaking 
way,  by  one  who  is  under  the  workings 
of  a  natural  conscience,  and  perhaps  a 
terror  of  everlasting  damnation.  In  this 
too  it  is  possible,  that  there  may  be  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  success — the  avoidance 
of  much  gross  and  presumptuous  sin,  that 
might  else  have  been  indulged  in — the 
penance  of  many  sore  and  strenuous  mor- 
tifications, so  as  that  the  body  shall  be 
starved,  and  in  a  good  degree  subjected, 
by  the  mere  force  as  it  were  of  a  dogged 
and  stiff  determination  ;  and  so  a  kind  of 
resolute  suUenness  in  the  whole  aspect  of 
the  man's  obedience,  which  certainly  is 
of  a  different  cast,  and  has  upon  it  a 
wholly  different  complexion,  from  the  gen- 
tleness and  the  grace  and  the  good-will 
which  characterise  the  services  of  an 
affectionate  Christian.  The  truth  is,  that 
there  might  be  a  self-denial  and  a  self- 
infliction  which  come  through  constraint 
— a  drudgery  which  is  rendered  at  the 
stern  bidding  of  authority — a  reluctant 
compliance  to  appease  the  dread  or  the 
troublesome  remonstrances  of  the  inner 
man — Which  fall  altogether  short, — nay 
ai'e  altogether  opposite  to  the  temper  of 
those,  who  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body 
but  do  it  through  the  Spirit.  What  is 
done  is  done  in  their  own  spirit,  which  is 
the  spirit  of  bondage;  and  not  in  that 
Spirit  which  cometh  from  above,  and 
whereby  we  are  made  both  to  love  the 
service  and  Him  who  enjoins  it — to  look 
upon  God  not  as  a  taskmaster  but  as  a 
friend,  and  so  to  execute  His  bidding  with 
the  alacrity  of  those  whose  meat  and  whose 
drink  it  is  to  do  His  will — to  keep  the  com- 
mandments, not  in  the  spirit  of  bondage 
which  is  unto  fear,  but  in  the  Spirit  of 
adoption,  whereby  we  cry  Abba,  Father. 

V.  15.  "  For  ye  have  not  received  the 
spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear,  but  ye 
have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption 
whereby  ye  cry,  Abba,  Father." 

Had  it  been  under  a  slavish  terror  that 
the  work  of  mortification  was  gone  into, 
this  would  have  been  no  evidence  of  our 
filial  relationship  to  God.  It  would  have 
been  the  obedience  of  those  that  were 
lorded  over,  and  not  of  those  who  were 
led  as  by  the  cords  of  love,  as  by  the 
bands  of  a  man.  Henceforth  ye  are  not 
servants  or  slaves,  says  Christ  to  his  dis- 
ciples, but  ye  are  sons  ;  and,  conformably 


to  this,  the  spirit  of  sons  is  given  unto 
them.  And  he  appeals  to  the  kind  of  spi- 
rit as  being  an  argument  for  their  being 
the  sons  of  God — a  spirit  altogether  di- 
verse from  that  by  which  many  are  vi- 
sited, under  their  first  convictions  of  sin 
and  of  the  soul  and  of  eternity ;  who  are 
pierced,  as  by  an  arrow  sticking  fast,  with 
an  agonising  sense  of  their  own  guilt  and 
of  God's  uncoinpronlising  authority;  who 
are  burdened  under  a  feeling  that  the  dis- 
pleasure of  Heaven  is  upon  them;  and 
whose  conscience,  all  awake  to  the  hor- 
rors of  wrath  and  condemnation,  never 
ceases  to  haunt  them  with  the  thought, 
that,  unless  they  can  make  good  their  es- 
cape from  their  present  condition,  they 
are  undone.  Now,  to  make  this  good, 
they  will  set  up  a  thousand  reformations; 
they  will  abandon  all  their  wonted  fellow- 
ships of  iniquity  ;  they  will  strenuously, 
and  in  the  face  of  every  temptation,  ad- 
here to  all  th(;  honesties  and  sobrieties  of 
human  conduct ;  they  will  betake  them- 
selves to  a  life  of  punctuality  and  prayer  ; 
and  moreover  graft  upon  their  former  ha- 
bit the  rigours  of  devoteeship,  the  auste- 
rities and  the  forms  of  Sabbath  observa- 
tion. Thus  it  is  that  they  will  seek  for 
rest,  but  they  will  find  none.  The  law 
will  rise  in  its  demands  as  they  rise  in 
their  endeavours,  and  still  keep  a-head, 
with  a  kind  of  overmatching  superiority 
to  all  tiieir  fruitless /ind  fatiguing  efforts 
of  obedience.  They  will  labour  as  in  tho 
very  fire  and  not  be  satisfied  ;  and  all 
their  vain  attempts  to  reach  the  heights 
of  perfection,  and  so  to  quell  the  remoc 
strances  of  a  challenging  and  not  yet  ap> 
peased  commandment,  will  be  like  the  la. 
borious  ascent  of  him,  who,  after  having 
so  wasted  his  strength  that  he  can  do  no 
more,  finds  that  a  precipice  still  remnins 
to  be  overcome — a  mountain  brow  that 
scorns  his  enterprise,  and  threatens  to 
overwhelm  him.  This  has  been  the  sad 
history  of  many  a  weary  month,  with  some 
on  wliom  the  terrors  of  the  Lord  have 
fallen  heavy — God  having  looked  at  them, 
as  He  did  upon  the  Egyptians  from  a 
cloud  and  troubled  their  spirits — giving 
them  no  rest,  till  they  fall  back  again  per- 
haps into  the  lethargy  of  despair,  and 
take  up  with  this  world  anew  as  their 
portion  because  they  have  failed  in  their 
attempts  to  secure  a  portion  in  the  next 
world — Or,  if  He  had  a  purpose  of  mercy, 
in  this  sore  visitation  of  darkness  and 
tempest  and  wrath,  at  length  leading  them 
to  the  alone  Rock  of  confidence  ;  and  en- 
dearing the  Physician  still  more  to  their 
breasts,  that  they  have  been  made  to  feel 
the  disease  in  all  its  severity  and  all  its 
wretchedness. 

Now  this  spirit  of  bondage,  which   is 
unto  fear,  can  only  be  exchanged  for  the 


LECTURE   Lilt. — CHAFTER   VIII,    13 15. 


271 


Spirit  of  adoption,  by  our  believing  the 
gospel.  Every  legal  attempt  to  extricate 
ourselves  from  tiie  misery  of  the  former 
spirit,  will  only  aggravate  it  the  more  ; 
and  we  know  of  no  other  expedient,  by 
which  the  transition  can  be  made,  than 
simply  by  our  putting  faith  in  tlic  testi- 
mony of  the  Son  of  God.  We  have  la- 
boured in  vain  to  seek  a  righteousness  of 
our  own,  wherewithal  we  might  stand  ac- 
ceptably before  God,  because  this  is  the 
wrong  way  of  it.  It  is  true  that  He  will 
not  look  upon  us  witliout  a  righteousness, 
on  the  consideration  of  which  it  is,  that 
He  deems  it  consistent  with  the  honour  of 
His  government  and  the  integrity  of  His 
character  to  take  us  into  favour.  But 
never,  and  on  this  point  the  gospel  will 
enter  into  no  compact  whatever  with  the 
presumption  of  weak  and  guilty  man, 
never  will  the  act  of  friendship  be  firm 
and  steady  between  him  and  his  offended 
Lawgiver,  in  consideration  of  any  right- 
eousness of  ours.  And  the  distinct  pro- 
position is,  that  we  shall  look  unto  Christ 
as  the  alone  ground  of  our  acceptance 
before  Him,  unto  His  propitiation  as  that 
on  which  our  hopes  of  pardon  do  rest,  and 
unto  His  obedience  in  our  stead  and  for 
our  sakes  as  that  on  which  we  look  for 
the  rewards  of  eternity.  Could  I  state  the 
thing  more  explicitly  I  would.  It  is  in  Ihe 
form  of  bare  and  unqualified  statement 
that  the  Bible  lays  it  down  ;  and  all  who 
give  credence  thereunto  will  find,  Ihat  in 
no  one  instance  will  they  ever  be  disap- 
pointed. It  is  this  in  fact  which  forms  the 
grand  characteristic  peculiarity  of  our 
dispensation  ;  it  is  the  burden  of  those 
good  tidings  which  constitute  the  gospel, 
and  which  operated  instantaneously  as 
tidings  of  great  joy — because  they  were 
no  sooner  announced  in  some  cases  than 
they  were  credited — no  sooner  revealed 
than  they  were  relied  upon.  This  is  the 
one  and  the  direct  stepping-stone  by  which 
you  may  enter  even  now  into  rest.  The 
merit  which  yo>i  laboured  to  possess  is 
already  acquired  ;  and  what  you  seek  to 
deserve  is  held  out  unto  you  in  the  shape 
of  a  free  donation.  There'  is  a  perfect 
righteousness  already  brought  in,  and  you 
need  not  therefore  go  about  to  establish 
one.  It  will  indeed  be  going  about,  if  you 
try  to  establish  a  righteousness  of  your 
own.  Many  a  fruitless  round  will  you 
have  to  ply — many  a  vain  and  weary  cir- 
cuit to  accomplish ;  and  after  all  be  no 
nearer  to  your  object  than  at  the  point 
from  which  you  departed — many  a  labo- 
rious drudgery,  which  will  be  nought  but 
a  laborious  deviation  from  that  plain  and 
unerring  path,  by  which,  with  a  majestic 
simplicity  that  is  stamped  upon  all  His 
processes,  the  wisdom  of  God  would  con- 
duct you  unto  Himself.    For  this  purpose, 


hath  He  set  forth  Christ  unto  you  ;  and 
He  bids  you  enter  through  Him  into  full 
repose  and  reconciliation — accrediting  the 
testimony  that  regardeth  His  blood,  and 
thus  will  you  be  washed  from  guilt — ac- 
crediting the  testimony  that  regardeth  His 
services  in  your  room,  and  thus  will  you 
be  sustained  by  God  as  the  rightful  heirs 
of  a  purchased  and  glorious  immortality. 
Submit  yourselves  therefore  unto  this 
righteousness  of  God.  Be  assured  that  it 
is  the  grand  specific  for  your  case  as  a 
sinner  ;  and  that  you  will  never,  but  upon 
this,  get  solid  or  legitimate  rest  to  the  sole 
of  your  foot.  Your  acceptance  of  Christ 
as  He  is  offered  to  you  in  the  gospel,  is  the 
turning  point  of  your  salvation.  He  is 
freely  offered  ;  and  never  will  you  cease 
to  be  haunted  by  the  disquietudes  of  a 
heart  that  is  not  at  ease — never  will  the 
jealousies  of  the  legal  temper  be  done 
away — never  will  you  attempt  an  act  of 
fellowship  with  God,  without  the  flaw  of 
some  guilty  and  misgiving  suspicion  ad- 
hering to  it — never  will  you  know  what  it 
is  to  draw  near  in  the  freedom  of  perfect 
confidence,  with  every  topic  of  disturb- 
ance and  distrust  hushed  into  oblivion 
betwixt  you — Till  taking  up  with  Him  on 
His  own  terms,  you  alike  cast  the  pride 
and  the  pain  of  self-righteousne.ss  away, 
and  become  the  children  of  God  through 
the  faith  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

I  fear,  that  there  are  many  here  present, 
who  could  never  allege  of  themselves  at 
any  time,  that  they  had  the  Spirit  of 
adoption — with  whom  the  sense  of  God 
as  their  reconciled  Father,  is  as  entirely  a 
stranger  to  their  heart  as  is  any  mystic 
inspiration — who  have  a  kind  of  decent, 
and  in  some  sort  an  earnest  religiousness, 
but  have  never  been  visited  by  any  feel- 
ing half  so  sanguine  or  extatic  as  this ; 
and  who  perhaps  may  be  interested  to 
know,  by  the  footsteps  of  what  distinct  or 
intelligible  process,  they  could  come  to 
that  filial  affection  unto  God,  wherewith 
as  yet  they  have  had  no  familiarity  what- 
ever. I  would  therefore  say,  in  the  first 
place,  that  I  know  of  no  more  direct  ex- 
pedient for  arriving  at  this  end,  than  that 
of  giving  earnest  heed  unto  the  word  of 
the  testimony.  "Hearken  diligently  unto 
me,"  saith  God,  "and  your  souls  shall 
live."  Your  ears  are  so  accustomed  to 
what  may  be  called  the  mere  verbiage  of 
orthodoxy,  that  when  sounded  anew  or 
another  time  in  your  hearing,  it  stirs  up 
no  fresh  exercise  of  the  thinking  princi- 
ple. You  are  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
terms,  that  you  arouse  not  yourselves  to 
the  contemplation  of  the  truths.  What 
you  hear  now,  you  have  heard  again  and 
again  ;  and  this  deafens,  as  it  were,  the 
whole  activity  of  your  understanding — so 
that  whilst  you  recognise  the  words  of  the 


272 


LECTURE   LIII. CHAPTER   VIII,    13 15. 


evangelical  system  as  so  many  old  and 
oft-repeated  common-places,  you  remain 
blind  to  all  the  important  and  affecting 
realities  of  which  these  words  are  never- 
theless substantially  the  vehicles.  In  these 
circumstances,  I  can  give  you  no  likelier 
advice,  than  that  you  should  put  your 
minds  forth  and  forward  from  the  words 
to  the  things.  Be  not  satisfied  with  the 
mere  expression  and  cadence  of  orthodoxy. 
Engage,  and  that  closely,  steadily,  perse- 
veringly,  with  the  matter  of  the  gospel 
testimony.  Think  that  there  has  been  a 
movement  in  heaven  towards  a  sinful 
world.  Think  that  the  express  design  of 
this  movement,  was  to  recall  as  many  of 
our  alienated  race  as  would,  to  the  joys 
and  communions  of  that  paradise,  from 
which  they  had  been  exiled.  Think  that 
for  its  accomplishment  every  barrier  in 
the  way  of  this  return  is  lifted  away  ;  and, 
more  especially,  that  satisfaction  was  so 
rendered  to  a  violated  law,  as  that  they 
who  have  trampled  upon  it  might  be 
crowned  with  honour,  and  yet  the  law 
itself  be  magnified  and  made  honourable. 
Think  that  the  whole  burden  of  your 
guilt,  and  of  its  full  expiation,  has  been 
laid  upon  another;  and  that  all  are  invi- 
ted, and  you  amongst  the  number,  to  come 
by  this  open  way  of  access,  and  forthwith 
enter  into  peace  with  God.  If,  in  lifting 
up  your  eyes  to  this  contemplation,  you 
still  find  that  all  above  you  is  haze  and 
that  all  within  you  is  heaviness — continue 
to  look — continue  to  give  heed  even  until 
the  day  dawn  and  the  day-star  arise  in 
your  heart ;  and  when  this  wondrous 
transaction  between  heaven  and  earth  at 
length  unfolds  itself  to  your  mental  eye, 
in  its  characters  of  bounty  and  truth  and 
tenderness — when  the  spectacle  of  God 
willing,  and  of  God  waiting  to  be  gracious, 
is  at  length  recognised  by  you — when  all 
that  moved  His  wrath  and  kept  Him  at  a 
distance,  is  seen  to  be  put  aside  by  the 
work  of  the  great  Mediator,  and  that 
nothing  is  left  but  the  exhibition  of  a 
mercy  now  rejoicing  in  the  midst  of  the 
other  attributes,  and  pouring  a  fresh  lustre 
on  them  all,  as  it  passes  onwards  to  a 
guilty  world  through  the  channels  of  a 
consecrated    priesthood  and   an  infinite 


'  sacrifice — It  is  when  thus  enabled  to  see 
God  disarmed  of  all  His  terrors,  and  in- 
stead of  the  inflexible  judge,  to  behold 
Him  as  now  reconciled  through  Christ 
Jesus — it  is  when  this  assurance  is  made 
directly  to  bear  upon  our  spirits  from  the 
word  of  revelation,  that  the  confidence  of 
our  adoption  enters  into  our  hearts,  and 
we  can  join  the  apostle  and  his  converts 
in  crying  Abba,  Father. 

It  does  not  follow,  however,  because 
you  lift  your  eyes,  that  the  manifestation 
is  then  in  readiness,  for  your  first  and 
earliest  regards  towards  it.  There  may 
be  a  cloud  which  intercepts  it  from  your 
view ;  and  even  after  many  a  wishful 
look  towards  that  quarter  whence  you  ex- 
pect the  lighi  and  the  comfort  of  divine 
truth  to  come  down  upon  your  soul,  may 
you  have  to  complain  that  I  cannot  be- 
lieve, I  cannot  discern — neither  is  Jesus 
Christ  evidently  set  forth  crucified  before 
me.  One  advice  of  an  eminent  theolo- 
gian in  these  circumstances,  and  it  is  a 
good  one,  is  that  though  you  should  have 
missed  the  object  of  which  you  are  in 
quest  a  hundred  times,  still  make  the 
other  and  the  other  effort ;  and  who  knows 
but  that  next  time  you  will  be  met  with 
the  very  revelation  which  your  soul  Ipng- 
eth  after]  To  this  advice  I  would  shortly 
add  another.  While  busy  in  sfeking  after 
,the  development  to  your  belief  of  Christ's 
work — be  equally  busy  in  your  practice 
at  the  doing  of  Christ's  will.  Labour, 
though  in  the  dark.  Mortify  sin,  though 
in  such  a  spirit  of  unsettledness  as  to  be 
almost  equivalent  to  the  spirit  of  bondage. 
Be  diligent  in  duty,  and  thus  might  you 
pioneer  your  way  to  clearness  and  to 
comfort  in  doctrine.  Forget  not  the  say- 
irtg  that  Christ  manifests  Himself  to  those 
who  keep  His  words  ;  and  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  given  to  those  who  obey  Him  ; 
and  that  they  whose  eye  or  whose  aim  is 
single  shall  have  their  whole  body  full  of 
light  ;  and  that  to  him  that  hath,  more 
shall  be  given  ;  and  that  he  w^ho  wills  to 
do  the  will  of  -God,  and  proves  the  sin- 
cerity of  his  will  by  the  vigour  of  his  per- 
formances, that  he  shall  be  made  to  know 
of  Christ's  doctrine  whether  it  is  of  God. 


LECTURE   LIV. CHAPTER   Vin.    16. 


273 


LECTURE  LIV. 


Romans  viii,  16. 


"  The  Spirit  itseli'  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God." 


We  can  well  imagine  the  desirousness, 
wherewith  an  earnest  and  aspiring  Chris- 
tian might  enter  into  the  interpretation  of 
this  verse.  For,  at  the  first  view  of  it,  he 
might  think  that  it  so  far  outstrips  his 
own  personal  experience,  as  to  leave  him 
utterly  behind  all  legitimate  hope  of  his 
own  personal  salvation.  He  may  be 
honestly  conscious  to  himself,  that  he 
hath  never  felt  any  such  witnessing  as  the 
text  seems  at  least  to  advert  to — no  secret 
and  preternatural  intimation  of  his  being 
one  of  God's  children — no  inward  com- 
munion going  on  between  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  his  own  spirit,  whereby  he  might 
assure  himself  of  that  test  whereby  the 
apostle  and  his  converts  assuredly  knew 
that  they  were  the  heirs  of  coming  glory 
— no  whisper  of  this  sort  to  the  ear  of  the 
inner  man — no  feeling  of  any  other  prin- 
ciple that  was  active  and  astir  in  his  own 
heart,  but  the  thoughts,  and  the  emotions, 
and  the  desires  of  his  own  busy  and  fa- 
miliar self — And  thus,  on  the  perusal  of 
this  verse,  and  of  those  in  St.  John  where 
the  apostle  speaks  of  the  witness  in  him- 
self, and  of  his  positively  knowing  that 
God  had  taken  up  His  abode  and  dwelt  in 
him  even  by  the  Spirit  which  He  had 
given  him — why  there  are  many,  who, 
from  the  want  of  all  finding  and  partici- 
pation in  this  sort  of  experience,  feel 
themselves  thrown  at  an  utter  distance 
from  that  which  ministered  the  high  hopes 
of  immortality  to  the  Christian  of  the 
New  Testament ;  and  who  seek  in  vain 
for  that  inscription  on  the  tablet  within, 
which  shone  in  characters  of  such  bright 
and  legible  reflection  to  the  primitive  dis- 
ciples, and  assured  them  of  their  being 
indeed  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption, 
of  their  indeed  having  the  mark  imprest 
upon  them  of  God's  own  family. 

Now  the  first  thing  that  I  would  say  unto 
all  whi^  are  in  this  state  of  painful  ambi- 
guity, it,  that  if  they  can  obtain  no  satis- 
faction in  their  inquiry  after  the  tests 
which  they  are  looking  for  within,  they 
ought  to  remember,  that  these  tests  are 
come  at  in  no  other  way,  than  by  a  be- 
lieving contemplation  on  their  part  of  cer- 
tain truths  which  they  should  often  and 
habitually  be  looking  to  without.  Even 
the  Spirit,  whose  presence  and  whose  in- 
ward witness  they  so  vehemently  deside- 
rate, Cometh  by  the  hearing  of  faith.  It 
was  in  the  act  of  listening  to  the  words 
35 


spoken  by  Peter,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  fell 
upon  Cornelius  and  the  members  of  his 
household.  The  word  of  God  is  the  vehi- 
cle upon  which  this  heavenly  visitant 
maketh  entrance  into  the  heart;  and  the 
very  first  announcemeilt  that  He  gives  of 
His  presence,  is  by  the  truths  of  that  word 
imprest  convincingly  and  feelingly  upon 
the  mind.  This  is  the  way  in  which  He 
becomelh  sensible ;  and  if  you  look  for 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  any  other  way  than 
through  the  power  of  Bible  doctrine  seen 
to  be  real,  and  felt  to  be  morally  touch- 
ing and  impressive,  you  will  have  no  more 
success  than  if  you  looked  for  a  spectre 
or  some  airy  phantom  of  superstition. 
And  therefore,  if  you  will  to  realize  upon 
your  own  person  the  test  by  which  Paul 
knew  of  himself  and  his  disciples  that 
they  were  the  children  of  God,  begin  at 
the  beginning. 

Ere  you  look  for  that  joy  which  is  one 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,  look  to  the  tidings  by 
which  you  are  made  joyful.  Ere  you  look 
for  the  peace  which  is  another  of  His 
fruits,  read  the  pacific  message  that  came 
from  Heaven  to  earth  ;  and  you  will  cease 
from  your  disquietude,  when  you  know 
that  God  hath  ceased  from  His  displeas- 
ure. Ere  you  make  sure  of  love  being  in 
your  hearts  towards  God,  make  sure  of 
love  being  in  His  heart  towards  you — for 
it  is  only  upon  your  believing  sight  of 
that  love  which  looketh  down  from 
Heaven,  that  a  responding  love  will  rise 
back  again  from  the  earth.  We  know 
not  if  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem  became 
spiritual  men.  It  is  very  likely  that  they 
did,  and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  took  up  His 
residence  within  them.  But  they  first 
heard  the  voice  from  the  sky,  of  glory  to 
God  in  the  highest  and  peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  to  men ;  and,  under  all  the 
doubts  and  perplexities  of  your  various 
cogitations,  do  we  also  bid  you  attend  to 
the  import  of  the  same  voice — and  it  is  in 
the  attitude  of  a  full  outlook  on  the  ob- 
jects, that  you  realise  upon  your  own 
person  the  work  and  the  consequences  of 
faith.  And  therefore,  in  defect  of  experi- 
ence, in  defect  of  all  feeling  or  confidence 
on  your  part  that  the  Spirit  i^5  within  you, 
in  utter  darkness  though  you  may  be  on 
the  question  whether  you  are  the  subjects 
of  grace,  gaze  upwardly  and  outwardly 
on  the  revealed  objects  of  that  economy 
of  grace  which  hath  been  set  up  in  the 


274 


LECTURE   LIV. CHAPTER   VHI,    16. 


view  of  all — and  that,  that  from  the  utter- 
most ends  of  the  earth  all  may  look  and 
be  saved.  Your  first  business  is  with  the 
gospel.  Your  tirst  attention  should  be  to 
its  overtures.  They  are  the  Jipproach  and 
the  errand  and  the  work  of  the  great  Me- 
diator, whicli  have  a  prior  and  a  prefera- 
ble claim  upon  you.  What  you  have 
done  once,  you  have  to  do  always  ;  and 
if  ever  a  confidence  sprung  up  in  your 
bosom,  when  to  Ciirist  as  a  great  Saviour. 
you  brought  yourself  as  an  empty  unfur- 
nished and  altogether  helpless  sinner,  this 
you  have  to  do  again  and  again — this  be- 
ginning of  your  confidence  you  have  to 
hold  fast  unto  the  end;  and  it  is  by  a 
constant  renewal  of  your  affections  at  the 
fire  of  this  spiritual  altar,  that  the  flame 
of  your  spiritual  grace  can  be  so  upheld 
as  to  be  at  all  distinct  or  discernible. 

And  even  when  all  discernment  of  your 
inward  graces  is  lost,  and  nothing  remains 
of  which  you  are  sensible  but  a  desire 
after  them — when  utterly  at  a  stand  on 
the  question  whether  you  ever  had  the 
Spirit,  or  whether  you  have  it  at  this  mo- 
ment still — You  have  a  patent  way  by 
which  to  secure  the  attainment  that  your 
heart  is  set  upon,  if  it  be  really  so  set.  If 
there  be  nothing  within  to  which  you  can 
look  with  any  satisfaction,  still  you  have 
God  above  standing  forth  in  the  aspect  of 
graciousness,  and  waiting  the  applica- 
tions of  human  willingness  and  human 
want.  You  have  that  being  to  repair  to, 
who  hath  pledged  His  truth  to  the  promise 
that  He  will  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them 
who  ask  it.  When  in  the  chaos  and  con- 
fiision  of  the  inner  man,  all  appearance 
of  His  workmanship  hath  disappeared, 
still  you  can  pray  ;  and  just  as  the  natu- 
ral hunger  ever  recurring  stands  in  need 
of  constant  and  periodical  supplies,  so  it 
is  of  our  spiritual  necessities.  They  are 
not  met  and  conclusively  provided  for  by 
one  effusion  of  living  water  from  on  high. 
You  perhaps  have  been  counting  upon  a 
stock  in  hand — when  in  fact  the  style  of 
this  spiritual  administration,  is  of  grace  to 
help  you  in  the  time  of  need.  And  the 
felt  time  of  your  need,  is  the  fit  time  of 
your  application.  So  that  let  you  at 
present  be  as  far  aback  as  possible,  on 
the  question  of  your  having  an  unction 
from  the  Holy  One — there  are  expedients 
between  you  and  utter  despondency. 
There  is  the  direct  act  of  faith  on  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  by  which  the  Spirit 
Cometh.  There  is  the  exercise  of  prayer, 
in  answer  to  which  the  Spirit  is  abun- 
dantly poured  upon  you. 

Now  how  shall  we  verify  the  answer  to 
this  prayer?  How  shall  we  ascertain  that 
upon  us  there  has  been  the  fulfilment  of 
that  promise  which  is  unto  faith — even 
the  Holy  Ghost  who  is  given  to  as  many 


as  shall  believe  1  In  reply  to  this  it  is 
most  important  to  observe,  that  His  work 
is  visible,  but  His  working  is  not  so.  It  is 
not  of  His  operation  that  we  are  conscious, 
but  of  the  result  of  that  operation.  We 
do  not  see  the  wind,  though  we  see  the 
impulse  and  the  direction  which  it  gives 
to  many  sensible  things.  And  neither  can 
we  tell  of  the  Spirit's  agency  en  a  huniun 
soul,  though  the  impression  which  He 
hath  made  upon  it  may  be  quite  palpable. 
We  do  not  see  Him  at  work,  though  we 
may  .see  the  workmanship  that  He  leaves 
behind  Him.  As  in  vegetation  our  eye  is 
upon  the  fruit,  and  not  upon  the  secrets 
of  that  hidden  physiology  whence  all  the 
efflorescence  Cometh — so,  in  spiritual  hus- 
bandry, the  eye  of  our  consciousness  is 
upon  deeds  that  are  palpably  done  and 
desires  that  are  palpably  felt,  and  not 
upon  the  primary  influence  which  touches 
the  inner  mechanism  and  originates  all  its 
goings.  There  is  much,  in  that  parable, 
where  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  likened 
unto  seed  thrown  into  the  ground,  and 
which  springeth  up  one  knoweth  not  how  ; 
but  which  still  leaves  the  test  unaffected 
that  by  its  fruit  ye  shall  know  it.  The 
Spirit  may  not  be  felt  in  His  access  to 
the  soul,  but  His  fruits  may  be  recognised 
in  the  now  holy  and  heavenly  affections 
of  the  soul.  There  is  neither  a  light,  nor 
a  voice,  nor  a  felt  stirring  within,  to  warn 
us  of  His  presence  ;  but  there  may  now 
be  a  goodness,  and  a  righteousness,  and  a 
truth,  in  the  heart  which  give  testimony 
to  His  power.  It  is  thus  that  from  certain 
plain  characteristics  we  may  come  at  the 
inference  that  we  are  the  children  of  God 
— from  distinct  and  intelligible  remarks 
to  which  we  have  access  without  mysti- 
cism ;  and  on  wltich  apostles  have  con- 
descended in  other  parts  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament— "Hereby  know  we  that  we  know 
Him  if  we  keep  His  commandments." 
"  My  little  children,  let  us  not  love  in  word 
neither  in  tongue,  but  in  deed  and  in 
truth."  "  And  hereby  we  know  that  we 
are  of  the  truth,  and  shall  assure  our 
hearts  before  Him." 

There  is  one  very  obvious  way  then,  in 
which  the  Spirit  may  bear  witness  with 
our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  ; 
or  in  which,  according  to  the  translation 
of  many,  the  Spirit  may  bear  wi(  iiess  to 
or  attest  to  our  spirit  that  we  are  God's 
children.  It  is  He  who  workctn  a  work 
of  grace  in  our  souls,  and  that  work  may 
become  manifest  to  our  own  consciences. 
We  may  read  the  lineaments  of  our  now 
renovated  character;  and  it  may  be  re- 
garded as  an  exercise  of  our  own  spirit, 
that  by  which  we  become  acquainted 
with  the  new  features  or  the  new  charac- 
teristics that  have  been  formed  upon  our- 
selves.   And  we  may  furthermore  read  in 


LECTURE    LIV. CHAPTER    VIII,     16. 


275 


the  Bible,  what  be  the  Scripture  marks 
of  the  new  creature  ;  and  as  all  Scripture 
is  given  by  the  inspiration  of  God — this 
is  one  way  in  wiiich  a  joint  testimony 
may  be  made  out  between  God's  Spirit, 
and  our  spirit  upon  the  subject;  or  in 
which  a  communication  may  be  made  to 
pass  from  the  one  to  the  otVer — so  that 
they  both  shall  concur  in  one  and  the 
same  sentence  that  we  are  indeed  God's 
children.  The  part  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
hath  had  in  this  matter  is,  that  He  both 
graves  upon  us  the  lineaments  of  a  living 
epistle  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  tells  us  in  the 
epistle  of  a  written  revelation  what  these 
lineaments  are.  The  part  which  our  own 
spirit  has  is,  that,  with  the  eye  of  con- 
sciousness, we  read  what  is  in  ourselves; 
and,  with  the  eye  of  the  understanding, 
we  read  what  is  in  the  book  of  God's  tes- 
timony :  And  upon  our  perceiving  that 
such  as  the  marks  of  grace  which  we  find 
to  be  within,  so  are  the  marks  of  grace 
which  we  observe  in  the  description  of 
that  word  without  that  the  Spirit  hath 
indited,  we  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that 
we  are  born  of  God. 

But  what  is  more,  it  is  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  to  make  one  see  more  clearly  in 
both  of  these  directions — to  open  one's 
eyes  both  that  he  migiit  behold  tlie  things 
contained  in  the  Bible  with  brighter  mani- 
festation, and  also  that  he  might  behold 
the  things  which  lie  deeply  and  to  most 
undiscoverably  hidden  within  the  arcana 
of  his  own  heart.  In  virtue  of  his  clearer 
outward  discernment,  he  may  have  a 
more  sure  and  satisfying  belief  in  the  Son 
of  God  ;  and  in  virtue  of  his  clearer  in- 
ward discernment,  this  belief,  now  more 
sure  and  strong,  may  also  become  more 
sensible.  There  are  many  natural  truths 
in  authentic  histor)',  in  science,  in  common 
life  and  experience,  which  you  not  only 
believe,  but  which  you  know  that  you 
believe — so  that  you  can  not  only  say  of 
them  that  these  are  truths,  but  of  which 
you  can  say  I  know  the  firmness  and  the 
certainty  of  my  own  faith  in  them.  In 
like  manner,  a  man  may  both  believe  in  a 
gospel  truth,  and  which  is  a  distinct 
thing,  may  know  that  he  believes  it.  The 
Spirit  may  have  so  far  enlightened  him  as 
to  the  doctrine,  that  he  is  quite  satisfied 
as  to  the  truth  of  it ;  and  may  also  ha^'- 
so  far  enlightened  him  as  to  the  state  of 
his  own  mind,  that  he-knows  the  belief 
or  the  conviction  to  be  assuredly  there. 
Let  him  have  no  doubt  upon  this  point; 
and,  on  the  single  assertion  that  he  who 
believeth  in  Christ  shall  be  saved,  he  may 
have  no  doubt  of  his  salvation.  If  he 
know  himself  to  be  a  believer,  and  also 
knoweth  that  every  believer  shall»go  to 
heaven,  what  more  is  necessary  to  assure 


him  of  his  own  destination  to  an  inherit- 
ance of  glory  1  He  hath  data  enough  for 
such  a  conclusion.  He  hath  both  the 
major  and  the  minor  proposition  for  the 
winding  up  of  an  argument,  which  to  him 
at  least  is  irresistible.  Still  it  is  the  Spirit 
which  hath  furnished  him  with  both.  By 
it  he  discerns  the  evidence  that  there  is  in 
the  Bible,  and  by  it  he  discerns  the  reflec- 
tion that  there  is  of  that  evidence  in  his 
own  heart — so  that  he  not  only  recog- 
nises the  Bible  to  be  true,  but  recognises 
himself  to  be  a  believer  in  the  Bible.  The 
one  recognition  in  fact  may  be  so  clear 
and  confident  and  .strong,  as  to  lead  in- 
stantaneously and  forcibly  to  the  other. 
And  thus  believing  in  the  Son  of  God,  may 
he  come  to  have  the  witness  in  himself, 
and  assuredly  to  know  that  he  is  one  of 
God's  children. 

No  man  can  know  any  thing,  or  believe 
any  thing,  but  upon  evidence.  Yet  this 
evidence  may  be  of  such  prompt  occur- 
rence to  him  when  he  goes  in  quest  of  it; 
and  it  may  work  its  convictions  upon  the 
mind  so  quickly  and  so  powerfully  ;  and 
with  all  the  rapidity  of  consciousness 
might  so  hasten  on  the  argument — that,  as 
the  Bible  is  true,  and  he  is  thoroughly 
aware  of  his  own  belief  in  it,  therefore  to 
him  all  its  promises  are  sure,  and  all  its 
glorious  prospects  arc  unquestionably  in. 
reserve  for  him  :  And  this  sunshine  of 
hope  may  come  so  immediately  on  the 
back  of  prayer,  or  be  so  lighted  up  at  the 
view  of  a  scriptural  passage,  or  be  so 
supported  by  all  the  regards  that  he  is 
enabled  to  throw  on  his  past  history  or 
on  his  present  feelings — as  not  only  to 
assure  him  of  the  sufficiency  of  all  these 
proofs  for  his  personal  interest  in  the 
gospel,  but  also  that  it  is  the  Spirit  of  God 
who  at  the  moment  hath  assembled  them 
in  such  force  and  frequency  and  radiance 
around  him — Not  an  intimation  from  that 
Spirit  either  by  a  voice  or  a  direct  im- 
pulse, but  an  intimation  rationally  gath- 
ered from  those  materials  of  contempla- 
tion which  it  is  the  oflice  of  the  Spirit  to 
set  before  him — gathered  from  that  written 
record,  to  understand  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  opened  his  understanding — 
gathered  from  what  he  knows  of  his  own 
believing  heart,  to  perceive  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  hath  enlightened  his  con- 
science— gathered  from  the  retrospect  of 
his  bygone  experience,  for  the  perusal  of 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  performed  the 
office  that  belongs  to  Him,  of  bringing 
all  things  to  his  remembrance  :  And  thus 
through  the  medium,  not  of  visionary  but 
most  significant  and  substantial  proofs, 
yet  proofs  brought  together  in  a  way  that 
announces  the  preternatural  agency  con- 
cerned in  the  representation  of  them — may 


276 


LECTURE   LIV. CHAPTER   vm,    16. 


the  Spirit  of  God  witness  to  the  spirit  of 
man,  that  he  is  a  child  of  mercy  and  that 
the  seal  of  his  redemption  is  set  upon  him. 
I  could  not,  without  making  my  own 
doctrine  outstrip  my  own  experience, 
vouch  for  any  other  intimation  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  than  that  which  he  gives  in 
the  act  of  making  the  word  of  God  clear 
unto  you,  and  the  state  of  your  own  heart 
clear  unto  you.  From  the  one  you  draw 
what  are  its  promises — from  the  other 
what  are  your  own  personal  characteris- 
tics; and  the  application  of  the  first  to  the 
second  may  conduct  to  a  most  legitimate 
argument,  that  you  pei-sonally  are  one  of 
the  saved — and  that  not  a  tardy  or  elabo- 
rate argument  either,  but  with  an  evidence 
quick  and  powerful  as  the  light  of  intui- 
tion. By  a  single  deposition  of  conscience, 
for  example,  1  may  know  that  I  do  indeed 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  ;  and, 
by  a  single  glance  with  the  eye  of  my 
understanding,  I  may  recognise  a  Saviour's 
truth  and  a  Saviour's  tenderness  in  the 
promise  that  all  who  do  so  shall  be  tilled  ; 
and,  without  the  intervention  of  any  length- 
ened process  of  reasoning,  I  may  conti- 
dently  give  to  this  general  announcement 
in  the  gospel  such  a  specific  application 
to  myself,  as  to  carry  my  own  distinct 
and  assured  hope  of  a  particular  interest 
therein.  Thus  there  is  no  whisper  by  the 
Spirit,  distinct  from  the  testimony  of  the 
word.  Thus  there  is  no  irradiation,  but 
that  whereby  the  mind  is  enabled  to  look 
reflexly  and  with  rational  discernment 
upon  itself  And  here  there  is  no  conclu- 
sion, but  what  comes  immediately  and 
irresistibly  out  of  premises  which  are 
clear  to  me,  while  they  lie  hid  in  deepest 
obscurity  from  other  men — And  all  this 
you  will  observe  with  the  rapidity  of 
thought — by  a  flight  of  steps  so  icw,  as  to 
be  got  over  in  an  instant  of  time — by  a 
train  of  considerations  strictly  logical, 
while  the  mind  that  enjoys  and  is  imprest 
with  all  this  light  is  not  sensible  of  any 
logic— and  yet  withal  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  ;  for  it  is  He  who  hath  brought  the 
word  nigh,  and  given  it  weight  and  sig- 
nificancy  to  my  understanding;  and  it  is 
He  who  hath  manifested  to  me  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  my  own  heart,  and  evinced 
some  personal  characteristic  within  that 
is  coincident  with  the  promise  without; 
and  it  is  He  who  sustains  me  in  the  work 
of  making  a  firm  and  contident  applica- 
tion In  all  this  He  utters  no  voice.  The 
word  of  God  made  plain  to  my  convic- 
tion, and  His  own  work  upon  me  made 
plain  to  my  conscience — these  are  the 
vocables,  and  I  do  imagine  the  only  voca- 
bles, by  which  He  expresses  Himself;  but 
enough  to  furnish  any  Christian  with  a 
reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  him,  and, 
better  than  articulation  itself,  to  solace 


and  to  satisfy  the  enquiring  spirit  of  its 
relationship  to  the  family  of  God. 

Mine  eye  can  carry  me  no  farther 
among  these  experimental  processes — 
these  hidden  mysteries  of  the  Christian 
life — these  lofty  eminences  of  grace  and. 
of  attainment,  which,  high  and  inaccessi- 
ble as  they  may  appear  to  many  who  are 
here  present,  have  nevertheless  been 
reached  and  realized  by  believers  in  this 
world.  And  would  you  like  to  realize 
them?  Are  you  convinced  that  there  is 
much  of  recorded  experience  in  the  Bible, 
and  even  much  of  actual  and  yet  occur- 
ring experience  anKjng  the  Christians  ot 
the  day,  which  overslioots  all  that  you 
have  ever  felt  or  beconie  familiar  with  in 
the  intimacies  of  your  own  bosom  1  Would 
you  like  personally  to  taste  of  this  expe- 
rience, to  ascertain  and  upon  your  own 
finding  what  sort  of  thing  after  all  it  is — 
Really  to  have  to  do  with  tliese  witnessings 
of  the  Spirit — these  connnunicatiuns  of 
light  and  love  from  the  upper  sanctuary — ■ 
these  foretastes  of  a  commg  blessedness — 
these  ecstacies,  that,  almost  look  like  so 
many  inspirations  of  which  you  read  in 
the  lives  of  the  holy,  but  which  belong  it 
would  seem  to  a  more  elevated  region  of 
faith  or  of  fancy  that  you  have  yet  soared 
into?-  We  hold  it  to  be  no  fancy.  We 
deem  that  such  a  region  exists,  and  we 
also  deem  that  there  is  a  series  of  firm 
stepping-stones  by  which  it  may  be  gain- 
ed. We  have  already  spoken,  and  at  the 
outset  of  these  remarks,  of  the  direct 
exercise  of  faith  in  the  gospel ;  and  we 
now  say,  that,  up  to  your  faith  in  the 
doctrine,  let  be  your  diligent  following  of 
the  duties  of  the  gospel.  The  manifesta- 
tions for  which  you  long,  are  given  to 
those  who  do  the  commandments  of  Christ. 
You  desire  to  reach  the  assurance  of  so 
bright  and  joyful  an  anticipation,  as  the 
apostle  expresses  in  our  text.  It  is  to  be 
reached  by  a  path  of  labour,  and  so  he 
says  in  another  place — "labour  with  all 
diligence  unto  the  full  assurance  of  hope 
unto  the  end."  It  is  ncjt  by  a  flight  of 
imagination  that  you  gain  the  ascents  of 
spiritual  experience.  It  is  by  the  toils 
and  the  watchings  and  the  painstakings 
of  a  solid  obedience.  Performance  ah)ne 
will  not  do  it — for  performance  unsancti- 
fied  by  prayer  is  a  legal  and  a  presump- 
tuous offering.  Prayer  alone  will  not  do 
it — for  prayer  unaccompanied  with  per- 
formance, is  an  idle  or  a  hypocritical 
eft'usion.  But  prayer  and  performance 
together  will  do  it.  What  looks  now  a 
secret  and  inaccessible  thing,  will  then 
become  familiar — for  the  secret  of  the 
Lord  is  with  them  that  fear  him.  What 
now  looks  dark  and  deep  and  wholly 
undiscernible,  will  then  become  manifest 
— for  to  him  that  ordereth  his  conversa- 


LECTURE   LIV. — CHAPTER    VIII,    16. 


277 


tion  aright  will  God  show  His  covenant. 
There  is  a  working  to  establish  a  right- 
eousness of  your  own,  that  will  land  you 
in  utter  disappointment  and  defeat ;  but 
there  is  also  a  working  which  is  taken  up 
with  a  looking  unto  Christ  as  the  Lord 
your  righteousness,  that  brings  down 
upon  your  soul  the  illuminations  which 


He  is  ever  ready  to  bestow  on  His  faithful 
followers ;  and  which  He  delights  ia 
showering  down  upon  them  from  His  seat 
of  exalt.ation — as  the  tokens  of  His  love  to 
all  those  who  evince  the  sincerity  of  their 
love  to  Him,  in  the  keeping  of  His  com- 
mandments. 


LECTURE  LV. 


Romans  viii,  17,  18. 

'And  if  children,  then  heirs  ;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ :  if  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  Him,  that  yre 
may  be  also  glorified  together.  For  I  reckon,  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  ii^." 


♦  And  if  children,  then  heirs.'  The  one 
implies  relationship  to  God,  the  other  a 
right  of  property  from  Him — differing 
from  the  corresponding  right  in  society  in 
this— that  for  one  man  to  be  the  heir  of 
another,  implies  a  right  to  that  which  the 
other  possesses  upon  his  relinquishing  it 
by  death.  It  is  a  right  in  reversion  ;  but 
which,  instead  of  entering  upon  at  the 
death  of  another,  he  enters  upon  at  his 
own  death.  And  he  is  an  heir  of  God,  not 
because  at  that  period  he  succeeds  Him, 
but  because  at  that  period  he  is  admitted 
by  Him  into  the  enjoyment  of  himself — 
nay  into  as  full  a  participation  as  his  limit- 
ed faculties  will  allow,  of  the  very  joys 
and  the  very  characteristics  of  the  God- 
head. He  then  enters  on  the  glory  that  is 
to  be  revealed,  and  he  is  then  filled  with 
the  whole  fulness  of  God.  St.  John  felt 
himself  unable  to  enter  into  the  details  of 
what  that  is  which  the  children  of  God 
shall  be,  but  still  he  could  say  in  the 
general  that  we  shall  be  like  Him.  He 
knew  of  himself  and  of  his  fellow-disci- 
ples that  they  were  the  sons  of  God,  and 
exclaims  on  the  manner  of  love  wherewith 
God  had  loved  them  in  that  they  should  be 
so  called;  and  then  he  seems  to  pass  from 
their  relationship  as  sons  of  which  he 
spake  with  present  certainty,  to  their  re- 
lationship as  heirs  of  which  he  could  only 
speak  distantly  and  dimly — yet  speaks  in 
such  a  way  as  makes  out  a  very  apposite 
conception  of  our  property  in  God ;  for 
what  can  give  us  a  nearer  use  and  enjoy- 
ment of  the  Deity,  than  we  have  by  actu- 
ally seeing  Him  as  He  is,  and  so  gazing 
with  unexpended  delight  on  all  those 
lovely  and  venerable  graces  by  which  He 
is  irradiated — and,  what  comes  nearer  to 
a  communication  of  Himself  unto  us  or 
to  our  having  a  portion  in  the  Divinity, 
than  our  being  mad*^  like  unto  Him?  It 
would  look  too  as  if  the  circumstance  of 


our  seeing  Him  led,  by  a  sort  of  casual 
or  influential  energy,  to  the  circumstance 
of  our  being  assimilated  to  Him — as  if  we 
gathered,  by  a  sort  of  radiation  from  His 
glory,  the  reflection  of  a  kindred  glory 
upon  our  own  persons — as  if  His  excel- 
lencies passed  into  us  when  ushered  into 
His  visible  presence,  and  became  ours  by 
sympathy  or  ours  by  transmission.  He 
does  not  part  with  His  character;  but  He 
multiplies  His  character  by  the  diffusion 
of  it  through  all  the  members  of  the  blest 
household  that  is  above ;  and  they  may 
most  significantly  be  called  heirs  of  God 
— may  be  most  significantly  said  to  have 
God  for  their  portion,  and  God  for  their 
inheritance — When  not  only  admitted  to 
the  full  and  immediate  sight  of  Him  ;  but 
when  the  efficacy  of  that  sight  is  to  ac- 
tuate and  inspire  them  with  His  very  af- 
fections, is  to  cover  and  adorn  them  with 
His  very  moral  and  spiritual  glories. 

'  Heirs  of  God.'  This  phrase  brings  us 
to  the  same  conclusion  as  that  in  which 
we  have  often  been  landed,  by  the  consi- 
deration of  other  phrases  and  other  pas- 
sages of  the  Bible,  in  regard  to  the  kind 
of  happiness  that  is  to  be  enjoyed  in  hea- 
ven. To  be  filled  with  the  fullness  of  God, 
is  to  have  a  full  view  of  Him  as  He  is ; 
and  not  merely  a  full  view  of  His  charac- 
ter, but  a  full  participation  of  it.  This  is 
the  inheritance  that  we  have  to  look  for- 
ward to.  An  heir  hath  something  in  pros- 
pect, and  something  in  reversion ;  and. 
this  is  our  prospect.  There  is  a  glory  to 
the  revealed ;  and  of  which  we  shall  be 
admitted  as  the  beholders,  and  not  only 
the  beholders  but  also  the  sharers  of  it. 
Our  eye  will  be  direct  on  the  manifested 
Godhead  ;  and  in  the  act  of  looking  to 
Him  we  shall  be  made  like  unto  Him. 
We  shall  imbibe  the  very  character  that 
we  gaze  upon  ;  and  not  only  shall  we  have 
unspotted  mofal   excellence   in   full  and 


273 


LECTURE   LV. CHAPTEU    VIH,    17,    18. 


faultless  perfection  before  us,  but  we  shall 
have  all  that  inherent  delight  which 
springs  from  the  ample  possession  of  it. 
So  that  after  all,  it  is  not  the  happiness  of 
sense  but  mainly  and  substantially  the 
happiness  of  sacredness.  It  is  the  very 
kind  of  happiness  wherein  God  hath 
dwelt  from  everlasting ;  and  in  which  he 
had  supreme  and  ineffable  enjoyment  be- 
fore the  world  was.  It  is  that  happiness 
to  which  the  viewless  Spirit  of  the  Eter- 
nal is  competent;  and  which  lay  pro- 
foundly seated  in  the  depths  of  His  in- 
comprehensible nature,  ere  there  was  any 
sensible  delight  to  be  tasted  or  any  sen- 
sible beauty  to  gaze  upon.  He  was  happy 
in  the  contemplation  of  His  own  virtues  ; 
and  this  is  a  happiness  that  we  are  made 
to  inherit,  when,  admitted  into  His  pre- 
sence, these  virtues  stand  in  illuminated 
glory  before  us.  And  He  was  happy  in 
the  complacent  possession  of  these  virtues 
— in  the  harmony  within  to  which  they 
ever  attune  the  bosom  of  their  serene  and 
abiding  occupation — in  the  deep  and  ca- 
pacious peacefulness,  wherewith  they 
pervaded  the  very  essence  of  the  Divinity 
— in  that  fulness  of  joy,  whereof  purity 
and  righteousness  and  love  are  the  sole 
but  the  sufficient  elements.  This  happi- 
ness too  we  are  made  to  inherit,  when  the 
character  of  God  is  not  only  set  before 
us  in  radiant  perspective,  but  is  made  ours 
in  real  and  actual  possession — when  all 
His  moralities  take  up  their  dwelling-place 
in  our  own  souls,  and  have  over  them  en- 
tire and  absolute  dominion — when,  in  the 
ethereal  play  of  our  kind  and  holy  and 
heavenly  affections,  we  shall  have  plea- 
sure for  evermore — when  ours  shall  be 
the  blessedness  that  essentially  resides  in 
every  well-conditioned  and  well-consti- 
tuted spirit ;  and  opposed  to  all  that  tur- 
bulence !md  misery,  which  wrath  and  ma- 
lice and  deceit  and  the  fierceness  of  un- 
hallowed desire  are  ever  stirring  in  the 
heart  which  they  agitato  and  possess — 
there  will  be  a  well  of  living  water  in  the 
soul,  the  play  of  a  celestial  fountain  that 
yields  to  the  feelings  a  perpetual  refresh- 
ment ;  and  which,  apart  from  all  external 
gratification,  can  minister  the  choicest 
sweets  of  elysium  from  the  deep  and  in- 
ward complacencies  of  rectitude  alone. 

And  then  there  is  the  sympathy  of  all 
this  conscious  feeling  between  soul  and 
soul, — there  is  the  diffusion  of  God's  own 
likeness  over  all  the  individuals  of  Hea- 
ven's family — there  is  the  moral  radiance 
that  issues  from  His  throne,  and  is  re- 
flected back  again  from  the  countenance 
of  all  the  worshippers  who  are  around  it 
— there  is  the  law  of  kindness,  that  ema- 
nates from  the  central  place  of  glory,  and 
circulates  throughout  the  mighty  hosts 
both  of  the  redeemed  and  the  unfallen — 


These  are  the  properties  of  that  divine 
inheritance  whereunto  we  are  called — 
these  are  the  beatitudes  to  which,  as  the 
heirs  of  God,  we  are  invited  to  look  for- 
ward ;  and  though  we  do  believe  of  the 
paradise  above,  that  it  will  be  lighted  up 
in  material  splendour,  and  have  all  the 
hues  and  graces  of  material  loveliness 
scattered  over  it  in  rich  and  infinite  pro- 
fusion— yet  will  it  be  in  the  healthful  tem- 
perament of  spirits  ;  in  the  action  of  mind 
upon  mind;  in  the  worth,  and  the  benefi- 
cence, and  the  piety,  that  are  inwardly 
felt  by  each,  and  spread  abroad  in  one 
tide  of  joyful  communication  among  all — 
it  will  be  in  these  that  the  happiness  of 
immortals  shall  essentially  lie.  It  will  be 
a  moral  and  a  spiritual  gladness  that  shall 
hold  jubilee  there;  and  the  high  and 
heaven- born  festivities  that  are  there  en- 
joyed will  be  characteristic,  not  of  a  place 
of  sense,  but  of  a  place  of  sacredness. 

And  this  should  hold  out  a  lesson  to  all 
who  are  pressing  forward  to  acquire,  or 
who  do  now  entertain  the  hopes  of  the 
gospel.  It  is  a  hope  which  should  lead 
directly  unto  holiness.  The  .son,  who  is 
also  heir,  receives  upon  his  spirit  an  im- 
pression and  a  tinge  from  the  nature  of 
his  inheritance.  If  it  be  an  inheritance 
of  wealth — he  may  now  be  busied  with  all 
the  plans,  and  have  entered  in  some  de- 
gree upon  the  habits  of  expenditure.  If 
it  be  the  inheritance  of  an  official  dignity 
— he  even  now  rises  upward  in  thought  to 
the  measure  of  the  elevation  that  awaits 
him.  If  it  be  a  place  of  duty,  and  where 
eloquence  or  scholarship  or  high  philoso- 
phy be  indispensable  to  the  discharge  of 
it — then  will  he  give  himself  up  to  the 
toils  of  an  unseen  but  busy  solitude,  to  the 
labours  of  the  midnight  oil  in  the  work  of 
preparation.  And  so  if  it  be  a  place  of 
holy  delights  and  holy  exercises — will 
there  even  now  be  a  foretaste  of  the 
coming  joy,  and  a  preparation  for  the 
coming  services.  The  expectants  of  hea- 
ven will  even  now,  be  of  heavenly  cha- 
racter and  heavenly  conversation.  There 
will  be  a  mortification  unto  the  present, 
there  will  be  an  engrossment  with  the 
concerns  of  the  future.  The  urgencies  of 
sense  will  be  resisted,  because  they  are 
not  the  delights  of  sense  which  are  to 
constitute  the  portion  of  their  eternity. 
The  high  communions  of  sacredness  will 
be  aspired  after,  because  it  is  a  habita- 
tion of  sacredness  whither  they  are  going. 
The  spirit  of  holiness  that  is  in  them 
here,  will  be  the  earnest  to  them  of  a  holy 
inheritance  hereafter.  They  will  know 
themselves  to  be  strangers  and  pilgrims; 
and  their  affections  will  be  kindred  with 
the  country  to  which  they  travel,  and  not 
with  the  country  through  which  they  pass. 
They  will  sit  loose  to  this  world's  cares 


LECTURE   LV. CHAPTER   VIII,    17,    18. 


279 


and  this  world's  pleasures;  and  thus  a 
patience  under  all  earthly  disconriforts,  and 
a  self-denial  to  all  earthly  gratifications, 
will  be  to  them  the  discipline  that  shall  at 
once  inspire  the  hope  and  qualify  for  the 
enjoyment  of  higher  gratifications. 

'Joint-heirs  with  Christ.' — The  term  son 
implies  only  a  relationship.  The  term 
heir  implies  something  more — a  right  to 
something  in  reversion,  and  on  which  we 
are  afterwards  to  enter.  The  heir  hath  a 
title  to  the  inheritance  ;  and  joint-heirs 
have  a  joint  or  common  title  thereunto. 
We  who  believe  in  Christ  have  a  common 
title  with  Christ,  to  the  inheritance  that  is 
above.  It  is  a  title  by  us  possessed,  but 
by  Him  purchased.  It  is  called  a  pur- 
chased inheritance,  because  a  price  was 
given  for  it — a  ransom  or  a  redemption- 
price,  whereby  the  title  that  we  had  for- 
feited is  again  made  up  to  us — a  right  that 
we  share  along  with  Him  who  earned  it — 
and  of  which  it  is  most  material  that  you 
should  know,  that  by  Him  it  was  alto- 
gether bought,  and  to  us  it  is  altogether 
rendered  in  the  form  of  a  present.  There 
is  not  a  greater  stumbling-block  in  the 
way  of  our  entrance  upon  the  divine  life, 
than  the  legal  imagination  that  we  often 
set  out  with,  of  making  good  as  our  claim 
that  which  is  freely  offered  to  us  as  a  gra- 
tuity. We  either  never  shall  be  satisfied 
with  the  goodness  of  such  a  claim,  and  so 
be  all  along  haunted  by  a  most  oppres- 
sive sense  of  insecurity  ;  or,  if  we  are 
satisfied,  it  is  only  by  dishonouring  God — 
by  bringing  down  His  law  to  the  measure 
of  our  loyalty, — by  an  affronting  com- 
parison between  the  lofty  commandment 
of  Heaven  and  our  unworthy  and  polluted 
services.  And,  accordingly,  this  is  a 
point  on  which  the  gospel  will  stoop  to  no 
compromise  whatever  with  human  guilt. 
It  makes  you  welcome  to  heaven,  but  not 
through  the  works  of  righteousness  that 
you  have  done ;  and  if  you  persist  to 
make  this  the  footing  on  which  you  rest 
your  hopes  of  immortality — this  it  de- 
nounces as  a  presumption  on  your  part 
which  it  resents  to  the  uttermost,  and  for 
which  it  has  no  toleration.  You  must  take 
the  gift  of  eternal  life,  if  you  are  to  obtain 
it  all,  on  the  footing  of  that  mercy  which 
hath  saved  us — and  of  mercy  too,  that, 
not  satisfied  with  giving  it  as  a  simple 
donation,  gives  it  conjoined  with  all  the 
securities  of  a  title-deed,  and  of  a  legal 
investiture.  It  is  given  to  you  in  conside- 
rati(jn  of  a  righteousness,  and  that  not 
your  own  but  the  righteousness  of  Jesus 
Christ  ;  and  you  altogether  defeat  the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  and  miss  the  very 
spirit  which  it  is  designed  to  impress  upon 
sinners,  if  you  hold  not  by  your  hopes  of 
a  coming  inheritance,  on  the  terms  that  to  [ 


you  it  is  freely  given,  because  by  Him  it 
has  been  amply  earned. 

But  though  we  had  no  part  with  Christ 
in  the  purchase  of  that  inheritance  which 
belongs  jointly  to  Him  and  to  us,  yet  there 
is  one  thing  that  is  common  betwixt  us. 
He  alone  achieved  the  purchase.  He  trod 
the  wine-press  alone.  And  when.  He  saw 
that  there  was  none  to  help.  His  own  arm 
brought  Him  salvation.  But  whilst  there 
is  no  similarity  between  Him  and  us  as  to 
the  fulfilling  of  that  righteousness  by 
which  heaven  is  purchased,  there  is  a  sim- 
ilarity as  to  the  fulfilment  of  that  right- 
eousness by  which  heaven  is  prepared  for. 
It  was  He  who  reared  the  pathway  of 
communication  between  earth  and  heaven; 
but  He  not  only  reared  it.  He  also  walked 
upon  it,  and  we  have  to  follow  His  steps. 
For  this  purpose  He  was  set  forth  as  an 
example  ;  and  to  make  it  an  applicable 
and  an  imitable  one.  He  assumed  such  a 
humanity  as  felt  the  power  of  temptation, 
though  He  overcame  it — as  was  tried  by 
sufferings,  and  was  actually  schooled  into 
perfection  thereby — as  was  exercised  by 
alfliction  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  taught 
by  it,  and  from  it  to  learn  obedience.  We 
have  nought  but  revelation  to  guide  us 
through  the  mysteries  of  a  nature  that 
none  but  He  ever  realised — yet  it  was  a 
nature  so  conformable  to  ours,  as  that  we 
could  make  a  study  and  a  copy  of  it;  and, 
accordingly,  we  are  told  by  the  apostle  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  the  Cap- 
tain of  our  salvation  was  made  perfect 
through  sufferings — that  by  the  things 
whicii  He  did  suffer  He  learned  obedi- 
ence— that  He  became  qualified  by  this 
process  of  discipline  to  make  our  suffer- 
ings the  instruments  of  our  sanclification, 
even  as  His  sufferings  were  the  instru- 
ments as  we  are  expressly  told  of  His 
sanctification — that  both  He  who  sancti- 
ficth  and  they  who  are  sanctified  are  in 
this  respect  one — that  from  the  like  con- 
test of  trials  here,  there  is  the  like  ci-own 
of  triumph  hereafter — and  that  He  hath 
not  only  pointed  out  this  way  by  describ- 
ing it  before  us,  but  hath  been  enabled 
thereby  to  help  us  over  all  its  difficulties  ; 
for  "to  him  that  overcometh"  he  says 
"will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  on  my  threne, 
even  as  I  also  overcame  and  am  set  down 
with  my  Father  on  his  throne." 

'  If  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  him  that 
we  may  be  also  glorified  together'  —  or 
'seeing  that  we  suffer  with  him  that  we 
may  also  be  glorified  together.'  There  is 
this  difference  you  will  perceive  of  import 
between  the  two  phrases  '  if  so  be  that,' 
and  '  seeing  that.'  By  the  former  phrase, 
the  present  suffering  is  made  the  essential 
condition  of  our  future  glory.  By  the 
latter  phrase,  the  present  suffering  is  re- 


280 


LECTURE   LV. CHAPTER   VUI,    17,    18. 


cognised  as  that  which  hath  actually  hap- 
pened ;  and  the  future  glory  as  that  in 
which  it  will  most  assuredly  terminate. 
And  though  we  would  not  say  of  suffer- 
ings in  time,  that  they  are  indispensable 
to  the  triumphs  of  eternity — yet,  certain 
it  is,  that  the  one  is  often  made  the  step- 
ping-stone to  the  other.  Certain  it  is,  that, 
in  point  of  fact,  they  are  the  instruments 
of  a  salutary  discipline  for  the  growth  and 
establishment  of  a  believer  in  holiness. 
They  not  only  go  before  our  glory  in 
heaven  ;  but  it  is  expressly  said  that  they 
work  out  that  glory.  "  Our  light  af- 
flictions which  are  but  for  a  moment  work 
out  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eter- 
nal weight  of  glory."  The  chastisements 
of  God  yield,  it  is  said,  the  peaceable  fruit 
of  righteousness  ;  and  they  are  inflicted 
for  the  express  purpose  of  making  us  par- 
takers of  His  own  holiness.  "It  is  good" 
for  me  says  the  Psalmist  "  that  I  have 
been  afflicted."  "Ere  I  was  afflicted  I 
went  astray."  And  it  is  very  remarkable 
that  the  Saviour  who  assumed  the  person, 
and  put  on  the  infirmities,  and  became 
subject  to  the  temptations  of  a  man — that 
He  also  exemplified  the  very  processes  by 
which  humanity  is  purified  and  exalted 
imto  a  meetness  for  the  celestial  habita- 
tions— that  He,  of  whom  we  might  well 
imagine  that  He  had  nothing  to  learn, 
actually  learned  obedience  by  the  things 
which  He  suffered — that  He,  of  whom  no 
one  could  think  that  any  imperfection 
adhered  to  Him,  uctually  became  perfect 
through  suffering — that  He,  whose  natural 
manhood  was  carried  forward  from  in- 
fancy in  a  way  analogous  to  the  rest  of 
the  species,  seems  to  have  grown  to  His 
moral  and  spiritual  manhood  in  the  same 
way,  being  cradled  among  the  elements 
of  suffering  and  pain,  being  tutored  in  the 
school  of  adversity,  being  tried  and  at 
length  established  in  virtue  under  the 
lesssons  of  this  severe  teacher — So  be- 
coming in  all  points,  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  sin,  like  as  we  are — not  feeling 
only  as  we  ought  to  feel,  and  acting  as  we 
ought  to  act,  but  learning  as  we  ought  to 
learn. 

I  have  had  occasion  formerly  to  explain 
in  your  hearing  the  beneficial  efficacy  of 
an  afflictive  process — how  it  emptied  the 
heart  of  an  idol  that  had  st-dnced  or  with- 
drawn us  too  much  from  God — how  it 
loosened  the  tie  by  which  man  is  so  often 
bound  to  the  vanities  of  a  perishable 
world — how  by  rending  asunder  the  con- 
nection that  there  formerly  was  between 
our  affections  and  certain  earthly  objects 
by  which  these  affections  were  secularised, 
it  left  the  soul  more  clear  and  unoccupied 
for  the  things  of  God  and  eternity — how, 
additionally  to  all  this,  it  tried  our  faith  and 
patience,  and  by  the  very  trial  strength- 


ened them  the  more — ^how  it,  in  a  mannerr 
compelled  us  upon  our  resources  in  heaven, 
to  make  up  for  crosses  and  deficiencies  on 
earth  ;  and,  in  so  doing,  brought  us  into 
closer  contact  and  made  us  have  more 
abundant  conversation  there — So,  in  a 
word,  as  to  confirm  our  attitude  of  stran- 
gers and  pilgrims  upon  earth  ;  and  habit- 
uate us  to  the  frame  of  those,  who,  looking 
forward  to  another  resting-place,  sit  loose 
to  the  world  and  to  all  its  treacherous 
enjoyments. 

And  it  would  greatly  lighten  the  burden 
of  our  afflictions,  did  we  but  lay  our  ac- 
count with  them — did  we  regard  them  as 
forming  a  necessary  part  of  our  lot — did 
we,  forewarned  of  their  frequency,  stand 
in  the  attitude  of  readiness  and  were  pre- 
pared to  receive  them.  It  would  serve  to 
repress  the  murmurs  of  our  impatience, 
and  reconcile  us  to  the  hardships  of  life, 
did  we  look  on  life  as  a  journey  whose 
hardships  must  be  traversed ;  and  that 
they,  in  fact,  were  the  steps  of  that  labo- 
rious ascent  which  led  to  the  higher  scenes 
of  a  sinless  and  unsulfering  kingdom.. 
There  is  nought  which  aggravates  more 
the  painfulness  of  affliction,  than  the 
thought  that  we  have  been  singled  out 
for  calamities  which  are  but  rarely  exem- 
plified in  the  world ;  and  one  of  the  most 
familiar  effusions  of  discontent  is — that 
never  was  man  so  beset  and  tormented 
and  cruelly  agonised  both  by  misfortune 
and  injustice,  as  I  have  been.  To  meet 
this  tendency,  the  apostle  makes  use  of 
ntany  arguments.  He  tells  us  that  our 
afflictions  are  not  rare — "Think  not  that 
any  strange  thing  hath  happened  unto 
you,"  and  that  others  experience  the  same 
— "There  has  nought  befallen  you  that  is 
not  common  to  the  rest  of  your  brethren 
in  the  world,"  and  that  it  is  not  so  great  as 
might  easily  be  imagined — "  Ye  have  not 
yet  resisted  unto  blood  striving  against 
sin  ;"  and,  lastly,  that  they  are  useful  in 
the  great  work  of  our  spiritual  education. 
Be  reconciled  therefore  and  patient.  You 
do  not  know  what  others  suffer  as  well  as 
you.  The  heart  knoweth  its  own  bitter- 
ness: And  each  believer  hath  his  own 
appropriate  visitation  laid  upon  him,  by 
the  God  who  chastens  because  He  loves; 
and  who  conforms  us  to  Christ  in  suffering, 
because  He  means  that  we  shall  be  con- 
formed unto  Him  in  glory. 

V.  18.  "Fur  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings 
of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  tlie  glory  which  shall  be 
revealed  in  us." 

This  is  a  testimony  which  cometh  well 
from  the  apostle  Paul  who  was  so  singu- 
larly afflicted  in  his  day  ;  who  stood  at 
all  times  in  imminent  peril  of  his  life,  fronr» 
the  unrelenting  enemies  of  that  faith 
which  he  so  steadfastly  adhered  to  ;  who^ 


LECTURE   LV. — CHAPTER   VlII,    17,    18. 


281 


in  addition  to  fightings  from  without,  had 
fears  and  forebodings  within  ;  and  whose 
spirit,  made  the  subject  of  constant  agita- 
tion and  turmoil  both  from  his  misgivings 
as  to  the  success  of  his  ministry  and  from 
that  deep  and  tender  sensibility  of  con- 
science which  rendered  him  so  alive  to 
his  own  weakness,  was  well  nigh  wearied 
into  utter  despondency — so  that  he  longed 
to  depart  from  the  world,  and  to  be  with 
Christ  which  he  deemed  far  better.  Such 
a  testimony  from  a  man  of  so  much  expe- 
rience in  the  sufferings  of  life,  should  be 
prized  by  the  sufferers  of  after  ages — 
even  as  the  record  of  that  grace  and  mer- 
cy which  were  bestowed  upon  him  a  sin- 
ful persecutor,  should  be  prized  by  the 
sinners  of  all  after  ages.  It  is  a  signal 
exhibition  of  the  power  of  faith,  proving 
that  with  him  immortality  was  somewhat 
more  than  a  dream — that  it  was  embodied 
into  a  practical  reality  ;  and  had  the  same 
substantial  influence  to  console  him,  in 
the  dark  and  trying  hour  of  adversity,  as 
the  near  prospect  of  deliverance  even  in 


this  world.  The  man  who  frets  impa- 
tiently, under  the  little  crosses  and  disas- 
ters of  our  peaceable  day — who  abandons 
himself  to  despair,  when  his  visions  of 
pi'osperity  on  this  side  of  time  are  scat- 
tered by  the  hand  of  misfortune  into 
nothing — who  feels  that  all  is  lost,  because 
the  earthly  portion  upon  which  he  set  his 
heart  is  lost — who,  differently  reckoning 
from  Paul,  reckons  himself  an  outcast 
from  hope  and  happiness  because  of  the 
clouds  that  sit  on  this  temporary  scene — 
He  may  try  himself  by  these  marks,  and 
learn  how  little  indeed  it  is  that  he  lives 
by  the  power  of  a  coming  world — learn 
how,  after  all,  when  his  faith  is  brought  to 
a  really  practical  test,  it  is  found  most 
wofully  to  fail  him — and,  more  especially 
learn,  how  possible  it  is  to  have  quite  the 
form  of  sound  words,  and  to  have  all  the 
notions  and  phrases  of  the  evangelical 
system,  without  being  impregnated  with 
that  faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen. 


LECTURE  LVI. 

< 

Romans  viii,  19 — 22. 

**  For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  For  the  creature  waa 
made  subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly,  but  by  reason  ot  him  who  hath  subjected  the  same  in  hope;  because  the 
creature  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  cliildren  of 
Gqd.     For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now." 


V.  19 — 21  "  Foe  the  earnest  expectation 
of  the  creature  waiteth  lor  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  sons  of  God.  For  the  creature 
was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly, 
but  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subjected 
the  same  in  hope  ;  because  the  creature 
itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

To  understand  these  verses  let  it  first  be 
adverted  to,  that  the  term  here  translated 
creature  signifieth  also  creation  ;  and  so 
might  comprehend  all  animate  and  all  in- 
animate things.  It  is  true,  that  the  inani- 
mate are  not  capable  of  hope ;  and  this 
feeling  perhaps  should  not  be  extended 
beyond  the  members  of  the  human  family 
— though,  certain  it  is,  that,  amongst  the 
inferior  tribes  of  living  creatures,  there  is 
also,  in  some  partial  degree,  the  same 
restlessness,  the  same  dissatisfaction  with 
present  things,  the  same  desire  of  things 
better,  and  perhapseven  the  same  tenden- 
cy of  wish  and  expectation  towards  them, 
that  are  so  palpably  evident  of  ourselves 
and  all  the  fellows  of  our  species.  And 
then  of  mute  and  insensible  things  it 
36 


holdeth  true,  that,  though  they  cannot 
hope,  they  at  least  wait  a  restoration.  We 
cannot  ascribe  to  them,  without  an  effort 
of  poetry  or  of  personification,  the  posture 
of  looking  forward  to  that  day  of  their 
coming  enlargement,  when  they  shall  be 
emancipated  from  the  distress  and  impris- 
onment in  which  they  are  now  held — But 
still  when  we  include  them  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  these  verses,  we  commit  no  greater 
violence  upon  the  literalities  of  sober  and 
prosaical  truth  than  is  done  in  other  parts 
of  Scripture — when  all  natyre  is  sum- 
moned to  an  act  of  attendance  upon  God 
— when  the  voice  of  praise  is  heard  by 
the  ear  of  fancy  as  arising  to  heaven  from 
the  mountains  and  the  forests,  and  the 
valleys  are  made  to  sing,  and  the  little 
hills  on  every  side  to  rejoice — when  on 
the  approach  of  its  Maker,  the  whole  cre- 
ation is  represented  as  vocal — when  the 
fields  are  called  upon  to  break  forth  into 
gladness,  and  the  floods  to  clap  their 
hands.  The.se  all  are  now  waiting  such 
an  advent  and  such  a  jubilee  as  this ; 
and  there  is  no  great  stretch  of  the  imagi- 
nation, when  the  apostle  affirms  that  they 


282 


LECTDRE   LVI. CHAPTER   VIII,    19 22. 


all  now  nope  for  a  futurity,  at  which  when 
it  becomes  present  the  Psalmist  figures 
them  to  rejoice. 

The  next  remarli  that  we  shall  offer  for 
the  elucidation  of  these  verses  is,  that  the 
middle  clause  of  the  20th  verse  should  be 
thrown  into  a  parenthesis.  The  main 
assertion  of  this  verse  is,  that  the  creature 
was  made  subject  to  vanity  in  hope  ;  and 
we  are  told  by  the  way  that  it  was  so 
made  subject  unwillingly,  or  without  its 
own  consent.  It  was  not  for  example  by 
any  wilful  act  of  theirs,  that  animals  were 
made  subject  to  death.  There  could  be 
no  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  ground, 
in  that  act  of  which  its  curse  was  one  of 
the  consequences.  It  could  be  from  no 
fault  of  the  will  in  nature,  that  she  was 
visited  with  that  sore  distemper,  under 
which  she  now  labours  ;  and  whereof  she 
giveth  palpable  symptom  in  the  volcano, 
and  the  earthquake,  and  the  storm,  and 
that  general  conspiracy  of  all  her  ele- 
ments against  which  man  has  to  fight  and 
to  fatigue  himself  his  whole  life  long — 
that  he  might  force  out  a  subsistence,  and 
keep  footing  through  a  history  that  is 
made  up  of  little  better  than  to  drudge 
and  to  die.*  It  was  not  of  its  own  will- 
ingness that  the  creation  was  thus  brought 
under  the  power  of  vanity,  but  by  reason 
of  him  who  subjected  the  same.  There 
are  some  who  understand  this  of  the  great, 
tempter,  who,  by  seducing  man  from  his 
obedience,  brought  death  into  our  world 
and  all  its  woe.  Others  understand  him 
who  yielded  to  that  temptation,  our  first 
parent,  at  whose  fall  a  universal  blight 
came  upon  nature  and  she  is  now  become 
a  wreck  of  what  she  was — still  lovely  in 
many  of  her  aspects,  though  in  sore  dis- 
tress— still  majestic  and  venerable,  though 
a  venerable  ruin — appearing  as  if  out  of 
joint ;  and  giving  token  by  her  extended 
deserts,  and  the  gloom  of  her  unpeopled 
solitudes,  and  her  wintry  frown,  and  her 
many  fierce  and  fitful  agitations,  that  some 
mysterious  ailment  hath  befallen  her. 

So  that  the  whole  passage  may  be  thus, 
paraphrased.  The  creation  is  now  wait- 
ing, as  if  in  the  attitude  of  earnest  expec- 
tancy, for  ^that  era — when,  transformed 
into  a  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  it 
shall  become  a  suitable  habitation  for 
those  who  are  declared  and  manifested  to 
be  the  sons  of  God.  For  creation,  then  to 
be  so  gloriously  restored,  has  for  a  time 


*  A  few  of  the  following  passages  had  been  transferred 
twelve  years  ago,  from  the  author's  MS.  Lectures  on  the 
Romans  to  his  preparations  on  Natural  Theology,  and 
have  since  been  printed  from  p.  389  onward  of  vol.  ii  of 
his  work  on  that  subject.  Nevertheless  they  are  still  re- 
tained here  though  in  a  different  connection  ;  and  to 
ourselves  at  least  it  is  interesting  to  feel,  that  the  same 
process  of  reflection  which  suits  the  dimness  of  nature 
anterior  to  the  light  of  Christianity,  is  alike  suitable  to 
our  present  state,  while  we  yet  see  through  a  glass  darkly 
and  anterior  to  the  disclosures  ot  our  future  iiumortaUty. 


been  made  subject  to  vanity  not  willingly, 
on  the  part  at  least  of  any  who  now  live, 
but  by  reason  of  him  who  by  his  fatal 
disobedience  hath  brought  it  into  this 
bondage — yet  it  is  a  bondage  that  is 
mingled  and  alleviated  with  hope  ;  and 
that  too  a  warranted  hope,  because  crea- 
tion shall  also  be  delivered  from  the  bon- 
dage of  corruption :  And  emancipated 
from  those  fetters  which  now  bind  and 
burden  and  make  it  impracticable  and 
ungracious,  it  will  come  forth  in  smiles 
that  shall  be  perennial  and  immortal,  it 
will  yield  a  grateful  compliance  to  the 
wishes  of  its  happy  inmates,  and  have  in 
all  its  operations  the  beneficent  flow  and 
freedom  of  God's  own  children. 

Having  rendered  to  you  a  general  ex- 
position of  this  remarkable  passage,  let 
us  now  look  a  little  more  narrowly  into 
the  separate  clauses  of  it. 

'  For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the 
creature  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of 
the  sons  of  God.'  We  have  already  hinted 
at  the  extension  of  this  clause  even  to  the 
lower  animals,  and  to  mute  insensible 
things.  There  might  be  somewhat  of 
personification  and  fancy  in  such  an 
application.  But  there  is  no  fancy  in 
generalising  it  so  far,  as  to  include  at 
least  all  the  members  of  the  great  human 
family.  There  is  a  sort  of  vague  unde- 
finable  impression,  we  think,  upon  all 
spirits,  of  some  great  evolution  of  the 
present  system  under  which  we  live — 
some  looking  towai-ds,  as  well  as  longing 
after  immortality — some  mysterious  but 
yet  powerful  sense  within  every  heart,  of 
the  present  as  a  state  of  confinement  and 
thraldom  ;  and  that  yet  a  day  of  light  and 
largeness  and  liberty  is  coming.  We 
cannot  imagine  of  unbelievers,  that  they 
have  any  very  precise  or  perhaps  confi- . 
dent  anticipation  on  the  subject,  any  more 
than  the  world  at  large  had  of  the  advent 
of  our  Messiah — though  a  very  general 
expectation  was  abroad  of  the  approach- 
ing arrival  of  some  great  personage  upon 
earth.  And,  in  like  manner,  there  is 
abroad  even  now  the  dim  and  the  distant 
vision  of  another  advent,  of  a  brighter 
and  a  blander  period  that  is  now  obscurely 
seen  or  guessed  at  tfirough  the  gloom  by 
which  humanity  is  encompassed — a  kind 
of  floating  anticipation,  suggested  perhaps 
by  the  experimental  feeling  that  there  is 
now  the  straitness  of  an  opprest  and 
limited  condition  ;  and  that  we  are  still 
among  the  toils,  and  the  difficulties,  and 
the  struggles,  of  an  embryo  state  of  exist 
ence.  It  is  altogether  worthy  of  remark 
and  illustrative  of  our  text,  that,  in  like 
manner  as  through  the  various  countries 
of  the  world,  there  is  a  very  wide  impres- 
sion of  a  primeval  condition  of  virtue  and 
blessedness  from  which  we  have  fallen— 


LECTURE   L\^. CHAPTER   VIII,    19 — 22. 


283 


SO  there  seems  a  veiy  wide  expectation 
of  the  species  being  at  length  restored  to 
the  same  health  and  harmony  and  loveli- 
ness,as  before.  The  vision  of  a  golden 
age  at  some  remote  period  of  antiquity,  is 
not  unaccompanied  with  the  vision  of  a 
yet  splendid  and  general  revival  of  all 
things.  Even  apart  from  revelation,  there 
floats  before  the  world's  eye  the  brilliant 
perspective  of  this  earth  being  at  length 
covered  with  a  righteous  and  regenerated 
family.  This  is  a  topic  on  which  even 
philosophy  has  its  fascinating  dreams ; 
and  there  are  philanthropists  in  our  day 
who  disown  Christianity,  yet  are  urged 
forward  to  enterprise  by  the  power  and 
the  pleasure  of  an  anticipation  so  beauti- 
ful. They  do  not  think  of  death.  They 
only  think  of  the  moral  and  political  glo- 
ries of  a  renovated  world,  and  of  these 
glories  as  unfading.  It  is  an  immortality 
after,  all  that  they  are  picturing.  While 
they  look  on  that  gospel  which  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light  as  a  fable — 
Still  they  tind  that  the  whole  capacity  of 
their  spirits  is  not  filled,  unless  they  can 
regale  them  with  the  prospect  of  an  im- 
mortality of  their  own.  Nothing  short  of 
this  will  satisfy  them ;  and  whether  you 
look  to  those  who  speculate  on  the  per- 
fectibility of  mankind,  or  those  who 
think  in  economic  theories  that  they  are 
laying  the  basis  on  which  might  be  reared 
the  permanent  happiness  of  nations — you 
see  but  the  creature  spurning  at  the  nar- 
rowness of  its  present  condition,  and 
waiting  in  earnest  expectancy  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God. 

'For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to 
vanity.  We  have  already  spoken  some- 
what of  the  inanimate  creation — of  the 
curse  under  which  the  ground  lieth,  and 
the  consequent  toil  to  which  man  is  sub- 
jected that  he  might  live — of  the  visible 
derangement  into  which  nature  has  been 
thrown,  so  that  all  her  elements  are  im- 
pregnated with  disease,  and  often  by 
hurricane  or  pestilence  or  sweeping  flood 
become  the  ministers  of  desolation.  We 
do  not  know  how  much  lovelier  the  face 
of  creation  would  have  stood  out  to  the 
eye,  had  not  sin  entered  within  its  con- 
fines. We  do  not  know  what  tints  of 
sweeter  beauty  had  diversified  the  land- 
scape, or  with  what  finer  notes  of  melody 
and  peace  the  purer  and  fresher  atmos- 
phere had  been  charged.  It  is  not  for  us 
to  tell  the  precise  amount  of  deterioration, 
which  the  mute  and  unconscious  material- 
ism hath  sustained  by  the  fall  of  Adam. 
But  certain  it  is,  that  vanity  hath  thereby 
obtained  a  sad  ascendant  over  every 
thing  that  lives  on  the  surface  of  our 
lower  world.  It  was  by  sin  that  death 
entered  amongst  us;  and  this  stamps  the 
character  of  vanity  of  vanities  on  all  who 


are  subject  to  it.  Through  the  whole  of 
life  doth  man  walk  in  a  vain  show,  and 
he  vexeth  himself  in  vain ;  and  even 
though  it  had  flowed  in  one  clear  and 
untroubled  current  of  felicity,  how  surely 
and  how  sadly  it  reacheth  its  termination. 
It  is  this  which  puts  a  mockery  on  all  the 
splendour  and  stateliness  of  this  world. 
The  grave  absorbs  all  and  annihilates  all ; 
and  as  one  generation  maketh  room  for 
another,  and  the  men  of  the  present  age 
are  borne  off'  the  scene  by  the  men  of  the 
age  that  is  to  follow,  we  cannot  regard 
the  history  of  our  species,  and  indeed  of 
all  the  living  tribes  that  people  the  surface 
of  this  labouring  earth — we  cannot  regard 
it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  series  of 
abortions.  There  is  so  much  of  the  pro- 
mise of  immortality  in  the  high  anticipa- 
tion and  heyday  of  youth — there  is  so 
much  of  the  seeming  power  of  immortal- 
ity in  the  vigour  of  established  manhood 
— there  is  even  so  much  of  the  character 
of  endurance  in  the  tenacity  wherewith 
age  keeps  itself  rivetted  to  the  pursuits 
and  interests  of  the  world,  to  its  busy 
schemes,  and  its  eager  prosecutions,  and 
its  castles  of  fame  or  accumulated  fortune 
— clinging,  as  it  does,  to  these  things  on 
the  very  brink  of  the  sepulchre ;  and 
keeping  the  firmer  hold  with  the  hand  of 
avarice,  the  sooner  that  its  deeds  and  its 
documents  and  its  various  parchments  of 
security  are  to  be  torn  away  from  it — 
Why  the  whole  picture  looks  so  farcical 
if  I  may  be  allowed  the  term — that  surely 
it  may  well  be  said  of  life  under  its  hap- 
piest guise,  and  in  the  midst  of  its  great- 
est prosperity,  that  it  is  altogether  subject 
unto  vanity. 

'Not  willingly  but  by  reason  of  him 
who  hath  subjected  the  same.'  This 
as  I  said  before  is  a  parenthesis,  by 
which  the  main  current  of  observation  is 
suspended.  Yet  here  it  comes  most  per- 
tinently in.  This  is  a  condition  which 
hath  passed  upon  it  by  the  sentence  of 
the  Creator,  not  gone  into  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  creature.  It  is  a  thing  of  or- 
dination not  of  choice.  The  mute  and 
inanimate  things  had  no  choice  of  that 
derangement  which  they  have  been  made 
to  undergo — of  that  decay  under  which 
so  many  of  them,  and  these  the  loveliest 
in  nature,  do  yearly  sicken  and  expire  ; 
and  so  exemplify  a  death  that  likens  them 
to  those  who  are  immediately  above 
themselves  in  the  scale  of  creation.  Nei- 
ther had  the  inferior  animals  any  volun- 
tary part  in  that  law  of  mortality  where- 
uiito  they  are  subject — or  in  that  law  of 
their  sentient  or  organic  nature  by  which 
in  obedience  to  a  tyrant  appetite,  they  go 
forth  upon  each  other  in  mutual  fierceness 
to  raven  and  to  destroy.  And  even  with 
man  it  is  a  thing  of  destiny,  and  he  comes 


284 


LECTURE   LVI. CHAPTER   VXU,    19 — 22. 


into  the  world  all  unconscious  of  that 
which  is  abiding  him.  What  does  an  in- 
fant know  of  death  ]  or  what  does  it 
know  of  those  restless  passions  by  which 
ere  death  ensues,  the  period  that  inter- 
venes is  a  troubled  dream  of  vexation  and 
vanity  1  They  lie  unevolved  and  sleep  in 
mysterious  embryo  among  the  curious  re- 
ceptacles of  iis  little  bosom.  If  this  sub- 
jection of  our  world  unto  vanity  is  resol- 
vible  into  willingness  at  all,  it  must  be 
the  willingnciss  of  those  first  parents  who 
yielded  to  it.  And  it  is  indeed  a  most 
striking  demonstration  of  the  malignity 
of  sin,  and  of  God's  unfaltering  hostility 
against  it — that,  on  its  first  entrance  with- 
in the  confines  of  our  planet  and  ever 
since,  Nature  took  on  a  hue  of  sickliness  ; 
and  the  very  elements  were  charged  with 
disease  ;  and  even  that  ground,  which  erst 
offered  a  soft  and  flojvery  carpet  for  the 
impress  of  ethereal  footsteps,  gathered 
into  a  more  rugged  and  intractable  temper 
than  before ;  and  death  established  its 
grim  relentless  empire  over  every  thing 
that  breathes ;  and  more  especially  man 
has  been  doomed  by  the  very  nobleness 
of  his  endowments,  by  the  greater  reach 
of  his  forebodings  and  the  finer  sensibili- 
ties that  belong  to  him,  to  a  larger  partic- 
ipation, to  a  higher  pre-eminence  in  the 
general  distress. 

'In  hope.'  Take  away  the  parenthesis 
and  you  read  '  Vanity  in  hope ' — or  an 
experience  of  present  evil  mixed  with  the 
anticipation  of  release  from  it.  In  the 
condition  of  the  accursed  angels,  there  is 
evil  unmixed  and  unalleviated.  We  can 
imagine  it,  but  we  do  not  feel  it.  We 
deem  that  in  every  clime  and  with  every 
human  creature,  there  is,  it  may  be  dimly 
and  faintly,  but  there  is  we  think  a  sort 
of  restless  aspiring  towards  better  things, 
which  could  not  exist  within  a  certain 
prospect  of  enlargement.  There  is  a  con- 
stitutional impulse  in  the  human  spirit, 
by  which  it  is  ever  stretching  forward  to 
a  better  and  a  happier  condition  than  the 
one  which  it  now  occupies  ;  and  if  it  can 
find  no  earthly  prospect  on  which  to  rest, 
still  the  tendency  abides  with  us;  and 
goads  us  on  as  it  were  to  unknown  futu- 
turity,  which  we  fill  with  wishes  and 
schemes  and  fond  imaginations,  rather 
than  that  a  faculty  should  lie  unemployed 
or  a  feeling  should  continue  to  actuate 
our  hearts  that  shall  be  left  without  an 
object  to  exercise  and  entertain  it.  We 
cannot  fancy  a  situation  of  greater  wretch- 
edness, than  that  from  which  hope  is  ex- 
cluded, and  before  which  there  lies  no 
open  vista  whatever  that  admits  one  ray 
of  light  from  the  fathomless  unknown  ;  or 
rather  perhaps  when  it  is  all  known  to 
be  the  cheerless  infinite  of  one  vast  and 
unknown  desolation — when  grim  certain- 


ty informs  the  conscience,  that  what  the 
present  void  and  the  present  agony  are 
now,  such  will  they  ever  be — when  the 
weight  that  is  now  upon  the  spisit  is 
surely  believed  by  the  owner  of  it  to  be 
irremediably  there;  and  there  is  ever 
ringing  in  his  ear,  the  unvaried  knell  of  a 
ceaseless  and  changeless  and  comfortless 
eternity.  Such  may  be  the  sad  state  of 
those  apostate  spirits  that  have  fallen 
before  us  ;  but  it  is  not  ours.  The  vanity 
to  which  we  are  subject  is  mingled  with 
hope  ;  and  it  bears  a  kind  of  experimen- 
tal evidence  to  that  economy  under  which 
we  live,  that  the  prospects  which  it  sets 
before  us  are  so  adapted  to  principles 
which  God  hath  still  permitted  to  remain 
in  our  nature.  It  shows  that  there  is  a 
counterpart  within  us  to  the  doctrine  that 
is  without  us.  It  secures  a  more  ready 
coalescence  on  our  part  with  the  revela- 
tion of  immortality.  It  gives  to  that  rev- 
elation the  advantage  of  being  met  with 
and  responded  to,  in  a  way  that  it  could 
not  so  promptly  and  immediately  have 
been,  had  there  not  been  such  an  adapta- 
tion between  the  mechanism  of  our  spirits 
and  the  matter  that  is  addrest  to  them.  It 
secures  it,  that  we  shall  spring  forth  with 
more  alacrity  and  desire  to  that  message 
by  which  our  futurity  is  unfolded — And 
however  misdirected  this  tendency  of  our 
nature,  either  on  the  part  of  those  who 
have  a  false  mythology  and  a  tabled  ely- 
sium,  or  on  the  part  of  those  who  without 
religion  at  all  have  still  a  philanthropy 
that  urges  them  forward  in  pursuit  of  an 
earthly  elysium  that  after  the  lapse  of 
generations  they  conceive  to  be  waiting 
our  species — still  they  are  better  subjects 
for  being  plied  with  the  doctrine  of  a  true 
revelation,  than  if  they  had  no  such  ten- 
dency. 

That  there  is  this  tendency,  and  a 
strong  one  too,  even  without  and  beyond 
the  limits  of  Christianity  is  quite  obvious. 
The  very  thirst  after  immortal  fame,  on 
the  part  of  orators  and  philosophers  and 
poets,  is  an  exemplification  of  it ;  and  so 
are  the  magnificent  sketches  of  a  prouder 
and  better  day  for  our  species,  that  float 
before  the  eye  of  our  sanguine  econo- 
mists ;  and  so  is  every  eftbrt  to  shake  off 
the  trammels  of  antiquity,->and  to  speed 
if  possible  with  an  innovator's  hand,  the 
amelioration  of  our  race ;  and  so  are 
those  lovely  visions  of  a  world  regenerat- 
ed into  benevolence  and  purity  and 
peace,  that  certain  uninspired  prophets 
love  to  gaze  upon.  Each  has  a  millenni- 
um of  his  own  on  which  he  doats  and 
dwells  with  kindred  imagination  ;  and 
whether  you  read  of  the  future  triumphs 
of  virtue  by  the  progress  of  light,  or  are 
called  to  look  upon  it  in  the  perspective 
of  planned  and  regulated  villages— put  il 


LECTURE   LVI. CHAPTER   VHI,    19 22. 


285 


all  down  to  the  craving  appetite,  or  even 
to  the  strong  expectancy  that  there  is  in 
human  bosoms,  for  some  bright  and  beau- 
teous evolution  in  the  history  of  human 
affairs. 

There  is  a  prophetic  announcement  of 
such  an  era,  or,  what  is  stronger  still,  a 
habitual  advertance  to  it,  on  the  part  of 
many  prophets  and  apostles  and  evange- 
lists. This  is  a  topic  on  which  Christians 
feel  that  they  have  a  warrant  for  very  no- 
ble and  high  anticipations.  The  gospel 
throws  open  to  the  eye  of  faith  a  vista, 
that  terminates  in  a  better  day  of  glory 
and  of  rejoicing  which  shall  fill  the  whole 
-earth  ;  and  with  this  peculiarity,  which  is 
all  its  own,  that,  while  it  points  the  eye  to 
this  moral  scene,  it  puts  into  the  hand  that 
specific  instrument  by  which  it  is  to  be 
realized.  It  is  through  the  ministry  of 
that  by  which  the  world  is  reconciled, 
that  it  shall  at  length  be  regenerated.  It 
is  on  their  acceptance  of  the  message  of 
peace,  that  a  purifying  influence  is  to  de- 
scend from  the  sanctuary  ;  and,  in  very 
proportion  as  the  word  of  faith  circulates 
and  finds  admittance  with  the  species,  will 
the  work  of  renovation  take  effect  upon 
them.  And,  amid  all  the  ridicule  which 
is  incurred  by  those  who  put  their  trust  in 
the  operation  of  a  preached  gospel,  we, 
at  this  very  day,  have  witnessed  the  sam- 
ples of  its  efficacy.  And  surely  it  is  not 
for  us  who  know  the  wonders  of  mission- 
ary success  ;  who,  within  the  compass  of 
our  own  evanescent  memory,  have  seen 
the  transition  of  a  whole  people  from  the 
grossness  of  heathenism  to  the  light  and 
love  of  Christianity — it  is  not  for  us  to 
give  up  as  hopeless  the  cause  of  this 
world's  amelioration. 

V.  21.  "  Because  the  creature  itself 
also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage 
of  corruption,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  children  of  God." 

Because — is  capable  from  the  original 
language  of  being  rendered  into  that — in 
which  case  the  passage  would  run  thus — 
*  For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to 
vanity,  in  hope  that  the  creature  itself 
shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of 
corruption.' — We  prefer  however  the  pre- 
sent translation.  It  is  not  true  that  all 
have  the  specific  hope  of  a  deliverance  in 
the  terms  of  the  verse — though  all  1  think 
have  a  kind  of  longing  and  indefinite  hope 
— a  vague  antioipation  of  a  better  and  a 
higher  existence  that  awaiteth  them — a 
fond  imagining  of  future  bliss — Not  con- 
fined to  the  mythologies  or  the  faiths  of 
the  old  world ;  but  felt  even  by  the  In- 
dians of  the  new, — mixing  itself  with  their 
feasts  and  their  battles  and  their  war- 
songs,  and  descending  with  something 
like  the  power  of  inspiration  upon  their 
hearts.    We  would  not  however  just  say 


of  these  wild  and  untaught  children  of 
Nature,  that  they  hoped  specifically  for 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God 
— though  we  should  say,  that,  because 
such  a  liberty  is  awaiting  us,  therefore 
there  is  a  general  hopefulness  of  some  en- 
largement or  other  among  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  human  family.  There  is  a 
marvellous  adaptation  between  the  truths 
of  the  gospel,  and  the  constitutional  ten- 
dencies of  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed. 
There  are  counterparts  in  revelation,  to 
every  feeling  and  every  faculty  of  nature. 
There  is  something  in  it  suited  to  our  fears 
and  our  wishes  and  also  to  our  hopes ;  and 
in  all  that  is  said  of  the  millennium  and 
the  latter-day  glory,  do  we  recognise  a 
tallying  accordancy  with  an  expectation, 
which,  however  it  may  have  originated,  is 
in  some  shape  or  other  very  widely  diffus- 
ed throughout  the  world. 

But  let  it  be  your  care,  my  brethren,  to 
have  a  hope  more  precise  and  practical 
than  this — a  hope  that  looks  forward  to 
the  prospects,  and  is  founded  on  the  pro- 
mises of  the  gospel — a  hope  of  enlarge- 
ment certainly,  but  such  an  enlargement 
as  even  now  it  is  competent  for  you  at 
least  to  enter  upon  though  not  fully  to 
expatiate  in  it.  What  the  liberty  is,  we 
may  infer  from  what  the  bondage  is.  It 
is  the  bondage  of  corruption  from  which 
you  are  to  be  delivered  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
it  is  the  liberty  of  a  will  set  free  from  the 
tyranny  of  evil  desires  into  which  you  are 
to  be  translated.  It  is  a  moral  and  spiri- 
tual liberty  to  which  you  look — a  release 
from  the  servitude  of  sin,  from  the  power 
and  the  prevalency  of  those  base  and 
earth-burn  affections  which  war  against 
the  soul.  Now^let  me  apprise  you,  that, 
to  obtain  this  release,  the  soul  must  now 
put  forth  all  the  energy  that  is  in  it,  and 
forthwith  embark  on  a  war  against  them. 
If  you  permit  them  to  be  your  tyrants  in 
time,  they  will  be  your  tormentors  through- 
out eternity.  Here  the  victory  will  not  be 
complete,  but  here  the  battle  must  be  be- 
gun ;  and  it  is  only  to  him  who  overcom- 
eth  in  the  conflicts  of  grace,  that  the  crown 
of  glory  is  given.  The  hope  of  the  gos- 
pel i-s  not  that  floating  and  vague  and 
aerial  speculation,  which  is  merely  ad- 
dressed to  the  contemplative  faculties,  and 
over  which  a  man  may  luxuriate  in  a  sort 
of  indolent  elysium  of  the  fancy.  It  is  a 
hope  that  turns  immediat<!ly  to  a  practical 
account;  and,  if  real,  will  urge  forward, 
and  that  immediately,  in  a  practical  di- 
rection. The  hope  of  unspotted  holiness 
in  heaven,  leads  to  the  toils  and  the  trials 
and  the  purifications  of  holiness  upon 
earth.  This  is  the  life  on  which  a  man 
enters,  and  that  in  good  earnest  and  in  a 
real  spirit  of  business,  on  the  moment  that 
his  mind  is  taken  possession  of  by  a  true 


286 


LECTtJRE   LVI. — CHAPTER   VIII,    19 22. 


faith  in  the  gospel.  It  is  when  we  know 
the  truth  that  the  truth  makes  us  free.  It 
is  when  we  look  to  the  fulness  of  that 
propitiation  which  was  made  for  the  sins 
of  the  world,  and  feel  how  under  its  bless- 
ed operation  all  sense  of  guilt  and  of 
reckoning  is  made  to  disappear  from  the 
conscience — it  is  then  that  we  are  loosed 
from  the  bond  of  despair,  and  can  see 
that  there  is  a  hope  in  the  new  obedience 
of  the  gospel.  And  it  is  then  too  that  we 
are  visited  with  trust,  when  beft)re  there 
was  terror — that  we  are  visited  with  a  de- 
light in  those  ways,  to  which  before  there 
were  distaste  and  antipathy — that  we  are 
visited  with  gratitude  to  Him,  who  before 
was  lightly  esteemed,  by  us — and  that, 
under  the  impulse  of  this  gratitude,  we 
enter  with  alacrity  and  good-will  on  that 
new  path,  which,  by  His  example  and  His 
precepts  He  hath  pointed  out  to  us.  You 
have  no  part  nor  lot  in  these  things,  if  you 
are  not  so  bestirring  yourselves. 

V.  22.  "For  we  know  that  the  whole 
creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain 
together  until  now." 

It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  there  is 
a  little  too  much  the  character  of  fancy 
in  our  previous  remarks,  for  the  solid  and 
simple  instruction  of  those  to  whom  they 
are  addressed.  And  yet  you  find  that  the 
evangelical  Paul,  he  who  was  determined 
to  know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified,  he  who  gloried  to  preach 
the  gospel  in  the  face  of  the  oppositions  of 
vain  philosophy  and  of  science  falsely  so 
called — you  find  of  him  that  he  casts  a 
widely  speculative  eye  over  the  whole 
creation,  which  in  this  verse  he  represents 
as  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain.  It  is 
quite  obvious  that  he  here  extends  the 
range  of  his  contemplations,  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Christian  church  properly  so 
called.  In  the  next  verse,  he  expressly 
singles  out  believers,  whom  he  represents 
also  as  in  the  agony  of  a  yet  unfulfilled 
expectation.  Not  only  they — that  is  Na- 
ture at  large — not  only  they  but  we  who 
have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit  do  groan 
inwardly.  So  that  in  this  the  present 
verse,  he  is  indulging  himself  with  a  very 
ample  perspective — he  is  taking  a  distant 
outlook  beyond  the  precincts  of  the  con- 
secrated territory — he  is  roaming  abroad, 
as  it  were,  and  with  generalised  survey 
over  the  whole  expanse  of  animate  and 
inanimate  things — he  counts  not  this  pas- 


sing, but  sublime  and  comprehensive  re- 
gard, unworthy  of  a  place  in  the  page  of 
inspiration.  And  accordingly,  set  and 
shrined  as  it  were  in  an  epistle  the  most 
replete  of  them  all  with  the  very  strictest 
peculiarities  of  the  theological  creed,  do 
you  find  an  image  more  striking  1  am  sure 
and  more  descriptive  of  a  universal  cha- 
racter, that  takes  in  the  whole  compass 
of  nature  in  all  its  varieties,  than  any  which 
I  have  ventured  to  bring  forward — thf;  cre- 
ation in  a  state  of  big  and  general  dis- 
tress, giving  token  of  some  pregnant  but 
yet  undisclosed  mystery  wherewith  it  is 
charged,  and  heaving  throughout  all  its 
borders  with  the  pains  and  the  portents 
of  its  coming  regeneration. 

This  is  the  aspect  which  our  present 
system  of  things  bore  to  the  eyes  of  the 
apostle,  and  its  aspect  still.  The  world  is 
not  at  ease.  The  element  in  which  it 
floats  is  far  from  being  of  a  tranquil  or  a 
rejoicing  character.  It  has  somehow  gone 
out  of  adjustment ;  and  is  evidently  off 
the  poise  or  the  balance  of  those  equable 
movements,  in  which  we  should  desire 
that  it  persisted  for  ever.  Like  the  stray 
member  of  a  serene  and  blissful  family, 
it  has  turned  into  a  wayward  comfortless 
ill-conditioned  thing,  that  still  teems  how- 
ever with  the  recollection  of  its  high  origi- 
nal, and  wildly  gleams  and  gladdens  in 
the  hope  of  its  future  restoration.  It  hath 
all  the  character  now  of  being  in  a  transi- 
tion state ;  and  with  all  those  symptoms 
of  restlessness  about  it  which  brooding 
insect  undergoes,  ere  it  passes  into  the 
death-like  chrysalis,  and  come  forth  again 
in  some  gay  and  beauteous  expansion  on 
the  fields  of  our  illuminated  atmosphere. 
Meanwhile  it  is  in  sore  labour;  and  the 
tempest's  sigh,  and  the  meteor's  flash,  and 
not  more  the  elemental  war  than  the  con- 
flict and  the  agony  that  are  upon  all 
spirits — the  vexing  care,  and  the  heated 
enterprise,  and  the  fierce  emulation,  and 
the  battle-cry  both  that  rings  among  the 
inferior  tribes  throughout  the  amplitude 
of  unpeopled  nature  and  that  breaks  as 
loudly  upon  the  ear  from  the  shock  of 
civilized  men — above  every  thing  the 
death,  the  sweeping  irresistible  death, 
which  makes  such  havoc  among  all  the 
ranks  of  animated  nature,  and  carries  off 
as  with  a  flood  its  successive  generations. 
These  are  the  now  overhanging  evils  of  a 
world  that  has  departed  from  its  God. 


LECTURE   LVII. CHAPTER   VIII,   23 — 25. 


287 


LECTURE  LVII. 


Romans  viii,  23- 


"  And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves  also,  which  have  the  first-fruits  of  tlje  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan  within  our- 
selves, waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our  body.  For  we  are  saved  by  hope :  but  hope  that  is 
seen  is  not  hope  :  for  what  a  man  seeth,  why  doth  he  yet  hope  for  ?  But  if  we  hope  for  that  we  see  not,  then  do 
we  with  patience  wait  for  it." 


V.  2.3.  "  And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves 
also,  which  have  the  first-fruits  of  the 
Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan  within 
ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  ivit, 
the  redemption  of  our  body." 

It  is  the  turn  of  expression  here,  the 
introduction  of  'even  we  ourselves' — as 
additional  to  and  apart  from  all  that  he 
had  asserted  before,  in  regard  to  the  in- 
tense and  even  painful  expectancy  of  na- 
ture for  its  coming  enlargement — it  is  this 
which,  more  than  any  other,  convinces  us 
of  the  amplitude  that  there  is  in  the  apos- 
tle's contemplations  ;  and  we  are  satisfied 
that  we  only  follow  in  his  track,  when  we 
atfirm  of  creation  at  large,  the  agony  and 
the  suspense  and  the  brooding  anticipa- 
tions that  we  have  ascribed  to  the  general 
species,  and  have  even  extended  in  some 
sense  to  the  irrational  creatures,  nay  to 
mute  and  inanimate  things.  The  apostle 
seems  to  pass  from  this  wider  speculation 
to  the  present  state  of  his  own  limited 
society — to  draw  himself  in  as  it  were 
from  the  world  to  the  church,  whom  ho 
represents  as  in  like  manner  labouring. 
Even  with  them  too,  there  is  a  present 
draw-back  from  that  full  and  final  bless- 
edness that  awaits  them — there  is  hope  far 
more  specific  and  lUrc,  than  that  which 
floats  and  dazzles  so  indistinctly  upon  the 
vague  imagination  of  those  who  are  with- 
out;  but  still  it  is  a  hope  subject  to  the 
deduction  while  they  remain  in  the  world 
of  a  remaining  vanity — there  is  an  evident 
composition  of  two  ingredients,  one  of 
them  the  Spirit  whereof  they  have  re- 
ceived already  the  first-fruits,  but  the 
other  of  them  a  vile  body  that  is  still  in  a 
bondage  from  which  it  has  not  yet  been 
fully  redeemed  or  emancipated— Insomucli 
that,  under  a  sense  of  its  thwarting  and 
oppressive  presence,  there  is  the  feeling, 
and  even  the  exclamation  of  a  sore  agony. 
The  reader  will  not  fail  to  recognise  in 
this  passage,  the  very  lamentation  that  is 
uttered  elsewhere  "O  wretched  man  that 
I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body 
of  this  death."  "Our  life  at  present  is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and  when  Christ 
who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  then  shall  we 
also  appear  with  him  in  glory."  "For  in 
this  we  groan,  earnestly  desiring  to  be 
clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is 
from  heaven."    "For  we  that  are  in  this 


tabernacle  do  groan  being  burdened — not 
for  that  we  would  be  unclothed  but  clothed 
upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed 
up  of  life."  "Now  he  that  wrought  us 
for  the  self-same  thing  is  God,  who  also 
hath  given  unto  us  the  earnest  of  the 
Spirit."  It  is  when  thus  clothed  upon 
that  "our  vile  bodies  are  changed  and 
fashioned  like  unto  the  glorious  body  of 
Christ." 

These  passages  all  harmonise,  in  the 
account  they  give  of  the  present  state  of 
believers  in  our  world.  In  spite  of  the 
enlargement  they  have  gotten,  it  is  still  a 
state  of  durance.  They  have  not  yet  had 
the  Spirit  without  measure,  but  only  the 
first  fruits  of  it.  They  have  not  yet  been 
delivered  from  the  presence  of  an  evil 
nature.  It  is  only  overruled,  not  extermi- 
nated. It  is  only  under  watch  and  under 
warfare — yet  not  stript  of  its  power  to 
fatigue  and  to  annoy.  The  life  of  a  Chris- 
tian differs  as  much  from  that  of  another 
man — as  the  smart  of  the  wounds  that  are 
inflicted  in  a  battle  for  freedom,  differs 
from  the  smart  of  the  wounds  that  are  in- 
flicted upon  captives  or  slaves  by  the  lash 
of  an  overseer.  But  then  it  also  differs 
as  much  from  that  which  it  will  be — as 
the  strenuousness  and  hazard  and  agony 
of  the  day  of  conflict,  differ  from  the  rest 
that  is  enjoyed,  and  the  triumphs  which 
are  felt,  and  the  music  that  is  lifted  up, 
and  the  smiles  of  gratulation  and  high 
contentment  that  are  exchanged  from  one 
happy  countenance  to  another,  on  the  day 
of  victory.  There  is  no  respite  from  the 
warfare  on  this  side  of  death.  A  larger 
supply  and  manifestation  of  God's  Spirit 
will  not  even  secure  it  to  us — for  while  it 
arms  with  new  power  against  the  enemy 
within,  it  also  endues  us  with  ne\t  and 
powerful  sensibility  to  the  now  diminish- 
ed but  still  more  hated  remainders  of  evil 
than  before.  So  that  the  final  release 
will  not  be  enjoyed  till  death,  and  even 
then  perhaps  it  will  amount  to  little  more 
than  rest  from  our  labours.  The  final 
triumph  will  not  be  till  the  resurrection, 
when  the  body  shall  again  be  called  forth 
from  the  tenement  in  which  it  long  hath 
mouldered ;  and  the  corrupt  principle 
shall  by  the  mysterious  transformation  of 
the  grave  be  fully  disengaged  from  it; 
and   that  framework,  every  vestige  of 


-288 


LECTURE   LVII. CHAPTER   VIU,    23 25. 


which  was  before  obliterated,  shall  put 
on  its  ancient  form,  but  be  thoroughly 
freed  of  that  moral  virus  which  now  so 
thoroughly  and  so  intimately  pervades  it ; 
and  its  reappearance  from  the  land  of  its 
present  captivity  will  indeed  be  to  it  a 
redemption  of  joy — achieved  by  Him, 
who,  in  giving  up  His  own  body,  gave  up 
the  price  of  their  glorious  immortality  in 
behalf  of  all  who  believe  on  Him. 

You  perceive  how  it  is,  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  that  there  can  be 
no  deliverance  to  the  Christian  from  the 
agony  of  a  conflict,  and  from  a  sense  of 
soreness  and  heaviness  and  discomfort, 
on  this  side  of  death.  For  there  passeth 
no  such  transformation  upon  his  body,  as 
to  change  it  from  the  state  and  character 
of  being  a  vile  body — for  it  so  remaineth 
till  the  departure  of  the  last  breath  from 
it.  The  whole  of  what  the  New  Testa- 
ment describes  as  the  old  man,  or  the 
carnal  man,  is  alive  even  unto  the  mo- 
ment of  our  earthly  dissolution — enfee- 
bled, no  doubt,  by  the  habit  of  frequent 
thwarting  and  mortification  to  which  it 
hath  been  subjected — kept  more  effectu- 
ally under  in  proportion  to  the  growth 
and  energy  of  the  rival  principle,  that  is 
fostered  by  prayer,  and  strengthened  by 
exercise,  and  placed  after  every  new  vic- 
tory on  the  vantage-ground  of  a  higher 
ascendancy  than  before  over  all  the 
rebellious  appetites  of  our  ungodly  and 
accursed  nature.  Yet,  in  spile  of  all  this 
prosperity,  there  is  a  felt  annoyance; 
and  to  which  the  mind  becomes  more 
painfully  and  sensibly  alive,  as  it  ad- 
vances into  a  meetness  for  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints.  For  if  a  disciple  be  making 
genuine  progress — Then,  along  with  the 
triumph  of  this  which  bears  him  up  on 
the  one  hand,  there  is  a  tenderness  that 
keeps  him  down  on  the  other  ;  and  that 
because  of  the  remaining  evil  which  still 
lurks  and  lingers  in  his  moral  constitu- 
tion, less  than  before  but  better  seen  than 
before — of  a  milder  taint,  but  now  looked 
at  with  a  purer  eye,  now  reflected  on  with 
a  deeper  humiliation.  And  thus  a  burden 
upon  his  spirit  which  the  world  cannot 
sympathise  with  ;  and  a  deeper  groaning 
within,  even  while  to  all  without  the 
graces  of  his  character  are  brightening 
into  a  more  vivid  lustre  than  before — 
a  greater  annoyance  from  one  quarter, 
along  with  a  greater  hope  and  satisfaction 
from  another,  and  that  because  his  self- 
acquaintance  is  growing,  and  his  sensi- 
bility is  growing  :  And  thus  it  is  that  he 
longs  more  earnestly  as  he  proceeds,  for 
the  entire  repose  of  perfect  godliness  and 
purity  and  love — for  a  thorough  extinc- 
tion from  his  moral  system  of  all  that  evil 
by  which  it  is  still  pervaded,  and  is  the 
more  offensive  to  him  just  as  he  becomes 


more  ethereal  and  heavenly  than  before 
— for  a  final  relief  from  the  last  dregs  of 
that  vitiated  nature,  which  still  hangs 
about  him  and  troubles  him  with  its  hate- 
ful presence — Insomuch  that  the  purest 
and  the  saintliest  of  men  have  been 
known  to  weep  upon  their  death-bed,  for 
that  still  adhering  corruption  which  they 
felt  to  be  most  dishonouring  to  God,  and 
most  disquieting  to  tht;ir  own  souls. 

Such  being  the  state  of  matters,  Chris- 
tians have  not  yet  come  to  the  inheritance 
of  perfect  virtue.  They  are  only  waiting 
for  it.  They  now  bend  forward  in  the 
attitude  of  expectants.  They  have  already 
got  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit;  and  this 
serves  at  least  as  an  earnest.  But  they 
are  far  from  thinking  that  they  have  yet 
attained.  St.  Paul  thought  so  much  other- 
wise, that  he  counted  his  acquisitions  to 
be  as  yet  nothing  ;  and  such  is  the  infinite 
distance  between  a  saint  on  earth  and  a 
saint  in  heaven,  that  the  former,  so  far 
from  having  any  adequate  share  of  the 
perfection  and  the  glory  to  which  the  lat- 
ter is  elevated,  has  not  even  an  adequate 
imagination  of  them.  He  sees  it,  by  a 
medium  of  such  exceeding  dimness,  that 
he  is  said  to  see  it  through  a  glass  darkly. 
He  knows  himself  to  be  one  of  the  child- 
ren of  God  ;  but  he  knows  not  yet  what  he 
shall  be — what  the  whole  amount  of  bless- 
edness and  of  perfection  is  which  belongs 
to  that  exalted  relationship,  and  to  which 
when  he  is  preferred,  he  receiveth  what 
may  substantially  and  in  the  full  sig- 
nificancy  of  the  term  be  called  his  adop- 
tion. It  is  then  that  the  most  signal  mark 
of  this  relation  to  God  is  conferred  upon 
him  ;  and  this  is  what  in  the  text  he  is 
represented  as  now  waiting  for.  This 
adoption  is  followed  up  by  a  short  ex- 
planatory clause,,  which  maketh  known 
what  it  is  that  it  consists  in — to  wit — the 
redemption  of  the  body.  It  is  brought 
back  from  the  land  of  its  captivity.  It  is 
called  forth  again  out  of  the  grave  into 
which  it  had  entered,  where  it  perhaps 
ages  before  had  been  deposited  as  a  natu- 
ral body,  but  whence  it  now  ariseth  a 
spiritual  body.  And  the  redemption  which 
it  then  undergoes  is  an  everlasting  re- 
demption. Death  will  no  more  have  the 
dominion  over  it.  It  will  become  immor- 
tal ;  but  this  is  not  the  whole  of  its  coming 
glory.  It  will  also  be  immaculate.  It  will 
furnish  no  element  to  thwart  or  to  impede 
the  movements  of  a  righteous  spirit ;  and 
by  which  it  is  that  the  whole  man  of  a 
believer  upon  earth  is  kept  in  a  state  of 
controversy.  From  its  then  regenerated 
mould  there  shall  have  been  ejected,  and 
that  conclusively,  both  the  seeds  of  mor- 
tality and  the  seeds  of  moral  evil.  The 
death  which  our  first  parent  entailed,  and 
the  corruption  which  he  entailed,  shall 


LECTURE   LVII. CHAPTER.   VIII,    23 — 25. 


289 


be  alike  put  forth  of  thatf  materialism 
wherewith  the  spirit  of  man  is  forthwith 
to  be  encompassed,  and  in  which  he  is  to 
be  equipped  for  the  services  of  eternity.  It 
is  saying  much  for  what  that  is  which 
essentially  consthutes  heaven,  when  it  is 
said  here  to  consist  in  the  redemption  of 
the  body.  It  is  in  truth  the  jar,  and  the 
dissonance,  and  the  maladjustment  with 
all  that  a  righteous  spirit  aspires  after  in 
the  way  of  moral  excellence — it  is  this 
which  now  distempers  our  world  ;  and  it 
is  this,  aggravated  and  universal,  which 
will  give  its  fiercest  agonies  to  the  ac- 
cursed in  the  place  of  condemnation. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  total  ex- 
emption from  the  carnal  and  the  corrupt 
ingredient — it  is  the  harmony  of  a  system 
all  whose  parts  are  in  unison,  and  all  on 
the  side  of  purest  virtue — it  is  the  scope 
that  will  then  be  for  the  doings  and  the 
desires  of  holiness,  when  the  body  shall 
lay  no  weight  as  now  upon  the  willing- 
ness of  the  spirit — This  is  the  redemption 
for  which  believers  are  waiting  here,  and 
the  hope  of  which  upholds  them  in  their 
struggle  with  all  the  perversities  of  our 
earthly  nature — it  is  this  of  which  they 
have  now  the  dim  and  distant  perspective, 
and  which  when  realised  will  constitute 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

V.  24,  25.  "  For  we  are  saved  by  hope- 
but  hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope:  for 
what  a  man  seeth,  why  doth  he  yet  hope 
for  1  But  if  we  hope  for  that  we  see  not, 
then  do  we  with  patience  wait  for  it." 

In  the  whole  of  this  passage,  it  seems 
the  drift  of  the  apostle  to  reconcile  those 
whom  he  addresses  to  their  present  suf- 
ferings— and  that  not  merely  to  the  per- 
secutions which  they  had  to  sustain  from 
without,  but  to  the  perplexities  and  spirit- 
ual misgivings  whereby  they  were  agitated 
within;  and  the  main  cause  of  which  in  the 
aspiring  bosom  of  every  honest  Christian, 
is  a  sense  of  his  own  exceeding  shortness 
from  the  high  standard  of  gospel  obedi- 
ence. What  he  desiderates  and  longs 
after,  is  to  be  saved  from  the  deadness 
and  carnality  of  his  own  earthly  nature  ; 
and  the  apostle  meets  this  anxiety,  by 
telling  him  that  the  actual  economy  of 
salvation  is  not  so  constituted,  as  to  bring 
to  those  who  are  its  objects  the  fulness  of 
an  immediate  possession,  but  as  to  hold 
this  out  to  them  as  a  thing  in  reserve — as 
a  thing  in  distant  anticipation.  We  are 
saved  by,  or  rather  we  are  saved  in  hope. 
Christians  in  this  world  are  maintained  in 
a  sort  of  analogy  to  the  general  state  of 
the  world,  which  has  already  been  affirm- 
'  d  as  a  mixture  between  present  vanity 
and  future  expectation.  If  we  look  for  a 
full  and  finished  salvation  now,  we  look 
for  that  which  the  gospel  gives  us  no  war- 
rant to  count  upon.  The  condition  in 
37 


which  it  places  us  here  is  one  of  expec- 
tancy, and  not  of  attainment.  The  salva- 
tion that  it  hath  brought  is  not  one  which 
we  have  now,  but  one  which  we  hope  to 
have  afterwards.  We  are  in  the  wrong 
if  we  give  way  to  heaviness,  because  we 
are  not  yet  fully  inducted  into  the  spirit- 
ual privileges  and  immunities  of  heaven. 
It  is  not  so  arranged  by  Him  who  had  the 
ordering  of  this  whole  administration  of 
grace.  By  the  very  constitution  of  it, 
what  we  aspire  after,  and  are  in  heaviness 
because  we  have  not  yet  reached,  is  ours 
only  in  prospect  and  not  in  possession. 
This  ought  to  satisfy  our  disquietudes.  It 
is  an  argument  for  patience.  The  dis- 
pensation under  which  we  sit  is  not  one 
of  sight  but  one  of  hope.  This  hope  is 
the  essential  characteristic  of  it,  which 
would  in  fact  be  expunged  were  the  full 
and  finished  reward  a  thing  of  presence 
and  not  a  thing  of  futurity.  It  would 
cease  to  be  a  matter  of  hope  if  it  were  a 
matter  of  vision — for  hope  that  is  seen  is 
not  hope,  for  what  we  see  we  do  not  hope 
for — what  is  in  posse.ssion  is  no  longer  in 
prospect.  Seeing  then  that  such  is  the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  that  is  so  framed 
as  to  place  its  consummation  not  beside 
us  but  in  a  distant  futurity  before  us,  let 
us  conform  ourselves  thereunto — let  us  sit 
down  and  be  satisfied  with  hope  instead 
of  perfect  happiness  in  the  meantime — 
let  us  wait  for  the  coming  glory  and  wait 
for  it  with  patience. 

But  though  the  phrase  admits  of  the 
translation  that  we  are  saved  in  hope,  in- 
timating thereby  the  simple  truth  that 
salvation  is  in  the  main  a  thing  of  expec- 
tancy while  we  live  in  the  world — yet 
though  we  should  adhere  to  the  present 
translation  of  our  being  saved  by  hope, 
and  thereby  ascribe  to  this  principle  a 
kind  of  efficacy  in  bringing  about  our 
salvation,  we  should  not  on  that  account 
traverse  any  of  those  principles  that  are 
unfolded  in  the  New  Testament.  There 
is  indeed  a  very  close  alliance  stated 
throughout  the  evangelical  writings,  be- 
tween the  hope  of  a  Christian  and  his 
salvation.  There  is  a  hope  that  is  in- 
stantly awakened  by  the  faith  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  and  it  is  often  reiterated  upon  us 
that  by  faith  we  are  saved.  I  cannot 
conceive  a  man  really  to  believe  even  in 
the  general  announcements  of  the  gospel, 
without  appropriating  to  himself  the  com- 
fort wherewith  they  are  charged,  and 
which  is  addressed  unto  all — for  while  ad- 
dressed unto  all  they  are  at  the  same  time 
as  I  have  often  affirmed,  pointed  specifi- 
cally unto  each  :  Nor  can  I  think  of  any 
honest  enquirer  after  salvation,  that  he 
shall  read  believingly  such  a  statement  as 
that  "  whosoever  cometh  unto  Christ  shall 
not  be  cast  out,"  or  such  an  invitation,  j^ 


290 


LECTURE    L\TI. CHAPTER   VIII.    23 — 25. 


"Come  unlo  me  all  ye  who  weary  and 
are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest," 
or  such  u  widely  sounding  call  as  "  Look 
unto  me  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth  and  be 
saved," — I  cannot  think  of  faith  in  any 
of  these  apart  from  the  hope  the  individ- 
ual hope  and  trust  they  are  fitted  to  awa- 
ken— so  tluit  the  affirmation  of  being  sav- 
ed by  hope  is  about  tantamount  to  the 
saying  that  by  faith  you  are  justified.  But 
this  of  being  justified  is  far  from  being  the 
whole  of  salvation.  The  term  includes  a 
great  deal  more  than  our  being  saved  from 
Avrath  ;  it  signifies  further  our  being  saved 
from  the  power  of  sin — as  in  that  passage 
where  it  is  said  that  we  are  saved  by  the 
washing  of  regeneration,  and  the  renew- 
ing of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  that  we  are 
so  saved  by  hope,  that  by  this  principle 
we  are  sanctitied  as  well  as  justified,  is 
directly  alfirmed  by  St.  John — when  he 
tells  us  that  "  he  who  hath  the  hope  of 
seeing  God  and  being  like  unto  God  puri- 
fieth  himself  even  as  God  is  pure." 

To  understand  how  it  iS  that  hope  should 
operate  in  this  way,  we  have  just  to  re- 
flect what  that  really  is  to  which  a  genu- 
ine believer  looketh  forward.  It  is  not  to 
a  paradise  of  sensuality,  else  he  might 
revel  as  nature  would  incline  him  among 
its  delights  and  gratifications.  It  is. to  a 
paradise  of  sacredness ;  and  we  hold  it 
morally  impossible  that  a  man  should 
dwell  with  fond  anticipation  on  such  a 
destiny,  without  a  taste  and  temper  of 
sacredness.  The  man  who  prefers  what 
is  earthly  to  what  is  heavenly,  will  turn 
away  his  face  from  the  better  country, 
and  from  the  road  that  leads  to  it ;  and  in 
reference  to  it  there  will  be  no  belief,  no 
hope,  no  kindred  aspiration.  With  such 
a  preference  he  withholds  all  attention  as 
well  as  all  desire  from  the  futurities  of 
another  world ;  and,  wholly  immersed  in 
the  cares  or  joys  of  the  present  one,  he 
lives  without  faith,  and  he  dies  with  the 
burden  of  this  condemnation  upon  him 
that  "  he  loved  the  darkness  rather  than 
the  light,  because  his  deeds  were  evil." 
It  has  been  defined  of  hope  that  it  is  a 
compound  of  desire  and  expectation  ;  and 
no  man  can  desire  such  a  heaven  as  that 
which  is  represented  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, without  the  work  of  holiness  being 
begun  in  him.  Were  it  merely  a  heaven 
of  animal  enjoyments,  or  a  heaven  that 
rang  with  melody,  or  a  heaven  that  was 
lighted  up  with  variegated  splendours,  or 
even  a  heaven  of  science  where  the  un- 
derstanding was  feasted  with  truth  even 
unto  extacy — then  one  might  have  the 
hope  of  such  a  heaven  without  being 
moralised  by  it.  But  when  it  is  a  heaven 
■whose  essential  characteristic  is  that  it  is 
a  place  of  holiness,  when  it  is  a  heaven 
defined  in  the  book  of  Psalms  as  the  land 


of  uprightness,  and  described  in  the  book 
of  Revelation  as  that  eternal  city  where 
the  servants  of  God  do  serve  him — then  it 
is  not  in  truth  or  in  nature,  that  one  should 
look  forward  with  complacency  to  his 
entrance  upon  such  a  heaven,  without  a 
growing  conformity  in  his  character  here 
to  that  which  he  believes  and  rejoices  to 
believe  shall  be  his  condhion  hereafter. 
He  cannot  look  with  pleased  expectancy 
to  such  a  place,  without  gathering  the  ra- 
diance of  its  virtues  upon  his  soul  ;  and 
if,  amid  the  crosses  and  fatigues  of  a 
treacherous  world,  this  be  habitually  the 
hope  by  which  he  is  sustained — then,  as 
surely  as  by  any  law  of  his  moral  or  sen- 
tient constitution,  this  also  is  the  hope  by 
which  he  will  be  sanctified. 

Before  quitting  this  subject,  let  me  sim- 
ply advert  to  a  cause,  that  serves  very 
much  to  aggravate  the  struggle  of  a  Chris- 
tian here  below,  and  to  expose  hint\  to  a 
still  more  acute  sense  than  he  might 
otherwise  have  had,  of  that  deadness  and 
deficiency  from  the  spiritual  life,  under 
which  even  Paul  and  his  converts  are  re- 
presented as  groaning  inwardly.  What  I 
allude  to,  though  perhaps  it  looks  like  an 
excrescence  from  the  main  subject  of  these 
remarks  to  allude  to  it  at  all,  is  the  way 
in  which  an  aspiring  Christian  must  be 
weighed  down,  as  to  all  his  holy  and 
heaven-born  tendencies — by  the  engross- 
ments of  business — by  the  multitude  of 
hours  that  he  consumes  every  day  among 
the  attentions  and  labours  of  a  pursuit, 
along  which  he  never  meets  with  any  one 
of  the  influences  of  sacredness — by  the 
exhaustion  in  which  this  lands  him  on 
each  recurring  evening — and  by  the  call 
that  he  feels  to  lie  upon  him,  of  giving  the 
first  and  earliest  vigour  of  his  necessary 
repose  to  the  very  toils,  that  so  spent  and 
secularised  him  yesterday.  To  a  man 
who  has  been  visited  with  any  unction 
upon  his  soul  from  the  upper  sanctuary,  I 
cannot  figure  a  heavier  burden  or  a  sorer 
discomfort  than  this  ;  and  just  as  we  have 
thought  it  right  occasionally,  even  from 
the  pulpit,  to  protest  against  the  keen  and 
busy  and  almost  gambling  adventure  of 
an  over-trading  age — so  would  we  protest 
against  that  total  absorption  of  spirit,  that 
overwhelming  load  upon  all  its  faculties, 
that  utter  alienation  from  better  things, 
which  must  ever  accrue  from  an  undue 
and  overdriven  employment.  The  two 
evils  work  in  fact  to  one  another's  hands. 
The  man  who  trades  beyond  the  compass 
of  his  means,  gives  himself  more  to  do 
than  he  can  well  overtake  ;  and  so  has  to 
labour  at  the  desk  of  his  counting-house, 
or  to  bustle  among  markets,  or  to  run  to 
and  fro  among  customers  and  correspond- 
ents at  a  distance,  beyond  the  compass  of 
his  time  or  his  physical  strength— and  so, 


LECTURE   LVII. CHAPTER   VIII,    23 25. 


291 


{n  the  neglect  of  all  spiritual  cultivation, 
his  heart  becomes  a  wilderness,  and  his 
family  ceases  to  profit  by  his  instructions 
or  his  example,  and  Christianity  goes  to 
utter  waste  on  a  mind  thus  overrun  with 
the  cares  and  the  keen  ambitions  of  a 
perishable  world,  and  the  good  seed  of 
the  word  of  God  is  choked  and  overborne 
— And  all  from  what]  from  the  tempta- 
tion that  he  has  given  way  to  of  extend- 
ing, and  that  to  undue  dimensions,  a  busi- 
ness that,  within  safe  and  moderate  limits, 
might  have  yielded  him  a  quiet  and  com- 
fortable passage  through  this  land  of 
vanity.  There  never  was  so  cruel  a  sacri- 
lice  as  this — of  all  the  snugness  and  tran- 
quillity that  he  might  have  perpetuated, 
in  the  character  of  a  thriving  well-condi- 
tioned, though  withal  perhaps  a  plain  and 
unambitious  citizen — had  he  only  not  ad- 
ventured himself  on  the  high  and  slippery 
places  of  daring  speculation  ;  and  given 
up  his  domestic  evenings,  and  his  un- 
broken Sabbaths,  and  the  perennial  con- 
tentment that  used  to  flow  within  his 
bosom,  and  his  simple  gratifications,  and 
all  the  quiet  opportunities  that  within  the 
shelter  of  an  humbler  but  happier  sphere 
he  would  have  enjoyed  for  communion 
with  a  present  God  and  the  preparations 
for  a  future  eternity.  Be  assured,  that 
there  is  a  limit  which  ought  to  be  laid  on 
the  number  and  extent  of  the  services, 
that  are  rendered  to  the  great  divinity  of 
the  place.  The  commerce  of  the  world 
cannot  be  pushed  beyond  a  certain  bar- 


rier ;  and  the  share  that  each  individual 
takes  of  it  cannot  be  so  pushed  either 
without  the  ruin  of  his  fortune,  or  at  all 
events,  the  utter  ruin  of  a  mind  wholly 
given  over  to  a  most  deceiving  and  a  most 
dangerous  idolatry.  Take  pity  on  your- 
selves. Take  pity  on  your  clerks  and 
journeymen  and  apprentices.  Offer  not 
the  encroachment  of  one  moment  upon 
their  Sabbaths ;  and  even  be  careful 
through  the  week,  lest  they  be  drudged 
and  worn  out  of  all  energy  for  a  far  nobler 
service  and  a  far  hi^ier  interest  than 
your  own.  There  is  nought  for  which  I^ 
more  admire  the  Bible,  than  the  experi- 
mental sagacity  wherewith  it  pronounces 
on  all  the  habits  and  temptations  and 
characteristics  of  human  life  in  each  of 
its  varieties — a  sagacity  that  might  still  be 
recognised  even  in  modern  days ;  and 
though  the  apostle  had  lived  in  our  city, 
and  spent  years  in  the  capacity  of  a  stu- 
dent or  a  spectator  on  the  exhibitions  of 
our  nature  that  he  found  in  it,  he  could 
not  have  more  happily  described  the 
wretchedness  and  the  folly  of  extreme 
mercantile  ambition,  than  in  this  passage 
to  Timothy — "  But  they  that  will  be  rich 
fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare  and  into 
many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which 
drown  men  in  destruction  and  perdition. 
For  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all 
evil — which  while  some  have  coveted  after 
they  have  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows." 


LECTURE  LYIII. 


Romans  viii,  26,  27. 

"  Likewise  the  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  infirmities  :  for  we  know  not  wliat  we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought ;  but  the 
Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered  And  he  that  searcheth  the  hearts 
kiioweth  what  is  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  because  he  maketh  intercession  for  the  saints  according  to  the  will  of  God. 


V.  26.  "  Likewise  the  Spirit  also  helpeth 
our  infirmities :  for  we  know  not  what  we 
should  pray  for  as  we  ought;  but  the 
Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us 
with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered." 

It  would  appear  from  the  first  clause  of 
this  verse,  that  the  great  subject  of  labou.* 
and  sore  anxiety  to  Christians,  and  under 
which  they  groan  inwardly,  is  their  defi- 
ciency from  holiness ;  and  the  great 
subject  of  their  hope,  is  the  perfect  holi- 
ness that  awaits  them  in  heaven.  But, 
additionally  to  this  expectation  of  the 
future,  the  apostle  also  tells  us  here  that 
there  is  partly  a  deliverance  at  present — 
a  foretaste  of  that  which  they  are  looking 
forward  to;  and  from  the  nature  of  the 


foretaste,  we  may  infer  the  nature  of  the 
anticipation.  Now  the  benefit  that  they 
have  in  possession  is  help  against  their 
infirmities  ;  and  so  the  benefit  which  they 
have  in  prospect  is  that  these  infirmities 
shall  be  utterly  and  conclusively  done 
away.  In  other  words  it  is  a  moral  en- 
largement on  which  the  truly  renovated 
Christian  hath  set  his  affections  and  his 
hopes.  They  are  the  glories  of  perfect 
virtue  after  which  he  aspires.  It  is  the 
fulness  of  the  image  and  character  of  the 
Godhead,  that  form  the  triumph  and  the 
rejoicing  of  the  blest  in  eternity.  It  is  an 
emancipation  from  the  present  carnality  ; 
and  the  present  corruptness ;  and  the 
weight  of  present  low  and  earthly  affec- 


292 


LECTURE   LVIII. — CHAPTER    Vm,    26,    27. 


tions  into  love  and  light  and  liberty,  while 
they  gaze  directly  on  the  excellence  of 
God  and  reflect  that  excellence  back  again 
from  their  own  character — this  is  the  true 
heaven  which  they  have  in  prospect,  and 
for  which  they  have  already  set  themselves 
out  in  busy  preparation — a  preparation 
therefore  of  holiness,  the  only  preparation 
that  can  fit  them  for  joining  in  the  ser- 
vices or  the  joys  of  the  upper  sanctuary, 
the  only  one  that  can  make  them  meet  for 
the  inheritance  of  the  saints. 

But,  meanwhile,  they  have  somewhat 
more  than  a  future  hope — they  have  a 
present  help ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark 
that  they  are  not  delivered  from  their 
infirmiiies,  they  are  only  helped  against 
them.  The  burden  of  them,  it  would 
appear,  is  not  lifted  off.  But  strength  is 
afforded  that  they  may  be  able  to  bear  it. 
The  pressure  still  exists  ;  but  there  is  an 
adequate  power  of  resistance  given,  by 
which  it  is  effectually  withstood.  Never- 
theless it  is  a  pressure,  a  felt  and  a  griev- 
ous pressure,  under  which  they  groan — 
even  as  a  strong  man  might  do  under  a 
burden,  though  able  with  much  pain  and 
fatigue  to  carry  it.  It  is  just  so  with  the 
Christian.  He  is  still  weary  and  heavy- 
laden  ;  and  in  this  respect  he  differs  from 
a  saint  in  heaven.  But  his  sins,  which  so 
weary  and  so  overload  him,  are  not  cher- 
ished by  him  as  his  enjoyments — they  are 
hated  and  denied  and  striven  against,  as 
his  deadly  enemies ;  and  in  this  respect 
he  differs  from  an  unrenovated  man  upon 
earth.  His  state  in  fact  is  a  state  of  com- 
position. His  life  is  a  life  of  conflict. 
There  is  war  in  his  soul.  The  vile  body 
aspires  to  the  mastery  by  its  instigations. 
The  mind  seeks  to  retain  the  ascendant 
against  it ;  and  God's  Spirit  is  sent  to  help 
it  in  its  purposes.  There  will  be  repose 
at  length,  but  not  here.  The  battle  will 
not  be  terminated  on  this  side  of  death. 
But  reinforcements  of  strength  will  be 
daily  sent  to  keep  up  the  combat — by 
sustaining  that  one  party,  which,  but  fur 
them,  would  have  surrendered.  So  that 
though  the  soul  is  not  defeated,  it  is  kept 
in  the  busy  turmoil  of  a  sore  warfare — it 
is  often  cast  down  though  not  destroyed. 

'For  we  know  not  what  we  should  pray 
for  as  we  ought.'  We  are  convinced  that 
many  feel  a  general  undirected  desire  to 
be  right — a  kind  of  vague  though  vivid 
earnestness — an  indefinite  longing  after 
God  and  goodness — a  sort  of  looking 
towards  Zion  and  preference  for  heavenly 
things — who  at  the  same  time  are  unable 
to  rest  upon  aught  that  is  specific  or 
satisfying.  They  have  the  sense  of  not 
being  as  they  should  be — an  indistinct  yet 
strong  impression  of  helplessness — the 
assurance,  though  not  a  very  specific  or 
luminous  one,  that  there  is  a  way  of  pas- 


sing into  a  state  of  rest  and  a  state  of 
enlargement,  could  they  only  but  find  it 
out  and  practically  enter  upon  it — There 
is  such  an  obscure,  yet  upon  the  whole 
urgent  and  habitual  tendency,  incidental 
to  men  at  the  outset  of  their  religious 
course;  and  even  abiding  with  them,  as 
it  did  with  Paul  and  his  disciples  in  our 
text,  for  a  long  time  after  they  had  entered 
upon  it.  They  know  not  perfectly  or 
precisely  what  is  the  matter  with  them,  or 
what  that  is  which  is  correctly  suited  to 
the  disease  or  the  deficiency  under  which 
they  labour.  They  would  fain  give  vent 
to  all  this  feeling  of  want  and  of  necessity 
in  prayer;  but,  hazy  and  unsettled  as 
their  spiritual  conceptions  are,  they  know 
not  what  to  pray  for  as  they  ought.  We 
think  that  there  must  be  some  present, 
whose  inward  experience  responds  to  the 
sketch  that  we  now  set  before  you — whose 
hearts  are  filled  with  desirousness,  but 
who,  incapable  of  shaping  the  expression 
of  it  into  any  distinct  or  definite  prayers, 
send  forth  instead  the  sighs  and  the  aspi- 
rations which  bespeak  little  more  than  a 
soul  in  earnest.  Amid  all  these  struggles 
then,  between  the  fervent  sincerity  of  the 
feelings  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  cloudi- 
ness of  apprehension  and  intellect  on  the 
other,  it  is  somewhat  satisfactory  to  per- 
ceive, that  even  the  apostle  and  his  con- 
verts, after  they  had  received  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  had  experience  of  the  very 
same  thing — that  before  their  eye  too, 
there  passed  such  floating  uncertainties 
of  yet  distant  and  unrealised  attainment 
as  they  could  not  embody — that,  under 
the  pressure  of  yet  unsatisfied  desire  and 
a  still  remaining  ignorance  of  what  they 
would  be  at,  they  heaved  ejaculations 
rather  than  prayers;  and  that  because 
they  knew  not  what  to  pray  for  as  they 
ought. 

'  But  the  Spirit  itself  maketh  interces- 
sion for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot 
be  uttered.' 

It  is  still  more  satisfactory  to  be  told,  as 
we  are  in  this  clause,  that,  in  those  general 
and  vague  but  withal  very  intense  and 
earnest  aspirations  of  soul  which  we  have 
now  adverted  to,  there  is,  not  only  a  re- 
semblance to  the  habit  of  Paul  himself 
and  of  those  disciples  who  had  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  but  that  it  is  the  Spirit 
itself  who  dictates  and  inspires  them. 
When  the  Spirit  maketh  intercession  f)r 
us,  it  is  not  by  any  direct  supplication 
from  Himself  to  God  the  Father  in  behalf 
of  any  one  individual ;  but  it  is  by  pour- 
ing upon  that  individual,  the  Spirit  of 
grace  and  supplication.  The  man  whom 
He  prays  for,  is  in  fact  the  organ  of  His 
praj'er.  The  prayer  passes,  as  it  were, 
frorn  the  Spirit  through  Him  who  is  the 
object  of  it.   Those  groanings  of  the  Spirit 


LECTURE   LVIII. CHAPTER.    VIII,    26,    27. 


293 


of  God  which  cannot  be  uttered,  are  those 
unutterable  desires  wherewith  the  heart 
of  a  seeker  after  Zion  is  charged  ;  and 
which,  in  defect  of  language,  perhaps 
even  in  defect  of  very  clear  and  definite 
conceptions,  can  only  find  vent  in  the  ar- 
dent but  unspeakable  breathings  of  one 
who  feels  his  need  and  longs  to  be  re- 
lieved from  it — who  hath  a  strong  and 
general  appetency  after  righteousness, 
and  yet  can  only  sigh  it  forth  in  ejacula- 
tions of  intense  earnestness.  Now  these 
are  called  here  the  groanings  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  because  it  is  in  fact  He  who  hath 
awakened  them  in  the  spirit  of  man. 
When  He  intercedes  for  a  believer,  the  be- 
liever's own  heart  is  .the  channel  through 
which  the  intercession  finds  its  way  to  the 
throne  of  grace.  It  is  not  that  there  is 
any  want  either  of  light  or  of  utterance 
about  Him  ;  but  He  doeth  His  work  gra- 
dually upon  us,  and  often  infuses  a  de- 
sirousness  into  our  hearts  before  He  re- 
veals the  truth  with  distinctness  unto  our 
understandings.  He  walketh  by  progres- 
sive footsteps,  in  accomplishing  the  crea- 
tion of  a  new  moral  world — even  as  He 
did  when  employed  in  the  creation  of  our 
present  system  of  materialism.  He  then 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  before 
He  said  Let  there  be  light  and  there  was 
light.  The  dark  and  muddy  element  was 
first  put  into  agitation,  and  the  very  tur- 
bulence into  which  it  was  thrown  may 
have  just  thickened  at  the  first  that  very 
chaos  out  of  which  it  was  emerging;  and 
so  it  often  is  with  him  who  is  born  of  the 
Spirit,  when  the  Spirit  begins  to  move 
upon  his  soul.  There  is  labour  without 
light — there  is  a  strong  and  general  excite- 
ment without  a  clear  guidance,  either 
where  you  are  to  turn,  or  on  what  visible 
path  you  are  to  enter — there  is  a  busy 
fermentation  of  shadowy  and  floating  de- 
sires and  indistinct  feelings,  whether  of  a 
present  misery  or  a  future  and  somehow 
attainable  enlargement — And,  these  all 
come  forth  in  the  very  indications  of  our 
text — proceeding  originally  from  God's 
Spirit,  but  passing  through  the  interme- 
dium of  man's;  and,  while  struggling 
there  with  the  darkness  and  obstinate  car- 
nality of  nature,  giving  rise  to  a  vigour 
and  a  vehemence  of  emotion  that  dis- 
charges itself  in  sighs  but  not  in  articula- 
tions. If  any  here  experience  such  a 
condition,  or  make  any  approximations 
towards  it,  let  him  not  despair — for  it  mav 
be  the  Spirit  that  is  at  work  with  him"; 
and  he  may  now  be  labouring  in  the  ago- 
nies of  his  new  birth,  in  the  distress  of 
his  coming  regeneration. 

That  among  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit, 
there  should  be  the  prayers  of  deep  and 
desirous  earnestness,  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  order  of  the  administration  of 


grace.    It  gives  important  insight  into  the 
methods  of  the  divine  economy  in  this 
world,  when  we  observe  that  the  promises 
of  God  are  meant  not  to  suspend  but  to 
stimulate  our  prayers.    And,  accordingly, 
after  that  He  has  declared.  He  will  give 
the  clean  heart  and  the  right  spirit,  He 
saith,  yet  for  all  these  things  must  I  be 
enquired  afler.    Before,  in  fact,  that  He 
poureth  those  influences  upon  the  soul  by 
which  it  becometh   rich  in   all  spiritual 
accomplishments,  He  poureth    upon  it  a 
sense  of  its  own  barrenness,  and  a  corre- 
spondent longing  after  the  right  feelings 
and  fertilities  of  a  new  creature  ;  and  so 
anterior,  to  all  other  supplies   from   the 
sanctuary  that  is  above,  did  He  pour  on 
the  house  of  David  of  the  Spirit  of  grace 
and  supplication.    One  of  His  promises  is 
to  turn  the  soul  into  a  well-watered  gar- 
den— yet,  ere  this  is  realised,  there  must 
be  a  felt  thirst  on  the  part  of  the  soul ;  a 
hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteous- 
ness, before  that  it  is  filled  ;  an  appetite 
that  craves  to  be  satisfied,  ere  the  satisfy- 
ing food  is  administered  ;  a  seeking  that 
precedes  the  finding  :     And  so  from   the 
descriptions  of  prophecy  it  would  appear, 
that,  when  the  desert  is  made  to  flourish, 
it  is  by  the  pouring  forth  of  water  upon 
thirsty  ground — upon  ground  not  merely 
destitute,  but  that  feels  as  it  were  and  de- 
sires to  be  relieved.     Let  us  cease  to  won- 
der then,  that  prayer  should  appear  among 
the  foremost  indications  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  being  at  work  with  us  ;  or  that  it  takes 
the  precedency  of  other  blessings,  or  that 
it    has    happened    so   frequently    in    the 
church,  that  a  season  of  supplication  went 
before   the   season   either   of  a  gracious 
deliverance  or  of  a  graci<3us  revival ;  or 
that  with  individuals  too,  as  well  as  with 
communities,  ere   you  can    point  to  any 
one  of  them  as  rejoicing  in  the  hope  or  as 
fruitful    in  all   the   righteousness   of  the 
gospel,  you  find  him  earnest  in  supplica- 
tion— and  perhaps  too  a  supplication  that 
is  not  spoken,  that  does  not  find  articula- 
tion for  its  etfluxes  from  the  heart,  that 
does  not  even  proceed  on  any  very  clear 
or  distinct  conception  of  what  the  v/ant 
is  or  what  are  the  supplies  which  are  ex- 
pressly suited  thereunto;  but  that,  in  the 
language  of  my  text,  ascends  in  general 
and   undirected   fervency   from   the   soul 
with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered. 
And   neither   are   we   to   wonder,  that, 
though  this  be  indeed  tne  Spirit's  doing, 
yet,  nevertheless,  there  is  a   mixture   of 
darkness  and  distress  in  the  whole  opera- 
tion.   There  is  perfect  light  and  liberty 
with   Him.    But    when    He    comes    into 
contact,  and  especially  at  the  first,  with  a 
soul  before  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins — 
when  He  has  to  operate  on  that  mass  of 
carnality,  where  He  finds  nought  but  one 


294 


LECTURE  Lvni. CHAPTER  VJU,  26,  27. 


inert  and  sluggish  mass  of  resistance — 
when,  instead  of  doing  the  work  separately 
and  by  Himself,  He  does  it  through  the 
opaque  medium  of  a  corrupt  human  soul 
— We  should  not  marvel,  though  the 
prayers  that  even  He  hath  originated,  be 
tinged  with  the  obscurity  of  that  dull  and 
distorted  medium  through  which  they 
have  to  pass.  We  know  that  to  the  sun 
in  the  lirmament,  we  should  ascribe  not 
merely  the  splendour  of  the  risen  day, 
but  even  the  faintest  streaks  and  glim- 
mering of  incipient  twilight;  and  that 
without  him,  all  would  be  thick  and  im- 
penetrable darkness.  It  is  because  of  the 
gross  and  intervening  earth,  that,  though 
something  be  seen  at  the  earliest  dawn  of 
morn,  it  is  yet  seen  so  dimly,  and  the  eye 
is  still  bewildered  among  visionary  and 
unsettled  forms,  while  it  wanders  over  the 
landscape.  And,  in  like  manner,  it  is  the 
Spirit  to  whom  we  shall  owe  at  last  the 
elfulgence  of  a  complete  manifestation ; 
and  to  whom  also  we  owe  at  present  even 
the  misty  and  troubled  light  that  hath 
e.xcited  us  to  seek,  but  is  scarcely  able  to 
guide  us  in  our  enquiries.  And  this  im- 
perfection is  not  because  of  Himself,  in 
whom  there  is  perfect  and  unclouded 
splendour.  It  is  only  because  of  the  gross 
and  terrestrial  mind  upon  which  He  ope- 
rates. There  is  the  conflict  of  two 
ingredients,  even  the  light  that  is  in  Him 
and  the  darkness  that  is  in  us;  and  the 
result  of  the  contlict  is  prayer,  but  prayer 
mixed  with  much  remaining  ignorance. 
It  is  the  mixture  of  His  intercession  with 
our  unull:erable  groanings — an  obscure 
day  that  precedes  the  daylight  of  the  soul 
— a  lustre  that  cometh  from  Him,  but 
tarnished  with  the  soil  and  broken  with 
the  turbulence  of  our  own  accursed  nature. 
And  let  us  not  think  it  strange  therefore, 
that,  as  the  compound  effect  of  God's 
Spirit  working  with  our  spirit,  and  not 
overbearing  our  infirmities  but  only  yet 
helping  these  infirmities — let  us  cease  to 
think  it  strange,  if  the  effect  should  only 
be  a  certain  vehemence  or  urgency  of 
desire,  but  still  in  some  measure  vague  or 
undirected,  because  of  a  still  abidmg 
darkness  in  the  soul.  And  again  there«- 
fore,  to  comfort  all  who  are  labouring 
among  the  disquietudes  of  such  a  condi- 
tion, we  repeat,  that,  even  amid  the  mazes 
and  uncertainties  in  which  they  toil  and 
have  as  yet  had  little  satisfaction,  the 
Spirit,  for  aught  we  know,  may  even  now 
be  at  work  with  them.  The  heavenly 
visitant  may  have  made  His  entrance,  and 
have  began  the  process  of  a  glorious 
transformation  on  the  materials  of  their 
inward  chaos.  The  spiritual  twilight  may 
now  be  breaking  out  as  the  harbinger  of 
a  coming  glory,  as  the  dim  fiickerings  of 


that  light  which  shineth  more  and  more 
unto  the  perfect  day. 

There  is  an  example  remarkably  anal- 
ogous to  this  in  the  old  prophets.  They 
spake  only  as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  They  poured  forth  their 
predictions  only  as  the  Spirit  gave  them 
utterance  ;  and  though  He  of  course  knew 
the  meaning  of  all  that  He  had  inspired 
Himself,  yet  they  themselves,  though  the 
organs  for  the  conveyance  of  His  intima- 
tions to  the  world,  knew  but  little  or 
nothing  of  the  sense  that  lay  under  them. 
And,  accordingly,  we  are  informed  by  the 
apostle  Peter  of  the  very  singular  attitude 
in  which  they  stood — as  prying  into  the 
sense  of  their  own  prophecieS — as  search- 
ing and  enquiring  diligently  into  the  nature 
of  that  coming  grace,  whereof  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  given  them  certain  warnings, 
which  to  themselves  were  unintelligible — 
as  speculating  what  thing  it  could  be,  and 
what  manner  of  time  it  was  which  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  in  them  did  signify,  when 
it  testified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  and  the  glory  that  should  follow. 
It  was  not  in  fact  unto  themselves  but 
unto  us  that  they  did  minister  ;  and  though 
the  resemblance  does  not  hold  throughout, 
yet  we  may  gather  from  the  case  that  we 
are  now  quoting,  how  in  like  manner  as 
holy  men  of  old  knew  not  the  meaning 
of  those  predictions  wherewith  themselves 
were  inspired — so  holy  men  of  the  present 
day,  and  more  especially  at  the  outset  of 
their  holiness,  might  feel  the  inspiration 
of  a  strong  desirousness  from  above,  and 
yet  be  ignorant  of  the  whole  force  and 
meaning  of  their  own  prayers.  There 
may  be  a  decided  fervour  of  praye^fuU 
ness — an  aspiring  tendency  after  better 
things — yet  a  most  indistinct  apprehension 
of  what  the  things  really  are  of  which 
they  most  stand  in  need,  and  that  most 
suited  them.  And  so  at  the  very  time 
that  the  Spirit  helpeth  their  infirmities, 
they  know  not  what  to  pray  for  as  they 
ought;  and  at  the  very  time  that  the 
Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  the/n, 
do  they  send  forth  groanings  from  the 
recesses  of  their  now  touched  and  awa- 
kened souls  which  cannot  be  uttered. 

But,  in  conclusion,  it  ought  to  be  re- 
marked that  this  state  of  darkness  is  not 
a  desirable  one  to  be  persisted  in.  One 
would  not  choose  to  live  always  in  twi- 
light ;  but  rather  does  he  press  onward, 
in  wish  and  in  expectation,  to  the  coming 
day.  Labour  after  distinct  and  satisfying 
apprehensions  of  the  truth  as  it  is  Christ 
Jesus.  Seek  to  know  your  disease ;  and 
seek  to  know  the  powers  and  the  proper- 
ties of  that  medicine,  which  is  set  forth  in 
the  gospel.  Study  and  search  with  dili- 
gence, and  by  a  careful  perusal  of  Holy 


LECTURE    LVIII. CHAPTER,   VIII,    26,    27. 


29;: 


Writ,  into  the  economy  of  man's  restora- 
tion— the  blood  which  atones — the  right- 
eousness which  justifies — the  sanctifying 
power  that  maketh  holy — the  law  that 
before  your  reconciliation  condemned 
you,  and  that  after  your  reconciliation 
became  the  rule  by  which  you  are  to 
walk,  the  compass  by  which  you  are  to 
guide  your  movements  towards  heaven. 
Even  in  this  work  too  yoLl  must  have  the 
Spirit  to  help  your  infirmities.  For  He  is 
the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  as  well  as  of  prayer, 
and  gives  you  revelation  in  the  knowledge 
of  Christ.  You  increase  by  Him  in  ac- 
quaintance with  God ;  and  though  at  the 
beginning  of  His  work,  and  perhaps  for 
some  time  afterwards,  there  may  be  a  sore 
conflict  of  doubts  and  desires  and  diffi- 
culties— yet  such  is  the  process  of  this 
work,  that  you  will  at  length  come  to 
experience  that  where  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is,  there  is  light — where  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty. 

But  still  it  ought  ever  to  be  kept  in 
mind,  that,  while  we  are  in  this  tabernacle, 
there  will  to  the  latest  hour  of  our  abode, 
be  a  remainder  of  darkness.  There  may 
be  a  brightening  manifestation  of  divine 
things,  as  we  proceed  onwards.  But  our 
outlook  towards  them,  will  be  through  the 
loopholes  of  a  bedimmed  and  tainted  ma- 
terialism. Still  we  shall  see  through  a 
glass  darkly.  It  is  in  fact  with  the  light 
of  the  gospel,  as  it  is  with  its  love  and  its 
peace  and  its  holiness.  It  will  be  com- 
pounded with  the  grossness  of  an  earthly 
nature.  It  will  be  shaded  with  an  incum- 
bent carnality.  The  realities  of  faith  v/ill 
be  seen,  not  through  a  purely  ethereal 
medium,  but  through  a  curtain  as  it  were 
— the  transparency  whereof  shall. have 
much  of  the  soil  and  the  tarnish  of  nature 
pervading  it.  And  this  transparency, 
though  clarified  as  we  advance,  will  never 
be  perfect  on  this  side  of  death.  Inso- 
much that  the  complaint  of  our  text  will 
be  found  to  suit  the  Christians  of  all  de- 
grees, the  disciples  of  all  stages.  Still  we 
shall  not  know  all  the  things  which  we 
should  pray  for  as  we  ought.  Still  will 
the  Spirit  be  needed  to  help  this  infirmity. 
Still  will  His  illumination  have  to  meet 
and  to  struggle  with  the  impediments  of  a 
vile  body ;  and  the  desirousness  after 
more  light,  still  outstripping  the  actual  at- 
tainment, will  vent  itself  forth,  in  some 
degree  as  at  the  first,  in  aspirations  that 
are  yet  indefinite — in  groanings  that  are 
yet  unutterable.  Let  this  teach,  in  all  our 
meditation  and  study  "upon  things  that  are 
sacred,  still  to  proceed  on  the  incapacity 
of  Nature  for  the  right  apprehension  of 
them — still  to  recognise  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
His  office  as  a  revealer — still,  in  our  pe- 
rusals of  the  word,  to  court  the  guidance 
of  that  Spirit,  through  whom  It  is  alone 


that  the  word  shines  with  clear  and  con- 
vincing lustre  upon  the  soul — still  to  meet 
the  promise  of  help  to  the  infirmity  of  our 
understanding  with  a  prayer  for  that  help  : 
And  thus  shall  we  be  enabled,  more  and 
more,  to  order  our  speech  and  our  argu- 
ment aright  before  God — to  pray  intelli- 
gently as  well  as  affectionatel)' — and  to 
body  forth  those  desires  which  now  ac- 
tuate us  in  a  way  so  vague  and  undefina- 
ble,  to  body  them  forth  in  words  that  may 
be  audibly  uttered,  in  conceptions  that 
may  be  distinctly  seized  upon. 

V.  27.  "  And  he  that  searcheth  the  hearts 
knoweth  what  is  the  mind  of  the  Spirit, 
because  he  maketh  intercession  for  the 
saints  according  to  the  will  of  God." 

You  may  perhaps  not  have  reflected 
much  on  the  office  of  the  Spirit  as  an  in- 
tercessor— viewing  this  as  more  properly 
the  office  of  the  now  exalted  Saviour.  The 
Saviour  intercedes  for  us  in  heaven.  The 
Spirit  intercedes  for  us  in  our  own  breast. 
The  one  intercession  is  pure  and  alto- 
getiier  unmixed  with  the  dross  of  earthli- 
ness.  The  other  passes  through  a  corrupt 
medium,  and  finds  its  way  among  the  ad- 
verse impediments  of  an  earthly  nature  ; 
and  by  the  time  that  it  cometh  forth  in  ex- 
pression, has  had  to  encounter  the  elements 
of  darkness  and  of  carnality  that  are  with- 
in us.  And,  not  from  any  defect  in  the 
power  which  oi'iginates  our  prayers,  but 
from  a  defect  in  the  organ  by  which  they 
are  conveyed,  do  they  arise  as  so  many 
broken  and  indistinct  aspirations  to  Him 
who  sitteth  on  the  throne.  The  man  from 
whom  they  ascend  is  perhaps  conscious 
of  nothing  but  a  deep  and  determined 
earnestness — thoroughly  intent  on  being 
right,  yet  clouded  and  confused  it  may  be 
in  his  apprehensions  as  to  the  way  of  be- 
coming so — not  knowing  therefore  what 
he  should  pray  for,  yet  in  virtue  of  the 
Spirit's  operation  pouring  out  the  ejacula- 
tions of  utmost  feeling  and  utmost  fer- 
vency. Now,  in  like  manner  as  the  holy 
men  of  old  when  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
did  not  understand  the  predictions  that 
were  put  into  their  mouths,  so  might  holy 
men  now  though  similarly  moved  not  un- 
derstand their  own  prayers.  All  that 
they  are  sensible  of  may  be  a  spirit  of 
prayerfulness  venting  itself  in  the  breath- 
ings that  are  not  articulated,  in  the  groans 
that  cannot  be  uttered.  But  though  they 
have  no  such  insight  into  the  workings 
and  expressions  of  their  own  heart,  God 
who  searcheth  the  heart  discerns  them 
thoroughly.  He  knows  from  what  quar- 
ter they  come — whether  from  His  own 
pure  Spirit,  or  from  that  corrupt  origin 
whence  there  issueth  nought  but  that 
which  is  abomination  in  His  sight.  He 
can  distinguish  between  the  genuine  and 
the  counterfeit ;  and,  more  especially  is 


296 


LECTURE  LVni. CHAPTER  vin,  26,  27 


He  acquainted  with  the  mind  of  His  own 
Spirit— even  as  man  is  acquainted  with 
his  own  thoughts.  If  from  the  former— 
tlie  prayer  that  has  been  suggested,  even 
though  it  announce  nothing  to  the  man 
himself  but  the  intense  desirousness 
whereby  he  feels  that  he  is  actuated,  an- 
nounces most  clearly  to  God  all  the  cha- 
racters of  truth  and  rightness  and  confor- 
mity with  the  whole  views  and  spirit  of 
His  government  which  can  recommend  it 
to  his  acceptance.  He  will  meet  with 
graciousness  the  supplication  that  Him- 


self hath  awakened.  He  hath  said  in  an- 
other  place  that  if  any  man  ask  that 
which  is  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God,  He 
will  give  it  to  him.  Now  what  the  Spirit 
suggests  though  darkly  to  the  man  him- 
self, yet  clearly  to  Him  who  searcheth 
man's  heart  and  can  ascertain  the  charac- 
ter of  every  movement  that  is  experienced 
there — whatever  is  thus  suggested  must 
be  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God,  and  have 
the  very  recommendation  upon  which  God 
hath  pledged  Himself  to  entertain  and  to 
answer  it. 


LECTURE  LIX. 


Romans  viii,  28. 

"  And  we  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according 

to  his  purpose." 


He  recurs  again  in  this  verse  to  the 
topic  that  he  introduced  in  the  eighteenth 
verse,  even  to  the  sufferings  of  the  present 
time  ;  and,  after  having  contrasted  them 
with  the  glory  and  the  enlargement  of 
their  future  prospects,  and  having  ad- 
verted not  merely  to  the  hope  that  will  be 
realised  then  but  also  to  the  help  that  is 
administered  now,  he,  as  a  last  argument 
for  reconciling  his  disciples  to  all  the  ad- 
versities of  their  earthly  condition,  affirms 
that  they  all  work  together  for  their  good  ; 
that  even  the  crosses  and  disasters  of  life 
are  so  many  blessings  in  disguise;  and 
that  the  whole  machinery  of  Providence, 
in  fact,  is  at  work  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  great  and  beneficent  pui'pose 
towards  them.  It,  in  the  first  place,  is 
abundantly  obvious  of  many  a  single  ad- 
versity— that  a  great  and  permanent  good 
may  come  out  of  it.  This  is  often  veri- 
fied on  the  ground  even  of  every-day  ex- 
perience— when  the  disease  brought  on 
by  intemperance  hath  been  known  to  ger- 
minate a  course  of  determined  sobriety  ; 
and  the  loss  by  a  daring  speculation  hath 
checked  the  adventurer  on  his  hazardous 
path,  and  turned  him  into  the  walk  of  safe 
though  moderate  prosperity  ;  and  the  felt 
discomfort  of  a  quarrel  hath  made  him  a 
far  more  patient  and  pacific  member  of 
society  than  he  else  would  have  been  ; 
and  many  other  visitations,  unpalatable 
on  the  instant  but  profitable  afterwards, 
have  each  turned  out  to  have  in  it  the 
wholesomeness  of  a  medical  draught  as 
well  as  its  bitterness.  Apart  from  Chris- 
tianity, or  from  the  bearings  which  our 
history  on  earth  has  on  our  preparation 
for  heaven — Man  has  often  found  that  it 
was  good  for  him  to  have  been  afflicted — 


that,  under  the  severe  but  salutary  disci- 
pline, wisdom  has  been  increased,  and 
character  has  been  strengthened,  and  the 
rough  independence  of  human  wilfulness 
has  been  tamed,  and  many  asperities  of 
temper  have  been  worn  away  ;  and  he, 
who  before  was  the  boisterous  and  impla- 
cable and  unsafe  member  of  society,  has 
been  chastened  down  into  all  the  arts  and 
delicacies  of  pleasing  companionship. 
And  so  of  many  a  single  infliction  on  the 
man  who  is  viewed,  not  as  a  citizen  of  the 
world  that  is  below,  but  as  a  candidate 
for  the  world  that  is  above.  The  over- 
throw of  his  fortune  has  given  him  a 
strong  practical  set  for  eternity.  The 
death  of  his  child  has  weaned  him  from 
all  the  idolatries  of  a  scene — whereof  the 
family,  the  home,  the  peace  and  shelter 
of  the  domestic  roof,  formed  the  most 
powerful  enchantments.  Even  the  dreari- 
ness of  remorse  hath  given  a  new  energy 
to  his  spiritual  frame,  and  made  him  both 
a  more  skilful  and  a  more  vigilant  war- 
rior on  the  field  of  contest  than  before. 
The  tempests  of  life,  if  so  withstood  that 
they  have  not  overthrown  him,  will  have 
fastened  him  more  stedfastly  to  the  hold 
of  religious  principle.  It  is  thus  that  tlie 
traveller  through  life  is  nurtured  for  the 
immortality  beyond  it.  He  is  made  per- 
fect by  sufferings.  He  sits  more  loose  to 
the  world,  in  proportion  as  he  finds  less 
in  it  to  fascinate  and  detain  him.  Its  very 
disappointments  have  the  effect  of  throw- 
ing him  upon  other  resources;  and,  cast- 
ing away  the  desires  and  the  delusions 
of  the  hope  that  perisheth,  he  clings  as  to 
the  alone  anchor  of  his  soul  by  the  hope 
that  abideth  for  ever.  On  the  scale  of 
infinite  duration,  a  present  evil  becomes 


LECTURE   LIX. CHAPTER   VIII,    28. 


297 


a  future  and  everlasting  benefit ;  and  we 
are  at  no  loss  to  perceive,  how  even  a  ca- 
lamity, that  to  the  eye  looks  most  tremen- 
dous and  would  overwhelm  one  of  the 
children  of  this  world  in  despair — how  it 
may  work  for  the  good  of  one  of  the  chil- 
dren of  light,  by  working  out  for  him  a 
far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory. 

But  these  adverse  visitations  do  not 
always  come  singly.  The  apostle  sup- 
poses otherwise,  as  may  be  gathered  from 
the  phrase  of  cfU  things  working  together. 
He  supposes  in  the  text,  not  one  single 
influence  from  one  event  alone ;  but  he 
supposes  the  mutual  or  the  concurrent  in- 
fluence of  two  or  more  events,  all  verging 
however  towards  the  one  result  of  good 
for  him  to  whom  they  have  befallen.  It 
has  often  been  said  that  misfortunes  sel- 
dom come  by  themselves  ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  it  often  occurs,  when  one  pas- 
sage of  our  history  is  signalised  by  an  ac- 
cumulation of  ills — when,  instead  of  be- 
ing called  upon  to  measure  our  strength 
with  one  calamity,  our  attention  is  shared 
and  distracted  among  several — when  the 
boding  dread  of  disaster  and  distress  low- 
ers upon  us  from  more  than  one  quarter 
of  that  visible  sphere  by  which  we  are 
surrounded — and  when  we  are  made  the 
subjects,  not  of  one,  but  of  manifold  tribu- 
lations. It  has  often  been  alleged  that 
the  pressure  of  each  distinct  calamity  is 
lightened,  when  the  anxiety  is  thus  dis- 
persed and  divided  among  several.  I  do 
not  think  so.  I  hold  it  easier  to  meet  with 
the  summoned  intrepidity  of  the  bosom 
one  great  and  nearly  overwhelming  mis- 
fortune,— than  it  is  to  have  a  constant 
tumult  kept  up  in  the  spirits,  by  the  cease- 
less play  of  so  many  petty  yet  intermina- 
ble harassments.  1  hold  it  a  less  ineligi- 
ble condition,  to  have  all  the  energies  of 
the  soul  collected  and  prepared  for  a 
mighty  shock  of  adversity,  than  to  have 
them  wasted  in  the  skirmishes  of  a  lighter 
yet  more  complicated  warfare. 

I  hold  it  not  only  an  occasion  of  greater 
glory,  but  positively  an  occasion  of  great- 
er ease,  when  one  tremendous  combatant 
approaches  on  whom  there  hangs  the 
fearful  issues  of  life,  or  of  that  which 
than  life  is  dearer — than  when  doomed  by 
the  stings  of  an  insect  tribe  to  die  by 
inches,  or  to  spend  in  perpetual  annoy- 
ance the  remainder  of  your  days.  And 
therefore  it  is  well,  that,  for  the  comfort 
of  exercised  humanity,  deliverance  is 
promised  out  of  six  and  of  seven  troubles; 
and  when  we  are  told  that  the  afflictions 
of  the  just  are  many,  but  that  God  will 
extricate  out  of  them  all ;  and  when  we 
are  bidden  to  count  it  all  joy,  though  we 
should  fall  not  into  one  but  into  manifold 
temptations ;  and  lastly,  when  we  are 
38 


assured  by  the  apostle  that,  not  merely 
one,  but  that  all  things  work  together 
for  good  unto  those  who  love  God.  For 
it  is  the  compounding  of  one  evil  thing 
with  another  that  aggravates  so  much  the 
disti-ess  of  each  of  them  ;  and  the  sensa- 
tion of  plague  or  of  perplexity  increases  in 
a  much  faster  proportion  than  the  number 
of  them  ;  and,  like  the  problem  of  the 
three  bodies,  one  additional  element  of 
distress  more  might  make  the  line  of  pru- 
dence far  more  difficult,  and  every  plan 
and  every  prospect  far  more  inscrutable 
than  before  :  And  thus  though  each  of  his 
cares  might  be  easily  provided  for,  could 
one  meet  each  with  undivided  strength, 
and  bend  upon  it  the  whole  force  of  his 
anxiety — yet,  from  the  very  multitude  of 
them,  might  there  ensue  a  general  help- 
lessness, that  needs  to  have  the  precise 
consolation  which  is  now  before  us.  The 
mechanism  of  Providence  is  made  up  of 
so  many  parts,  as  often  to  baffle  the  com- 
prehension of  man — yet  all  is  clear  to  the 
eye,  and  under  the  sovereign  hand  of  Him 
who  works  it;  and  when  we  are  lost  in 
the  bewilderments  of  a  history  that  we 
cannot  scan,  when  we  are  entangled 
among  the  mazes  of  a  labyrinth  that  we 
cannot  unravel,  it  is  well  to  be  told  that 
all  is  ordered  and  that  all  worketh  for 
good. 

I  should  imagine  that  I  now  speak  to 
the  experience  of  those,  who,  manifold  in 
the  adventures  of  business,  have  a  very 
extended  circumference  around  them, 
from  every  quarter  of  which  fears  and 
mischances  and  the  arrivals  of  disastrous 
intelligence  might  bring  fresh  and  fre- 
quent disquietudes  into  the  soul;  and  who 
therefore  may  have  felt  what  it  was  to  be 
visited  with  one  plague  after  another — 
perhaps  agonised  in  all  the  moral  sensi- 
bilities of  your  nature,  by  some  aggravat- 
ed wrong  of  injustice  ;  and  ere  you  have 
recovered  this  shock,  told  of  some  menac- 
ing fluctuation  in  that  market  where  the 
main  bulk  of  your  interest  lies;  and  fur- 
thermore waiting  on  the  rack  of  anxiety 
for  the  appearance  of  that  richly-laden 
vessel,  which  some  recent  storm  must 
have  put  in  jeopardy,  and  that  with  the 
eye  of  midnight  fancy  you  conceive  to  bo 
fearfully  rocking  amid  the  surges  of  an 
angry  ocean  :  And  all  this  mixed  up  with 
the  rumoured  bankruptcy  of  customers 
and  Correspondents,  with  bills  unanswered 
and  the  swift  approaches  of  that  time 
when  payments  that  far  exceed  your  pre-- 
sent  strength  shall  be  imperiously  requir- 
ed— These  are  the  foreign  invaders  of 
your  peace,  and  should  they  meet  unhap- 
pily with  the  broils  and  miseries  of  a  dis- 
tempered home — should  these  days  of 
vexation  be  followed  up  by  evenings  of 
discontent  and  discordancy ;  or,  what  is 


298 


LECTURE   LIX. CIUPTEB.    VIH,    28. 


also  grievous,  should  there  be  peace  and 
love  in  your  dwelling,  but  its  dearest  in- 
mate be  laid  on  the  couch  of  irrecovera- 
ble sickness — should  one  child  of  the 
family  be  dying,  or  another  by  his  vice 
and  his  wilfulness  minister  a  grief  as 
heavy  to  the  hearts  of  his  parents — should 
the  burden  upon  his  spirit,  which  this 
sorely  agitated  man  brings  with  him  daily 
from  abroad,  have  nought  to  alleviate  its 
pressure  within  the  door  of  his  own  habi- 
tation— What  a  noble  faith  it  would  re- 
quire to  bear  him  up  under  the  weight  and 
accumulation  of  all  these  evils ;  and  is 
there  ought  within  the  compass  of  nature 
so  suited  to  his  weary  and  heavy-laden 
spirit,  as  the  assurance  of  my  text  that  all 
of  them  shall  work  and  work  together  for 
his  good  1 

You  must  often  have  been  sensible,  in 
the  course  of  your  own  history,  how  big 
and  how  important  the  consequences 
were,  that  emanated  from  one  event, 
which  in  itself  was  insignificant — how  on 
the  slightest  accidents  the  greatest  inter- 
ests were  suspended — how,  moving  appa- 
rently at  random,  you  met  with  people  or 
with  occasions  that  gave  rise  perhaps  to 
far  the  most  memorable  passages  in  your 
life — how  the  very  street  on  which  you 
chanced  to  move,  brought  you  into  con- 
tact with  invitations  or  appointments  or 
proposals  of  any  sort,  which  brought  re- 
sults of  magnitude  along  with  them — In- 
somuch that  the  colour  and  direction  of 
your  whole  futurity  have  turned  on  what, 
apart  from  this  mighty  bearing,  would 
have  been  the  veriest  trifle  in  the  world. 
It  is  thus  that  the  great  drama  of  a  na- 
tion's polities  may  hinge  on  the  veriest 
bagatelle,  that  could  modify  or  suggest 
some  process  of  thought  in  the  heart  of  a 
single  individual.  The  most  remarkable 
instance  of  this  which  I  at  present  recol- 
lect, is,  when  the  pursuers  of  Mahomet 
who  followed  hard  upon  him  with  a  view 
to  take  his  life,  were  turned  away  from 
the  mouth  of  the  cave  in  which  he  had 
the  moment  before  taken  shelter,  by  the 
flight  of  a  bird  from  one  of  the  shrubs 
that  grew  at  its  entry — inferring  that,  had 
he  recently  passed  that  way,  the  bird 
must  have  been  previously  disturbed  away 
and  would  not  now  have  made  its  appear- 
ance. It  is  a  striking  remark  of  the  his- 
torian, that  this  bird,  by  its  flight  upon 
this  occasion,  changed  the  destiny  of  the 
world — instrumental  as  it  was  in  perpetu- 
ating the  life  of  the  false  prophet,  and, 
along  with  him,  the  reign  of  that  super- 
stition which  to  this  day  hath  a  wider  as- 
cendancy over  our  species  than  Chris- 
tianity itself.  And  such  indeed  are  the 
links  and  concatenations  of  all  history. 
A  word,  a  thought,  an  unforseen  emotion, 
an  event  of  paltriest  dimensions  in  itself, 


may  be  the  germ  of  an  influence  wide  as 
a  continent  and  lasting  as  a  thousand 
years ;  and  thus  it  is  that  the  politics  of 
man  are  batlled  in  the  mystery  of  thai 
higher  politics,  by  which  the  government 
of  the  Supreme  is  conducted,  and  where- 
by the  minutest  accidents  and  the  mighti- 
est results  interchange  and  have  equal 
eflicacy  the  one  upon  the  other.  It  is  well 
that  God  has  the  management ;  and  that 
what  to  man  is  a  chaos,  is  in  the  hands  of 
God  a  sure  and  unerrinoj  mechanism. 
Man  is  lost  and  wilders  in  the  multiplicity 
of  things,  and  their  diverse  operations  ; 
and  he  staggers  and  is  at  his  wit's  end  ; 
and  therefore  it  is  well  that  all  things  are 
under  the  control  of  that  great  and  pre- 
siding intelligence  which  is  above,  and 
that  God  maketh  all  things  work  together 
for  good  unto  those  who  love  Him. 

To  conclude  then  for  the  present.  Do 
you  not  perceive  that  at  this  rate  God 
would  be  divested  of  His  sovereignty,  if 
His  superintendance  were  not  universal! 
Is  not  the  historical  fact,  that  what  is  most 
minute  often  gives  rise  to  what  is  most 
momentous,  an  argument  for  the  theologi- 
cal doctrine  of  a  Trovidence  that  reaches 
even  to  the  slightest  and  most  unnoticea- 
ble  varieties'?  If  God  did  not  number  all 
the  hairs  of  our  head — if  His  appoint- 
ments did  not  include  the  fall  of  every 
sparrow  to  the  ground — then,  from  the 
observed  relation  of  events  to  each  other, 
empires  miglit  have  fallen,  and  the  faith 
of  whole  nations  been  subverted,  and 
the  greatest  evolutions  been  made  in 
the  progress  of  human  afl'airs,  all  the 
time  that  the  will  of  God  and  the  author- 
ity of  God  were  elements  of  utter  insig- 
niticance.  Sould  he  let  go  as  it  were  one 
small  ligament  in  the  vast  and  complica- 
ted machinery  of  the  world,  it  might  all 
run,  so  to  speak,  into  utter  divergency  of 
from  the  purposes  of  the  mind  that  form- 
ed it.  As  things  are  constituted,  the  influ- 
ence of  littles  carries  along  with  it  an 
experimental  demonstration,  that  the  pow- 
er and  direction  of  the  Godhead  extend 
even  unto  littles.  From  it  we  argue,  that 
there  is  no  alternative  between  a  provi- 
dence so  particular  as  to  embrace  all,  or 
an  atheism  so  universal  as  to  exclude  all, 
from  the  guidance  and  the  guardianship 
of  a  Divinity.  In  such  a  world,  where  all 
are  so  bound  together  in  the  way  of  in- 
fluence or  unvarying  succession,  there  is 
need  of  such  a  Providence.  And  even 
from  this  contemplation,  may  be  gotten 
something  that  should  reconcile  us  to  the 
idea  of  a  predestinating  God.  In  the  ful- 
lowing  verses  the  apostle  passes  onwards 
to  this  conception  ;  and  we  shall  be  more 
prepared  to  go  along  with  him,  when  we 
only  think,  that,  by  shutting  out  the  ordi- 
nation of  God  from  any  event  in  nature 


LECTURE   LIX. — CHAPTER   VIII,    28. 


299 


,  or  in  history,  we,  in  fact,  shut  Him  out 
from  that  lengthened  train  of  events, 
whereof  it  only  formed  one  of  the  step- 
ping-stones— that  by  breaking  one  link, 
however  small,  we  in  fact  wrest  the  chain 
out  of  that  hand  from  which  it  was  sus- 
pended— that,  by  refusing  Him  the  su- 
preme and  directing  agency  over  the  least 
incidents,  we  in  fact  depose  Him  from  all 
government  of  men  or  of  things,  even  in 
the  greatest  passages  of  their  story — In  a 
word,  that  we  cannot  disjoin  God  from 
one  particle  of  the  universe,  without  deso- 
lating the  universe  of  its  God. 

'  To  them  that  love  God.'  We  have  al- 
ready spoken  of  His  providence  ;  and  of 
the  sureness  wherewith  He  works  out  His 
own  purposes  by  a  mechanism  far  too 
complex  for  our  apprehension  ;  and  of 
the  way  in  which  He  intermingles  the  lit- 
tle with  the  great  in  the  history  of  human 
affairs  ;  and  of  the  need  that  there  is  for 
a  constant  superintendance  by  Him — see- 
ing that  on  the  minutest  incidents  of  life 
its  mightiest  and  most  abiding  interests 
are  often  made  to  turn  ;  and  of  the  sup- 
port which  a  sound  experience  renders  to 
a  most  important  doctrine  of  sound  theol- 
ogy— even  that  God,  instead  of  sitting  in 
remote  and  lofty  unconcern  to  our  world, 
save  in  the  noblest  and  grandest  passages 
of  its  history,  busies  Himself  in  fact  with 
the  operations  of  every  atom,  and  bears 
a  microscopic  regard  to  the  most  trivial 
of  events  and  of  things — even  while  .He 
sits  in  heaven's  high  throne,  and  casts  a 
directing  eye  over  space  and  its  immea- 
surable regions.  This  we  have  already 
attempted  to  make  as  palpable  to  your 
discernment  as  we  could :  and  we  are 
now  led  by  the  clause  that  is  before  us,  to 
bethink  ourselves  of  the  character  of 
those  to  whom  it  is  that  God  maketh  all 
things  work  together  for  their  good — even 
that  they  love  God. 

We  seldom  meet  with  so  of  much  ear- 
nestness among  those  who  are  intent  on 
their  preparation  for  heaven,  as  that  which 
is  excited  by  the  question  whether  or  not 
they  really  do  love  God.  It  is  indeed  a 
trying  question  on  which  few  adventure 
themselves  ;  and  on  which  most  who  do, 
have  to  record  that  marvellously  little 
satisfaction  is  to  be  found.  It  forms  one 
of  the  most  anxious  topics  of  self-exami- 
nation ;  and  the  thing  which  the  enquirer 
is  in  search  after,  even  the  affection  for 
the  Godhead  that  exists  in  his  own  bosom 
may  be  either  so  dull  and  undiscernible 
of  itself,  or  lie  so  buried  in  the  multitude 
of  other  things  that  crowd  and  confuse 
the  receptacles  of  the  inner  man,  as  to 
elude  the  investigation  altogether.  And 
then  the  question  comes,  how  am  I  to  be 
assured  of  my  interest  in  the  declaration 
that  all  things  shall  work  together  for  my 


good'!  The  promise  here  is  not  unto  all 
in  the  general,  but  to  those  who  harbour 
within  them  a  certain  feeling,  and  are 
stamped  upon  their  moral  or  spiritual  na- 
ture with  a  certain  character.  It  is  unto 
those  who  love  God.  Now  I  may  not  be 
sure  that  I  love  Him.  I  may  desire  to 
love  Him  ;  but  to  desire  is  one  thing  and 
to  do  is  another.  I  may  have  a  wish  for 
the  affection — of  this  I  should  suppose 
that  many  of  you  are  conscious ;  but  to 
have  a  wish  for  the  affection  is  not  to 
have  the  affection  itself,  and  the  question 
recurs — what  title  have  I  to  appropriate 
the  comforts  of  this  passage,  or  to  pre- 
sume on  the  strength  of  an  affirmation 
that  is  evidently  restricted  to  the  posses- 
sors of  a  certain  grace,  even  of  love  to 
God — what  title  have  I  to  imagine,  that 
the  power  and  the  providence  of  Heaven 
are  wholly  upon  my  side  1 

Now  it  does  not  follow,  that  you  are 
altogether  destitute  of  love  to  God,  be- 
cause it  stirs  so  languidly  within  you,  that 
you  are  not  able  very  distinctly  or  decid- 
edly to  recognise  it.  Your  very  desire  to 
love  Him  is  a  good  symptom — your  very 
grief  that  you  love  Him  not  bodes  favour- 
ably for  you.  The  complaint  that  you 
utter  of  a  heart  hard  and  ungrateful,  and 
that  hath  been  very  much  unmoved  by 
the  claims  which  God  hath  to  all  the  affec- 
tions of  it — is  one  which  has  been  re- 
echoed by  the  disciples  and  the  saints  of 
all  ages ;  and  which,  if  you  feel  as  you 
ought,  will  to  the  end  of  your  life  be  the 
subject  of  your  humiliation  and  your 
prayers.  Love  to  God  is  a  heavenly  aspi- 
ration, that  is  ever  kept  in  check  by  the 
drag  and  the  restraint  of  an  earthly  na- 
ture ;  and  from  which  you  shall  not  be 
unbound  till  the  soul  by  death  has  made 
its  escape  from  the  vile  body,  and  cleared 
its  unfettered  way  to  the  realms  of  light 
and  life  and  liberty.  In  very  proportion 
to  the  desirousness  wherewith  you  now 
soar  aloft,  will  you  be  galled  by  the  tena- 
cle  that  holds  you;  and,  feeling  with  the 
Psalmist  of  old  how  your  soul  cleaves  un- 
to the  dust,  will  you  pray  that  God  might 
quicken  you.  Where  there  is  a  complaint 
of  hardness,  there  is  in  fact  a  beginning 
of  tenderness.  Where  there  is  an  honest 
wish  for  affection,  there  is  in  fact  the 
embryo  affection  itself,  struggling  for  a 
growth  and  an  establishment  in  the  aspir- 
ing bosom.  Where  there  is  a  feeling  of 
sad  insensibility,  the  sensibility  hath 
begun ;  and  that  good  seed,  which  one 
can  with  difficulty  see  among  the^- still 
vigorous  and  unbroken  elements  of  car- 
nality, is  already  deposited,  and  will  rise 
into  a  tree  that  might  overspread  with  its 
droppings  the  whole  mass  of  our  then  re- 
generated nature.  Meanwhile  it  is  most 
desirable  thai  the  germ  should  expand — 


300 


LECTURE   LIX. CHAPTER   Vill,    28. 


that  the  precious  element  should  be  fos- 
tered into  a  more  visible  magnitude — that 
the  affection,  of  which  you  are  now  so 
fruitlessly  in  quest,  should  so  grow  as  to 
announce  itself — that  the  flame  should 
brighten  and  break  forth  out  of  its  present 
dull  and  lambent  obscurity:  And  the 
question  is,  how  shall  this  be  brought 
about?  Never  we  aflirm  by  the  exercise 
of  self-inspection  alone — never  in  the 
mere  employment  of  inwardly  brooding 
on  the  characters  that  are  already  graven 
upon  the  tablet  of  the  heart — never  by 
looking  to  oneself  as  the  subject,  at  the 
time  when  you  are  called  to  look  unto  the 
Saviour  as  the  object.  The  eye  is  not  a 
luminary.  It  sheds  no  light  on  the  field 
of  its  contemplation.  It  diffuses  no  heat 
over  it.  It  only  witnesses  the  splendour, 
but  can  in  no  way  create  it.  It  may  dis- 
cover that  which  is  visible,  but  it  does  not 
make  it  visible ;  and,  therefore,  if  you 
complain  that  you  cannot  see  the  love  of 
God  within  you,  it  is  not  by  poring  and 
penetrating  among  the  arcana  of  your 
moral  constitution  that  this  love  is  to  be 
inspired. 

'  To  those  who  are  the  called.'  This 
new  clause  may  be  turned  to  some  prac- 
tical account  in  the  resolving  of  the  diffi- 
culty. They  who  love  God  are  described 
by  another  and  a  distinct  characteristic. 
They  are  the  called,  by  which  we  under- 
stand not  those  who  have  merely  had  the 
call  or  invitation  of  the  gospel  sounded  in 
their  ears  ;  but  those  who  have  felt  the 
power  of  the  call  upon  their  hearts,  and 
have  complied  with  it  accordingly.  In  the 
well-weighed  language  of  our  Shorter  Ca- 
techism, it  signifies  those  who  are  effectu- 
ally called.  There  has  not  merely  been 
a  call  on  the  part  of  the  gospel,  but  there 
has  been  a  compliance  with  it  on  the  part 
of  their  souls — and  that  just  because  the 
gospel  hath  come  to  them,  not  in  woj'd 
only,  but  in  power  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  much  assurance.  Their  eyes 
have  been  opened  to  behold  the  reality  of 
the  gospel  overtures.  They  recognise  the 
death  of  Christ  as  an  effective  propitia- 
tion for  sin.  They  perceive  that  the  be- 
nefit of  this  propitiation  is  held  out  in 
offer  to  them  individually.  They  hear  the 
beseeching  voice  of  God  accompanied  with 
such  terms  as  any  and  all  and  whosoever ; 
and  they  understand  this  to  be  as  good  as 
a  voice  addressed  specifically  to  each  of 
themselves  ;  and  they  regard  a  message, 
so  couched  and  so  worded,  to  be  a  mes- 
sage from  Heaven  to  their  own  doors ; 
and  as  the  message  is  neither  more  nor 
less  than  an  entreaty  on  the  part  of  God 
that  they  will  be  reconciled  to  Him,  they 
respond  to  it  with  the  full  consent  and 
confidence  of  their  hearts  ;  and  by  so  do- 
ing they  in  fact  enter  upon  reconciliation. 


Their  faith  in  the  offer  constitutes  their 
acceptance  of  it.  By  meeting  God's  as- 
surance with  their  trust,  they  will  find, 
that,  according  to  this  trust,  so  shall  it  be 
done  unto  them.  By  simply  regarding 
the  transaction  of  the  sacrifice  for  sin  as 
a  real  and  honest  transaction,  they  shall 
have  a  full  share  in  it,  and  be  absolved 
from  their  sin.  Many  are  outwardly  call- 
ed ;  but,  turning  a  deaf  and  listless  ear 
thereunto,  they  come  not  under  the  desig- 
nation of  my  text.  They  are  not  the  call- 
ed— a  designation  reserved  for  those,  who 
have  not  only  heard  the  call,  but  who  have 
perceived  its  honesty  and  worth,  and  have 
proceeded  upon  it. 

You  see  then  the  connection  that  there 
is,  between  the  two  characteristics  of  those 
for  whose  good  God  maketh  all  things  to 
work  together.  The  two  characteristics 
are  that  they  love  God,  and  that  they  are 
the  called.  The  second  of  these  in  the 
order  of  enumeration,  is  the  first  in  the 
order  of  succession.  It  is  only  upon  our 
entertaining  the  call  of  the  gospel  and 
consenting  thereunto,  it  is  only  upon  this 
transition  taking  place  in  our  minds — that 
there  ensues  a  transition  of  the  heart  to 
the  love  of  God,  from  that  indifference  or 
even  hatred  which  we  formerly  bore  unto 
Him.  Anterior  to  this,  the  thought  of  God 
stood  associated  with  feelings  of  jealousy 
and  insecurity  and  alarm.  The  con- 
science, if  at  all  faithful,  could  not  fail  to 
reproach  us  for  our  delinquencies.  The 
law  of  God,  and  more  especially  if  re- 
garded in  its  pure  and  lofty  and  uncom- 
promising character,  could  not  but  sug- 
gest the  disturbing  imagination  of  many 
accounts  that  were  unsettled,  and  many 
violations  for  which  no  recompense  to  its 
outraged  dignity  had  been  made.  The 
character  of  God,  as  being  that  of  august 
and  unapproachable  sacredness,  offered 
no  asylum  from  the  disquietudes  that 
haunted  us ;  nor  could  we  ever  with  our 
eyes  open  to  the  incommutable  attributes 
of  His  holiness  and  His  justice  and  His 
truth,  could  we  ever  find  any  solid  repose 
in  that  fancied  indulgence  of  His  nature, 
which  forms  at  once  the  refuge  and  the 
delusion  of  a  meagre  and  sentimental 
piety.  Those  imaginations  of  the  God- 
head, which  make  up  a  religion  of  poetry, 
are  not  enough  for  a  religion  of  peace  ; 
and,  in  these  circumstances,  He,  to  all 
practical  accounts,  is  regarded  by  the  eye 
of  nature  with  that  dread  and  that  dis- 
quietude, which  are  inspired  by  the  sight 
of  an  enemy.  It  is  a  sense  of  guilt  that 
has  so  alienated  us  from  God ;  and  it  is 
under  the  latent  yet  powerful  conviction 
of  His  displeasure,  that  we  stand  before 
Ilim  with  our  hearts  in  chill  and  torpid 
apathy,  and  our  countenances  fallen.  It 
is  this  which  stands  as  a  wall  of  iron  be- 


LECTURE   LIX. CHAPTER   VIII,    28. 


301 


tween  heaven  and  earth  ;  and  wholly  de- 
bars the  intimacies  either  of  confidence 
or  of  regard,  from  Him  who  dwelleth  in 
the  high  and  the  awful  sanctuary.  And 
the  only  way,  we  repeat  it,  by  which  this 
else  impregnable  barrier  can  be  scaled, 
and  we  can  draw  nigh  in  kind  affection  to 
the  Father  who  made  us,  is  by  accepting 
the  only  authentic  offer  that  He  ever  held 
out  to  us  of  reconciliation.  It  is  by  be- 
holding Him  in  the  face  of  Christ.  It  is 
by  rejoicing  in  that  mercy  which  flows  so 
copiously  on  all  who  will,  through  the 
channel  of  his  consecrated  priesthood — 
and  that  not  at  the  expense  of  His  other 
attributes,  but  with  their  fullest  and  no- 
blest vindication.  It  is  this  alone  which 
by  quelling  the  suspicions  and  the  fears 
of  guilty  nature,  at  the  very  time  that  it 
presents  the  attractive  exhibition  of  a  God 
whose  graciousness  hath  not  impaired  but 
illustrated  His  glory — it  is  this  alone  that 
can  achieve  the  great  moral  revolution  in 
the  character  of  man  ;  and  by  rending 
the  enmity  of  nature,  can  soften  the  before 
sullen  and  intractable  heart  of  man,  for 
the  impression  of  that  new  character  in 
virtue  of  which  it  now  loves  God. 

Now  it  is  by  the  recurrence  of  the  mind 
to  that  truth  which  first  conveyed  to  it  the 
love  of  God,  that  this  affection  is  upholden 
— just  as  to  rekindle  your  admiration  of  a 
beautiful  scene  or  picture,  you  would  re- 
turn again  to  gaze  upon  it.  It  is  on  this 
principle  that  so  much  stress  is  laid  on 
keeping  the  truths  which  we  believe  in 
memory — insomuch,  that,  if  not  so  recall- 
ed and  dwelt  upon,  we  are  said  to  have 
believed  them  in  vain.  The  doctrines  of 
the  gospel  are  intended  for  a  further  pur- 
pose than  that  of  merely  making  up  a 
creed.  One  main  design  of  them  is  to 
move  the  affections  ;  and  more  especially, 
to  reawaken  that  affection  to  which  na- 
ture, when  oppressed  with  fears  or  weigh- 
ed down  with  the  lethargies  of  sense,  is 
wholly  incompetent — even  the  love  of 
God.  And  that  this  love  be  perennial  in 
our  hearts,  there  must  be  a  constant  ref- 
erence to  the  truth  which  first  inspired  it. 
The  way  to  keep  our  hearts  in  the  love 
of  God,  is  to  build  ourselves  up  on  our 
most  holy  faith.  To  recall  the  emotion 
when  it  hath  vanished  from  our  heart,  we 
must  recall  the  truth  which  hath  vanished 
from  our  remembrance.  The  way  to  ali- 
ment and  perpetuate  the  one,  is  to  detain 
the  other,  and  let  it  be  the  habitual  topic 
of  our  fondest  contemplation.  You  com- 
plain of  your  love  to  God  being  so  exceed- 
ingly dim  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
your  discernment.  I  know  of  no  other  way 
to  brighten  it,  than  simply  to  think  of 
Him  as  He  is,  and  more  especially  as  He 
stands  forth  to  the  believer's  eye  in  the 
glass  of  His  own  revelation — as  abundant 


in  mercy,  but  mercy  shrined  as  it  were  in 
the  imniutabilities  of  truth  and  holiness 
— as  longing  for  the  approaches  even  of 
the  guiltiest  of  His  children,  but  laying 
His  firm  and  authoritative  interdict  on 
that  approach  in  any  other  way  than  by 
the  appointed  mediatorship — as  turning 
His  throne  into  a  throne  of  grace,  but 
without  undermining  the  eternal  props  of 
judgment  and  of  righteousness  by  which 
it  is  upholden — as  mingling  in  His  own 
character  the  tenderness  of  a  friend,  with 
the  venerable  dignity  of  a  Sovereign — as 
blending  at  once  in  that  ec6nomy  which 
He  hath  set  up  over  His  erring  creatures, 
the  meekness  of  a  paternal  government 
with  the  majesty  of  its  power.  The  man 
who  is  groping  for  the  discovery  of  an 
affection  towards  God  among  the  secre- 
cies of  his  own  inscrutable  bosom,  I 
would  bid  him  cast  an  upward  eye  to  the 
revealed  countenance  of  the  Godhead  ; 
and  this  will  do  something  more  than  dis- 
cover the  affection, — it  will  create  it.  Ere 
it  can  be  made  manifest,  it  must  be  made 
to  exist ;  and,  most  assuredly,  it  is '  not 
by  downwardly  probing  and  penetrating 
among  the  mysteries  of  your  own  moral 
constitution,  that  you  will  summon  it  into 
being.  Ere  you  can  love  God,  you  must 
see  Him  to  be  lovely  ;  and  this  is  a  vision 
which  the  terrors  of  unexpiated  guilt,  and 
the  sense  of  a  controversy  with  God  that 
has  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  or  intelligi- 
bly made  up,  are  sure  to  scare  away.  It 
is  the  gospel,  and  it  alone,  that  resolves 
this  obstruction — nor  am  I  aware  of  any 
expedient  by  which  the  first  and  the 
greatest  law  can  again  be  established 
within  us,  than  by  accepting  the  call  of 
that  gospel  wherein  He  is  propounded  as 
a  just  God  and  a  Saviour. 

'According  to  his  purpose' — or  accord- 
ing to  His  previous  design.  We  now  tread 
on  the  borders  of  what  is  deemed  by  many 
to  be  a  great  mystery  ;  and  though  we 
have  no  great  respect  for  that  Theology 
which  loves  to  grapple  with  the  incom- 
prehensibles  of  lofty  speculation — yet  we 
must  not  shrink  from  ought  that  Scripture 
lays  across  our  path.  There  is  an  ambi- 
tion on  the  part  of  some  to  be  wise  above 
that  which  is  written  ;  but  that  is  no  rea- 
son why,  in  avoiding  this,  we  should  not 
attempt  at  least  to  be  wise  up  to  that 
which  is  written.  You  may  remember 
that  a  few  chapters  ago,  which,  from  the 
exceeding  tardiness  of  our  progress,  makes 
it  nearly  as  many  years  ago — we  came  to 
an  encounter  with  the  very  formidable 
doctine  of  original  sin,  and  found  the  task 
so  ponderous  that  it  took  several  succes- 
sive Sabbaths  ere  we  did  acquit  ourselves 
thereof.  The  few  succeeding  verses  pre- 
sent us  with  a  similar  exercise  on  the 
doctrine  of  predestination ;  and  we  most 


302 


LECTURE   LIX. CHAPTER   VJII,    28. 


assuredly  would  not  embark  on  so  ardu- 
ous ;xn  undertaking,  did  we  not  hold  it 
right  to  follow  fearlessly  wherever  the 
light  of  revelation  may  carry  us ;  and 
did  we  not  further  believe,  that,  like  all 
other  Scripture,  this  too  is  profitable,  and 
in  most  entire  harmony  v/ith  tiie  interests 
of  truth  and  virtue  in  our  world. 

The  purpose  then  signifies  a  previous 
design  ;  and  this  in  so  far  previous,  as  to 
be  even  anterior  to  the  existence  of  those 
who  are  the  objects  of  it.  In  the  second 
epistle  to  Timothy  there  is  an  allusion  to 
this  very  purpose  of  our  text,  and  where 
it  stands  associated  too  with  the  very  call 
that  is  now  under  consideration.-  "God 
hath  saved  us,"  says  the  apostle,  "  not 
according  to  our  works  but  according  to 
his  own  purpose  and  grace,  which  was 
given  in  Christ  Jesus  before  the  world 
began."  The  purpose  then  is  the  prior 
determination  in  the  mind  of  the  Divinity, 
that  such  a  one  should  be  converted  from 
the  error  of  his  ways — should  be  called 
from  darkness  unto  light — should  make 
that  transition  by  which  he  passes  from 
a  state  of  condemnation  to  a  state  of  ac- 
ceptance ;  and  the  call  which  we  have 
already  supposed  to  be  an  effectual  one, 
is  just  as  distinguishable  from  this  pre- 
vious determinution,  as  the  execution  of  a 
purpose  is  from  the  purpose  itself — or  as 
a  design  entertained  and  resolved  upon 
long  ago  is  from  its  fulfilment,  that  may 
only  take  place  this  very  day,  or  at  some 
distant  and  indefinite  futurity  before  us. 
'Moreover  whom  he  did  predestinate  them 
he  also  called.'  By  the  one  He  makes  the 
decree — By  the  other  he  carries  it  into 
effect.  And  we  again  repeat,  that  it  is  not 
in  the  daring  spirit  of  an  adventurer  we 
would  have  you  to  enter  this  field,  or  on  a 
game  of  strength  or  of  skill  with  the  dif- 
ficulties of  human  argument ;  but  in  the 
simple  and  lowly  spirit  of  genuine  disci- 
ples would  we  have  you  to  submit  your- 
selves to  the  Divine  testimony. 

It  is  quite  obvious  that  the  being  called 
here  means  something  totally  different, 
from  what  it  does  in  the  verse  where  it  is 
said  that  many  are  called  but  few  are 
chosen.  In  that  verse  the  call  of  the  gos- 
pel is  supposed  to  be  heard  by  many,  but 
complied  with  by  few.  But  in  the  verse 
before  us  they  who  are  the  called  have 
not  only  heard  the  call,  but  they  have  re- 
sponded to  it.  In  the  one  sense  all  who 
are  here  present,  may  be  made  to  pass 
among  the  called,  simply  by  sounding 
forth  among  you  the  offers  and  the  invita- 
tions of  grace — simply  by  bidding,  as  we 
are  fully  warranted  to  do,  each  and  all  to 
put  his  confidence  in  the  blood  of  Christ, 
and  so  have  his  sins  washed  away — sim- 
ply by  coming  forth  with  the  assurance, 
which  we  cast  fearlessly  abroad  in  the 


hearing  of  the  people,  that  there  is  no 
man,  be  his  guilt  what  it  may,  whom  God 
will  not  welcome  into  peace  with  Him, 
would  he  only  draw  nigh  in  the  name  of 
that  great  propitiation  which  has  been 
rendered  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  In 
this  sense  every  one  of  you  is  called.  But 
it  must  be  clear  to  your  own  experience, 
that  there  is  the  widest  possible  difference 
between  one  class  and  another  as  to  their 
reception  of  this  call — that  on  some  it 
falls  in  downright  bluntness,  and  moves 
them  not  out  of  the  deep  unconcern  and 
lethargy  of  nature — whilst  others  recog- 
nise it  as  a  voice  from  Heaven ;  and  are 
awakened  thereby  to  a  sense  of  reconcil- 
iation ;  and  feel  a  charm  and  a  precious- 
ness  in  the  doctrine  of  that  cross,  whereon 
the  enmity  between  God  and  a  sinful 
world  was  done  away  ;  and  through  the 
faith  which  they  are  enabled  to  put  in  the 
word  of  this  testimony,  are  translated  into 
a  felt  peace  and  friendship  with  that  God, 
who  turns  away  Plis  displeasure  from 
them  on  the  moment  that  they  turn  away 
their  distrust  from  Him  :  And  thus,  while 
you  all  in  one  sense  of  the  word  are  call- 
ed, they  are  the  latter  class  alone  who  are 
the  called  of  my  text — because,  called  ef- 
fectually, they  have  not  only  heard  the 
call  but  answered  it.  Here  then  is  a  pal- 
pable difference  between  two  sets  of 
hearers,  that  falls  to  be  accounted  for  ; 
and  the  account  every  where  given  of  it 
in  Scripture  is,  that  the  Spirit,  v/ho  blow- 
eth  where  He  listeth,  hath  carried  the 
message  with  power  to  the  listener's  heart 
in  the  one  case,  and  hath  gone  along  with 
it  ill  the  other — that  He  hath  inclined  the 
one  to  God's  testimonies,  and  left  the 
other  to  his  own  waywardness — that  wher- 
ever a  saving  impression  has  been  made, 
there  the  Holy  Ghost  has  been  at  work, 
who  operating  not  without  the  word  but 
by  the  word,  hath  fulfilled  on  the  person 
of  the  new  believer,  that  purpose  which 
God  conceived  in  his  favour  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world. 

But  let  not  any  feel  himself  thrown  at 
a  distance  from  salvation,  by  thus  con- 
necting it  with  the  antecedent  decree  of 
God  respecting  it.  We  are  sure  that  none 
ought,  who  feel  a  true  moral  earnestness 
on  the  subject,  and  are  honestly  and  de- 
sirously embarked  on  the  pursuit  of  their 
immortal  well-being.  For  though  the 
Spirit  bloweth  where  He  listeth,  yet  He 
listeth  so  to  do  on  all  who  court  and  who 
aspire  after  Him  ;  and  though  by  His 
work  upon  a  human  soul  He  is  fulfilling 
a  design  that  hath  been  conceived  from 
eternity,  yet  it  is  not  with  this  past  design 
but  with  the  present  fulfilment  that  you 
have  to  do :  And  the  matter  in  hand,  the 
matter  with  which  you  should  feel  your- 
self urged  and  occupied,  is,  that  by  the 


LECTUEE   LIX. — CIIArXER    VIII,    28. 


303 


operation  of  that  Spirit  you  may  indeed 
be  enlightened  in  the  truth  of  God,  and 
made  wise  unto  your  own  salvation.  For 
this  purpose  let  me  assure  you  of  His 
readiness  to  help  and  to  visit  all  who  ask 
Him — let  me  entreat  your  attention  to 
that  Bible,  which  with  Him  is  the  mighty 
instrument,  whereby  the  understanding 
and  the  heart  and  all  the  faculties  of  man 
are  gained  over  to  that  truth,  which  is 


able  at  once  to  sanctify  and  to  save  us — 
let  me  press  you  to  awake  and  be  active 
in  the  work,  putting  forth  all  the  strength 
that  is  in  you,  and  confident  that  if  you 
really  do  so  more  strength  will  be  given 
— So  that  if  the  whole  force  which  you 
have  now  be  honestly  and  heartily  di- 
rected to  the  object,  by  force  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  will  be  carried. 


LECTURE  LX. 


Romans  viii,  29. 

"  For  whom  lie  did  foreknow,  he  also  did  predestinate  to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son,  that  he  might  be  the 

first-born  among  many  brethren." 


There  is  a  vast  and  immeasurable  pro- 
gression of  events,  between  the  concep- 
tion of  God's  will  in  the  depths  of  the 
eternity  that  is  past,  and  the  full  consum- 
mation of  that  will  in  the  yet  unresolved 
mysteries  of  the  eternity  that  is  to  come. 
And  we  occupy  our  given  place  along  the 
line  of  that  progression.  We  form  one  in 
the  series  of  many  generations ;  and,  in 
in  our  assigned  part  of  this  mighty  chain 
we  can  only  see  a  little  way  on  either 
side  of  it — because  from  our  post  of  ob- 
servation, and  with  our  limited  range  of 
faculties,  it  soon  loses  itself  both  in  the 
obscurity  that  is  behind,  and  in  the  almost 
equal  obscurity  that  is  before  us.  Never- 
theless we  concede  to  Him  who  originated 
the  whole  of  this  wondrous  process,  that 
His  eye  reaches  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  it — that,  from  the  lofty  and  uncre- 
ated summit  of  His  own  omniscience.  He 
can  descry  all  the  successions  of  the  uni- 
verse that  Himself  hath  made — that  in  the 
single  fiat  of  His  power,  by  which  the  me- 
chanism of  creation  was  called  forth,  and 
all  its  laws  were  ordained,  there  were 
comprehended  all  the  events  that  took 
place  in  the  history  of  nature  or  of  prov- 
idence—and that  neither  their  variety  can 
bewilder,  nor  their  minuteness  can  elude 
the  one  glance,  by  which  he  is  able  to 
embrace  all  worlds,  and  look  onward 
through  an  infinity  of  ages.  And  He  doth 
thus  foreknow,  just  because  He  did  pre- 
destinate— just  because  in  the  very  consti- 
tution of  His  work,  there  are  the  princi- 
ples and  the  powers  by  which  its  every 
evolution  is  determined — -just  because  the 
sovereignty  that  He  hath  over  it,  is  far 
moi  3  absolute  than  that  which  the  human 
artificer  hath  over  all  the  operations  and 
and  results  of  the  machinery  that  he  hath 
framed.  It  is  not  the  only  mode  of  con- 
ception  in  which  we  might  regard  the  | 


sovereignty  of  God,  to  imagine  of  every 
one  event  as  isolated  from  all  the  others  ; 
but  which  still,  at  some  period  of  high 
antiquity  in  the  history  of  the  Godhead, 
was  made  the  subject  of  a  distinct  and 
authoritative  ordination.  There  is  ano- 
ther mode,  and  by  which  the  soverefgnty 
would  still  be  maintained  in  all  its  entire- 
ness — even  to  imagine  of  Him,  that  He 
brought  forth  the  universe,  just  as  a  skil- 
ful inventor  bringeth  forth  a  piece  of  cu- 
rious and  complicated  workmanship  ;  and 
that  He  furnished  it  at  the  first  with  all 
the  springs  and  the  weights  and  the  mov- 
ing forces,  that  fi.x  and  ascertain  both  the 
most  minute  and  the  mightiest  of  its  evo- 
lutions ;  and  that  the  wisdom  by  which 
He  could  frame  the  mechanism,  is  insep- 
arable from  the  wisdom  by  which  He 
could  foresee  all  the  particulars  of  its 
operation :  And  thus,  just  as  you  might 
say  of  him  who  maketh  and  who  windeth 
up  some  orrery  of  human  art,  and  who  is 
able  to  calculate  and  to  predict  all  the 
consequent  movements  and  positions  of  it 
at  any  point  of  time  that  may  be  specified 
— that  it  is,  he  who  by  his  own  will  hath 
determined  through  each  of  its  separate 
footsteps  the  miniature  history  of  his  own 
little  workmanship — in  like  manner  may 
you  say  of  the  great  the  stupendous  appa- 
ratus of  creation,  that  all  the  facts  and 
the  futurities  of  its  state  at  every  moment, 
are  determined  by  Him  who  called  it  into 
being  at  the  first,  and  endued  it  at  the  first 
with  all  its  properties.  We  do  not  affirm 
in  which  of  these  ways  it  is  that  the  af- 
fairs of  the  divine  government  are  con- 
ducted ;  but  in  either  way,  you  concede 
to  Him  who  presideth  over  it,  the  entire 
and  absolute  sovereignty — in  either  way 
you  realise  the  idea  of  a  predestinating 
God. 
And  we  seldom  meet  with  aiiy  disposi- 


304 


LECTURE   LY. CHAPTEE.    VIII,    29. 


tion  to  question  this  entire  and  unexcepted 
sovereignty  of  God,  in  reference  to  the 
material  world.  In  all  the  operations  of 
a  purely  unconscious  materialism,  there 
is  abundant  willingness  to  admit  a  precise 
necessity,  a  rigid  and  unfailing  ordination. 
There  is  not  a  more  impressive  exhibition 
of  this,  than  in  the  simple  but  magnifi- 
cent apparatus  of  the  visible  heavens — 
where,  out  of  only  two  forces,  those  enor- 
mous masses  that  float  in  boundless 
vacancy,  have  for  thousands  of  years 
persevered  with  mathematical  certainty 
in  the  courses  that  God  hath  ordained  for 
them — insomuch,  that,  even  by  the  skill 
of  man,  the  mystic  complexity  of  these 
shining  orbs  hath  been  most  beauteously 
unravelled  ;  and,  sure  as  geometry  itself, 
the  place  and  the  velocity  and  the  direc- 
tion of  every  planet  are  most  rigidly  to  be 
found.  Now  this  is  predestination  ;  and 
it  positively  matters  not  to  the  question, 
whether  the  actual  state  of  the  heavens  be 
willed  by  God  at  every  one  instant,  or  be 
the  sure  result  of  that  invariable  law 
which  He  at  first  impressed  upon  them. 

And  even  in  other  departments  of  the 
material  world,  where  the  order  of  suc- 
ceed'ing  events  hath  hitherto  baffled  all 
human  calculation,  still  it  is  held  that 
there  is  such  an  order  necessai-ily  fixed 
by  the  laws  of  nature,  or  by  the  will  of 
Him  who  hath  established  these  laws — 
insomuch,  that  even  the  fluctuations  of 
the  weather  are  not  at  random ;  and  a 
certain  principle  determines  every  fitful 
breeze,  and  every  forming  cloud,  and 
every  falling  shower — though  that  princi- 
ple hath  not  yet  been  seized  upon  by  us, 
so  as  that  we  can  prophesy  a  day  of  rain, 
just  as  we  can  prophesy  the  day  of  an 
eclipse.  The  vastness  of  Nature's  variety, 
soon  overpasses  our  feeble  apprehension 
— yet  this  does  not  hinder  our  belief,  that, 
apart  from  life  and  thought  and  volition, 
there  reigns  throughout  the  whole  of  its 
wide  empire  an  unfailing  necessity;  and, 
supposing  that  there  were  nought  but 
blind  and  unconscious  materialism  in  the 
world,  we  should  not  quarrel  with  the 
doctrine  of  predestination.  We  should 
recognise  the  appointment  of  God  as 
descending  even  to  the  humblest  event  in 
the  history  of  nature — as  determining  the 
force  of  every  billow  that  breaks  upon 
the  shore — as  prescribing  both  its  velocity 
and  its  path  to  every  flying  particle  of 
dust  that  to  our  eye  had  been  accidentally 
raised  by  some  gale  that  blew  over  us — 
as  conducting  every  vegetable  seed  to  its 
determined  spot ;  and  so  parcelling,  as  it 
were,  over  the  soil  of  an  uninhabited 
island,  all  the  varieties  of  the  produce 
that  it  bore — So  that  it  is  not  according  to 
a  fortuitous,  but  a  rigidly  preordained 
distribution  of  them,  when  we  witness  the 


trees  that  have  arisen  in  one  place  ;  and 
the  tufts  of  grass  that  abound  in  another  ; 
and  places  of  rank  luxuriance,  where 
nevertheless  there  is  not  a  blossom  and 
not  a  stalk  of  herbage,  that  has  not  been 
set  by  an  intelligent  hand,  and  bidden 
into  the  very  nook  it  occupies  by  that 
sovereign  voice  which  assigns  the  bounds 
of  every  habitation. 

Thus  where  there  is  nought  but  uncon- 
scious matter,  we  meet  with  no  exception 
against  the  doctrine  that  God  fixes  all  and 
predestines  all ;  and  that  each  process, 
however  lengthened  and  however  compli- 
cated, is  overruled  throughout  by  Him — 
so  as  that  it  goeth  onward  at  every  moment 
of  time,  with  the  sureness  of  mechanism  : 
And,  moreover,  if,  at  any  instant,  you 
were  to  open  your  eyes  on  a  landscape 
that  had  never  been  visited  with  human 
footstep,  or  rather  that  had  never  been 
disturbed  by  the  spontaneous  movement 
of  any  animal  whatever — then  it  is  ques- 
tioned by  few  or  by  none,  that  the  whole 
existing  arrangement  upon  its  surface  is 
as  it  hath  been  ordered  by  the  will  of 
God ;  and  standeth  forth  in  all  its  most 
minute  and  subordinate  details  as  He  hath 
appointed  it.  Neither  doth  it  disturb  the 
conviction  in  our  minds,  that  the  influences 
which  preside  over  this  arrangement,  or 
rather  which  actually  gave  rise  to  it,  are 
so  very  complex,  so  very  manifold,  and 
to  us  so  very  much  beyond  the  reach  of 
all  foresight  and  all  calculation,  that  we 
are  disposed  to  apply  to  the  whole  distri- 
bution of  the  things  and  objects  within 
our  contemplation  the  epithet  of  accidental 
— as  of  the  breeze  which  wafted  the 
downy  seed  to  the  random  situation  of  the 
plant  that  afterwai'ds  sprung  from  it;  or 
of  the  stream  upon  which  it  had  alighted, 
and  which  carried  it  down  to  the  jutting 
bank  that  detained  and  harboured  it ;  or 
of  the  capricious  weather,  that  gave  to 
the  future  vegetation  the  very  growth  that 
was  actually  experienced,  and  the  very 
strength  and  magnitude  that  were  actually 
attained.  We  do  make  a  heedless  appli- 
cation of  the  term  accidental  to  all  these 
varieties — just  because  they  are  far  too 
complex  and  bewildering  for  us  to  follow 
them  in  their  history,  or  to  trace  them  to 
their  causes.  Yet,  nevertheless,  when  we 
do  summon  our  attention  to  the  topic,  we 
do  not  refuse  that  the  hand  of  God  hath 
been  in  one  and  all  of  these  countless 
diversities — that  the  flower  which  hath 
found  its  accommodation  in  the  crevice 
of  the  rock  has  had  its  bed  prepared  by 
Him,  and  that  He  hath  planted  and  wa- 
tered it — that  over  the  whole  face  of  this 
wilderness,  there  is  not  an  hairbreadth  of 
deviation  from  that  very  picture  of  it, 
which  was  in  the  mind  of  the  Divinity 
before  that  He  evoked  it  into  being — that 


LECTURE   LX„ CHAPTER   VIII,    29. 


305 


design  and  destiny,  in  fact,  are  imprinted, 
in  irreversible  characters,  on  each  indi- 
vidual specimen  of  botany  in  this  yet 
untrodden  land — that  an  intelligent  linger 
did  assi'gn  the  precise  locality  and  limits 
of  every  species,  so  that  He  hath  fixed 
their  residence,  and  marked  their  borders, 
with  all  the  sureness  of  geometry — and 
that,  confused  to  our  eyes  as  are  these 
vast  and  varied  assemblages  which  lie 
dispersed  over  some  wide  and  solitary 
domain,  yet,  in  this  whole  husbandry  of 
nature,  there  is  positively  nought  that 
hath  fallen  out  at  random,  because  under 
the  absolute  superintendence  of  Him  who 
hath  the  elements  in  His  hand,  and  each 
of  which  renders  in  His  service  the  pre- 
cise accomplishment  of  that  whereunto 
He  hath  sent  it. 

We  are  all  abundantly  willing  then  to 
admit  of  an  entire  and  absolute  predesti- 
nation, in  the  world  of  created  matter  ; 
but  it  is  when  the  same  doctrine  is  ex- 
tended to  the  world  of  created  mind,  that 
we  shrink  and  are  in  difficulties.  For  ex- 
ample, let  this  solitary  island,  where  Na- 
ture hath  so  long  reigned  and  luxuriated 
without'a  rival,  at  length  meet  the  obser- 
vation of  the  voyager,  and  be  I'ecovered 
from  its  deep  oblivion  of  ages — let  it  now 
become  the  peopled  abode,  both  of  ani, 
mals  and  men — let  new  powers  and  new 
elements  be  thus  brought  to  act  upon  its 
husbandry — let  the  skill  and  the  labour 
and  the  intelligence  of  human  creatures, 
spread  a  refined  agriculture  over  the  sur- 
face of  it — So  as  to  cause  another  distri- 
bution of  the  vegetable  family,  from  that 
which  obtained  in  the  days  of  savage  and 
solitary  grandeur.  Now  you  will  remark 
that  the  actual  state  of  this  territory  is  not 
resolvible  into  the  operation  of  physical 
causes  alone ;  but  is  the  mingled  result 
of  the  physical  blended  with  the  moral — 
that  the  former  influences,  which  wont  to 
operate  by  themselves,  are  now  compli- 
cated with  other  influences  still  more  ca- 
pricious, or  at  least  still  less  within  the 
reach  of  calculation — that  human  thought 
and  human  choice  now  share  an  influ- 
ence, over  that  arrangement  which  before 
was  determined  by  the  elements  of  na- 
ture. Now  what  the  predestinarian  holds 
is,  that  the  determination  is  just  as  pre- 
cise and  as  necessary,  after  the  accession 
of  this  new  influence  as  it  was  before — 
that  though  living  creatures  have  taken 
possession  of  the  territory,  yet  that  all  its 
changes  and  all  its  processes  are  just  as 
rigidly  and  as  absolutely  as  ever  under 
the  sovereignty  of  God — that,  in  the  dis- 
persion of  plants  for  example,  the  flying 
bird  carries  the  seed  to  its ,  destined  spot 
with  as  great  sureness,  a^  it  could  be 
wafted  there  by  the  breeze  of  heaven — 
that  the  hoof  of  the  unwieldy  quadruped 
39 


is  as  surely  guided  to  crush  the  vegeta- 
tion which  God  meaneth  to  be  destroyed, 
as  are  those  invisible  particles  that  float 
through  the  atmosphere,  and  are  made  to 
fall  in  blight  or  in  mildew  on  those  fields 
which  they  have  spotted  with  disease — 
that  when  the  skipping  deer  hath  dibbled 
by  his  foot  a  soft  receptacle  for  the  fall- 
ing acorn,  the  law  of  gravitation  hath  not 
more  determinately  guided  the  one  in  a 
strict  rectilineal  path  to  that  place,  whence 
the  magnificent  oak  of  many  centuries  is 
to  arise,  than  the  law  of  animal  nature 
hath  brought  the  other  with  all  its  light 
and  airy  and  tremulous  motion  to  be  the 
unconscious  auxiliary  therein.  Hitherto 
then  all  is  destiny  ;  and  even  when  we 
pass  upwardly  to  the  doings  of  conscious 
and  intelligent  man,  the  sturdy  predesti- 
narian will  not  quit  his  hold  ;  but  affirms, 
that,  even  after  the  introduction  of  this 
new  element,  all  is  in  as  strict  subordina- 
tion to  the  will  of  God  as  before — that 
though  the  now  cleared  and  cultivated 
farms,  and  the  well-kept  gardens,  and  the 
beauteous  shrubbery  of  rising  villas,  and 
all  the  comforts  and  ornaments  of  civilized 
life  which  grace  the  transformed  land- 
scape— that  though  these  form  a  diflferent 
picture  of  the  island  from  that  which  we 
have  imagined  of  it  many  generations  be- 
fore— Yet  that  the  picture  now,  was  in  the 
mind  of  the  Divinity  before  the  creation 
of  the  world,  as  correctly  and  as  vividly 
as  the  picture  of  it  then — that  He  did  not 
lose  sight  of  it,  when  it  passed  from  the 
operation  of  His  own  unconscious  ele- 
ments into  the  hands  and  the  busy 
management  of  His  own  living,  nay  even 
of  His  own  planning  and  purposing  and 
rational  creatures — that  even  then,  it  did 
not  pass  beyond  the  scope  of  God's  pre- 
science and  of  God's  predetermination — 
that  men  are  as  certainly  the  instruments 
of  His  pleasure,  as  the  fire  and  the  air 
and  the  water  that  are  said  to  be  His  min- 
isters— Insomuch,  that,  in  the  glowing 
domains  of  art  and  population,  every  item 
of  the  perspective  which  is  aff"orded,  real- 
ised though  it  hath  been  by  the  busy 
hearts  and  hands  of  human  beings,  was 
also  all  settled  and  made  sure  in  the  coun- 
sels of  eternity. 

And  it  does  give  a  semblance  of  great 
consistency  and  truth  to  this  whole  specu- 
lation— that,  just  as  matter  acts  in  virtue 
of  certain  powers  and  properties  where- 
with the  Creator  hath  endowed  it,  so  mind 
also  hath  powers  and  properties  to  which 
all  its  movements  can  be  referred — and, 
more  especially,  that  the  part  which  man 
takes  in  the  husbandry  of  the  ground, 
may  as  distinctly  be  traced  to  the  opera- 
tion of  a  law  in  his  nature,  as  the  part 
which  the  elements  have  can  be  traced  to 
certain  fixed  and  unalienable  principles, 


306 


LECTURE   LX. CHAPTER   VUI,    29. 


according  to  which  they  act  on  the  phy- 
siology of  the  vegetable  world.  It  is  the 
Maker  of  all  things  who  hath  given  to 
each  of  them  its  own  peculiar  character- 
istic, according  to  which  each  .moves  in 
its  own  peculiar  and  characteristic  way. 
It  is  He,  in  particular,  who  hath  adapted 
the  economy  of  man's  frame  to  the  fruits 
of  the  earth;  and  who  goads  him  on  by 
the  ever-recurring  appetite  of  hunger ; 
and  who,  making  him  wiser  than  the  fowls 
of  heaven,  hath  given  to  him  a  reach  of 
anticipation  through  all  the  seasons  of  the 
year;  and  who  liath  enabled  him  to 
treasure  up  the  experience  of  the  past ; 
and  who  hath  supplied  him  with  princi- 
ples on  which  he  can  calculate  and  select 
and  determine  according  to  circumstances, 
and  fix  himself  down  in  the  abode  of  his 
settlement  and  on  the  field  of  his  industry. 
And  with  these  busy  processes  of  choice 
and  deliberation  and  the  agency  of  mo- 
tives, doth  God,  not  only  decide  the  greater 
movements  of  his  life,  but  in  reality  fills 
up  all  the  subordinate  details  of  it.  And 
thus  when  man  goeth  forth  unto  his,  la- 
bour, he  is  all  day  long  the  creature  of 
circumstances;  and  the  soil,  and  the  grain, 
and  the  exposure,  and  the  local  con- 
venience, and  the  right  successions  for  a 
profitable  husbandry,  and  the  facilities 
that  may  be  opened,  and  the  obstacles 
that  must  be  overcome — these  act  upon 
him  as  so  many  effective  considerations 
every  hour  of  the  day,  and  they  necessa- 
rily guide  and  influence  him  even  through 
the  minutest  details  of  his  agriculture. 
And  it  is  thus  that  we  may  detect  a  real 
process  in  his  part  of  the  operation,  as 
well  as  in  the  operation  of  the  uncon- 
scious elements — a  series  of  causes  and 
effects,  by  which  the  instrument  man  is 
directed  in  the  husbandry  of  art,  along 
with  all  the  other  instruments  that  with- 
out him  carried  forward  the  husbandry 
of  nature — an  actual  and  a  firm  concate- 
nation of  influences,  by  which  he  is  guided 
to  all  his  plans  and  all  his  performances, 
and  \vhich  descends  to  every  furrow  that 
he  draws,  and  every  field  that  he  incloses, 
and  every  handful  of  corn  tharhe  strews 
upon  its  surface.  And  thus  it  is  that  in 
the  opinion,  we  shall  not  say  of  theologi- 
ans only,  but  even  of  those  who  are  pro- 
foundest  in  philosophy,  the  intervention 
of  man  is  not  conceived  to  affect  the  pre- 
destination of  God — the  creature  is  re- 
garded as  but  an  instrument  in  the  hand 
of  the  Creator,  Vvhich  He  wieldeth  at  His 
pleasure — the  mechanism  of  thought  and 
desire  and  determination  is  held  to  be  only 
one  of  those  countless  diversities  of  ope- 
ration, through  which  it  is  God  that  work- 
eth  all  in  all.  And,  accordingly,  it  is  the 
article  of  many  a  philosopher's  as  well  as 
of  nmny  a  theologian's  creed,  that  the 


newly  acquired  features  of  the  now  culti- 
vated island,  were,  one  and  all  of  them 
in  the  perspective  of  God  from  the  begin- 
ning— nay  that  it  is  the  hand  of  God  Him- 
self which  hath  imprinted  them  all  upon 
the  face  of  the  altered  landscape — that 
with  man,  as  the  tool  by  which  His  own 
designs  are  carried  into  effect,  every 
hedge-row  hath  been  drawn,  and  every 
acre  hath  been  reclaimed,  and  every  edi- 
fice hath  been  raised,  and  one  definite 
space  hath  been  pencilled  over  with 
sweetest  verdure,  and  another  made  to 
wave  in  foliage,  and  another  to  shine 
forth  in  flowery  decoration,  and  another 
left  in  Nature's  untamed  luxuriance  ;  but 
altogether,  so  as  that  with  the  agency  of 
man.  He  hath  as  effectually  imprest  His 
own  design  and  His  own  destination  upon 
the  whole  of  this  territory,  as  when  with- 
out this  agency  He  had  nothing  but  His 
own  passive  and  unconscious  elements  to 
work  by. 

Thus  far  have  we  deemed  it  necessary, 
in  justice  to  a  topic,  which,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  our  lecturing,  hath  come  in  our 
way,  to  say  something  on  the  much  con- 
troverted doctrine  of  predestination — Yet, 
while  we  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  all 
our  convictions  are  upon  its  side,  such  is 
our  antipathy  to  any  thing  like  mere 
s'peculation  in  the  pulpit,  that  we  are  glad 
to  dispose  in  half  an  hour  of  an  argument, 
that  would  require  a  lengthened  and 
elaborate  treatise  for  the  full  solution  of 
it.  The  particular  illustration  that  we 
have  chosen,  is  not  perhaps  the  most 
effective  for  the  purpose  of  convincing — 
yet  we  have  preferred  it,  because  we 
think  it  the  best  that  has  occurred  to  us, 
for  elucidating  all  the  particular  uses  that 
stand  connected  with  this  article  of  faith. 
These  we  shall  defer  till  a  future  oppor- 
tunity; and,  meanwhile,  we  shall  barely 
advert  to  one  argument  more,  that,  even- 
apart  from  Scripture,  (which  according 
to  my  own  view  is  altogether  on  the  side 
of  predestination,)  but  that  even  apart 
from  Scripture,  might  we  think  be  most 
triumphantly  alleged  in  its  behalf. 

The  argument  is,  that,  by  admitting  of 
predestination  in  the  world  of  matter,  and 
excluding  it  from  the  world  of  mind,  you, 
in  fact,  exclude  God  from  the  most  digni- 
fied part  of  His  own  creation.  While  you 
invest  Him  with  an  entire  and  unexcepted 
supremacy  over  the  mass  of  unconscious 
bodies,  you  rifle  from  Him  His  authority 
over  the  moral  and  the  intelligent  empire 
of  spirits — Nay,  by  erecting  each  of  these 
spirits  into  a  principle  of  spontaneous 
and  independent  operation,  the  capricious 
movements  of  which  God  can  neither 
predict  nor  predetermine,  you  lay  open 
by  far  the  nobl-est  department  of  the  usi- 
verse,  to  an  anarchy  that  no  power  can. 


LECTURE    LX. — CHArXEE.    VIII,    29. 


307 


control,  and  no  wisdom  can  foretell  the 
issues  of.  He  who  hath  made,  and  who 
sustains  all  things,  is  represented  as  stand- 
ing by,  unable  to  foresee  the  turns,  or  to 
direct  the  transitions  of  all  those  random 
and  unaccountable  processes,  that  are 
now  in  the  hands  of  His  own  creatures; 
and,  let  the  plans  and  wishes  of  the  Divine 
Mind  have  been  what  they  may,  there  is 
nought  in  providence  and  nought  in  his- 
tory that  is  sure.  It  is  but  a  poor  com- 
pensation that  He  presides  over  the  mo- 
tions of.  a  sublime  astronomy.  It  is  but 
a  poor  compensation  that  the  winds  and 
the  vapours,  and  the  tides  of  ocean, 
and  the  changes  of  the  atmosphere,  and 
even  all  the  processes  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom — save  when  the  usurper  man 
hath  wrested  them  from  his  grasp — It 
is  but  a  poor  compensation,  that  both 
the  mechanism  of  the  heavens  above, 
and  the  whole  of  terrestrial  physics 
on  the  earth  below,  are  at  His  absolute 
disposal, — if  He  be  thus  dethroned  from 
His  ascendancy  over  the  best  and  the 
fairest  region  of  His  works ;  and  if, 
when  once  the  elements  of  thought  and 
life  and  will  are  caused  to  mingle  their 
influence  with  other  things,  He,  frbni 
that  moment,  is  struck  with  impotency, 
and  must  sutler  the  progress  of  events  to 
take  its  own  fortuitous  and  unmanageable 
way.  This  consideration  obtains  great 
additional  strength,  when  we  recur  to  tlie 
undoubted  experience  which  I  lately 
insisted  on — even  on  the  might  and  the 
magnitude  of  little  things,  in  regard  to 
their  bearing  on  the  grandest  passages  of 
history ;  and  that  therefore  if  God  be 
wrested  of  His  power  and  His  providence 
in  that  which  is  least,  you  in  fact  dethrone 
Him  from  His  sovereignty  over  that  which 
is  greatest.    You  remember  the  example 


that  we  gave  from  a  very  critical  passage 
in  the  life  of  Mahomet — how  he  was  pre- 
served by  the  flight  of  a  bird,  and  by  the 
rapid  process  of  inference  which  this  gave 
rise  to  in  tiie  minds  of  his  pursuers ;  and 
that,  had  it  not  been  for  these  two  steps 
in  the  concatenations  of  providence,  all 
the  designs  of  the  impostor  would  have 
been  arrested :  And  one  of  the  greatest 
moral  revolutions  in  the  history  of  our 
species  was  thus  made  to  turn  on  the  most 
minute  and  familiar  of  all  incidents.  The 
doctrine  that  would  limit  the  predestina- 
tions of  God  to  the  world  of  matter,  might 
allow  that  it  was  He  who  hallowed  the 
cave  in  which  the  pretender  hid  himself; 
and  guarded  its  entrance  v/ith  shrubbery  ; 
and  perhaps  even  detained  the  bird  for 
the  purpose  of  turning  away  the  footsteps 
of  the  destroyers :  But  one  step  remains, 
and  that  hath  been  placed  by  the  assertors 
of  a  self-determining  power  in  man  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  Being  from  whom  he 
sprung.  It  all  hinged,  you  will  observe, 
on  a  rapid  volition  in  the  breast  of  the 
murderers.  And  if  there  be  any  thing 
there  to  abridge  God  of  His  sovereignty — 
if  when  it  be  the  part  of  man  to  will,  it  is 
the  part  of  God  as  it  were  to  stand  by  and 
to  wait  on  the  uncertain  decision — if  the 
Creator,  instead  of  foreseeing  all  and 
determining  all,  must  thus  attend  on  the 
decisions  of  the  creature  ;  and  shape  the 
measures  of  His  providence  on  earth, 
according  to  the  signals  that  are  given 
out  by  all  the  petty  and  independent 
powers  that  swarm  upon  its  surface — 
Then  never,  in  the  whole  history  of  this 
world's  politics  we  will  venture  to  affirm, 
never  was  there  exhibited  a  more  disjointed 
and  tumultuous  government — never  have 
we  read  of  a  more  helpless  or  degraded 
sovereign. 


LECTUKE  LXI. 


Romans  viii,  29,  30. 

"For  whom  he  did  foreknow,  he  also  did  predestinate  to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son,  that  he  mieht  be  the 
first-born  among  many  brethren.  Moreover,  whom  he  did  predestinate,  them  he  also  called  ;  and  whom  he  called, 
them  he  also  justified ;  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he  also  glorified." 


In  my  last  remarks  upon  the  subject  I 
confined  myself,  nakedly  and  absolutely, 
to  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion ;  and  had  no  time  left  for  any  moral 
or  practical  application.  And  yet  it  is  for 
a  good  and  powerful  application  of  the 
truth  in  this  instance  that  I  feel  greatly 
more  anxious,  than  even  for  the  truth 
itself.  It  is  not  your  curiosity  but  your 
conscience  that  I  want  to  address  ;  neither 
am  I  so  solicitous  for  dogmatising  you 


into  a  right  belief  on  the  topic  of  predes- 
tination, as  for  evincing  that,  whether 
true  or  false,  all  your  present  energies 
should  be  given  entire  to  the  present 
work  of  repenting,  and  believing,  and 
labouring  with  all  diligence  in  the  new" 
obedience  of  the  gospel.  As  to  the  spec- 
ulative doctrine  itself,  I  do  not  scruple  to 
aver,  that,  while  a  firm  and  unexcepted 
believer  in  it  myself,  I  do  not  regard  it  as 
one  of  those  articles  which  are  indispen- 


508 


LECTURE    LXI. — CHAPTER   VUI,    29,    30. 


sable  to  salvation — that  many  are  the  emi- 
nent worthies,  and  more  especially  of  our 
sister  church,  who  have  the  root  of  the 
matter  in  them  ;  and  yet  who  eye  this 
doctrine,  not  with  incredulity  alone,  but 
with  a  sort  of  keen  and  sensitive  antipa- 
thy— who  have,  in  short,  a  kind  of  horror 
at  this  most  revolting  feature  of  what  they 
denominate  a  rigid  and  revolting  Calvin- 
ism ;  and  deem,  that,  unlit  for  modern  ears, 
it  should  now  be  sutfi^ed  to  be  forgotten 
in  the  unwieldy  folio,  whose  scowling 
frontispiece  represents  the  theologian  who 
penned  it.  I,  of  course  hold  them  to  be 
wrong.  I  think  that  they  misunderstand 
the  subject,  and  view  it  through  a  medium 
of  passion  and  prejudice  which  may  at 
length  be  dispersed.  Nevertheless,  though 
we  count  them  in  an  error,  it,  like  certain 
sins  mentioned  by  the  apostle  John,  is  an 
error  not  unto  death.  1  do  not  see  how 
they  can  get  over  the  evidence  that  there 
is  for  predestination — both  in  the  scrip- 
tures of  truth  ;  and  in  those  independent 
reasonings  to  which  man,  even  unaided 
and  alone,  seems  altogether  competent. 
Yet  I  am  aware,  that  to  a  certain  limit, 
there  may  be  varieties  of  opinion,  and  all 
of  them  alike  consistent  with  reverence 
for  God  and  His  communications,  so  far 
as  the  abilit)'  to  understand  them  has  been 
given  ;  and  such  varieties  on  the  much 
controverted  topic  of  predestination  ap- 
pear to  me  within  that  limit.  So  that  it  is 
not  in  the  spirit  of  Athanasian  intolerance, 
that  I  have  hitherto  urged  my  convictions 
upon  this  subject ;  nor  indeed  so  much 
with  a  view  to  impress  these  convictions 
as  to  demonstrate  if  I  can — that  the  great 
cause  of  practical  Christianity  remains 
uninjured  by  a  doctrine,  which  is  con- 
ceived by  many  to  be  fatal  to  it. 

The  apostle  Paul,  however  strenuous 
and  resolute  in  his  assertions  of  certain 
doctrines,  was,  in  regard  to  certain  others 
the  most  indulgent  and  liberal  of  men. 
He  admitted  a  certain  latitude  of  seflti- 
ment  even  among  his  own  converts  ;  and, 
though  there  were  errors  for  which  he  had 
no  toleration,  yet  there  were  also  errors, 
both  in  opinion  and  in  practice,  which  he 
regarded  in  the  spirit  of  a  most  benignant 
forbearance.  There  were  articles  of  faith, 
on  which  he  would  not  give  place  even  to 
the  slightest  mitigation  of  them — no  not 
for  a  single  hour  ;  and  when  the  apostle 
Peter  offered  something  like  a  compromise 
with  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 
alone,  he  withstood  him  to  the  face  be- 
cause he  was  to  be  blamed.  Nay  he 
called  down  the  imprecation  of  Heaven 
on  any  who  should  pervert  the  mind  of 
his  disciples  from  that  gospel  of  free 
grace,  wherewith  he  linked  the  whole  of 
a  sinner's  salvation  ;  and  yet  while  there 
were  truths  respecting  Jesus  Christ  and 


Him  crucified  which  he  could  not  surren- 
der, there  were  also  truths  in  which  he 
sulfered  a  variety  of  conception  on  the 
part  of  his  fellow-Christians  ;  and  so  far 
from  scowling  excommunication  upon 
them  because  of  it,  he  waits  in  hope  and 
charity  the  progress  of  a  more  enlighten- 
ed conviction  in  their  minds.  "  Let  as 
many  as  be  perfect  be  thus  minded,  and 
if  in  any  thing  ye  be  otherwise  minded, 
(lod  shall  reveal  even  this  unto  you. 
Nevertheless  whereto  ye  have  already 
attained,  let  us  walk  by  the  same  rule,  let 
us  mind  the  same  things."  This  he  would 
not  have  said  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation 
by  grace  alone.  This,  for  aught  that  is 
known,  he  might  have  said  of  the  doctrine 
of  predestination.  And  it  is  sufficiently 
remarkable  that  the  apostle  Peter  adverts 
to  certain  things  of  Paul,  not  as  indis- 
pensable to  be  believed,  but  what  is  far 
more  characteristic  of  our  present  topic 
as  hard  to  be  understood — a  topic  that 
has  met  us  on  our  way,  and  which  it  were 
surely  unworthy  of  the  fearless  believer 
in  the  authority  of  Scripture  to  decline 
from  ;  but  a  topic  which  we  at  the  same 
time  entertain,  not  with  the  purpose  to 
regale  your  curiosity,  but  if  possible  to 
stimulate  your  conscience — not  to  make 
intelligible  that  which  an  inspired  teacher 
hath  pronounced  to  be  dark — not  to  make 
you  more  learned  in  this  redoubted  dogma 
than  the  Bible  is  fitted  to  make  its  hum- 
ble interpreters  and  S(iholars,  but  to  save 
if  possible,  to  save  the  unlearned  and  the 
unstable  from  wresting  this  and  the  other 
scriptures  to  their  own  destruction. 

I  have  already  stated  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  text  might  be  apprehended  by  a 
series  of  historical  events — each  linked 
in  firm  and  necessary  concatenation  with 
the  other,  and  altogether  forming  a  chain 
which  extends  from  the  first  purpose  of 
the  Divine  Mind  to  the  final  accomplish, 
ment  of  it  in  eternity.  The  intermediate 
place  at  which'  each  of  us  now  stands 
forms  one  of  these  links.  It  is  a  step  of 
that  mighty  progression  which,  reaches 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  arid  of 
whose  distant  extremities  we  are  in  pro- 
foundest  ignorance.  We  may  know  that 
there  is  a  primary  decree,  either  for  or 
against  us ;  but  of  the  decree  itself  we 
know  nothing.  We  may  know  that  there 
is  a  fixed  destination  in  reserve  for  us ; 
but  which  term  of  the  dread  alternative 
between  heaven  and  hell  is  to  be  realised 
on  our  imperishable  spirits,  of  this  we 
have  no  information. 

We  see  but  a  little  way  on  either  side 
of  us ;  and  from  the  visible  place  where 
we  now  stand,  each  in  the  chain  of  his 
own  personal  destiny,  does  it  soon  lose  it- 
self, both  behind  and  before,  in  a  dim  an** 
distant  obscurity  which  we  cannot  pen*^^ 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VIII,    29,    30. 


309 


trate.    And  the  question  that  I  have  to  ad- 
dress to   every   plain    understanding    is, 
whether  we  shall  be  guided  in  the  busi- 
ness that  is  now  before  us  by  that  which 
we  do  know,  or  by  that  which  we  do  not 
know — whether   by   our   fancies  of  that 
which  lies  in  a  conjectural  region  away 
from  us,  or  by  our  findings  of  that  which 
is  at  hand — whether  by  our  vague  specu- 
lation on  the  first  and  tho  last  steps  of  that 
process   which   connects  the  pre-ordina- 
lion  of  God  with   the  future  eternity  of 
man,  or  by  those  steps  in  which  we  now 
are  actually  implicated,  the  near  and  the 
besetting  certainties  of  our  own  present 
condition.     For,  let  it  be  observed,  that 
there  are  such  urgent  and  immediate  cer- 
tainties in  your  state  as  it  now  is  ;  and  the 
question  is,  shall  you  proceed  upon  tbese, 
or  upon  the  far-fetched  imaginations  which 
you  choose  to  draw    from  a  territory  that 
is   fathomless   and   unknown  1     A  fool's 
eyes,  says  Solomon,  are  abroad  over  all 
the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  we  appeal  to 
common  sense — whether  it  be   ffi-actical 
wisdom  or  practical  folly,  to  guide  your 
footsteps  by  the  uncertain  guesses  of  what 
God   hath    written  regarding  you  in  the 
book  of  His  decrees,  or  by  wliat  He  hath 
written  for  your  present  direction  in  the 
book  of  His  revelation.     Grant  that  I  am 
moving  along  a  chain  which  hath  one  end 
certainly  fixed  in  the  eternity  that  is  past, 
and  another  is  certainly  fixed  in  fhe  eter- 
nity that  is  to  follow.     The  movement  of 
this  day,  at  least,  depends  on  the  few  links 
that  are  within  the  reach  of  your  present 
observation.    It  is  not  by  looking  distantly 
aback,  neither  is  it  by  shooting  your  per- 
spective ahead  of  all  that  is  visible  before 
you,  it  is  not  thus  that  you  are  practically 
carried  forward  on  the  line  of  your  his- 
tory as  an  immortal  being — it  is  by  the 
links  that  are  presently  in  hand  that  your 
present  route  is  determined — it  is  to  these 
that  you  have  to  look — it  is  up.on  the  re- 
alities within  your  grasp  that  you  are  to 
decide  the  enquiry,  what  shall  I  do  ;  and 
not  upon  the  visions  that  float  before  the 
eye  of  your  imagination.    And  what  are 
these  realities]     What  are  the  matters  on 
hand,  that  we  would  have  you  substitute 
in  place  of  the  speculations  about  things 
beyond  our  reach,  and   things  at  a  dis- 
tance ?     There   is  an  embassy  of  peace 
from  heaven  at  your  door.     There  is  the 
truth  of  the  Godhead  staked  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  your  salvation,  if  you  will  only 
rely  upon  Him.    There  is  His  beseeching 
voice  addressed  to  each  and  to  all,  and 
saying  "Come  now  let  us  reason  together." 
There  is  the  free  offer  of  forgiveness,  and 
what  is  more,  the  assurance  that  if  you 
will  only  turn  unto  God  He  will  pour  out 
His  Spirit  upon  you;     These  are  the  mat- 
ters on   hand.     This   is   the   business  to 


which  I  should  like  to  recall  you ;  and 
would  rather  quash  all  your  thoughts  on 
the  topic  of  predestination  as  so  many 
hurtful  vagaries,  than  that  the  urgencies 
of  a  free  gospel  should  be  held  in  abey- 
ance. If  you  are  not  able  to  see  the  con- 
sistency of  this  doctrine  with  the  plain  de- 
clarations and  entreaties  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, do  not  bewilder  yourselves.  Mis- 
spend not  that  precious  time  in  fruitless 
cogitation,  which  should  be  employed  in 
proceeding  upon  the  calls  of  repent  and 
believe  and  be  reconciled  unto  God.  Put 
away  from  you  the  doubtful  disputations, 
and  give  your  busy  entertainment  to  the 
honest  assurances  of  the  gospel.  Be  con- 
tent with  your  ignorance  of  higher  mys- 
teries, and  forthwith  enter  on  the  open 
walk  of  reconciliation — being  very  sure, 
that,  whatever  doubt  or  darkness  may 
have  gathered  around  the  loftier  summits 
of  Theology,  it  hath  also  its  safe  and  its 
patent  road  for  the  humble  wayfarer — 
that  it  has  an  offered  pardon  which  you 
cannot  too  confidently  trust,  that  it  has  its 
revealed  hopes  of  glory  which  you  cannot 
too  joyfully  ciierish,  that  it  has  its  pro- 
mises of  salvation  which  none  of  you  can 
too  surely  or  too  speedily  embrace,  that  it 
has  its  prescribed  path  of  holiness  v/hich 
you  cannot  too  diligently  wall^in. 

You  remember  the  illustration  that  I 
have  already  given  upon  this  subject, 
when  I  endeavoured  to  show  how  the 
doctrine  of  predestination  could  be  exem- 
plified in  the  processes  of  nature  and  of 
history — not  only  holding  an  unquestioned 
sway  over  inanimate  things,  and  stamping 
a  precise  necessity  both  on  the  simpler 
movements  of  the  heavens  above,  and  the 
more  complicated  operations  that  take 
place  in  the  physics  and  the  physiology  of 
the  earth  below  ;  but,  even  wlien  man  min- 
gles his  energies  and  volitions  with  the  un- 
conscious elements  as  he  does  in  the  plans 
and  proceedings  of  husbandry — that,  then 
too,  there  is  as  sure  a  presiding  sovereign- 
ty, which  determines  the  site  of  every 
plant,  and  fixes  the  condition  of  every  spot 
of  territory,  as  if  nought  but  the  winds 
and  the  waters,  these  unconscious  minis- 
ters of  the  Divinity,  were  in  play.  But, 
granting  this  to  be  a  true  speculation,  will 
it  ever  warp  the  designs  and  the  doings 
of  the  practical  agriculturist]  Does  he 
ever  think  of  the  predestination  that  runs 
through  all  his  busy  processes,  or  is  it 
necessary  that  he  should  1  Did  ever  in 
this  world's  history  a  party  of  colonists 
tread  on  some  before  untrodden  shore  and 
begin  its  cultivation,  under  the  impulse  of 
such  a  metaphysical  speculation?  Did 
the  notion  of  God's  prescience  and  of 
God's  preordination  extending  to  every 
movement,  supply  one  element  of  influ- 
ence or  direction  in  a  single  choice  that 


310 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VJII,    29,    30. 


they  made,  or  a  single  labour  that  they 
put  their  hand  to?  It  might  be  true,  that 
every  resulting  farm,  with  its  fields  and 
its  crops  and  its  boundaries,  emerged, 
after  the  busy  willing  and  working  of 
many  years,  into  the  very  state  that  had 
been  pictured  in  the  Divine  Mind  from  all 
eternity — yet  the  truth  never,  for  a  single 
instant,  be  present  to  the  mind  of  a  single 
operator  in  this  process.  He  was  set 
agoing  by  other  considerations.  lie  is 
decided  by  other  influences.  He  never 
vaults  so  high  as  to  the  first  determinations 
of  the  Almighty.  He  never  looks  so  far 
as  to  the  remote  transformation  that  the 
surface  of  the  territory  on  wiiich  he  now 
labours  is  to  undergo.  He  is  moved  both 
to  will  and  to  do  by  nearer  elements — by 
the  nature  of  the  soil  that  is  under  his 
feet — by  the  present  weather  which  is 
around  him,  and  which  calls  him  forth  to 
his  toils  by  the  promises  of  a  climate,  that 
experience  has  told  him  warrants  the  hope 
of  a  recompense  for  his  labours.  There 
is  nought  of  predestination  in  all  his 
thoughts.  He  may  exemplify  the  doc- 
trine, but  he  does  not  recognise  it ;  nor  is 
it  at  all  essential  to  the  practical  result  of 
a  domain  now  rich  in  all  the  fruits  of  a 
prosperous  agriculture.  It  is  the  very 
same  in  Spiritual  husbandry.  It  is  the 
very  same  in  that  process,  by  which  souls, 
now  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  are  turn- 
ed into  well-watered  gardens.  It  is  a 
transformation  that  may  be  effected,  with- 
out one  thought  being  bestowed,  or  one 
intelligent  regard  being  once  cast,  on  this 
sublime  mystery.  The  mind  is  decided 
by  nearer  and  more  effective  contempla- 
tions— by  the  voice  of  a  beseeching  God — 
by  the  view  of  an  open  door  of  mediator- 
ship  to  His  throne — Ijy  the  tidings  of  peace 
even  to  the  worst  of  sinners,  through  the 
blood  of  a  satisfying  atonement  ;  and  by 
the  honest  and  aflectionate  urgency  where- 
with these  tidings  are  pressed  upon  the 
acceptance  of  you  all — by  the  promises 
of  a  spiritual  climate,  now'^i'endered  fit  for 
the  transformation  of  sinners,  these  thorns 
and  briars,  into  trees  of  righteousness  ; 
for  living  water  is  made  to  descend  on  the 
prayers  of  every  believer,  the  Holy  Ghost 
being  given  because  Christ  is  now  glori- 
fied. Let  these  obvious  considerations  bo 
plainly  and  obviously  proceeded  on  ;  and, 
whether  you  have  settled  the  high  topic 
of  predestination  or  not — be  very  sure, 
that  he  who  strives  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate  shall  save  his  own  soul,  that  he  who 
presses  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  shall 
take  it  by  force. 

If  the  doctrine  of  predestination  be  true, 
as  I  believe  it  to  be,  then  it  extends  to  all 
the  processes  of  human  life  ;  and,  in  virtue 
of  it,  every  career  of  human  exertion  hath 
its  sure  i-esult,  and  must  terminate  in  one 


certain  fulfilment  that  is  absolute  and 
irreversible.  It  is  not  the  state  of  your 
future  eternity  alone,  that  is  decided  by 
it ;  but  the  state  of  your  fortune  and 
family  in  this  world.  Are  you  entering 
upon  business  for  example?  If  this  doc- 
trine be  true,  even  as  I  think  it  to  be,  the 
wealth  to  be  realised,  the  height  of  afflu- 
ence to  be  gained,  the  precise  sum  to  be 
bequeathed  as  ^an  inheritance  to  your 
children,  are  fixed  and  immutable  as  if 
already  written  in  the  book  of  destiny. 
Now  attend  to  what  that  is  which  you 
take  your  motive  from,  when  you  actively 
engage  in  the  pursuits  and  speculations 
of  merchandise.  Do  you  ever  think  of 
fetching  it  from  the  predestination  that 
has  been  already  made  in  the  upper 
sanctuary  ]  What  is  it  that  sets  you  so 
busily  agoing?  Is  it  the  predestination 
that  is  past,  and  which  has  its  place  in 
heaven  ?  or  is  it  the  prospect  which  lies 
immediately  before  you,  and  which  is 
furnished  both  by  the  present  realities 
and  thQ  future  likelihoods  that  be  on  the 
field  of  your  earthly  contemplations? 
Does  the  argument  that  all  is  already 
determined,  and  there  is  no  object  to  be 
gained  by  the  most  strenuous  forth-putting 
of  activity  on  your  part — does  ever  this 
paralyse  or  impede  any  of  your  move- 
ments? Practically  and  really,  I  would 
ask,  do  you  not  resign  yourselves  as  fully 
to  what  may  be  called  the  operation  of 
the  contiguous  inducements,  as  if  there  was 
no  predestination — as  if  this  were  a  work 
that  you  had  never  heard  of,  or  a  concep- 
tion that  never  had  been  presented  to 
your  thoughts  ?  There  is  no  such  lofty 
or  aerial  speculation  that  is  ever  permitted 
to  embarrass  this  part  at  least  of  your 
history  ;  and,  what  is  more,  no  complaint 
of  hardship  is  ever  uttered  by  you — be- 
cause the  affairs  of  your  worldly  business 
are  all  chained  down  in  adamantine 
necessity.  The  thought  of  this  fated 
necessity  as  to  this  world's  business,  will 
neither  provoke  nor  will  it  paralyse  you 
— provided  that  you  could  only  see  a  good 
and  a  likely  opening  for  the  prosecution 
of  it.  You  will  instantly  forget  the  ab- 
stract speculation,  and  enter  with  all  the 
busy  ardour  of  intense  and  unrestrained 
fiicultics  on  the  path  of  action.  Give  you 
only  a  hopeful  enterprise  —  give  you 
credit,  and  the  countenance  of  steady  and 
powerful  friends,  when  you  embark  upon 
it — give  you  the  assurance  of  rising  mar- 
kets, and  of  a  demand  that  will  speedily 
absorb  all  the  commodities  which,  either 
by  purchase  or  by  preparation,  you  can 
assemble  together  for  the  purpose  of 
pouring  into  them — And  tjien,  only  think 
of  the  impetuous  contempt  wherewith  you 
would  overleap  the  paltry  obstacle,  if,  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  glee  and  animating 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VIII,    29,    30. 


311 


Tiurry,  one  of  your  cool  metaphysical 
acquaintances  should  offer  to  arrest  you 
on  the  path  of  fortune,  by  the  assurance 
that  fortune  and  every  thyig  else  had 
already  a  decree  of  predestination  laid 
upon  them.  You  would  no  more  think 
of  giving  up  because  of  this,  than  you 
would  think  of  regulating  the  history  of 
your  present  day  by  what  you  read  of 
history  before  the  flood.  And  certain  it  is 
of  all  the  operations  of  commerce,  which, 
if  predestination  be  indeed  true,  are  as 
much  within  the  iron  grasp  of  fatality  as 
any  other  of  our  concerns  ;  that  still  these 
are  as  much  the  spontaneous  doings  of 
busy  active  plodding  and  locomotive 
creatures,  as  if  there  was  no  such  doctrine 
at  all ;  anii  that,  in  respect  of  the  calcula- 
tions and  the  correspondencies  and  the 
bargains  and  the  voyages  and  all  the 
other  processes  that  prevail  in  the  world  of 
trade,  the  doctrine,  which  some  conceive 
would  freeze  the  whole  into  apathy  and 
lay  upon  it  a  sudden  congelation,  leaves 
the  affairs  of  human  beings  precisely  on 
the  footing  in  which  it  found  them. 

It  is  just  so  in  all  the  other  processes 
of  human  life.  It  is  so,  for  example,  in 
the  education  and  settlement  of  children. 
If  the  doctrine  in  question  be  true — then 
every  footstep,  and  every  advancement, 
and  the  whole  train  of  the  future  history 
of  each,  are  already  the  subjects  of  a  prior 
and  unfailing  ordination.  But  does  this 
encumber  the  activity  and  the  outlook, 
even  of  those  parents  who  are  of  sturdiest 
and  most  inflexible  Calvinism?  In  the 
whole  plan  and  conduct  of  their  proceed- 
ings in  behalf  of  their  own  offspring,  it  is 
still  the  operation  of  the  contiguous  in- 
ducements that  sets  them  practically  ago- 
ing. No  one  ever  thinks  of  fetching  one 
consideration  to  guide  or  to  influence  him, 
from  that  period  of  remoteness  and  mys- 
tery when  God  made  His  decrees  ;  but  all 
the  influence  which  tells  upon  them, 
Cometh  from  the  circumstances  that  are 
immediately  around  them,  or  from  the 
probabilities  that  are  immediately  before 
their  eyes.  Give  a  parent  an  accessible 
place  of  best  scholarship  for  some  rising 
member  of  his  family — give  him  a  likely 
avenue  to  some  office  of  emolument  or 
honour — give  him  a  promising  line  of 
business,  a  promise  too  that  he  reads  not 
in  the  book  faf  heaven's  ordinations  but  in 
the  book  of  earth's  common  and  every- 
day experience — give  him  these  ;  and  pre- 
destination will  no  more  affect  either  the 
direction  or  the  activity  of  his  movements, 
than  any  category  of  the  old  schoolmen. 
It  may  be  a  truth,  and  he  may  believe  it 
as  such  ;  but  never  does  he  suffer  it  to  be- 
wilder him  away  from  ihe  plain  course, 
on  which  wisdom  and  observation  and  a 
sense  of  interest  have  urged  him  to  enter 


— and  on  that  course,  do  we  see  him  ply- 
ing  all  its  expedients,  as  if  God  had  de- 
creed nothing,  and  as  if  man  had  to  do 
every  thing.  All  that  he  needs  to  put  him 
into  motion  is  an  opening  towards  which 
he  may  turn  him,  and  along  which  he 
will  be  guided  just  by  the  events  which 
cast  up — just  by  the  circumstances  and 
things  that  meet  his  observation.  Such 
an  opening  in  trade  will  at  once  make  of 
him  an  aspiring  and  indefatigable  mer- 
chant. Such  an  opening  in  family  poli- 
tics will  at  once  set  him,  under  the  stimu- 
lus of  his  parental  affection,  to  do  all  and 
to  devise  all  for  the  future  provision  of 
his  offspring.  Such  an  opening  in  near 
or  distant  colonies  will,  under  the  power- 
ful operation  of  interest,  bring  out  capital 
and  skill  and  personal  activity,  and  make 
him  a  busy  agriculturist.  Predestinatioa 
may,  or  it  may  not,  have  stamped  a  rigid 
and  inviolable  necessity  on  each  and  on 
all  of  these  processes ;  but  whether  the 
one  or  the  other  it  matters  not  to  him,  who 
is  directly  and  personally  engaged  in 
them.  He  gives  himself  up  to  the  play  of 
those  motives  by  which  he  is  immediately 
beset ;  and  under  which  he  is  powerfully 
urged  forward  on  that  course  of  activity, 
where  he  strives  for  his  object,  and  where 
he  carries  it. 

It  is  even  so  in  the  business  of  religion. 
Predestination  no  more  locks  up  the  ac- 
tivities of  this  business  than  of  any  other, 
and  no  more  lays  a  hurt  or  a  hardship  on 
those  who  are  engaged  in  it.  We  never 
hear  of  the  merchant  or  the  parent  or  the 
agriculturist,  complaining  that  all  his 
energies  are  bound  fast  by  a  decree  ;  but 
we  see  them  instantly  set  in  motion  by  a 
good  opening.  Neither  ought  we  to  hear 
such  a  complaint  from  the  adventurer  for 
heaven,  provided  only  that  he  too  is  pre- 
sented with  a  good  opening.  His  pi'oper 
and  practical  concern,  is,  not  with  the  de- 
cree at  all  that  is  behind  him,  but  with 
the  opening  that  is  before  him.  It  is  with 
the  gate  of  Christ's  mediatorship,  now 
flung  back  for  his  access  to  the  throne  of 
God,  and  with  the  voice  of  invitation  that 
issues  therefrom.  It  is  with  the  call, 
"  cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well."  It  is 
with  the  honest  assurance,  that,  if  we  re- 
turn unto  God,  God  will  return  unto  us 
and  abundantly  pardon  us.  It  is  with  the 
proclamation  of  welcome  to  one  and  to 
all ;  and,  lest  you  should  feel  yourself 
secluded  by  the  doctrine  of  election,  it  is 
with  such  terms  as  all  and  any  and  who- 
soever— terms  that  both  embrace  all  and 
point  specifically  to  each,  and  by  wh  oh 
therefore  an  obliterating  sponge  should  be 
made  to  pass  over  the  hui'tful  and  the 
withering  imagination.  These  are  what 
you  have  immediately  to  do  with  ;  and 
with  the  question  of  your  name  being  in 


312 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VUI,    29,    30 


the  book  of  life,  I  speak  unto  those  whir 
meditate  the  great  transition  on  which 
hingeth  the  whole  of  their  future  eternity, 
with  this  question  at  present  they  have 
positively  nothing  to  do.  The  merchant 
would  not  so  embarrass  himself — his  love 
of  gain  would  urge  him  forward  to  the 
opening.  The  parent  would  not  so  em- 
barrass himself — the  love  of  his  children 
would  urge  him  in  like  manner  to  take 
the  practicable  opening.  Neither  would 
the  agriculturist — his  love  of  a  prosperous 
settlement  would  lead  him  instantly  to 
seize  upon  the  goodly  opening.  And  if 
an  opening  goodlier  than  them  all — if  the 
plain  and  practicable  path  to  which  you 
are  cheered  forward  by  the  invitation  of 
Heaven,  and  along  wliich  you  have  the 
guarantee  of  Heaven's  grace  and  Heaven's 
promises  to  assure  you  of  a  harvest  of 
glory — If  this  be  not  enough  to  arouse  you 
from  indolent  speculation — if  this  do  not 
break  you  loose  from  metaphysical  diffi- 
culties, as  from  the  entanglement  of  so 
many  cobwebs — The  inference,  we  fear, 
is  too  obvious  to  be  resisted — that  barrier 
over  which  the  love  of  gain,  or  the  im- 
pulse of  natural  affection,  so  easily  forced 
its  way,  hath  withstood  the  impotent  efforts 
of  the  religionist ;  for  he  had  not  the  love 
of  God  or  of  holiness  that  would  have  car- 
ried him  over  it,  and  this  is  his  condem- 
nation that  he  loved  the  darkness  rather 
than  the  light  because  his  deeds  were  evil. 

There  are  innumerable  successive  links 
in  the  chain  of  your  destiny,  and  it  is 
only  a  few  of  the  greater  ones  that  are 
adverted  to  in  the  text.  The  first  of  all  is 
coeval  with  the  foreknowledge  and  pre- 
destination of  God.  With  this  you  have 
nothing  at  present  to  do.  God  at  that 
time  was  alone,  and  what  He  then  did  is 
one  of  those  secret  things  which  belong 
unto  Himself  The  second  link  is  the  call 
that  He  addresses  to  you :  ♦  Whom  he 
hath  predestinated  them  he  also  called.' 
With  this  you  have  to  do.  God  at  this 
part  of  the  .series  is  not  alone.  He  makes 
a   forthgoing   of  Himself  to  the   sinner. 

There  is  now  a  converse  between  Him 
and  you ;  and  the  particulars  of  this 
converse  are  among  the  revealed  things 
which  belong  to  yourselves  and  to  your 
children.  By  this  call  He  points  out  the 
opening  through  which  you  may  escape 
from  the  coming  wrath,  through  which 
you  enter  upon  friendship  with  the  God 
whom  you  have  offended.  To  this  then  I 
would  solicit  your  attention  ;  and  I  warn 
you,  that,  with  the  dark  and  unknown 
territory  which  lies  behind  this  actual 
communication  from  heaven  to  earth,  you 
have  positively  no  more  at  present  to  do, 
than  with  the  territory  that  lies  beyond 
the  confines  of  our  planetary  system. 
The  matter  in  hand  is  the  call.     It  is  the 


widely  sounding  proclamation  of  "Look 
unto  me  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth  and  be 
saved."     It  is  the  assurance  of  a  welcome 
and  a  good-will  lifted   from  the   mercy- 
seat,  and  mttde  to  circulate  at  large  among 
all  the  families  of  the  world.    It  is  the 
good  news  of  a  propitiation,  the  blood  of 
which  cleanseth  from  all  sin  ;  and  of  a 
Spirit  ready  to  be  poured  on  the  returning 
penitent,  that  it  may  both  actuate  the  holy 
desire  and  uphold  his  footsteps  in  the  way 
of  holy  obedience.    And  the  truth  of  God 
is  staked  to  the   fulfilment   of  all   these 
declarations.     He   hath    so    framed    the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  that  if  you  simply 
trust — then  either  you  are  saved  or  God 
is  a  liar.    He  hath  indeed  descended  very 
far,  that  He   might  again   mdke   up   the 
controversy    between     Himself    and     a 
sinful  world.    He  bids  one  and  all  of  us 
only  put  Him  to  the  trial.     "Prove  me, 
prove  me,"  says  God  "and  see  whether  I 
will  not  pour  out  a  blessing  upon  you." 
"  Plead  your  cause  with  me  and  put  me 
in   mind    of  my  own   promises.     "Take 
with  you  words  and  turn  to  the  Lord,  say 
unto   him   Take   away  all   iniquity   and 
receive  us  graciously.     I  will  heal  their 
backsliding.     I  will  love  them  freely  for 
mine  anger  is  turned  away."   It  is  not  with 
God,  shrouded  in  the  dej)ths  of  His  past 
eternity — it  is  not  with  God,  in  that  era 
of  high  and  remote  antiquity,  where  all 
His  footsteps  are  unsearchable — it  is  not 
with  God  in  the  secrecy  of  those  unre- 
vealed  counsels   by  which  He   fixes  the 
destiny  of  all  worlds,  that  you  have  to  do. 
You  have  no  right  to  intrude  into  those 
mysteries  of  the  Royal  Presence,  and  you 
should  count  it  enough,  if  you  are  included 
in  the  benefits  of  aRoyal  Proclamation  \ 
and  you  are  positively  left  without  one 
shadow  of  complaint — now  that  God  hath 
broken   silence — now   that   He    hath   set 
Himself  forth  in  that  most  winning  and 
impressive  attitude  of  God  waiting  to  be 
gracious — now  that  He  stands  before  you 
like  a  Pai-ent  bereaved  of  His  children, 
and  longing  for  them  back  again.     And 
now  that  it  is  God  beseeching  you  to  be 
reconciled,  and  God  entreating  your  ac- 
ceptance of  His  mercy,  and  God  impor- 
tunately plying  you  with  the   offers  of 
pardon  and  the  calls  of  repentance,  and 
God  swearing  by  Himself  that  He  hath 
no  pleasure  in  your  death  but  rather  that 
one  and  all  should  come  unto  Him  and 
live — now  it  is  with  Him  and  with  Him 
only  that  )-ou  have  really  and  practically 
to  do. 

I  can  tell  you  nothing  about  the  first 
link;  but  I  am  just  fulfilling  the  duties 
of  my  office,  when  I  bid  you  lay  hold  of 
the  second.  I  know  not  aught  of  the 
individual  predestination  of  any  of  you  ; 
but  I  do  most  assuredly  know  that  each 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VIII,    29,    30 


3ia 


of  you  is  the  fit  and  legitimate  subject  for 
an  individual  call.  I  therefore  do  most 
freely  and  unreservedly  call  you.  If  you 
respond  thereunto  vv'ith  the  question,  But 
is  not  there  only  a  certain  number  set 
apart  for  salvation  and  what  may  that 
number  be?  I  know  not  how  I  can  better 
reply  than  after  the  example  of  Jesus 
Christ,  when  asked  Were  there  many 
that  should  be  saved?  He  gave  no  coun- 
tenance to  the  speculative  inte'rrogation, 
and  simply  bade  the  man  look  to  himself. 
"  Strive  you  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate." 
In  like  manner  do  I  say  Strive  you  to 
make  your  calling  and  election  sure.  I 
am  not  able  to  trace  the  chain  of  your 
destiny  backward.  But  here  is  one  link 
of  it,  the  cull ;  and  could  I  gain  your 
compliance  with  the  call,  could  I  get  you 
to  close  with  the  chain  at  this  part  of  it — 
then  I  can  pursue  it  with  certainty  for- 
ward; and,  in  fullest  confidence  that  he 
who  is  called  is  also  justified  and  that  he 
who  is  justified  is  also  glorified,  I,  in 
darkness  though  I  be  about  the  secrets  of 
the  book  of  life,  could  read  in  the  book  of 
your  own  visible  history  in  the  world 
your  destination  to  the  glories  of  an  ever- 
lasting inheritance. 

Let  me  beseech  you  then  to  take  your- 
selves plainly  and  practically  to  that 
revealed  opening,  through  which  all  who 
will  might  find  egress  from  death  unto 
life.  Suffer  not  ought  to  suspend  this 
transition.  Cease  now  your  hands  from 
disobedience  ;  and  submit  now  your  hearts 
to  that  grace,  which  never  is  withheld 
from  those  who  truly  and  desirously  seek 
after  it.  Give  speculation  with  all  its 
doubts  and  difficulties  to  the  v/ind,  rather 
than  that  another  moment  should  elapse, 
ere  you  give  entertainment  to  the  free 
overtures  of  the  gospel,  and  render  a  full 
and  a  resolved  compliance  therewith. 
Christ  knocketh  at  the  door  of  every 
heart;  and  let  that  knock  be  first  answered, 
ere  you  feel  youi'selves  at  leisure  or  at 
liberty  for  the  controversies  of  an  argu- 
ment that  has  baffled  many,  and  that 
never  should  be  permitted  to  detain  or  to 
embarrass  you — whilst  so  urgent  an  in- 
terest, as  that  of  your  salvation,  is  still  in 
dependence.  The  question,  my  brethren, 
is  not  Am  I  by  election  one  of  the  saved  ? 
but  the  question  is  What  shall  I  do  to  be 
saved  ?  This  is  the  first  question,  and  your 
highest  wisdom  is  simply  to  adjourn  the 
other;  and  when  pressed  upon  you  so  as 
to  interrupt  your  progress  on  the  plain 
way  of  a  plain  Christian,  then  do  as  they 
do  in  Parliament,  when  they  want  to 
dispose  of  a  topic,  or  rather  to  dismiss  it 
from  their  deliberations — move  the  pre- 
vious question,  or  proceed  to  the  order  of 
the  day.  It  is  a  most  idle  expenditure  of 
thought  and  energy  that  many  do  lavish 
40 


upon  predestination;  and  if  carried  to  the 
length  of  elbowing  Out  the  faith  and 
repentance  of  the  gospel,  it  is  worse  than 
idle,  it  is  ruinous.  It  finds  you  on  the 
ground  of  alienation  from  God  ;  and,  if  it 
take  up  the  room  that  belongs  to  the  plain 
matters  of  salvation,  it  will  leave  you 
there.  It  is  not  your  orthodoxy  on  this 
point  that  will  prepare  you  for  heaven. 
Nay  it  may  only  train  you  for  the  com- 
panionships of  hell,  for  some  of  the  em- 
ployments that  are  carried  on  there,  for 
converse  with  infernal  spirits  who  have 
gone  before  you, 

"  And  now  apart  sit  on  a  hill  retired. 
In  thoughts  more  elevate  and  reason  high 
Of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  find  no  end  in  wandering  mazes  lost." 

Next  to  that  of  being  called  is  the  step 
of  our  being  justified,  and  next  to  that  of 
being  justified  is  the  step  of  our  being 
glorified.  There  are  some  who  feel  as  if 
here  a  vacancy  had  been  left  in  the  sense 
that  needs  to  be  filled  up,  and  they  would 
interpose  between  two  of  these  terms  the 
step  of  our  being  sanctified — making  the 
whole  to  run  thus,  '  Whom  he  did  predes- 
tinate them  he  also  called,  and  whom  he 
called  them  he  also  justified,  and  whom 
he  justified  them  he  also  sanctified,  and 
whom  he  sanctified  them  he  also  glori- 
fied.' Now  this  is  as  good  as  done,  though 
not  so  as  to  sustain  a  continued  order  of 
enumeration.  The  called  in  a  former 
verse  are  designed  to  be  those  who  love 
God  ;  and  indeed  this  affection  springs 
directly  in  the  bosom  of  the  complying 
sinner,  after  that  he  hath  acceded  to  the 
offers  of  peace  and  pardon  which  are  ad- 
drest  to  him  in  the  gospel.  And  what 
perhaps  is  stronger  still — the  predestina- 
tion that  is  spoken  of  fixes  all  the  inter- 
mediate steps,  as  well  as  the  final  and 
the  glorious  consummation  ;  and,  more 
expressly,  does  it  settle  and  make  sure — 
that  all  who  are  the  objects  of  it  should 
be  conformed  to  the  image  of  Christ.  It  is 
thus  that  virtue  here  is  made  the  indis- 
pensable stepping-stone  to  glory  hereafter. 
It  is  thus  that  a  doctrine,  misconceived 
by  many  as  superceding  the  need  of 
holiness  and  all  exertions  after  it,  supplies 
the  strongest  urgencies  upon  its  side — by 
giving  us  to  know,  that  a  moral  excel- 
lence, like  unto  the  Saviour's,  forms  part 
of  the  invariable  order,  which  lies  be- 
tween the  primary  ordination  and  the 
final  blessedness  of  all  who  are  redeemed 
by  Him.  The  consistent  predestinarian 
knows,  that  every  step  in  the  series  of  a 
believer's  history,  is  as  irrevocably  sure 
as  is  its  termination  ;  and  it  is  not  for  him 
of  all  men,  to  break  up  the  alliance  be- 
tween holiness  in  time  and  happiness  in 
eternity.    To  obtain  the  happiness,  I  must 


514 


LECTURE    LXI.— CHAPTER   VUI,    29,    30. 


have  the  holiness ;  and,  wanting  the  one 
on  earth,  I  shall  ilever  reach  the  other  in 
heaven.  There  is  nought,  we  have  affirmed 
already,  in  the  doctrine,  that  should  avert 
the  eye  of  the  inquirer  from  the  call  of 
the  gospel ;  and  there  is  nought,  we  affirm 
now,  in  the  doctrine,  that  should  exempt 
him  who  hath  accepted  of  the  call  from 
the  earnest  prosecution  of  its  holiness. 
Nay,  it  tells  him  more  impressively  than 
ever,  that  it  cannot  be  dispensed  with — 
that  there  is  a  necessity,  as  rigorous  as 
fate,  for  its  being  and  for  its  power  in  the 
person  of  every  believer — that,  wanting  it, 
he  is  altogether  out  of  the  way  of  a 
blessed  eternity — and  that,  having  it,  his 
calling  and  his  election  are  sure. 

This  doctrine  then  does  not  affect  the 
business  in  hand.  It  should  neither  deaf- 
en upon  the  sinner's  ear  the  gospel  call 
of  reconciliation — nor  should  it  slacken, 
but  rather  stimulate  to  the  uttermost,  all 
his  incentives  to  obedience.  The  direct 
work  of  Christianity,  either  with  or  with- 
out predestination,  abideth  as  before  ;  and 
unable,  as  I  have  been  from  unlooked-for 
circumstances,  to  pursue  this  topic  even 
through  the  whole  extent  of  its  useful  and 
practical  applications — my  main  design 
is  fulfilled,  if  it  no  longer  stand  as  a 
stumbling-block  in  the  way  either  of  your 
firmly  trusting  in  God,  or  of  your  dili- 
gently doing  good  in  His  service. 

More  particularly,  the  doctrine  leaves 
the  question  of  your  preparation  for  the 
Sacrament,*  on  precisely  the  same  foot- 
ing as  befoi'e.  It  fixes  what  must  be  your 
character  in  time,  as  well  as  what  must 
be  your  condition  in  eternity.  It  stamps 
its  own  irreversibleness  on  the  truth,  that 
grace  here  must  go  before  glory  here- 
after ;  and  it  is  not,  my  brethren,  on  the 
strength  of  your  fancied  predestination, 
but  on  the  strength  of  your  felt  and  your 
present  holiness,  that  you  infer  yourself 
to  be  among  the  people  of  God — who 
might  now  share  in  the  ordinances  of  His 
church,  and  might  afterwards  look  for 
admission  into  the  festivities  of  His  para- 
dise. Do  then  examine  yourselves,  not  by 
what  hath  taken  place  in  heaven  before 
you,  but  by  what  now  you  feel  and  know 
to  be  within  you.  I  do  not  ask  what  are 
your  attainments  ;  but  I  at  least  ask  what 
are  your  purposes'?  Is  it  your  desire  to 
be  conformed  unto  the  image  of  Christ  1 
Under  the  conscious  load  of  imperfection 
that  is  upon  you,  are  you  weary  of  sin, 
and  is  it  your  heart's  earnest  longing  to 
be  translated  into  the  element  of  sacred- 
ness  1  Have  you  resolved  to  give  up  all 
that  you  know  to  be  evil ;  and  breaking 
loose  from  the  companionships  of  the 
world,  is  it  your  determination  to  come 


•  Probably  preached  on'a  Sunday  before  the  Sacramen- 
tal Sabbath. 


out  from  among  them,  and  to  touch  not 
the  unclean  thing,  but  give  yourselves 
singly  to  the  invitation  and  service  of 
that  Master — who  without  bar  or  hind- 
rance, is  willing  to  receive  you  all,  and 
be  a  Father  to  you  all.  These  are  the 
plain  questions,  on  which  the  step  of 
your  worthy  communion  is  suspended ; 
and  be  very  sure,  that,  if  fit  for  this  act 
of  fellowship  with  the  saints  on  earth, 
you  are  fit  and  on  full  march,  to  the  high 
joys  and  the  holy  exercises  of  the  sanc- 
tuary that  is  above. 

I  conclude  with  an  extract  from  the 
commentary  of  Archbishop  Leighton  on 
Peter,  of  which  I  know  not  whether  to 
admire  most — the  exquisite  skill,  or  the 
exquisite  beauty,  of  his  deliverance  on 
this  whole  topic.  But  it  will  require  your 
attention  to  follow  it.  It  is  one  of  his 
paragraphs  on  this  verse,  "Elect  accord- 
ing to  the  foreknowledge  of  God  the 
Father,  through  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit  unto  obedience,  and  sprinkling  of 
the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  Now "  he 
says,  "the  connection  of  these  we  are  for 
our  profit  to  take  notice  of,  that  effi^ctual 
calling  is  inseparably  tied  to  this  eternal 
foreknowledge  or  election  on  the  one  side, 
and  salvation  on  the  other.  These  two 
links  of  the  chain  are  up  in  heaven  in 
God's  own  hand  ;  but  this  middle  one  is 
let  down  on  earth  into  the  hearts  of  His 
children,  and  they,  laying  hold  on  it,  have 
sure  hold  on  the  other  two — for  no  power 
can  sever  them  ;  if  therefore  they  can 
read  the  characters  of  God's  image  in 
their  own  souls,  these  are  the  counterparts 
of  the  golden  characters  of  His  love,  in 
which  their  names  are  written  in  the 
book  of  life.  Their  believing  writes  their 
names  under  the  promises  of  the  revealed 
book  of  life,  the  Scriptures ;  and  so  as- 
certains them,  that  the  same  names  are 
in  the  secret  book  of  life  that  God  hath 
by  Himself  from  eternity.  So  finding  the 
stream  of  grace  in  their  hearts,  though 
they  see  not  the  fountain  whence  it  flows, 
nor  the  ocean  into  which  it  returns — yet 
they  know  that  it  hath  its  source,  and 
shall  return,  to  that  ocean  which  ariseth 
from  their  eternal  election,  and  shall 
empty  itself  into  that  eternity  of  happi- 
ness and  salvation." 

"Hence"  he  adds  "much joy  ariseth  to 
the  believer.  This  tie  is  indissoluble  as 
the  agents  are,  the  Father  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit;  so  are  election  and  vocation  and 
sanctification  and  justification  and  glory. 
Therefore,  in  all  conditions,  believers  may, 
from  the  sense  of  the  working  of  the  Spi- 
rit in  them,  look  back  to  that  election,  and 
forward  to  that  salvation.  But  they  that 
remain  unholy  and  disobedient,  have  as 
yet  no  evidence  of  this  love ;  and  there- 
fore cannot,  without  vain  presumptions 


LECTURE   LXI. CHAPTER   VILT,    29,    30. 


315 


and  self-delusions,  judge  thus  of  them- 
selves, that  they  are  within  the  peculiar 
love  of  God.  But  in  this  let  the  righteous 
be  glad,  and  let  them  shout  for  joy  all  that 
are  upright  in  heart. 

"  If  election,  effectual  calling,  and  sal- 
vation .be  inseparably  linked  together — 
then  by  any  one  of  them,  a  man  may 
hold  upon  all  the  rest,  and  may  know  that 
his   hold   is  sure  ;   and   this   is  the  way 


wherein  we  may  attain,  and  ought  to  se- 
cure that  comfortable  assurance  of  the 
love  of  God."  "  Find  then  but  within  thee 
sanctification  by  the  Spirit ;  and  this  ar- 
gues necessarily  both  justification  by  the 
Son,  and  election  by  God  the  Father." 

This  Spirit  will  be  given  to  your  pray- 
ers, and  to  your  endeavours.  Here  is 
your  opening ;  and  it  lies  with  yourselves 
to  enter  it. 


LECTURE  LXII. 


Romans  viii,  31,  32. 


**  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things  1    If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  1    He  that  spared  not  his  own 
Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  V 


V.  31.  "  What  shall  we  then  say  to 
these  things'?  If  God  be  for  us  who  can 
be  against  us  7" 

In  this  verse  the  apostle  makes  a  special 
application  of  what  he  had  said  immedi- 
ately before  to  himself  and  his  disciples. 
'What  shall  we  say  to  these  things'?' 
What  inference  shall  we  draw  for  our- 
selves from  this  train  of  reasoning?  He 
takes  encouragement  from  it  you  will  ob- 
serve. It  is  both  to  him  and  to  his  follow- 
ers a  cheering  contemplation,  which  it 
only  could  have  been  on  the  presumption 
that  they  had  part  and  interest  in  that 
election  of  which  he  had  spoken  already, 
and  to  which  he  afterwards  recurs  in  the 
course  of  his  argument.  'If  God  be  for 
us  who  can  be  against  US'?' — is  a  consi- 
deration that  stands  obviously  allied  in  the 
mind  of  the  apostle,  with  the  question  of 
Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of 
God's  elect  ?  He  must  have  believed  then 
in  his  own  election,  and  that  of  the  con- 
verts whom  he  addresses ;  or,  if  he  did 
not  know  it  as  a  certainty,  he  at  least 
grasps  at  it  as  he  would  at  a  strong  and 
pretty  confident  probability.  Now  how 
is  it  that  any  man  arrives  at  this  conclu- 
sion'? And  while  all  have  a  warrant  to 
rejoice  in  that  offer  of  salvation  which  in 
fact  is  universal — while  any  of  our  world 
may  look  unto  Him  who  is  set  forth,  as  a 
propitiation  for  the  world's  sins  and  be 
lightened  thereby — while  each  and  every 
of  our  species  may  respond  unto  the  gift 
of  eternal  life,  that  is  held  out  for  the  ac- 
ceptance of  as  many  as  will;  and  may, 
without  let  or  hindrance,  draw  nigh  and 
touch  that  sceptre  of  forgiveness  which 
now  hath  been  made  to  stand  forth  in  the 
sight  of  the  whole  human  family — while 
thus  it  is,  that  all  without  exception  are 
invited  to  take  comfort  in  that  redeeming 
love  whicTa  prompted  God  to  send  His  Son 


into  the  world,  that  whosoever  receiveth 
Him  might  along  with  Him  receive  peace 
and  pardon  and  reconciliation — Whence 
comes  this  peculiarity  in  the  case  of  Paul 
and  of  his  correspondents,  that  they  here 
take  comfort,  not  in  the  redeeming,  but  in 
the  electing  love — that  they  indulge  in 
strains  of  gratitude  not  becau.se  of  the  part 
they  have  in  that  book  of  revelation  which 
circulates  at  large  among  mankind  and  is 
addressed  unto  all,  but  because  of  the  part 
they  have  in  that  book  of  life  where  the 
names  of  the  blest  have  been  enrolled 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world 
— not  because  they  have  been  spoken  to 
in  that  language  of  welcome,  which  under 
the  economy  of  the  gospel,  hath  gone  forth 
among  the  sinners  of  all  degrees  and  of 
every  denomination ;  but  because  they 
have  been  singled  out  as  the  objects  of  a 
favoured  and  friendly  destination,  that 
was  coeval  with  the  first  purpose  of  the 
Eternal  Mind,  and  reaches  from  everlast- 
ing to  everlasting  1 

This  is  an  assurance  which  they,  and 
which  no  man,  can  gather  from  a  direct 
perusal  of  those  secrets  that  are  written  in 
the  book  of  destiny.  This  is  a  book  which 
is  never  unsealed  to  the  eye  of  any  mortal 
here  below.  Paul,  and  his  brethren  in 
the  church,  had  access  to  none  other  truths 
than  those  which  are  made  accessible  to 
all  in  the  book  of  God's  testimony  to  the 
world.  They  simply  dealt  with  the  mat- 
ters of  that  book,  Just  I  would  have  you 
to  deal  with  them.  They  made  the  plain 
and  the  practicable  use  of  all  that  is  re- 
vealed in  the  preceding  chapters  of  this 
epistle,  before  they  felt  themselves  on  the 
vantage-ground  whence  they  could  pour 
fortli  the  utterances  of  confidence  and  joy, 
wherewith  tl>e  apostle  brings  the  present 
chapter  to  its  triumphant  conclusion. 
They  felt  the  conviction  of  their  own  sin- 


316 


LECTUKE   LXII. CHAPTER    VIII,    31,    32. 


fulness,  and  this  I  would  labour  that  you 
might  be  convinced  of— "There  is  none 
righteous — no  not  one."  They  felt  their 
exposure  to  the  wrath  of  the  Lawgiver, 
and  this  I  would  have  you  to  feel — "  How 
shall  we  escape  the  judgment  of  God?" 
They  felt  the  preciousness  of  a  satisfying 
atonement,  and  this  too  I  would  have  you 
all  to  rejoice  in — "  to  joy  in  God  through 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  whom  you  have 
received  the  atonement."  They,  in  the 
face  of  nature's  fears  and  nature's  diffi- 
culties, kept  fast  their  confidence  even  as 
you  should — "  staggering  not  at  the  pro- 
mise because  of  unbelief,  but  being  strong 
in  faith  and  giving  glory  thereby  unto 
God."  They,  in  the  exercise  of  this  faith, 
felt  not  only  a  peace  but  a  power,  "  be- 
cause the  love  of  God  was  shed  abroad  in 
their  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost;"  and 
you  also,  upon  the  same  belief,  will  most 
surely  be  made  to  realise  the  same  expe- 
rience. And  then,  and  not  till  then,  it  is 
that  the  evidence  of  one's  election  dawns 
upon  the  mind.  It  is  only  upon  your  ob- 
taining the  earnest  of  your  inheritance, 
that  you  should  ever  quote  this  doctrine 
as  any  argument  for  the  inheritance  be- 
ing yours.  It  is  only  because  now  upon 
the  stepping-stone  of  grace  in  time,  that 
you  infer  your  preference  by  the  destina- 
tion of  God  to  glory  in  eternity.  It  is  not 
till  you  have  dealt  aright  with  the  humble 
and  school-boy  elements  of  the  Christian 
faith,  with  the  first  principles  of  the  ora- 
cles of  God,  that  you  have  any  right  to 
associate  this  sublime  mystery  at  all  with 
the  question  of  your  everlasting  prospects. 
This  election,  in  fact,  warrants  no  pros- 
pect to  any  in  heaven,  but  as  seen  by  him 
through  the  medium  of  his  preparation  on 
earth.  It  is  only  in  as  far  as  you  have 
laid  hold  on  the  link  of  a  present  holiness, 
that  you  can  infer  of  the  chain  of  your 
history  that  it  is  to  terminate  in  paradise. 
No  one  can  read  in  the  book  of  God's  de- 
crees, that  he  has  been  predestined  unto 
glory ;  but  all  may  read  in  the  book  of 
His  declarations,  what  be  the  marks  of 
those  who  travel  thitherward.  These  he 
can  compare  with  the  book  of  his  own 
character  and  experience,  and  he  can 
count  upon  his  own  special  destination  to 
an  eternity  of  bliss — only  in  as  far,  and 
in  no  farther,  than  as  he  is  sanctified. 

It  is  thus,  and  thus  only,  that  I  would 
have  you  to  reach  the  settlement  of  your 
creed  on  the  high  topic  of  predestination. 
Many  do  not  reach  it  on  this  side  of  death. 
Many  a  humble  and  genuine  Christian 
feels  himself  baffled  and  bewildered  there- 
by ;  and  many  such  there  are,  who  fall 
short  of  the  blessed  assurance  that  God 
hath  so  signalised  them.  I  would  have 
you  go  to  school  upon  this  doctrine — not 
in  the  hall  of  controversial  debate — not 


around  the  pulpits  of  an  abstract  theology 
— not  among  the  mighty  tomes  that  have 
handed  down  to  us  the  ponderous  erudi- 
tion of  other  days.  I  want  no  other  school 
than  that  of  your  own  individual  experi- 
ence— no  other  preparation  than  that  of  a 
heart  smitten  by  the  contrite  sense  of  its 
own  deceitfulness,  and  heaving  its  aspi- 
rations towards  Him  who  alone  can  com- 
fort and  can  heal — no  other  expedients 
than  those  of  which  the  very  simplest 
enquirer  would  bethink  himself,  when, 
touched  and  awakened  by  the  importance 
of  eternal  things,  he  is  made  to  know  the 
guiltiness  of  sin  and  the  grace  of  an 
offered  Saviour.  Should  you  come  to  re- 
pent of  the  one  and  to  rejoice  in  the  other 
— that  transition  is  all  which  I  want,  and 
all  which  I  care  for.  After  that  you  have 
really  and  historically  made  it,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  you  may  review  the  way  by 
which  you  have  been  led ;  and  that  you 
may  recognise  both  the  finger  of  Provi- 
dence and  the  power  of  grace,  in  that  you 
are  what  you  are.  There  is  many  a  Chris- 
tian who  refuses  the  doctrine  in  the  gene- 
ral ;  but  seldom  do  you  meet  with  a  tho- 
roughly christianised  man,  who  refuses 
that  it  is  altogether  a  higher  hand  which 
hath  made  him  what  he  is — that  it  was  in 
the  counsels  of  God  to  have  brought  him 
within  reach  of  that  preacher's  voice, 
whose  demonstration  first  arrested  him  by 
the  conviction  of  his  danger — that  it  was 
He  who  directed  his  eye  to  that  bible  pas- 
sage, which  told  with  deciding  efficacy 
upon  his  conscience — that  the  volume 
which  fii'st  evangelised  all  his  feelings 
met  him  upon  his  else  heedless  way,  by  a 
direction  impressed  on  it  from  Heaven — 
that  the  family  bereavement  which  for  a 
season  dispossessed  the  world  of  its  power, 
and  laid  him  open  to  an  influence  from 
above,  was  the  preparative  by  God  Him- 
self for  that  mighty  change  on  which  hang 
the  issues  of  his  eternity — Above  all,  that 
it  was  the  Spirit  from  on  high  which  gave 
enforcement  to  all  that  he  hoard,  and  all 
that  he  experienced — Insomuch  that  he 
has  positively  nothing  which  he  did  not 
receive  ;  and  all  the  faith  and  all  the  fruits 
of  righteousness  which  belong  to  him,  he 
of  all  men  is  the  readiest  to  say,  'Never- 
theless not  me  but  the  grace  of  God  that 
is  in  me.'  This  man,  whatever  his  general 
notion  may  be,  is  a  predestinarian  in  all 
that  rclateth  unto  himself  He  recognises 
the  power  and  the  will  of  God,  in  every 
footstep  of  his  own  spiritual  history.  He 
may  not  dogmatise  on  the  case  of  others  ; 
but,  in  his  own  case,  it  is  one  of  the  firm- 
est articles  of  his  faith,  and  it  ministers 
nought  but  humility  and  thankfulness  to 
his  bosom.  He  rejoices  in  the  tokens  of  a 
blessed  ordination,  that  he  already  hath 
obtained ;  and  the  more  that  these  evi- 


LECTURE   LXII. — CHAPTER   VIII,    31,    32. 


317 


dences  of  God's  electing  love  multiply 
upon  his  observation,  the  more  intensely 
does  he  feel  a  close  and  endearing  rela- 
tionship with  his  Father  in  heaven.  It  is 
not  on  the  foundation  of  an  imagined  de- 
cree, but  on  the  foundation  of  a  felt  and 
actual  experience,  that  he  grounds  his 
confidence  in  God  and  joins  the  apostle 
in  exclaiming — '*If  he  be  for  us  who  can 
be  against  us?"  Hitherto  the  Lord  hath 
helped  us,  and  now  He  will  not  abandon 
the  objects  of  His  care.  He  hath  begun 
the  good  work.  He  will  carry  it  on  unto 
perfection.  He  haih  granted  the  earnest, 
He  will  not  withhold  the  fulfilment.  We 
have  experienced  the  supplies  of  His 
grace  in  time,  and  they  are  the  pledges  to 
us  of  our  coming  glory. 

This  is  the  period  of  your  Christianity, 
an  advanced  and  an  elevated  period,  at 
which  your  thoughts  on  predestination 
may  be  profitable  and  may  be  safe.  To 
take  up  with  it  sooner,  is  cutting  before 
the  point.  It  is  wildering  yourselves 
among  initial  perplexities,  that  only  serve 
to  darken  the  outset  of  your  religious 
course.  Insomuch  that  I  have  often  been 
tempted  to  wish,  that  it  had  no  place  in 
the  Bible  at  all ;  or,  at  least,  that  it  never 
met  the  eye  of  an  enquirer,  on  his  first  at- 
tempts to  understand  or  to  realise  the  sal- 
vation of  the  gospel.  But  the  foolishness 
of  God  is  wiser  than  the  wisdom  of  men  ; 
and  I  must  confess,  that,  in  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  instances  of  spiritual  distress  which 
I  have  seen,  it  was  this  very  doctrine  of 
election  which  first  shook  the  soul  out  of 
its  lethargies — that  it  was  the  instrument 
for  unsettling  the  natural  man  out  of  the 
listlessness  of  nature  ;  and  thrown  agog 
by  it,  as  it  were,  from  the  deep  and  fatal 
unconcern  that  might  else  have  terminated 
in  the  sleep  of  death,  he,  alive  and  alarm- 
ed and  set  on  edge  by  this  one  obnoxious 
article,  hath  gotten  an  impulse  from  it 
upon  his  spirit,  under  which  he  has  passed 
from  the  state  of  a  careless  sinner  to  that 
of  a  hopeful  and  aspiring  disciple.  In 
such  a  case  as  this,  it  seems  to  have  serv- 
ed as  the  "projecting  hook,  by  which  to 
fasten  the  else  inert  soul  to  the  whole  con- 
templation ;  and  what  many,  and  myself 
among  the  number,  may  at  one  time  have 
wished  to  be  expunged  from  the  field  of  a 
sinner's  vision  altogether,  has  occasion- 
ally been  the  very  word  that  startled  him 
as  it  were  into  spiritual  life,  and  whence 
he  may  date  the  time  of  his  having  become 
awake  and  at  length  intelligent  about  the 
things  of  salvation. 

V.  32.  "He  that  spared  not  his  own 
Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how 
shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us 
all  things  V 

It  is  with  great  satisfaction  that  I  now 
clear  my  way  to  a  topic  the  most  salutary, 


and  I  will  add  the  most  sacramental,  with- 
in the  whole  compass  of  revealed  faith — 
even  to  the  love  wherewith  God  so  loved 
the  world  as  to  send  His  Son  into  it  to  be 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  I  fear,  my 
brethren,  that  there  is  a  certain  metaphy- 
sical notion  of  the  Godhead  which  blunts 
our  feelings  of  obligation,  for  all  the  kind- 
ness of  His  good- will,  for  all  the  tender- 
ness of  His  mercies.  There  is  an  acade- 
mic theology,  which  would  divest  Him  of 
all  sensibility  ;  which  would  make  of  Him 
a  Being  devoid  of  all  emotion  and  of  all 
tenderness  ;  which  concedes  to  Him  power 
and  wisdom  and  a  sort  of  cold  and  clear 
and  faultless  morality,  but  which  would 
denude  Him  of  all  those  fond  and  fatherly 
regards  that  so  endear  an  earthly  parent 
to  the  children  who  have  sprung  from  him. 
It  is  thus  that  God  hath  been  presented  to 
the  eye  of  our  nnagination  as  a  sort  of 
cheerless  and  abstract  Divinity,  who  has 
no  sympathy  with  His  creatures,  and  who 
therefore  can  have  no  responding  sympa- 
thy to  Him  back  again.  I  fear  that  such 
representations  as  these  have  done  mis- 
chief in  Christianity — that  they  have  had 
a  congealing  property  in  them  towards 
that  affection,  which  is  represented  as  the 
most  important,  and  indeed  the  chief  at- 
tribute of  a  religious  character,  even  love 
to  God — And  that  just  because  of  the 
unloveliness  which  they  throw  over  the 
aspect  of  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven 
— whereby  men  are  led  to  conceive  of 
Him,  as  they  would  of  some  physical  yet 
tremendous  energy,  that  sitteth  aloft  in  a 
kind  of  ungainly  and  unsocial  remoteness 
from  all  the  felt  and  familiar  humanities 
of  our  species.  And  so  it  is,  we  appre- 
hend, that  the  Theism  of  Nature  and  of 
Science  has  taken  unwarrantable  free- 
doms with  the  Theism  of  the  Bible — at- 
taching a  mere  figurative  sense  to  all  that 
is  spoken  there  of  the  various  affections 
of  the  Deity  ;  and  thus  despoiling  all  the 
exhibitions,  which  it  makes  of  Him  to  our 
world,  of  the  warmth  and  the  power  to 
move  and  to  engage,  that  properly  be- 
long to  them.  It  represents  God  as  alto- 
gether impassive — as  made  up  of  little 
more  than  of  understanding  and  of  power 
— as  having  no  part  in  that  system  of 
emotions  which  occupies  so  wide  a  space 
in  the  constitution  of  man,  made  after  His 
own  image  and  according  to  His  own 
likeness.  It  is  true  that  this  image  in  us 
is  wofully  defaced  ;  but  can  you  think, 
that,  after  we  are  restored  to  it,  all  feeling 
and  all  fervency,  whether  of  desire  or  of 
fond  affection,  shall  be  extinguished  with- 
in us — that  we  shall  not  then  compassion- 
ate the  sufferings  of  others  ;  and  feel  the 
kindlings  of  a  seraphic  fire  in  the  contem- 
plation of  excellence ;  and  have  all  the 
indignancy  of  pure  and  holy  spirits  at  the 


318 


LECTURE   LXII. CHAPTER   VIII,    31,    32. 


sight  of  worthlessness ;  and  be  actuated 
by  the  kindest  regards  and  the  most  affec- 
tionate longings  of  charity  towards  all 
whom  we  can  soothe  by  our  simple  re- 
gards, or  benefit  by  our  zealous  and  de- 
voted services?  But  if  all  these  emotions 
be  ingredients  of  the  renewed  character, 
and  it  be  after  the  image  of  the  Godhead 
that  the  renewal  is  actually  made,  docs  it 
not  prove  that  the  Eternal  Spirit  hath 
emotions  also — a  characteristic  of  the  Di- 
vinity indeed,  which  beams  upon  us  from 
'  almost  every  passage  in  the  history  of  the 
Saviour,  who,  though  the  brightness  of 
His  Father's  glory  and  the  express  imago 
of  His  person,  yet  fully  partook  in  all  the 
sensations  and  all  the  sympathies  of  man  ; 
who  wept,  and  who  rejoiced,  and  who 
was  angry,  and  who  was  exceeding  sor- 
rowful, and  who  with  all  His  meekness 
and  gentleness  still  delivered  Himself 
with  impassion-ed  energy  when  denounc- 
ing the  hypocrisies  of  the  worthless — 
Surely  if  he  who  hath  seen  the  Son  hath 
seen  the  Father  also,  then  ought  we  to 
conceive  of  Him  not  as  of  some  frigid 
and  desolate  abstraction ;  but  that  in  the 
bosom  of  the  High  and  the  Holy  One  who 
inhabiteth  eternity,  there  live  and  move 
and  have  their  busy  operation — all  the 
resentments  of  perfect  virtue  against  the 
sinner — all  the  regards  of  perfect  love 
and  of  infinite  compassion  towards  the 
righteous  who  obey,  and  the  penitent  who 
turn  to  Him. 

With  this  view  of  the  Godhead,  and 
which  we  hold  to  be  the  scriptural  one, 
let  us  look  unto  that  great  transaction  on 
which  all  the  hopes  of  our  sinful  world 
are  suspended.  The  Father  sent  His  Son 
for  our  sake,  to  the  humiliation  and  the 
agony  of  a  painful  sacrifice.  There  is 
evident  stress  laid  in  the  Bible  on  Jesus 
Christ  being  His  only  Son,  and  His  only- 
beloved  Son.  This  is  conceived  to  en- 
hance the  surrender,  to  aggravate  as  it 
were  the  cost  of  having  given  up  unto  the, 
death  so  near  and  so  dear  a  relative.  In 
that  memorable  verse  where  it  is  repre- 
sented that  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to 
send  His  only-begotten  Son  into  it,  I  bid 
you  mark  well  the  emphasis  that  lies  in 
the  so.  There  was  a  difference  in  respect 
of  painful  surrender,  between  His  giving 
up  another  more  distantly  as  it  were  con- 
nected with  Him,  and  His  giving  up  one 
who  stood  to  Him  in  such  close  and  affect- 
ing relationship.  The  kin  that  He  hath  to 
Christ  is  the  measure  of  the  love  that  He 
manifested  to  the  world,  in  giving  up 
Christ  as  a  propitiation  for  the  world's 
sins.  What  is  this  to  say,  but  that  in 
this  great  and  solemn  mystery  the  Parent 
was  put  to  the  trial  of  His  firmness — that, 
in  the  act  of  doing  so,  there  were  a  sore- 
ness and  a  suffering  and  a  struggle  in  the 


bosom  of  the  Divinity— that  a  something 
was  felt,  like  that  which  an  earthly  father 
feels  when  he  devotes  the  best  and  the 
dearest  of  his  family  to  some  high  object 
of  patriotism.  God  in  sparing  Him  not, 
but  in  giving  Him  up  unto  the  death  for  us 
all,  sustained  a  conllict  between  pijy  for 
His  child,  and  love  for  that  world  for 
whom  He  bowed  down  His  head  unto  the 
sacrifice.  In  pouring  out  the  vials  of  His 
wrath  on  the  head  of  His  only-beloved' 
Son — in  awaking  the  sword  of  offended 
justice  against  His  fellow — in  laying  upon 
Him  the  whole  burden  of  that  propitiation, 
by  which  the  law  could  be  magnified, 
and  its  transgressors  could  be  saved — in 
holding  forth  on  the  cross  of  Christ  this 
blended  demonstration  of  His  love  and 
His  holiness,  and  thus  enduring  the  spec- 
tacle of  His  tears  and  of  His  agonies  and 
cries,  till  the  full  atonement  was  rendered, 
and,  not  till  it  was  finished,  did  the  meek 
and  gentle  sufferer  give  up  the  Ghost — At 
that  time  when  angels  looking  down  from 
the  high  battlements  of  heaven,  would 
have  flown  to  rescue  the  Son  .of  God  from 
the  hands  of  persecutors — think  you  that 
God  Himself  was  the  only  unconcerned 
and  unfeeling  spectator;  or,  that,  in  con- 
senting to  these  cruel  sufferings  of  His 
Son  for  the  world.  He  did  not  make  of 
His  love  to  that  world  its  strongest  and 
most  substantial  testimony"? 

It  blunts  the  gratitude  of  men,  when 
they  think  lightly  of  the  sacrifice  which 
God  had  to  make  when  He  gave  up  His 
Son  unto  the  death  ;  and,  akin  to  this 
pernicious  imagination,  our  gratitude  is 
further  deadened  and  made  dull,  when 
we  think  lightly  of  the  death  itself.  This 
death  was  an  equivalent  for  the  punish- 
ment of  guilty  millions.  In  the  account 
which  is  given  of  it,  we  behold  all  the 
symptoms  of  a  deep  and  a  dreadful  enduj*- 
ance — of  an  agony  which  was  shrunk 
from,  even  by  the  Son  of  God,  though  He 
had  all  the  strength  of  the  Divinity  to 
uphold  Him — of  a  conflict  and  a  terror 
and  a  pain,  under  which  omnipitence 
itself  had  well  nigh  given  <vay ;  and 
which,  while  it  proved  that  the  strength 
of  the  sufferer  was  infinite,  proved  that 
the  sin  for  which  He  suffered  in  its  guilt 
and  in  its  evil  was  infinite  also.  Christ 
made  not  a  seeming  but  a  substantial 
atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 
There  was  something  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary martyrdom.  There  was  an  actual 
laying  on  of  the  iniquities  of  us  ail ;  and, 
however  little  we  are  fitted  for  diving 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  divine  jurispru- 
dence— however  obscurely  we  know  of 
all  that  was  felt  by  the  Son  of  God,  when 
the  dreadful  hour  and  power  of  darkness 
were  upon  Him — Yet,  we  may  be  well 
assured,  that  it  was   no  mockery— that 


LECTURE   LXII. CHAPTER    VIII,    31,    32. 


319 


something  more  than  'the  mere  represen- 
tation of  a  sacrifice,  it  was  most  truly  and 
essentially  a  sacrifice  itself — a  full  satis- 
faction rendered  for  the  outrage  that  had 
been  done  upon  the  Lawgiver — His  whole 
authority  vindicated,  the  entire  burden  of 
His  wrath  discharged.  This  is  enough 
for  all  the  moral  purposes  that  are  to  be 
gained  by  our  faith  in  Christ's  propitia- 
tion. It  is  enough  that  we  know  of  the 
travail  of  His  soul.  It  is  enough  that  He 
exchanged  places  with  the  world  He  died 
for  ;  and  that  what  to  us  would  have  been 
the  wretchedness  of  eternity,  was  all  con- 
centrated upon  Him,  and  by  Him  was 
fully  borne.  The  suretiship  was  an  equiv- 
alent for  the  debt,  and  the  ransom  laid 
down  was  an  adequate  price  for  the  re- 
demption that  was  achieved  by  it.  When 
this  thought  takes  full  possession  of  the 
sinner's  heart,  it  lightens  him  of  all  his 
fears.  He  feels  the  charm  of  an  entire 
deliverance  ;  and  great  are  his  peace  and 
his  joy,  as  he  cherishes  the  full  assurance 
of  all  being  clear  with  God.  He  goes  out 
and  in  by  that  way  of  access,  which  hath 
been  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  a  satis- 
fying atonement  ;  and  there  are  a  light 
and  a  gladness  in  all  his  approaches  unto 
God  in  Christ,  which  the  world  knoweth 
not.   And  it  is  well  that  he  rates  at  its  full 


amount,  the  expense  of  that  mighty  ser- 
vice which  has  been  rendered — that  he 
deems  it  to  have  been  what  it  really  was, 
a  costly  sacrifice  ;  and  that  he  bethinks 
him  solemnly  and  tenderly  of  the  deep 
endurance  of  the  crcs.  He  should  look 
unto  Him  whom  he  hath  pierced,  and  on 
whom  the  heavy  chastisement  of  his 
peace  was  laid.  It  is  thus  that  the  glad- 
ness and  the  gratitude  keep  pace  with 
each  other  ;  and  that  in  very  proportion 
as  he  rejoices  because  of  his  full  deliver- 
ance, does  he  feel  the  devotedness  of  all 
his  faculties  tq  Him  who  hath  achieved  it. 
Christ  gave  up  His  life  unto  the  death  for 
him,  so  he  gives  up  his  life  in  entire  dedi- 
cation to  the  will  of  Christ — living  no 
more  unto  himself,  but  unto  Christ  who 
died  for  him  and  who  rose  again.  And 
therefore  it  is,  that,  as  you  approach 
these  tables,  I  would  have  you  look  with 
an  intelligent  eye  on  the  affecting  memo- 
rials that  are  laid  thereupon.  I  would 
have  you  light  both  your  faith  and  your 
love  at  this  altar  ;  and  when  you  see  the 
symbols  of  the  body  that  was  broken 
and  the  blood  that  was  shed  for  you,  I 
would  have  you  fully  to  recognise  both 
the  service  that  has  been  achieved  and 
the  suffering  that  has  been  borne  in  this 
mighty  expiation.* 


LECTURE  L:sf9. 

Romans  viii,  31,  32. 

"  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things'?    If  God  be  for  ys,  who  can  be  against  usl    He  that  spared  not  his  own 
Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  1" 


'  For  us  all.'  The  apostle  may  perhaps 
be  confining  his  regards  in  this  clause  to 
himself  and  to  his  converts,  to  those  of 
whom  he  had  this  evidence  that  they  were 
the  elect  of  God — even  that  the  gospel  had 
come  to  them  with  power  and  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  much  assurance. 
But,  notwithstanding  this,  we  have  the 
authority  of  other  passages  for  the  com- 
fortable truth,  that  Christ  tasted  death  for 
every  man — and  so  every  man,  who  hears 
of  the  expiation  rendered  by  this  death, 
hath  a  warrant  to  rejoice  therein  ;  and 
that  He  is  set  forth  a  propitiation  for  the 
sins  of  th(^  world — and  so  it  is  competent 
for  every  one  in  the  world,  to  look  unto 
this  propitiation  and  be  at  peace;  and 
that  He  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all  to 
be  testified  in  due  time — and  so  might 
each  of  you  who  hears  this  testimotiy, 
embrace  it  for  himself,  and  feel  the  whole 
charm  of  his  deliverance  from  guilt  and 
from  all  its  consequences.    Christ  did  not 


so  die  for  all,  as  that  all  do  actually  re- 
ceive the  gift  of  salvation.  But  He  so  died 
for  all.  as  that  all  to  whom  He  is  preached 
have  the  real  and  honest  offer  of  salva- 
tion. He  is  not  yours  in  possession,  till 
you  have  laid  hold  of  Him  by  faith.  But 
He  is  yours  in  offer.  He  is  as  much  yours, 
as  any  thing  of  which  you  can  say  I  have 
it  for  the  taking.  You,  one  and  all  of  you, 
my  brethren,  have  salvation  for  the  taking ; 
and  it  is  because  you  do  not  choose  to  take 
it,  if  it  do  not  indeed  belong  to  you.  It  is 
because  you  have  treated  it  as  the  worth- 
less thing  that  you  trample  under  your 
feet,  and  will  not  stoop  to  seize  upon.  Or 
it  is  because,  ere  you  appropriated  it,  you 
would  break  it  into  fragments,  and  either 
choose  or  reject  of  these  fragments  at  your 
pleasure.  All  of  you  are  welcome  even 
now  to  salvation,  if  you  are  only  willing 
for  a    whole  salvation.    I  can  promise 


•  Preached  oa  a  Communion  Sabbath. 


320 


LECTURE  LXin. — CHAPTER  Vni,  31,  32. 


nothing,  nor  can  I  hold  out  encourage- 
ment, to  the  man  who  would  grasp  at  the 
offered  immunity  from  punishment,  but 
would  nauseate  the  medicine  that  purifies 
and  heals  him — who  would  cling  with  all 
his  might  to  the  pardon  of  the  gospel,  but 
would  decline  its  expedients  for  his  sanc- 
tification — who  can  listen  with  a  charmed 
ear  to  the  report  that  is  brought  to  him  of 
the  Sacrifice,  but  shrinks  from  that  great 
moral  revolution  of  taste  and  affection 
and  habit  that  is  wrought  in  every  be- 
liever by  the  Spirit.  Your  mincing  and 
mutilating  of  the  testimony  of  God  will 
do  nothing  for  you  ;  but  your  entire  faith 
in  His  entire  testimony  will  do  every 
thing.  And  give  me  the  man,  who  is  de- 
sirous of  a  full  rescue  both  from  sin  in  its 
condemnation  and  sin  in  its  hateful  as- 
cendancy over  him — give  me  the  man  as 
ready  to  flee  from  the  present  worldliness, 
as  to  flee  from  the  coming  wrath — give 
me  the  man  who  is  earnestly  set,  both  on 
repentance  from  his  sins,  and  the  remis- 
sion of  his  sins — And  all  the  treasures  of 
the  gospel  are  open  to  him.  He  may 
come,  even  now,  and  share  in  all  the 
spoils  that  have  been  won  by  the  Captain 
of  our  salvation.  The  everlasting  right- 
eousness that  Christ  hath  brought  in  may 
even  now,  be  to  him  an  investiture  of 
glory.  The  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  the 
promise  of  the  Father,  may  even  now  de- 
scend abundantly  upon  his  prayers.  The 
gospel  makes  no  man  an  outcast,  though 
many  is  the  man  who  makes  an  outcast 
of  himself.  And  so  to  prevail  upon  them, 
as  that  they  might  move  forward — so  to 
make  plain  the  eospel  overture,  as  that 
each  may  put  in  for  his  share  of  its  pur- 
chased and  proclaimed  amnesty — so  to 
manifest  the  way  that  leadeth  unto  the 
fountain  opened  in  the  house  of  Judahfor 
sin  and  for  uncleanness,  as  a  way  that  is 
patent  and  accessible  to  every  man — so  to 
vindicate  the  unexcepted  goodness  of  God 
unto  each,  as  that  each  may  feel  himself 
led  thereby  unto  repentance — For  this  we 
have  a  host  of  testimonies  in  the  Bible; 
and  not  the  least  impressive  of  these  is, 
that  God  spared  not  His  own  Son  but  de- 
livered Him  unto  the  death  for  us  all. 

You  know  how  con.stantly  I  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  urging  this  representation 
upon  you,  at  every  returning  sacrament — 
how,  in  the  first  instance  I  have  laboured 
to  impress  upon  every  hesitating  spirit 
the  perfect  freeness  of  the  gospel  invita- 
tion— how  I  have  attempted  to  demon- 
strate in  your  hearing,  that  access  to  this 
feast  is  regulated  on  the  very  same  prin- 
ciple, with  access  to  Him  who  is  the  Mas- 
ter of  the  feast — how  even  he  who,  up  to 
this  moment  has  been  the  chief  of  sinners, 
might  draw  as  confidently  nigh  as  when 


he  maketh  his  first  approach  unto  the 
Saviour — how  there  is  no  barrier  of  ex- 
clusion around  this  ordinance,  which  the 
Founder  of  the  ordinance  did  not  throw 
around  His  own  person,  or  around  His 
own  office  as  the  High  Priest  and  the 
Mediator  between  God  and  man ;  and 
thus  have  I  never  felt  any  restraint  in  ap- 
plying to  this  great  festival  those  precious 
calls,  first  of  a  prophet,  and  then  of  an 
apostle :  "  Ho  every  one  that  thirsteth 
come  ye  to  the  waters  ;  and  he  that  hath 
no  money,  come  ye,  buy  and  eat ;  yea 
come  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money 
and  without  price.  Wherefore  do  ye  spend 
money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and 
your  labour  for  that  which  satisfieth  nof? 
hearken  diligently  unto  me,  and  eat  ye 
that  which  is  good?  and  let  your  soul  de- 
light itself  in  fatness."  This  free  invita- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  is  re-echoed  by 
the  New  :  "  And  the  Spirit  and  the  Bride 
say  come,  and  let  him  that  heareth  say 
come,  and  let  him  that  is  athirst  come. 
And  whosoever  will  let  him  take  the  water 
of  life  freely." 

It  is  thus  that  I  should  like  to  overbear 
the  scruples  of  the  fearful.  It  is  thus  that 
I  would  divest  the  communion  of  that  cer- 
tain air  of  repulsiveness,  in  which  it  stands 
forth  to  many  a  superstitious  imagination. 
It  is  thus  that  I  would  have  you  to  regard 
it  in  its  true  character  as  a  feast  of  wel- 
come and  of  good  will,  from  which  no 
past  ti-ansgression,  if  repented  of  and 
turned  from,  was  ever  meant  to  exclude 
even  those,  who,  in  the  darkness  of  other 
days,  were  the  most  abandoned  of  our 
species — And,  even  now,  though  smarting 
under  the  recency  of  some  sore  and  melan- 
choly fall — though  all  trembling  and 
abashed,  at  some  fresh  discovery  of  your 
weakness — though  humbled  to  the  very 
dust,  because  of  the  temptation  that  as- 
sailed and  overcame  you  ;  and  under  the 
mortifying  sense  of  which  your  memory 
still  is  agonised,  and  all  the  faculties  of 
your  soul  are  in  a  wild  uproar  of  turbu- 
lence and  disorder — Even  in  these  circum- 
stances of  apparent  desperation,  if  the 
sinner  can  only  lift  up  his  eyes  to  the 
mercy-seat,  then  may  he  move  his  foot- 
steps to  that  table  on  which  its  emblems 
and  its  memorials  are  laid.  The  heart 
that  can  rise  in  humble  and  holy  confi- 
dence to  the  Saviour,  should  ever  be  ac- 
companied with  the  hand  that  can  stretch 
itself  out  to  the  symbols  of  His  death ; 
and  often,  have  we  reason  to  believe  in 
the  history  of  our  church,  often  has  the 
appointed  use  ofthe.se  been  felt  as  a  pre- 
cious restorative  to  the  broken  spirit — 
often  have  the  weary  and  heavy-laden 
penitent  risen  from  the  festival,  with  a 
reanimated  vigour  for  making  good  the 


LECTURE   LXiri. CHAPTER    VIII,    31,    32. 


321 


distance  that  he  has  lost,  with  all  the 
energy  of  a  man  refreshed,  for  the  toils 
of  new  obedience. 

And  you  further  know,  how  this  lati- 
tude of  invitation  to  the  sacrament  can  be 
made  to  harmonize  with  the  pure  and 
holy  character  of  this  ordinance.  Just  in 
the  very  way  that  the  gospel  is  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  both  a  doctrine  of  free 
grace  and  a  doctrine  according  to  godli- 
ness. The  past  iniquities  that  have  taken 
place  in  your  history  form  no  barrier  in 
the  way  of  your  approach  to  these  tables  ; 
but  the  purposed  iniquities  that  have  now 
place  in  your  heart,  these  are  what  ought 
to  form  an  invincible  barrier.  In  coming 
here,  yours  must  be  the  very  state  and  the 
very  preparation  that  are  indispensible  to 
every  sinner  on  his  coming  unto  Christ. 
He  is  freely  invited  ;  but  with  the  same 
breath  of  utterance  he  is  told  that  he  must 
forsake  all.  He  has  his  salvation  for  the 
taking;  but  he  is  not  at  liberty  to  divide 
it  into  parts,  and  to  accommodate  his  own 
taste  by  the  selection  of  one,  by  the  refu- 
sal of  another.  He  must  give  himself 
over  wholly  to  Christ ;  and  be  as  willing 
to  make  use  of  Him  as  the  Lord  his 
strength,  as  to  confide  in  Him  as  the  Lord 
his  righteousness.  This  must  character- 
ise his  first  movement  to  the  gospel  ;  and 
this  must  characterise  his  first  and  all  his 
following  movements  to  the  table  of  the 
sacrament.  The  bread  and  the  wine  that 
he  receives  there,  must  be  viewed  by  him, 
not  merely  as  the  symbols  of  that  sacri- 
fice by  which  he  is  reconciled,  but  also  as 
the  symbols  of  that  spiritual  nourishment 
by  which  he  is  renewed.  And  he  par- 
taketh  unworthily,  he  eateth  and  he  drink- 
eth  judgment  unto  himself — if  to  the  peace 
of  a  redeemed  creature,  he  do  not  add 
now  the  firm  purpose,  and  do  not  expe- 
rience afterwards  the  heaven-bestowed 
power,  of  a  sanctified  creature. 

You  will  now  perceive  then,  what  the 
principle  is,  on  which  all  our  debarments 
from  the  table  of  the  Lord  do  turn.  It  is 
not  on  the  magnitude  or  the  number  of 
your  past  offences — for  the  guilt  of  these, 
that  blood  of  which  the  wine  of  the  table 
is  the  memorial,  can  wholly  cleanse  away. 
It  is  not  even  on  the  weakness  of  your 
present  energies — for  that  nourishment 
from  above,  of  which  both  the  bread  and 
the  wine  are  the  symbols,  can  wholly  in- 
vigorate and  restore  them.  But  it  is  the 
duplicity  of  a  heart,  that  wavers  between 
its  own  will  and  the  will  of  God.  It  is 
the  want  of  a  thorough-going  devotedness 
to  Him  who  died  for  you  and  who  rose 
again.  It  is  a  vice  not  in  the  perform- 
ance, for  who  is  there  that  corneth  not 
short  of  the  pure  and  the  perfect  com- 
mandment] Far  more  radical  than  this, 
it  is  a  vice  in  the  purpose.  It  is  such  a 
41 


vice  in  the  feelings  and  inclinations  of  the 
inner  man,  as  met  the  discerning  eye  of 
the  apostle,  when  he  looked  upon  Simon 
Magus,  and  could  perceive  in  him  a  heart 
not  right  with  God.  The  compromise  that 
he  wanted  to  strike  was  between  godliness 
and  gain  ;  and,  in  like  manner,  if  you  have 
not  the  singleness  of  aimand  the  singleness 
of  desire — you  would  partition  the  matter 
between  the  service  of  the  one  master  and 
the  service  of  the  other — if  you  cleave  not 
fully  unto  the  Lord,  and  are  not  resolved 
to  be  His  only  and  His  altogether — You 
partake  unworthily — you  add  the  guilt 
of  hypocrisy  to  the  guilt  of  your  ordinary 
transgressions — you  do  what  is  decent 
and  creditable,  it  is  true,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world ;  but  you  do  it  at  the  heavy  expense 
of  an  insult  to  Him  who  made  the  world, 
of  a  solemn  mockery  in  the  face  of  Hea- 
ven. Beware  of  thus  aggravating  your 
guilt  and  your  danger — "Cleanse  your 
hands  ye  sinners,  purify  your  hearts  ye 
double-minded." 

You  may  remember  that  precious  verse 
of  our  great  apostle — "  For  if  when  we 
were  sinners  we  were  reconciled  by  the 
death  of  His  Son,  much  more  being  recon- 
ciled we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life." 
There  is  a  close  analogy  between  the  sen- 
timent here,  and  that  in  our  text  of  the 
day — '  He  who  spared  not  his  own  Son 
but  delivered  him  up, to  the  death  for  us 
all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely 
give  us  all  things  V 

This,  my  brethren,  is  the  great  hold,  the 
great  security,  if  I  may  so  speak,  which  a 
believer  has  upon  God.  He  hath  a  pledge 
in  his  hand  already,  that  to  him  is  the 
warrant  or  the  guarantee  of  the  very 
largest  fulfilments.  He  hath  accepted  of 
Christ,  and,  having  Him  in  sure  posses- 
sion— and  the  stronger  his  faith  the  surer 
that  possession  is — he  cannot  doubt  that 
with  Him  he  shall  receive  all  things  ne- 
cessary to  life  and  to  godliness.  God 
who  hath  bestowed  upon  him  the  greater 
gift,  will  not  withhold  from  him  the  less. 
He  who  for  his  sake  put  the  soul  of  His 
well-beloved  Son  to  grief,  will  not  fail, 
now  that  the  grief  is  past  and  the  glory 
of  an  exalted  mediatorship  is  entered 
upon — will  not  fail  to  illustrate  that  glory 
the  more,  by  the  bright  accomplishments 
and  virtues  of  all  His  disciples.  He  who 
gave  up  Christ  unto  the  sacrifice,  will 
not  fail  through  Christ  to  give  out  His 
Spirit  unto  the  sanctification  of  all  who 
are  redeemed  by  it.  God  made  a  painful 
surrender,  when  He  consented  to  the  hu- 
miliation and  death  of  our  Saviour.  But 
now  that  the  Saviour  hath  arisen — now 
that  the  bitterness  of  the  deep  expiation  is 
past — now  that  the  toil,  and  the  conflict, 
and  the  agony  are  all  over — now  that  the 
sore    obstruction  is  moved  away,  and. 


322 


LECTURE   LXIU. CHAPTER   VIII,    31,    32. 


through  tlie  open  portal  of  a  reconcilia- 
tion that  Christ  travailed  in  the  greatness 
of  His  strength  fur  the  purpose  of  achiev- 
ing, there  is  a  free  and  unimpeded  chan- 
nel, through  which  the  mercy  of  God 
might  descend  in  fullest  exuberance  on 
the  guiltiest  of  us  all — Now  we  have 
every  reason  for  building  ourselves  up  on 
the  assurance,  that  He  will  withhold  no- 
thing which  can  make  either  for  our  grace 
in  time,  or  our  glory  in  eternity.  After  so 
wonderous  a  demonstration  of  His  love, 
the  believer  hath  nothing  to  fear.  He  is 
on  high  vantage  ground.  'He  sees  in  the 
mission  of  Christ  to  our  world,  a  token 
and  an  evidence  of  friendly  regard,  that 
already  overpasses  his  largest  expecta- 
tions. IL;  rejoices  in  the  secure  and 
the  wealthy  place  that  he  now  occupies, 
under  the  covering  of  the  ample  media- 
torship  ;  and  when  he  thinks  of  the  pledge 
which  hath  been  already  given,  he  de- 
lights himself  in  the  abundance  of  hope 
— and  peace  floweth  thi'ough  his  breast 
like  a  mighty  river. 

It  is  thus  that  I  would  have  you  to 
arise  from  these  tables,  refreshed  and 
reassured  by  all  that  you  have  seen  and 
tasted  and  handled  here  of  the  Word  of 
life.  In  eating  the  bread,  and  in  drink- 
ing the  wine,  you  have  at  least  received 
the  symbols  of  the  body  that  was  broken, 
and  of  the  blood  that  was  shed  for  you  : 
and  if  there  have  been  a  correspondence 
between  the  heart  and  the  hand  in  this  sol- 
emn transaction,  you  have  really  and  sub- 
stantially received  the  atonement.  Christ 
is  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's.  The  act  of 
reconciliation  between  you  and  your  of- 
fended Lawgiver  has  been  struck  ;  and 
you  may  descend  from  the  mount  of  ordi- 
nances with  this  song  of  triumph — '  He 
hath  given  His  own  Son,  and  how  is  it 
possible  that  He  will  not  with  Him  freely 
give  us  all  things  V 

This  is  the  very  reflection  by  which  I 
would  have  you  to  be  sustained  and  com- 
forted under  a  fear  that  might  naturally 
enter  your  hearts,  when  you  look  onward 
to  the  pilgrimage  that  is  before  you. 
The  fear  is  lest  you  fail  by  the  way  ;  lest 
you  should  again  be  surprised,  and  again 
be  overtaken  ;  lest  sin  and  Satan  should 
have  some  fresh  advantage  over  you  ;  and, 
in  the  darkness  of  a  troubled  spirit,  you 
should  lose  the  light  of  the  divine  counte- 
nance, and  be  cast  aback,  as  it  were,  on 
that  v/orld  from  which  you  had  emerged, 
and  afellowship  with  which isdeath.  The 
main  anxiety  of  a  truly  christianised  heart 
is  for  its  own  integrity.  Its  breathings 
after  perfect  love  and  perfect  holiness. 
Its  most  sensitive  dread  is  of  moral  evil. 
Its  most  cherished  desire  is  spiritual  ex- 
cellence. Of  the  all  things  which  are 
promised  unto  the  believer,   this  is  the 


thing  which  it  is  most  intently  set  upon. 
That  which  Christ  signalised  above  every 
other  privilege  by  calling  it  the  promise 
of  the  Father,  that  is  the  promise  which 
every  worthy  communicant  is  most  in 
earnest  to  realise — the  Spirit  given  to  all 
who  trust  in  the  Saviour — the  Spirit  that 
helpeth  all  infirmities,  and  strengthens 
with  all  might  in  the  inner  man — the 
Spirit  that  ever  acts  as  the  powerful 
though  unseen  auxiliary  of  the  faithful, 
amid  the  heat  and  the  hurry  and  the  fierce 
onsets  of  the  Christian  warfare — the  Spirit 
that,  even  among  the  familiarities  of  your 
daily  path  and  the  hourly  occasions  of 
your  business,  operates  with  real  though 
invisible  agency  in  the  secret  chambers 
of  thought — He  who  writes  the  law  of  God 
upon  your  heart ;  and  is  ever  ready,  if 
He  only  be  prayed  and  watched  for,  is 
ever  ready,  with  His  suggestions  of  wis- 
dom and  of  moral  energy  and  even  of 
scriptural  admonitions  wherewith  to  meet 
and  to  conquer  the  temptations  of  the 
cruel  adversary — This  is  the  gift  that, 
now  that  he  hath  laid  his  confident  hold  on 
the  gift  of  the  Saviour,  every  true  Chris- 
tian most  earnestly  covets,  and  whereof 
he  is  most  insatiable.  The  gift  of  the 
Spirit  is  that  for  which  he  now  wrestles 
in  .supplication  with  his  God.  Like  the 
law  which  it  imprints  on  his  renovated 
heart,  it  is  more  desired  by  him  than  gold 
yea  than  much  fine  gold,  sweeter  also 
than  honey  and  the  honey-comb. 

Now  this  is  what  I  would  propose  as 
your  defence  and  your  main  stay,  against 
the  melancholy  shipwreck  of  those  who 
return  unto  the  pollutions  of  the  world, 
arc  again  entangled  therein,  and  at  length 
fall  away.  It  is  the  Spirit  who  keeps  all 
who  look  for  Him  from  this  awful  catas- 
trophe. This  living  water  descendeth, 
not  upon  the  heart  in  one  wholesale  min- 
istration ;  but,  like  your  daily  nourish- 
ment, it  is  dealt  to  you  in  occasional  sup- 
plies. It  is  grace  to  help  you  in  the  time 
of  need,  and  therefore  bestowed  upon  you 
as  you  need  it.  It  is  distributed  in  season, 
and  so  as  to  suit  the  ever-recurring  neces- 
sities of  the  soul.  You  are  therefore  not 
to  count  upon  an  inherent  stock  of  grace. 
You  are  at  all  times  to  go  as  at  the  first, 
on  the  footing  of  a  wholly  void  and  vacant 
and  unfurnished  creature  ;  and  it  is  when 
you  go  thus,  that  the  promise  is  verified 
of  "open  thy  mouth  and  I  will  fill  it." 
"  The  height  of  creature-perfection  "  says 
an  eminent  divine  "lies  in  the  constant 
habit  of  bringing  our  own  emptiness  to 
Christ's  fullness."  You  are  not  to  pre- 
sume on  the  store  of  your  accumulated 
energies  ;  you  are  not  to  presume  on  your 
acquired  habits  ;  you  are  not  to  shift  your 
confidence  from  the  emanating  fountain 
to  that  stream  which,  if  not  momently  fed 


LECTURE   LXni. — CHAPTER   VIII,    31,    32. 


-323 


and  upholder!  therefrom,  would  soon  fleet 
away,  and  leave  nought  but  a  dry  and 
rocky  and  unfruitful  strand  behind  it. 
Your  eye  must  ever  be  towards  that  foun- 
tain, whence  all  the  supply  cometh.  You 
may  be  grateful  and  glad,  because  of  the 
glories  of  the  ascending  superstructure. 
But  you  do  not  lean  on  the  superstructure, 
you  lean  on  the  foundation.  And  so  it  is, 
that  I  would  have  you  at  all  times  to  have 
no  confidence  in  yourselves,  but  to  rejoice 
in  the  Lord  Jesus — to  fetch  from  Him  all 
those  influences  by  which  you  are  enabled 
from  one  hour  to  another,  to  serve  God  in 
the  Spirit — ever  to  be  intermingling  your 
aspirations  with  your  efforts,  your  prayers 
with  your  practice ;  striving  mightily,  yet 
supplicating  constantly  ;  fervent  in  spirit 
while  not  slothful  in  business :  And  be 
assured  that  it  is  on  the  basis  of  pro- 
foundest  humility,  that  the  noblest  eleva- 
tions of  Christian  worth  and  excellence 
are  reared. 

That  process  by  which  the  prayer  of 
faith  and  the  performance  of  familiar 
duty  are  made  thus  to  reciprocate  the  one 
with  the  other,  goeth  on  among  the  re- 
cesses and  the  intricacies  of  experimental 
religion.  It  forms  the  main  spring  and 
aliment  of  that  life,  which  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  He  who  verifies  this  pro- 
cess in  his  own  heart,  realises  fellowship 
with  the  Father  and  with  the  Son.  The 
secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  him ;  and  in 
the  busy  chambers  of  the  inner  man, 
there  is  a  joy  that  the  world  knoweth  not, 
and  a  spiritual  mechanism  at  work  which 
the  world  cannot  comprehend.  But  though 
they  see  not  the  working  of  the  mechan- 
ism, they  may  both  see  and  admire  the 
produce  of  that  ^working — even  as  we 
might  have  our  eye  regaled  by  the  beauty 
of  a  pattern,  though  you  have  not  an  un- 
derstanding for  the  complex  machinery 
by  which  it  is  inlaid.  Even  so  it  is  that 
the  eye  of  nature,  cannot  apprehend  what 
that  is  which  hath  wrought  the  true  and 
the  lovely  and  the  honourable  on  the 
groundwork  of  your  character — yet  each 


one  of  these  features,  and  many  more, 
can  be  discerned  by  the  men  who  are 
without,  and  call  forth  an  applauding 
testimony  from  them  all.  And  be  it  your 
care  that  your  light  so  shine  before  men, 
that  they,  who  see  nought  but  mysticism 
in  your  oi-thodoxy,  and  in  j^our  high  com- 
munions with  God,  and  in  your  life  of 
faith  upon  His  Son,  and  in  your  habitual 
fellowship  with  His  Spirit — that  they, 
utterly  in  the  dark  about  the  secret  prin- 
ciples of  j^our  character,  may  at  least  be 
compelled  to  render  an  homage  to  the 
visible  exhibitions  of  it.  It  is  thus,  my 
brethren,  that  Christ  is  magnified  in  your 
body.  It  is  thus  that  His  doctrine  is 
adorned  :  and  that  your  souls  become  a 
living  epistle,  read  and  acknowledged  not 
merely  by  your  fellow-saints,  but  read 
and  seen  of  all  men.  They  cannot  under- 
stand the  high  and  the  hidden  walk  of 
godliness.  But  they  can  understand  your 
common  honesty.  They  can  understand 
your  every-day  usefulness.  They  can 
understand  the  courtesy  of  your  manners. 
They  can  understand  your  patience  under 
injuries  and  the  noble  sacrifices  that  you 
make  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  They 
can  understand  all  the  duties  of  that 
varied  relationship,  which  you  hold  with 
your  fellow-men.  They  know  the  dis- 
tinction between  a  good  and  a  bad  parent, 
between  a  kind  and  a  quarrelsome  neigh- 
bour, between  a  dutiful  and  a  disobedient 
son,  between  a  profitable  and  a  pernicious 
member  of  society.  Make  it  clear  to 
them  as  day  then,  that  your  Christianity 
which  is  a  religion  of  faith  is  also  a  reli- 
gion of  virtue — that  all  the  fit  and  grace- 
ful moralities  of  life  follow  in  its  train — 
and  that,  while  it  assimilates  to  the  angels 
who  are  above,  it  scatters  beauties  and 
blessings  innumerable  over  the  face  of 
society  in  this^  lower  world.  Strive  thus 
to  recommend  to  others  the  gospel  which 
you  profess.'  Strive  mightily  according  to 
the  grace  of  God  that  is  given  to  your 
prayers,  and  that  worketh  in  you  mightily. 


LECTURE  LXIV. 


Romans  viii,  31. 
"  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things  7    If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  t" 


The  apostle,  in  the  utterance  of  these 
Words,  evidently  proceeds  on  the  belief 
that  God  is  upon  his  side ;  and  it  is  a  be- 
lief grounded  on  certaili  things  which 
may  be  found  in  the   preceding  context: 


'What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things?' 
And  surely  it  concerns  us  to  search  what 
the  things  were,  that  we  too,  if  possi- 
ble, may  realise  the  same  glorious  confi- 
dence ;  and  be  raised  to  that  highest  van- 


324 


LECTUEE    LXIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    3i, 


tage-ground  on  which  a  creature  can  be 
exalted,  even  the  vantage-ground  of  the 
Divine  favour,  whereupon  he  stands  se- 
cure amid  the  shock  and  the  conflict  and 
the  hostility  of  all  those  subordinate  ele- 
ments which  be  in  the  universe — and  just 
because  he  can  count  on  the  greatest  Be- 
ing of  the  universe  as  his  friend. 

In  taking  a  retrospect  then  of  this  epis- 
tle, with  a  view  to  ascertain  the  footing 
upon  which  our  apostle  rests  the  assurance 
of  God  being  for  him,  we  shall  find  that 
there  are  two  distinct  considerations  upon 
which  the  assurance  turns.  The  first  con- 
sideration is  that  of  God's  truth  in  His 
promise — a  consideration  which  lays  hold 
on  those  who  have  faith,  and  which  lays 
no  hold  on  those  who  want  it.  What 
first  then  led  the  apostle  to  count  upon 
God  as  his  friend,  was  faith  in  God — a 
faith  that  counted  Him  to  be  faithful — a 
faith  that  hung  direct  upon  the  promises 
of  God.  Of  this  an  example  was  given 
by  Abraham,  and  is  quoted  by  Paul,  in 
the  preceding  argument.  The  patriarch 
relied  upon  God,  from  the  time  of  his  very 
first  communication.  He  did  not  wait  the 
experience  of  God's  truth — he  believed  in 
it  from  the  outset.  He  did  not  ground  his 
confident  anticipation  of  the  whole  pro- 
mise being  fulfilled,  from  the  fulfilment  of 
one  or  any  part  of  it.  He  trusted  from 
the  moment  of  its  utterance.  He  reckon- 
ed upon  God's  friendship,  so  soon  as  God 
had  made  any  overture  to  him  at  all.  He 
believed,  ere  he  set  out  from  his  native 
country;  and  prior  to  all  the  subsequent 
tokens  that  he  obtained  of  God's  faithful- 
ness, in  the  course  of  his  journeying  over 
distant  lands.  He  believed  in  Him  the 
first  time,  and  befoi'e  that  he  met  with  Him 
a  second  time.  The  truth  of  God's  whole 
promise  was  more  unlikely  to  the  eye  of 
nature,  before  that  Abrah&m  had  got  any 
part  of  it  made  good  to  him,  than  after 
that  part  of  it  wal  verified  by  an  actual 
accomplishment.  But  it  was  at  the  time 
of  greatest  unlikelihood,  that  his  faith 
made  its  brightest  display,  and  was  most 
acceptable  to  God.  It  was  because  that 
against  hope  he  believed  in  hope — it  was 
because  he  staggered  not  at  the  promise 
of  God  through  unbelief — it  was  because 
fully  persuaded  that  what  God  had  pro- 
mised he  was  able  also  to  perform — It  was 
because  of  all  this  that  his  faith  was  well- 
pleasing  to  God,  and  because  of  all  this 
that  his  faith  was  imputed  unto  him  for 
righteousness. 

Now  this  very  footing  upon  which 
Abraham  placed  reliance  upon  God  as  his 
friend,  is  a  footing  furnished  in  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  one  and  to  all  of  us. 
"  It  was  not  written  for  his  sake  alone  that 
it  is  imputed  to  him,  but  for  ours  also,  to 
whom  it  shall  be  imputed  if  we  believe  on 


him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead," 
The  very  first  address  of  the  gospel  mes- 
sage  to  your  understanding,  should  be 
met  by  your  faith.  You  should  not  post- 
pone your  belief  in  the  promises  contain- 
ed there,  till  one  or  more  of  them  have 
been  accomplished.  You  might  see  a 
truth  and  honesty  in  all  the  promises 
from  the  first,  and,  anterior  even  to  the 
very  least  experience,  confidently  wait 
for  the  fulfilment  of  them  all.  Man's 
faith  should  come  immediately  on  the 
back  of  God's  utterance  ;  and  my  reason 
for  insisting  upon  this  is,  if  possible,  to 
convinco  one  and  all  of  you — that  even 
now  you  may  step  over  to  the  place  on 
which  the  apostle  is  standing  in  our  text, 
and  join  him  in  the  triumphant  affirma- 
tion that  God  is  upon  your  side.  The  most 
alienated  of  God's  rebellious  creatures  has 
a  warrant  in  the  gospel  for  changing 
sides,  and  that  immediately,  from  a  state 
of  variance  with  God  to  a  state  of  friend- 
ship and  peace  with  Him.  With  the  ut- 
termost stretch  of  our  charity  we  cannot 
believe,  that  all  of  this  congregation  are 
within  the  bond  of  the  covenant — that  all 
have  entered  into  reconciliation,  and  are 
now  encircled  within  the  limit  of  God's 
adopted  family.  Of  more  importance 
then  is  it  that  you  should  be  told,  that, 
among  other  grounds  for  the  assurance  ot 
God  being  indeed  your  friend,  there  is  ont 
of  which  the  most  hopeless  of  outcasts 
might  instantly  avail  themselves — one 
which  brought  Abraham  out  from  the 
land  of  idolatry,  and  which  should  now 
bring  out  you  from  amongst  the  idolatries 
of  a  present  evil  world — one  upon  which 
the  patriarch  of  old  entered  forthwith  in- 
to the  friendship  of  God,  and  upon  which 
you  also  might  forthwith  enter  into  the 
same  friendship,  and  that  without  the  in- 
tervention of  any  given  period  during 
which  you  have  to  wait  for  signs  and  ful- 
filments and  for  more  of  the  reiteration 
of  the  gospel  testimony  in  yo-ur  hearing. 
There  is  warrant  and  warrant  enough  for 
your  proceeding  upon  the  gospel  testimo- 
ny now.  It  is  addressed  to  you  as  well 
as  unto  others.  The  voice  of  "Abram 
Abram,"  heard  from  the  canopy  of  hea- 
ven by  the  patriarch,  was  not  a  more  spe- 
cific call — than  the  voice  of  "whosoever 
will  let  him  come,"  read  in  your  bibles, 
is  a  specific  call  on  each  who  is  here  pre- 
sent to  proceed  upon  this  invitation  ;  and 
to  set  out,  not  on  that  journey  by  which 
he  describes  a  great  physical  distance 
from  the  land  of  his  fathers,  but  most 
assuredly  to  set  out  on  that  journey  by 
which  he  describes  a  great  moral  distance 
from  the  vain  conversation  of  his  fathers: 
And  with  the  very  first  footstep  we  con- 
tend, and  it  is  a  footstep  that  should  be 
taken  now,  might  there  be  this  delightful 


LECTURE   LXIV. CHAPTER   VIIL    31. 


325 


confidence  to  urge  and  to  animate  the 
whole  movement — even  that  God  will  re- 
ceive him  and  will  be  a  Father  unto  him, 
nnd  that  he  shall  be  as  one  of  His  sons 
and  daughters  as  saiththe  Lord  Almighty. 
It  were  doing  injustice  to  the  gospel, 
did  we  not  hold  it  forth  as  charged  with 
/riendly  overtures,  and  that  for  the  instant 
acceptance  even  of  the  worst  and  most 
worthless  among  you.  Even  now,  are 
you  offered  the  justification  that  is  by 
faith.  Even  now,  the  sceptre  is  held  out 
to  you  of  peace  with  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  Even  now,  could  we 
only  awaken  your  confidence, — even  now, 
did  the  message  wherewith  we  are  en- 
trusted but  call  forth  a  responsive  trust  in 
your  bosom,  might  you  rejoice  in  the 
conscious  possession  of  that  grace  or 
favour  wherein  the  believer  stands,  and 
rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  It  is 
well  to  open  up  the  way  of  your  direct 
translation  into  the  friendship  of  Heaven  ; 
and,  for  this  purpose,  to  insist  both  on  the 
perfect  freedom  and  the  perfect  univer- 
sality of  Heaven's  invitations.  They  are 
to  you  who  are  afar  ofi",  as  well  as  to  you 
who  are  nigh.  There  is  an  offer  of  for- 
giveness of  which  you  shall  be  held  to 
have  accepted,  simply  by  your  reliance 
on  the  honesty  of  the  offei*.  There  is  a 
proposal  made  to  you  for  an  exchange  of 
conditions,  even  that  you  shall  exchange 
your  present  condition  of  hostility  for 
that  of  entire  peace  and  amity  with  God ; 
and  a  faith  in  the  reality  of  this  proposal 
on  your  part,  will  be  sustained  on  His 
part  as  the  valid  signification  of  your 
having  acceded  to  the  proposal.  It  is 
thus  that  the  agreement  which  had  been 
broken  between  Heaven  and  earth  is  re- 
stored. It  is  thus,  if  I  may  so  speak,  that 
the  knot  of  reconciliation  is  tied.  Your 
belief  is  the  ligament  that  binds  together 
the  parts  which  had  been  dissevered.  And 
there  is  not  a  surer  concatenation  in  the 
whole  expanse  of  Nature  or  of  Provi- 
dence, than  that  which  obtains  between 
man's  faith  and  God's  faithfulness.  It  is 
upon  your  believing  in  the  testimony  of 
God  regarding  His  Son,  that  you  pass 
from  the  ground  of  condemnation  to  the 
ground  of  acceptance  ;  and  we  again  re- 
peat, that  there  is  not  an  individual 
amongst  you  who  lies  without  the  scope 
of  this  generous  and  widely-sounding  call 
— so  that  however  much  God  is  against 
you  at  the  present  because  of  your  unre- 
pented  of  and  unexpiated  sins,  even  now, 
upon  the  instant  of  your  moving  from  sin 
unto  the  Saviour,  God  at  once  will  be  for 
you,  God  at  once  will  be  your  friend. 
I  And  now  that  I  have  said  of  this  transi- 
tion from  a  state  of  enmity  to  a  state  of 
peace  with  God,  how  it  is  a  transition 
competent  to  one  and  all  of  you  at  this 


moment, — let  me  but  make  one  short  ut- 
terance on  the  blessedness  of  the  transi- 
tion itself — even  of  that  wide  and  mo- 
mentous difference  which  there  is  between 
what  by  nature  you  are,  and  what  by 
grace  you  might  be — between  being  the 
objects  of  God's  wrath,  and  the  objects 
of  His  good-will — between  the  Sovereign 
of  creation,  and  having  all  its  energies  at 
command,  looking  towards  you  with  all 
the  displeasure  of  His  broken  law  and 
His  incensed  dignity ;  and  that  same 
Sovereign  looking  to  you  with  as  much 
complacency,  as  if  His  Son's  unpolluted 
obedience  had  been  rendered  personally 
by  you,  or  as  if  His  splendid  righteous- 
ness had  been  all  your  own — and  so  re- 
joicing over  you  to  do  you  all  manner  of 
good.  Let  God  be  your  enemy,  and  He 
is  the  enemy  of  all  who  have  not  laid 
hold  of  the  great  propitiation  ;  and  what 
I  will  not  say  is  your  condition  in  time, 
but  what  are  your  prospects  for  eternity  ? 
In  time  you  may  be  comfortable,  and 
along  with  this  you  may  be  careless ; 
and,  amid  the  busy  engrossments  of  a 
little  day,  forget  the  dreadful  reckoning 
and  the  dreadful  retribution  that  await 
you.  But  the  danger  is  not  less  real,  that 
you  have  shut  your  eyes  against  it;  and, 
amid  the  trem.ors  of  your  approaching 
dissolution,  you  may  be  visited  with  the 
fears  and  the  forebodings  of  that  which  is 
to  come — or,  as  often  happens,  the  ago- 
nies of  the  perishing  body  might  only 
cradle  the  soul  into  a  deeper  lethargy 
about  the  interests  which  are  imperisha- 
ble :  And,  falling  asleep  amid  the  profound 
insensibilities  of  nature, — not  till  the  spirit 
is  sisted  in  the  presence  of  its  offended  God 
— or  not  till  the  risen  man  comes  forth  at 
the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet  and  stands 
before  the  judgment-seat,  will  you  have 
full  understanding  of  those  dread  realities 
by  which  you  are  now  encompassed. 
And  therefore  it  concerns  you  now,  to 
cleave  unto  the  propitiation  which  God 
Himself  has  set  forth,  and  for  the  very 
purpose  that  peace  may  be  made  with 
Him  and  that  from  your  enemy  He  may 
become  your  friend — that  it  may  be  pos- 
sible for  Him  the  just  God  to  be  at  the 
same  time  your  Saviour  ;  and,  sinner  as 
you  are,  to  fill  your  heart  with  the  satis- 
faction and  the  triumph  of  those  who 
know  that  God  is  upon  their  side.  The 
very  greatness  of  such  a  consummation  is 
a  barrier  in  the  way  of  your  believing 
it.  The  incredulity  of  nature  is  fostered 
into  strength  and  obstinacy,  by  the  very 
largeness  of  the  offers  wherewith  nature 
is  addressed.  The  narrow  and  suspicious 
heart  of  man  cannot  find  room  in  it,  for 
the  generosity  of  Him  whose  thoughts  are 
not  as  our  thoughts  and  whose  ways  are 
not  as  our  ways.     He  cannot  bring  him- 


326 


LECTURE   LXrV. — CHAPTER   VUI,    31. 


self  to  believe,  that  heaven,  with  all  its 
glories,  is  indeed  so  open  to  him — or  thiit 
llie  gospel  is  indeed  so  free — or  that  eter- 
nity, in  all  the  richness  of  its  promised 
blessings,  is  indeed  so  much  within  his 
reach — or  that  there  is  nought  but  the  one 
step  of  his  own  confidence  in  the  message 
of  peace  that  has  come  down  from  the 
upper  sanctuary,  between  the  sinner's 
soul  and  the  loving-kindness  of  that  God 
who  waitcth  to  be  gracious.  And  there- 
fore it  behoves  every  minister  of  the  New 
Testament,  to  be  loud  and  frequent  and 
importunate  in  knocking  at  that  door,  by 
which  the  tidings  of  grace  and  pardon 
may  enter  in ;  and  often  to  repeat  the 
testimony  in  the  sinner's  ear,  that  unto 
him  a  Saviour  hath  b^en  born;  and  to 
protest  on  the  side  of  Heaven  that  nought 
but  good-will  to  earth  is  the  feeling  there, 
if  earth  would  only  respond  thereunto, 
and  not  keep  at  so  sullen  and  impracti- 
cable a  distance  away  from  it;  and  to 
sphead  abroad  the  assurance  among  all 
hs  rebels,  of  the  God  whom  they  now 
imagine  to  be  shrouded  in  darkest  ire 
and  severity  against  them,  how  soon  and 
how  certainly  they  might  have  Him  for 
their  friend. 

Let  me  now  advert,  but  advert  briefly, 
to  another  ground  on  which  Paul  aHirn)ed 
both  for  himself  and  for  his  converts,  that 
God  was  upon  their  side.  The  first  ground 
is  the  ground  of  a  direct  faith  in  the 
promises  and  invitations  of  the  gospel — 
a  ground  placed  before  the  feet  of  one 
and  all  who  now  hear  me — and  on  which 
every  one  of  you  is  free,  nay  is  entreated, 
nay  more  is  commanded,  and  last  of  all 
is  threatened,  that  he  might  be  persuaded 
to  step  over  upon  it  even  now  and  be 
safe.  The  second  ground  is  distinct  from 
the  first,  the  ground  of  experience — that 
ground  which  is  occupied  b}''  those  who 
are  not  merely  infant  believers,  but  who 
have  been  believers  for  some  time;  and 
so,  in  addition  to  their  first  faith  in  God's 
faithfulness,  can  now  allege  their  actual 
finding  of  this  faithfulness.  The  distinc- 
tion between  the  one  ground  and  the 
other,  is  exceedingly  well  marked  by  the 
apostle  in  his  epistle  to  the  Ephesians : 
"He  whom  also  ye  trusted,  after  that  ye 
heard  the  word  of  truth,  the  gospel  of 
your  salvation."  Here  was  the  trust  of 
those  who  simply  counted  the  word  to  be 
true — a  trust  competent  to  you  all  at  this 
moment.  But  then  he  goes  on  to  say — 
"In  whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed,  ye 
were  sealed  with  that  Holy  Spirit  of  pro- 
mise which  is  the  earnest  of  our  inherit- 
ance." Here  was  the  experience  of  those 
on  whom  the  promise  had  been  in  part 
fulfilled  ;  and  who  esteemed  that  part,  as 
a  pledge  or  an  earnest  of  the  fulfillment 
of  the  remainder ;  and  who  could  there- 


fore now  look  forward  to  the  purchased 
possession,  not  merely  because  the  pro- 
mise of  it  had  been  sounded  in  their  ears, 
but  because  the  pledge  of  it  had  been  put 
into  their  hands.  They  were  like  men 
who  had  gotten  a  first  instalment  punc- 
tually made  good  to  them,  and  so  were 
confirmed  in  the  hope  of  the  whole  en- 
gagement being  liquidated.  Agreeably 
to  the  promise,  they  had  received  grace 
in  time  ;  and  therefore  they  confided  the 
more  on  that  which  was  also  included  in 
the  promise,  even  glory  in  eternity.  Now 
Paul  and  his  disciples  had  been  preferred 
to  this  additional  vantage-ground.  Their 
experience  was  added  to  their  faith.  It 
was  this  experience  which  confirmed  to 
them  the  hope  which  made  them  not 
ashamed.  They  looked  the  more  confi- 
dently to  the  promised  joys  of  heaven, 
that  they  actually  felt  the  love  of  God  to 
be  already  shed  abroad  in  their  hearts. 
They  had  brighter  hopes  of  a  place  being 
prepared  for  them  there,  that  they  were 
conscious  within  themselves  of  a  pre- 
paration for  the  place  going  on  in  their 
own  souls  here.  They  believed  when 
they  first  heard  of  a  promised  grace  on 
earth  and  a  promised  glory  in  heaven. 
But  now  that  they  had  been  visited  by 
the  grace — now  that  this  part  of  the 
promise,  instead  of  being  merely  counted 
on  with  faith,  liad  been  verified  and  made 
good  to  their  own  present  finding,  there 
was  superadded  one  ground  of  trust  to 
another ;  and  they  could  say  with  the 
Psalmist  "As  we  have  heard  so  have  we 
seen  in  the  city  of  our  God." 

Now  my  reason  for  treating  of  the  one 
ground  distinctly  and  separately  from  the 
other,  is  that  the  first  may  even  now  be 
entered  upon  by  all — the  second,  I  fear, 
may  have  only  yet  been  entered  upon  by 
i'ew.  The  word  of  the  promise  may  be 
addressed  to  all,  and  it  is  the  part  of  all 
to  believe  it.  An  experience  of  any  of 
the  things  promised  may  have  only  yet 
been  realised  by  a  very  small  number. 
Now  I  should  like  not  to  discourage  those 
who  have  never  yet  been  on  the  second 
ground,  and  to  assure  them  that  this 
ought  not  to  check  the  instantaneous  en- 
trance of  themselves  on  the  first  ground. 
They  must  not  wait  for  the  experience  of 
the  gospel,  till  they  shall  have  the  faith 
of  the  gospel ;  but  they  should  enter  upon 
the  faith  immediately,  and  from  that  they 
will  be  conducted  to  the  higher  platform 
of  experience.  The  apostle  and  his  dis- 
ciples had  been  elevated  to  this  platform, 
and  let  me  fondly  trust  that  some  at  least 
who  are  here  present  may  now  be  stand- 
ing upon  it — some  who  have  had  a  find- 
ing and  a  foretaste  of  heaven  in  their 
souls — some  who  can  look  forward  to  the 
good  work  being  perfected   upon   them, 


LECTURE    LXIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    31. 


327 


and  that  not  merely  "because  of  their  faith 
in  the  promise,  but  because  of  their  find- 
ing within  themselves  a  performance  in 
that  a  good  work  is  actually  begun — 
some  who  can  compare  their  memory  of 
the  past  with  their  consciousness  of  the 
present ;  and  can  now  vouch  for  a  hatred 
to  sin,  which  they  wont  not  to  feel ;  for  a 
discernment  of  Scripture,  which  they 
wont  not  to  have  ;  for  a  distaste  of  worldly 
concerns  and  worldly  companionship,  the 
very  opposite  of  that  tendency  which 
wont  to  reign  and  have  an  ascendant 
over  them ;  for  a  love  to  the  people  of 
God,  whom  perhaps  before  they  nause- 
ated as  the  dullest  and  the  weariest  of  all 
society ;  and,  if  not  for  a  love  to  God 
Himself  as  their  reconciled  Father  in 
Jesus  Christ,  at  least  for  a  grief  and  a 
self-reproach  in  their  hearts  that  they  do 
not  love  Him  more  and  serve  Him  better. 
Now  these  are  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit 
of  grace,  and  the  symptoms  of  a  coming 
glory — the  goodl}^  evidences  of  your  move- 
ment towards  a  destination  of  final  and 
everlasting  blessedness — the  marks  and 
the  recognitions  of  that  very  path  which 
leads  through  the  pilgrimage  of  time  to 
the  promised  land  of  eternity.  They  con- 
stitute a  most  precious  addition  to  the 
argument  of  God  being  on  your  side — for, 
over  and  above  his  promises  which  you 
rely  upon  by  faith,  they  are  His  gifts 
which  you  have  realised  by  experience. 
They  are  to  you  the  satisfying  pledges  of 
a  friendship  in  which  you  have  trusted 
ever  since  you  knew  the  gospel,  but  of 
which  you  have  now  tasted  the  fruits  and 
the  actual  verifications  in  your  own  per- 
son. You  can  now  affirm  that  God  is  for 
you,  on  the  ground  not  merely  of  what 
He  has  promised  for  you,  but  on  the 
ground  of  what  he  has  done  for  you  ;  and 
while  I  would  have  you  to  shake  off"  their 
distrust,  and  join  even  now  in  our  apos- 
tle's exclamation — yet  it  is  for  you  to  feel 
u  peculiar  assurance,  and  with  peculiar 
emphasis  to  say,  '  If  God  be  for  us  who 
can  be  against  usl' 

Having  thus  stated  as  simply  as  I  could, 
the  two  main  grounds  on  which  it  is  that 
man  may  count  upon  the  friendship  of 
God  ;  or,  in  the  language  of  my  text,  up- 
on God  being  for  him — let  me  now  pro- 
ceed shortly  to  the  inference  which  the 
apostle  derives  from  this  blessed  rela- 
tionship, 'If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be 
against  us  ]' 

It  is  evident,  that,  over  against  the  con- 
ception of  God  being  his  friend,  he  raises 
the  conception  of  some  other  Being  as 
his  enemy  ;  and  the  question  is.  With  a 
friendship  so  powerful  as  that  of  the  Cre- 
ator, what  have  we  to  dread  from  a  hostil- 
ity so  feeble  as  that  of  the  most  formida- 


ble of  His  creatures  1  It  is  tantamount 
to  tlie  sentiment  which  he  expresses  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "  The  Lord  is 
my  helper  and  I  will  not  fear  what  man 
shall  do  unto  me."  The  sentiment  how- 
ever might  be  so  extended  as  to  include 
every  species  of  adversity,  though  it 
should  not  proceed  from  the  malice  or 
ill-will  of  any  Being  whatever.  It  might 
fairly  be  translated  into  this  more  general 
form,  'If  he  be  for  us  ivhat  can  be  against 
us  V  There  are  many  of  the  evils  of  life, 
though  not  the  most  severe  and  over- 
whelming certainly,  that  cannot  be  tra- 
ced to  any  mischievous  intent  on  the  part 
of  a  living  and  willing  enemy.  There  is 
the  death  of  relatives,  and  there  are  the 
accidents  of  misfortune,  and  there  are  the 
misgivings  of  fond  and  promising  specu- 
lation— And  in  the  walks  of  merchandise 
some  of  you  must  oft  have  experienced, 
how  crosses  and  disasters  accumulate  up- 
on you,  and  give  a  dreariness  and  dismay 
to  the  earthly  prospect ;  and,  did  you  look 
no  farther  than  to  what  is  visible  Or  to 
what  lies  before  you  on  the  region  of 
sense,  all  might  appear  to  be  dark  and 
menacing  ;  and  you  might  figure  your- 
self to  be  a  deserted  creature,  against 
whom  all  the  chances  of  fortune  and  all 
the  elements  of  nature  seem  to  have  en- 
tered  into  a   conspiracy   for   your  ruin. 

And  this  is  just  the  triumph  of  faith 
over  sense — when  you  can  be  upheld  in 
the  thought,  that,  after  all,  the  evils  of  life 
are  but  the  shadowy  spectres  of  a  pas- 
sing scene  that  will  soon  flit  away  ;  and 
that,  behind  all  which  the  eye  of  man  can 
reach,  there  is  a  good  and  an  all-power- 
ful Spirit  who  smiles  propitiously  upon 
those  only  interests  which  are  worth  the 
caring  for  ;  and  that  all  the  energies  of 
this  world,  which  look  as  if  they  stood  in 
battle-array  against  your  prosperity  or 
your  peace,  are  nought  but  instruments 
in  the  hand  of  a  presiding  Deity,  who,  for 
the  trial  of  your  confidence  in  Himself, 
might  brandish  them  over  your  head,  but 
only  to  dicipline  and  not  to  destroy  you 
— driving  in  all  the  props  of  your  earthly 
confidence,  that  you  might  lean  the  whole 
weight  of  your  dependence  upon  Him- 
self, and  prove  how  firmly  your  soul  is 
anchored  upon  its  God  by  the  very 
strength  and  violence  of  those  agitations 
which  still  cannot  turn  you  away  from 
Him. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that 
the  apostle,  in  the  text,  sets  over,  and  in 
opposition  to  the  actual  friendship  of  his 
God,  the  conceived  Malice  of  some  living 
and  designing  enemy.  From  such,  he  and 
his  fellow-disciples  suffered  in  the  persecu- 
tions of  that  era  ;  and  from  such,  all  of  us 
are  still  exposed  to  suffer  in  the  manifold 


328 


LECTURE  LXIV. CHAPTER  VJU,  31. 


collisions  of  human  passion  and  human 
Interest  that  obtain  throughout  society.  It 
is  hard  to  believe,  that  there  should  be  in 
any  of  our  fellow-men,  a  spirit  that  is 
truly  diabolical— a  fiendish  delight  in  all 
the  pain  and  mischief  and  dissension  and 
disgrace  which  it  can  be  the  instrument 
of  scattering — a  restless  activity  in  the 
pursuit  of  evil,  and  of  cruel  suffering  to 
others — and  a  satanic  satisfaction  in  the 
success  of  their  hateful  and  hated  enter- 
prises. Such  a  character,  it  is  thought, 
might  do  for  some  deep  and  darkly  aggra- 
vated romance;  but  is  never  realised 
among  the  familiarities  of  living  and  dai- 
ly experience.  Yet  we  do  hold  it  to  be  a 
real,  though  perhaps  a  rare  and  occasion- 
al phenomenon  in  human  life.  We  think 
that  for  the  purposes  of  a  secret  discipline, 
a  scourge  of  this  kind  is  at  times  permit- 
ted to  appear,  who  might  be  the  terror  of 
his  relationship,  and  the  torment  of  all 
with  whom  he  has  ever  had  closely  or  in- 
timately to  do — a  being,  though  in  human 
shape,  yet  in  the  whole  purpose  and  poli- 
cy of  his  mind  infernal  ;  and,  in  the  hid- 
den chambers  of  whose  breast,  the  very 
counsels  are  brooding  that  give  their  hell- 
ish occupation  to  the  spirits  which  are 
below — a  being  whom  it  is  unsafe  to  ap- 
proach, lest  we  should  be  implicated  in 
his  wiles  ;  and  lest,  among  the  mysteries 
of  his  fell  'iiiquity,  some  infliction  or 
other  should  be  preparing  for  us — a  be- 
ing of  whom  the  patriarch  of  old  might 
have  said,  "O  my  soul  enter  not  thou  into 
his  secret,"  recoiling  from  all  fellowship 
with  such  a  spirit  just  as  he  would  from  the 
pandemonium  for  which  it  is  ripening. 
When  the  apostle  exclaims  'Who  can  be 
against  usl' — we  are  not  to  imagine  that 
a  Christian,  in  his  progress  through  the 
world,  is  to  be  exempted  from  the  hostili- 
ty of  such  characters  as  these.  When 
fully  understood  the  apostle  says,  'If  God 
be  for  us  who  can  be  against  us  and  pre- 
vail V — There  will  ever  in  this  world  be  a 
hostility  that  shall  bruise  the  heel  of  the 
Christian,  though  its  own  head  shall  be 
bruised  under  his  feet  shortly.  For  trial 
and  for  exercise,  the  tares  must  grow  along 
with  the  wheat — the  good  and  the  evil  must 
live  together — the  path  of  the  redeemed 
through  time  must  be  beset  by  the  con- 
tempt or  the  calumnies  of  an  evil  world 
— and  perhaps  in  the  way  of  sanctifying 
him  wholly,  or  of  bringing  upon  him 
some  signal  chastisement,  an  enemy  may 
be  raised,  in  whose  every  word  there  is 
deceit,  and  the  very  tenderness  of  whose 
mercies  is  cruelty.  Yet  if  the  Lord  be 
upon  his  side,  he  most  assuredly  has  no- 
thing to  fear.  The  short-lived  triumph  of 
every  earthly  foe  will  speedily  come  to 
an  end.    The  day  is  posting,  when  the  se- 


crets of  all  hearts  shall  be  laid  open  ;  and 
when  there  shall  be  a  right  allotment  both 
of  the  vengeance  and  of  the  vindication. 
But  perhaps  it  is  of  more  Christian  im- 
portance, to  advert  to  another  kind  of 
living  adversary  than  the  most  fierce  and 
formidable  of  our  fellow-men.  We  think 
that  Paul  had  such  an  adversary  in  his 
eye  ;  for,  in  the  enumeration  of  a  few 
verses  below,  he  speaks  not  of  earthly 
plagues  and  persecutions  alone,  but  of 
angels  and  principalities  and  powers  as 
being  against  him.  He  reminds  us  here 
of  what  he  says  elsewhere,  that  we  wrestle, 
not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
principalities  against  posvers  against  the 
rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world 
against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high 
places.  However  much  the  doctrine  of  a 
great  moral  warfare  between  the  Captain 
of  our  salvation  on  the  side  of  righteous- 
ness, and  the  arch  enemy  of  all  that  is 
good  on  the  side  of  rebellion — however 
much  this  doctrine  is  slighted  and  has  be- 
come now-a-days  the  topic  of  an  infidel 
scorn — yet,  among  the  Christians  of  the 
New  Testament,  we  find  that  a  reference 
to  Satan  and  to  his  wiles  is  constantly 
mingling  itself  with  the  concerns  of  their 
sanctification.  They  speak  of  themselves 
as  being  personally  implicated  in  the 
warfare  ;  and  well  they  might — for  the 
very  field  of  contention  is  human  nature, 
and  an  ascendancy  over  it  is  the  prize  of 
victor)^  Practically  and  really,  it  cannot 
be  a  thing  of  indifference  to  us,  if  there 
be  an  actual  and  a  busy  competition  at 
this  moment  between  the  powers  of  light 
and  of  darkness  for  a  mastery  over  our 
species.  There  must  be  a  something  in- 
cumbent upon  us,  and  that  we  are  called 
on  to  do  surely,  in  connection  with  u 
struggle  of  which  the  object  to  each  of 
the  parties  is  the  possession  of  ourselves, 
and  the  sway  of  a  superior  over  the 
powers  and  the  principles  of  our  constitu- 
tion. We  are  not  to  sit,  and  merely  look 
on  as  passive  and  unconcerned  spectators, 
during  the  pendency  of  a  contest,  by 
which  our  own  interests  are  so  moment- 
ously affected.  And,  accordingly,  we  are 
called  upon  to  resist  the  Devil,  and  ho 
will  flee  from  us — to  resist  not  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  He  will  take  up  His  abode  ia 
our  hearts — to  put  away  from  us  every  in- 
stigation of  evil,  as  coming  from  the  evil 
one — to  cherish  every  instigation  of  good, 
as  coming  from  the  Holy  One  and  the 
Sanctifier — Thus  to  view  ourselves  as  en- 
gaged in  a  warfare  of  which  we  are  the 
subjects;  and  unseen  but  the  lofty  and 
supernatural  beings  are  the  principals: 
And,  to  encourage  us  the  more  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  warfare,  we  are  told 
that  Satan  shall  be  bruised  under  our  fee 


LECTURE   LXIV. CHAPTER   VIII,    31. 


329 


shortly,  and  that  greater  is  He  that  is  in 
us  than  he  that  is  in  the  world,  and  that 
Christ  came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 


Devil,  and  finally  as  in  the  text  that  if 
God  be  for  us,  there  is  none  who  can  suc- 
ycessfully  be  against  us. 


LECTURE  LXY. 

Romans  viii,  32. 

"  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all 

things'}" 


We  have  endeavoured  to  make  it  good, 
that  the  encouragement  of  the  last  verse 
might  be  taken  on  two  separate  grounds 
— first  on  the  ground  of  direct  faith  in  the 
calls  and  promises  of  the  gospel,  and 
secondly  on  the  ground  of  certain  fulfil- 
ments which  personally  and  experiment- 
ally take  place  on  those  who  have  be- 
lieved the  gospel.  The  first  encourage- 
ment then  might  be  addressed  to  all — for 
it  might  be  embodied  in  the  very  first 
overtures  of  the  gospel ;  and  these  should 
be  laid  before  all  for  their  acceptance,  on 
the  moment  of  which  a  reconcilia^tion  with 
Heaven  ensues  and  God  is  upon  their 
side.  The  second  encouragement  is  for 
those  who  have  found  and  tasted  that  God 
is  gracious,  in  the  change  that  by  grace 
He  has  wrought  upon  themselves — in  the 
pledges  which  they  have  already  received 
of  a  coming  glory  in  heaven,  even  by  a 
conscious  preparation  for  it  going  on 
within  their  own  heart  and  upon  their 
own  history  on  earth — in  the  first-fruits 
of  the  Spirit  upon  their  souls,  and  by 
which  the  evidence  of  God's  friendship 
has  been  carried  forward  from  promises 
to  gifts,  from  those  promises  which  they 
relied  on  at  the  moment  of  their  first  be- 
lieving, to  those  gifts  wherewith  even  in 
this  life  the  believer  is  privileged. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  this  very  dis- 
tinction is  still  more  obviously  spread 
before  us  in  the  32nd  and  33rd  verses — for, 
instead  of  being  enveloped  under  the 
covering  of  one  verse  as  in  the  31st  that 
we  have  already  attempted  to  expound,  we 
find  that  of  the  two  following  verses,  the 
former  is  addressed  to  a  belief  which  may 
or  may  not  have  as  yet  been  accompan- 
ied with  experience  ;  and  the  latter  is  ad- 
dressed to  experience  alone.  When  He 
spared  not  His  own  Son,  He  delivered 
Him  up  for  us  all ;  and  He  is  so  far  given 
to  every  one  of  you,  that,  though  not 
your  sin  possession.  He  is  at  least  yours  in 
offer.  In  this  sense  God  may  be  said  to 
have  given  to  each  and  to  every  eternal 
life,  which  life  is  in  His  Son.  And  so 
much  has  everv  one  a  warrant  to  lay 
42 


hold  of  this  gift,  that  God  is  offended  if 
he  do  not — He  feels  it  an  indignity  to 
Himself,  if  you  do  not  have  confidence  in 
the  honesty  of  His  offer — He  is  affronted 
by  it  as  if  by  an  imputation  of  falsehood, 
saying  that  "  he  who  believeth  not  the 
record  which  God  hath  given  of  his  Son 
makes  God  a  liar,  and  this  is  the  record 
even  that  God  hath  given  to  us  eternal 
life  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son."  All 
ought  even  now  to  close  with  this  over- 
ture :  and  on  the  instant  of  his  doing  so, 
he  is  instated  in  the  full  benefit  of  the 
apostle's  argument,  and  might  confident- 
ly join  him  in  the  question  of  my  text 
'  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son  but  de- 
livered him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not 
with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?' 

This  is  an  argument  of  which  the  apos- 
tle seems  on  more  occasions  than  one  to 
have  felt  the  great  strength  and  impor- 
tance, and  to  have  urged  it  accordingly 
There  cannot,  in  fact,  be  imagined  a 
firmer  basis  on  which  to  rest  our  confi- 
dence in  God.  He  has  already  done  the 
greatest  thing  for  us,  and  why  not  expect 
then  that  he  will  do  what  is  less  ?  The 
great  and  heavy  expense  has  already 
been  incurred,  and  surely  He  will  not 
leave  unfinished  what  with  so  much  cost 
and  difficulty  He  hath  carried  so  far.  He 
will  not  make  abortive  that,  to  begin 
which  required  such  a  sacrifice  at  His 
hand ;  but  now  to  end  or  to  complete 
which,  will  require  but  the  free  indulgence 
of  His  own  kind  and  generous  desires  for 
the  happiness  of  those  whom  He  has 
formed.  Before  that  He  gave  up  His  Son 
unto  the  death,  there  was  a  let  and  a 
hindrance  in  the  way  of  His  mercy  to 
sinners  ;  but  now  that  the  let  is  overcome, 
now  that  the  hindrance  is  moved  away, 
now  that  justice  and  truth  have  been 
vindicated  and  no  longer  forbid  the  exer- 
cise of  His  tenderest  compassion  towards 
the  men  of  our  guilty  world — now  will 
that  compassion  flow  over  in  blissful  and 
beauteous  exuberance  on  all  who  shall 
put  themselves  in  its  way ;  and  He  who 
spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  gave  Him  up 


330 


LECTURE   LXV. — CHAPTER    VHI,    32. 


unto  the  death  for  us  all,  is  now  free  and 
ready  to  give  us  all  things. 

Tliiere  is  an  expression  used  elsewhere 
by  the  apostle  of  the  unsearchable  riches 
of  Christ.  We  are  apt  to  look  at  the 
truth  that  is  in  Jesus,  as  if  it  were  a  mea- 
gre and  very  limited  sort  of  doctrine — 
consisting  perhaps  of  a  few  bare  cate- 
chetical propositions,  which  we  can  get 
by  heart  just  as  we  do  the  rules  of  syntax 
or  arithmetic  ;  and  which,  almost  as  little 
as  these,  excite  any  sensibility  or  awaken 
any  glow,  whether  of  imagination  or  feel- 
ing, on  the  part  of  its  disciples.  It  is 
marvellous  how  many  there  be,  who,  fa- 
miliar with  all  the  terms  of  orthodoxy, 
are  utter  strangers  to  the  warmth  and  the 
vividness  and  the  power  which  lie  in  the 
truths  of  it ;  and  who,  though  they  can 
listlessly  repeat  the  whole  phraseology 
of  evangelical  sentiment,  have  not  yet 
entered  into  the  life  and  substance,  and 
variety  of  thought  and  of  application 
which  belong  to  it.  The  interrogation  of 
the  text,  we  Avill  venture  to  say,  may  have 
been  read  by  some  of  you  a  hundred 
times  over,  without  your  being  aware  of 
the  comfort  and  power  of  argument  where- 
with it  is  so  thoroughly  replete — read 
with  that  sort  of  unmoved  torpor  in  which 
so  many  prosecute  their  daily  mechanical 
task  of  perusing  a  chapter  in  the  Bible — 
run  over  much  in  the  same  way  that  a 
traveller  passes  rapidly  along  in  a  vehi- 
cle whose  blinds  have  been  raised,  so  as 
to  intercept  all  the  diversified  loveliness 
of  that  scenery  which  he  has  not  once 
looked  upon.  He  can  speak  of  the  miles 
he  has  described,  as  you  can  of  the  chap- 
ters. Both  of  you  have  made  progress  ; 
but  the  one  without  having  had  his  senses 
regaled  by  the  prospects  of  beauty  and 
fertility  in  the  landscape,  and  the  other 
without  having  had  his  spirit  regaled  by 
aught  in  the  promises  of  Scripture  or  in 
the  preciousness  of  its  consolations. 

Now  this  verse  is  so  very  pregnant  with 
these,  that  if  I  could  but  unfold  the  mat- 
ter aright — it  might  pei-haps  let  you  into 
the  significance  and  the  descriptive  truth 
of  the  apostle's  phrase — the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ.  The  fruit  of  our  search 
may  be  such  a  view  of  gospel  wealth,  or 
the  fullness  of  gospel  blessings,  as,  not 
only  to  regale  our  spirits  with  all  that  we 
have  found,  but  as  to  convince  us  that 
there  is  as  much  more  to  find  as  might 
furnish  the  delightful  employment  of  an 
eternity.  We  may  be  made  to  see  more 
of  the  ways  of  God,  than  are  yet  known 
or  conceived  by  us  ;  and  yet  after  all  say 
with  Job,  "  Lo  these  are  parts  of  his  ways, 
and  how  little  a  portion  is  heard  of 
Him  !"  The  economy  of  our  redemption 
is  a  theme  for  the  understanding,  as  well 
as  for  the  affections,  to  dwell  upon — it 


being  not  more  hard  to  feel  as  we  ought, 
than  it  is  to  know  the  love  of  Christ 
which  passeth  knowledge,  and  to  compre- 
hend the  length  and  the  breadth  and  the 
depth  and  the  height  thereof. 

i3ut,  to  go  rapidly  over  a  few  of  tho 
leading  points.  First — God  hath  already 
given  the  very  greatest  thing  to  set  my 
salvation  agoing,  and  what  security  then 
is  there  that  He  shall  give  all  other  things 
which  are  needful  to  complete  that  salva- 
tion'?  He  hath  given  what  every  parent 
who  had  but  one  beloved  Son  would 
surely  feel  the  greatest  of  his  treasures, 
He  hath  given  His  only  and  His  well- 
beloved  Son  for  us  all.  In  human  trans- 
actions, the  first  fruits  of  an  engagement 
are  generally  but  a  small  fraction  of  the 
whole — the  pledge  is  but  a  minute  pro- 
portion of  the  final  and  complete  per- 
formance— the  earnest  is  a  mere  scantling 
of  that  main  bulk  which  is  still  in  rever- 
sion— the  instalment  only  a  part,  and  gen- 
erally a  small  part,  of  the  sum  that  is 
due — And  yet  in  each  of  these  cases, 
there  is  a  distinct  and  additional  hope 
awakened  of  the  entire  fulfilment,  from 
the  token  that  has  thus  been  put  into  your 
hands.  But  in  this  transaction  between 
heaven  and  earth,  the  matter  is  reversed 
— the  pledge  is  more  dear  and  valuable  to 
Him  who  is  the  giver,  than  all  that  He 
hath  pledged  Himself  for — the  earnest  of 
what  He  will  do  in  future,  is  a  mightier 
surrender  than  all  put  together  which  He 
hath  promised  to  do.  It  is  true,  that,  in 
reference  to  our  own  interest  and  feelings, 
the  joys  of  the  coming  eternity  may  be 
of  greater  value  to  us,  than  all  the  first 
fruits  and  tokens,  which,  in  the  shape  of 
grace  and  a  growing  rneetncss  for  heaven, 
are  conferred  upon  believers  in  time.  But, 
in  reference  to  God,  He  has  already  given 
up  in  our  behalf  what  to  Himself  was  of  \ 
the  greatest  value.  He  has  given  up  the  \ 
Son  of  His  love  to  the  death  for  us  all ; — • 
and,  having  done  this,  what  a  ground  of 
confidence  that  He  will  fi'eely  give  all 
things ! 

But  secondly,  take  into  account  the 
deep  and  mysterious  suffering  that  was 
incurred,  at  this  first  and  greatest  step  in 
the  historical  proces.?  of  our  salvation — 
and  that  now  the  suffering  is  over.  Take 
into  account  that  the  travail  of  Christ's 
soul  hath  already  gone  by ;  and  that  now 
He  has  only  to  see  of  the  fruit  of  this 
travail  and  be  satisfied.  Remember  that 
when  He  set  forth  from  His  place  of  glory 
on  the  errand  of  our  world's  restoration. 
He  had  the  dark  imagery  of  persecution 
and  distress  and  cruel  martyrdom  before 
Him ;  and  that  what  he  thus  originated 
with  pain.  He  has  only  now  to  prosecute 
in  peace  and  triumph  to  its  final  consum- 
mation.   And  remember  that  we  estimate 


LECTURE   LXV. CHAPTER   VIII,    32. 


331 


the  matter  wrong,  if  we  think  not  of  His 
death  as  a  substantial  atonement — if  we 
measure  not  the  sore  infliction  that  He 
sustained,  and  that  drew  tears  and  ago- 
nies and  cries  even  from  that  Being  who 
had  the  strength  of  the  Divinity  to  uphold 
Him — if  we  measure  not  His  big  distress  by 
that  guilt  of  millions,  which  an  eternity  of 
manifold  and  multiplied  vengeance  could 
not  have  washed  away.     And  all  this  He 
did,  and  all  this  His  Father  consented  that 
He  should  do  and  suffer,  in  order  to  open 
up  a  clear  avenue  towards  the  restoration 
of  the  human  family — And  think  you  it 
possible,   that,   having   done   thus   much 
with  sore  and  heavy  labour.  He  will  not 
go  forward  on  the  path  that  He  Himself 
hath  struck  out,  and  on   which   He   can 
now  advance  by  easy  and  delightful  pro- 
cession towards  the  full  accomplishment 
of  His  great  undertaking?     Will  not  the 
Father  who  spared  not  His  own  Son  from 
the  indignities  and  the  pains  of  a  deep 
humiliation,  and   that  to  commence  the 
/    enterprise  of  our  recovery  to  God — will 
,,    He  now  refuse  to  magnify  His  Son,  by 
j.,    most  willingly  giving  all  and  doing  all 
'■    thtvt  might  be  needful  to  perfect  this  re- 
covery, and  bring  the  enterprise  of  Him 
who  is  the  Captain  of  this  glorious  war- 
fare to  its  most  honourable  termination  ? 
In  other  words,  after  so  much  has  been 
endured  to  set  on  foot  the  salvation  of  our 
.  world,  will  He  suffer  it  that  all  this  endu- 
\  ranee  should  go  for  nothing  ;  and  will  not 
•lie  who  has  already  given  for  sinners  His 
only-beloved  Son  give  to  them  also  the 
needful  grace  upon  earth  and  the  finished 
and  everlasting  blessedness  in  heaven? 

And  thirdly — remember  that  all  which 
God  hath  done  from  first  to  last  in  the 
work  of  our  redemption,  has  been  entirely 
of  free  will.  It  was  not  because  He  owed 
it  to  us,  but  because  His  own  hearty  was 
set  upon  it.  It  has  all  along  been 'with 
Him  a  matter  of  purest  and  most  perfect 
freeness — nol  the  reluctant  discharge  of 
an  obligation,  but  the  forth-putting  of  His 
own  spontaneous  generosity.  This  makes 
it  a  wholly  different  case  from  that  of  a 
debtor,  wlio  after  having  made  payment 
of  so  much,  would  like  to  get  off  from  his 
obligation  for  the  remainder.  There  is 
nought  of  this  kind  to  stint  or  to  straiten 
the  liberality  of  God.  There  is  no  such 
Btraitening  with  Him,  however  much  we 
may  be  straitened  in  our  own  narrow  and 
selfish  and  suspicious  bosoms.  The  truth 
is,  that  when  He  did  give  up  His  Son,  it 
was  because  He  so  loved  the  world.  It 
was  His  own  love  for  us,  that  prompted 
this  wondrous  movement  on  the  part  of 
Heaven,  towards  the  earth  which  had 
strayed  into  a  wide  and  wretched  depar- 
ture awav  fron?  l*-  His  desire  is  towards 
a  restoration  ;  and  tnough  there  be  many 


who  would  like  to  stop  short  of  the  debt 
which  they  owe  being  fully  paid,  there 
is  none  who  would  like  to  stop  short  of 
the  desire  which  they  feel  being  fully  ac- 
complished. The  thing  were  a  contra- 
diction ;  and  more  especially,  if  such  was 
the  force  of  this  desire  that  it  bore  itself 
through  the  struggles  and  difficulties  of  a 
most  arduous  outset — it  is  utterly  impossi- 
ble that  it  will  make  a  dead  stand,  and  re- 
fuse to  go  farther  when  there  is  nought  but 
an  inviting  and  a  gentle  progress  before  it. 
It  was  because  of  God's  longing  desire  af- 
ter the  world,  that  He  gave  up  His  Son 
unto  the  sacrifice  ;  and,  after  the  sacrifice 
has  been  gone  through,  He  will  not  turn 
round  upon  His  own  favourite  object,  and 
recede  from  the  world  which  He  has  dono 
so  much  to  save.  That  foi'ce  of  affection 
which  bore  down  the  obstacle  that  stood 
in  its  way,  will,  now  that  the  obstacle  is 
removed,  bear  onward  with  accelerated 
might  and  speed  to  the  accomplishment 
of  all  the  good  that  it  is  set  upon.  To  do 
otherwise  would  be  throwing  away  the 
purchase  after  the  purchase-money  had 
been  given  for  it;  and  well  may  we  be  as- 
sured that  after  God  had  freely  given  such 
a  price  for  our  salvation,  He  will  freely 
give  all  things  necessary  to  make  good 
that  salvation. 

But — fourthly — it  should  still  more  be 
recollected,  that  when  He  did  give  up  his 
Son,  it  was  on  behalf  of  sinners  with 
whom  at  the  time  He  was  in  a  state  of  un- 
reconciled variance.  It  was  in  the  very 
heat  and  soreness  of  the  controversy.  It 
was  at  the  period  when  His  broken  law 
had  as  yet  obtained  no  reparation — when 
insult  without  a  satisfaction,  when  diso- 
bedience without  an  apology  and  without 
a  compensation,  had  been  rendered  to  Him 
— when  a  blow  had  been  inflicted  on  the 
sovereign  state  and  dignity  of  His  govern- 
ment, and  a  sore  outrage  laid  on  Heaven's 
high  throne  by  the  defiance  of  creatures 
whom  its  power  could  annihilate  or  sweep 
away.  That  was  the  time  of  Heaven's 
love,  and  the  time  at  which  the  Son  of  God 
went  forth  unto  the  sacrifice.  Now  the 
state  of  matters  is  altered.  The  breach 
has  been  healed.  The  debt  has  been 
paid.  The  sinner  has  got  hold  of  his 
surety,  and  may  be  no  longer  reckoned 
with.  The  law  has  been  set  up  again  in 
vindicated  dignity ;  and,  by  means  of  an 
expiation  for  the  rebel's  guilt,  the  monar- 
chy of  God  rises  in  untainted  honour 
above  the  rebellion  that  earth  had  waged 
against  it.  And  if  God  did  so  much  for 
sinners  then,  will  He  do  nothing  for  them 
now?  If  in  the  season  of  their  unmitiga- 
ted guilt  He  gave  up  His  Son,  will  He 
cease  from  giving  now  in  the  season  of 
ther  atonement  "^  If,  when  nought  as- 
cended from  the  world  but  a  smoke  of 


332 


LECTURE   LXV. CHAPTER   VUI,    32. 


abomination,  the  price  of  its  redemption 
was  freely  surrendered — will  there  be  no 
movement  of  grace  or  liberality  now  that 
there  arises  with  every  prayer  which  is 
uttered  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  every 
mention  which  is  made  of  His  offering, 
the  acceptable  incense  of  a  sweet-smell- 
ing savour  ?  If  there  was  such  a  forth- 
putting  of  kindness  to  the  children  of  men, 
when  looked  to  by  God  in  the  native  de- 
formity of  their  own  guilt — will  there  be 
no  forth-putting  now,  when  He  looks  to 
them  as  covered  and  arrayed  in  the  goodly 
investiture  of  His  Son's  righteousness  1 
And  if  in  our  state  of  condemnation  then. 
He  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all — is  not  the 
assurance  doubly  sure,  that,  in  our  state 
of  acceptance  now,  He  will  with  Him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things'? 

But  once  more.  He  gave  up  His  Son, 
at  a  time  when  mercy  was  closed  in  as  it 
were  by  the  other  attributes  of  His  nature 
— when  it  had  not  yet  found  a  way  through 
that  justice  and  holiness  and  truth,  which 
seemed  to  bar  the  exercise  of  it  altogether 
— when  it  had  to  struggle  therefore  and 
make  head  against  an  obstacle,  high  as 
the  dignity  of  Heaven's  throne,  and  firm- 
ly seated  as  the  eternal  character  and 
constitution  of  the  Godhead.  It  was  in 
fact  on  very  purpose  to  open  an  avenue 
through  this  else  impassible  barrier,  that 
Christ  went  forth ;  and,  by  a  substitu- 
tion of  His  own  obedience  for  ours,  and 
a  sacrifice  by  His  own  death  instead  of 
ours,  magnified  the  law  in  that  very  act 
wherewith  He  averted  its  penalties  from 
the  head  of  our  devoted  species.  And  is 
not  the  inference  as  resistless  as  it  is  ani- 
mating— that  the  same  mercy,  which  for- 
ced a  passage  for  itself  thorough  the  im- 
prisonment of  all  those  difficulties  which 
hemmed  it  in,  will,  now  that  they  are 
cleared  away,  burst  forth  in  freest  and 
kindest  exuberance  among  all  those  for 
whom  it  scaled  the  mountain  of  separa- 
tion ;  and,  now  that  the  middle  wall  of 
partition  between  God  and  the  guilty  is 
broken  down  by  this  tide  of  compassion, 
that  it  will  set  in  upon  our  world,  fraught 
with  the  richest  blessings  from  that  throne 
whereon  sitteth  the  God  of  love — who  re- 
joices over  the  success  of  that  enterprise 
by  which  He  might  again  beckon  to  Him- 
self His  wandering  family.  He  who  gave 
His  Son  while  Justice  was  yet  unappea- 
sed,  will  freely  give  all  things  now  that 
Justice  is  satisfied  ;  and  if  when  the  ob- 
struction lay  between  the  lawgiver  and  the 
rebel,  if  then  it  was  that  the  mightiest  sur- 
render on  the  part  of  Heaven  was  made, 
the  conclusion  is  irresistible,  that,  on  the 
obstruction  being  done  away,  there  is 
ready  to  shower  down  upon  the  earth  the 
most  plenteous  dispensation  of  all  that  is 
good  and  generous  and  friendly. 


But  I  feel  this  subject  to  be  inexhausti- 
ble. It  is  not  the  preciousness  of  Christ 
as  being  Himself  a  gift  that  the  text  leads 
me  to  expatiate  on.  It  is  the  goodness  of, 
it  as  a  pledge  of  other  gifts.  Unspeaka-^ 
ble  blessing  in  itself,  it  is  the  sure  harbin- 
ger of  every  other  blessing  in  its  train — 
rich  in  the  promise  of  things  to  come,  as 
well  as  great  in  the  performance  of  a 
present  stupendous  benefit ;  and,  along 
with  the  full  acquittal  and  the  all-perfect 
rightousness  which  it  brings  along  with 
it  to  the  believer  now,  affording  the  best 
guarantee  for  all  the  grace  and  all  the 
glory  that  shall  afterwards  accrue  to  him. 
There  are  even  other  securities  for  this 
than  those  on  which  I  have  insisted — 
other  aspects  in  which  the  sure  and  well- 
ordered  covenant  may  be  regarded — 
other  evolutions  of  its  solidity  may  and 
strength,  that  might  well  cause  the  be- 
liever to  rejoice  in  it  as  in  a  treasure  the 
whole  value  of  which  is  inestimable  ;  and 
to  delight  himself  greatly  in  the  abund- 
ance of  peace  and  of  privilege  that  with 
Christ  are  invariably  made  over  to  him. 
For  will  God  stamp  dishonour  on  this 
His  own  great  enterprise  of  the  world's 
redemption  ?  Will  He  leave  unfinished 
that  which  He  hath  so  laboriously  begun  1 
Will  He  hold  forth  the  economy  of  grace 
as  an  impotent  abortion  to  the  scorn  of 
His  enemies  ;  and  more  especially  of  him, 
against  whom  the  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion has  gone  forth  on  a  warfare,  to  root 
up  his  empire  over  the  hearts  of  men  and 
to  destroy  it  1  Is  not  the  very  hostility  of 
Satan  to  all  the  designs  and  doings  of  our 
Saviour  in  itself  a  guarantee,  that  we, 
who  have  run  to  Him  for  refuge,  shall  be 
covered  over  with  His  protection  and  be 
at  length  brought  out  by  Him  in  triumph  ? 
It  was  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  Devil 
that  our  Saviour  went  forth,  and,  after 
having  done  so  much  to  silence  him  as 
an  accuser,  will  He  then  stop  short  and 
leave  him  in  full  possession  of  his  hateful 
ascendancy  over  the  spirits  of  men  1  He 
hath  furnished  His  disciples  with  the  me- 
rit of  His  own  obedience  and  death  as 
their  plea  of  justification,  and  by  which 
they  can  repel  the  charges  of  their  great 
adversary.  Will  He  furnish  them  with 
nothing  by  which  they  might  repel  his 
temptations  ?  Will  He  only  release  them 
from  the  prison-house  of  condemnation, 
and  suffer  them  to  remain  as  helplessly 
the  slaves  of  corruption  as  before  1  Will 
He  not  complete  their  deliverance  from 
the  great  enemy  of  human  souls  ;  and, 
after  having  so  thoroughly  purchased 
their  forgiveness  at  the  court  of  heaven, 
will  He  not  give  them  all  things  that 
miglit  be  needed  to  achieve  their  sanctifi- 
cation  also  1 

Never  then,  in  all  the  views  that  can  be 


LECTURE    LXV. — CHAPTER,    VIII,    32. 


333 


taken  of  it,  was  there  a  firmer  basis  for 
hope  to  rest  upon,  than  that  gift  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  has  already  been  bestowed — 
regarded  as  the  pledge  or  the  guarantee 
of  all  those  future  gifts,  that  make  out  for 
those  who  trust  in  Him  a  full  and  a  fin- 
ished salvation.  Never  was  foundation 
more  surely  laid,  nor  can  we  tell  how 
many  those  unshaken  props  are  by 
which  it  upholds  the  confidence  of  a 
believer.  We  invite  you  to  cast  upon  it 
the  whole  burden  of  your  reliance.  In 
the  quietness  and  the  confidence  where- 
with you  lie  down  upon  it,  you  shall  have 
strength.  You  will  be  in  the  very  attitude 
wherein  God  delights  to  pour  down  upon 
you  of  the  prodigality  of  His  blessings — 
when  you  stand  before  Him  in  the  attitude 
of  dependence.  He  will  not  dishonour 
the  trust  that  you  lay  upon  His  Son,  by 
leaving  you  to  the  mortifying  experience 
that  it  is  a  vain  treacherous  reliance,  and 
wholly  unproductive  of  any  good  to  your 
souls.  O  then  lean  upon  it  the  whole 
weight  of  your  expectations  ;  and  be 
very  sure,  that  He  who  hath  given  you 
His  Son,  will  with  Him  also  freely  give 
you  all  things. 

'All  things.'  We  are  not  to  understand 
this  absolutely — but  rather  appropriately 
to  the  condition  of  one  who  has  set  forth 
upon  the  good  of  eternity,  as  the  great 
and  engrossing  object  of  his  heart.  All 
things  cei'tainly  which  an  immortal  be- 
ing, and  who  is  in  full  pursuit  of  the  bles- 
sings of  immortality,  counts  worth  the 
caring  for — ail  those  things  for  which  he 
has  a  warrant  to  pray,  and  which  if  he 
pray  for  in  faith  he  shall  receive — all 
those  things  which  are  held  out  to  him  in 
promise,  and  which  go  to  complete  his 
privileges  as  a  believer — all  things  qual- 
Hcd  in  the  way  Avhich  Peter  has  done, 
when,  speaking  of  the  great  and  pre- 
cious promises,  he  makes  them  embrace 
all  things  which  are  necessary  to  life  and 
to  godliness — all  things  that  belong  to  the 
relation  of  one,  who,  by  receiving  Christ, 
has  become  a  child  of  God's  adopted 
family  ;  and  therefore,  in  a  more  special 
manner  than  all  the  rest,  referring  to  that 
gift  which  by  way  of  distinction  has  been 
termed  the  promise  of  the  Father — or,  as 
pre-eminent  in  the  list  of  those  things 
which  God  bestows  upon  His  now  recon- 
ciled children,  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  Because 
ye  are  sons  God  hath  sent  forth  the  Spirit 
of  His  Son  into  your  hearts" — a  gift  so 
universally  bestowed  upon  those  who  are 
Christ's,  that  it  may  be  affirmed  without 
exception  "  if  any  man  have  not  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  his."  And 
so,  were  we  called  upon  to  specify  the 
most  prominent  of  those  all  things  which 
God  giveth  unto  all  who  receive  Christ,  we 
would  say,  that  thev  were  those  things 


which  prospered  and  carried  forward  the 
sanctification  of  a  believer,  which  fur- 
nished  him  with  the  grace  and  enabled 
him  to  render  the  services  of  new  obedi- 
ence— those  things  which  marked  him  as 
a  new  creature,  and  stamped  that  holiness 
upon  his  character  here  which  rendered 
him  meet  for  the  only  kind  of  happiness 
that  shall  be  enjoyed  hereafter.  In  a 
word,  the  great  gift  which  is  in  reserve 
for  the  believer  after  he  hath  laid  hold  of 
an  offered  Christ,  is  the  gift  of  a  clean 
heart  and  a  right  spirit — whereby  he  is 
inclined  to  walk  in  the  way  of  those  com- 
mandments that  he  had  aforetime  violated 
whereby  he  renounces  ungodliness  ;  and 
that  Being,  who  ere  then  was  habitually 
forgotten,  is  now  habitually  referred  to  as 
a  Father  to  whom  he  owes  all  filial  and 
affectionate  regards.  "For  as  many  as 
receive  Christ,  to  them  gave  he  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God." 

You  thus  see  how  it  is  that  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  ushers  in  all  those  who 
embrace  it  to  a  life  of  virtue  and  of  pro- 
gressive holiness.  Their  purification  is 
as  much  a  free  gift  as  their  pardon  is. 
The  Spirit  called  a  free  Spirit  is  as  much 
a  ministration  from  on  high,  as  is  that  act 
of  forgiveness  which  passes  upon  all  at 
the  moment  of  their  believing  in  the  Sa- 
viour. Christ  is  given,  and  all  those 
things  of  which  He  is  the  pledge  are 
given  also.  Eternal  life  is  a  gift  through 
Him,  and  so  is  meetness  for  eternal  life  a 
gift  through  Him.  The  Christian  disciple 
is  as  much  and  more  a  man  of  perform- 
ance, than  the  disciple  of  mere  morality 
is.  Only  he  performs,  not  with  that 
strength  which  he  natively  possesses ; 
but  he  performs  with  that  strength  which 
he  has  prayed  for.  It  is  this  which  forms 
the  grand  peculiarity  of  his  practice. 
Most  strenuous  and  painstaking  in  all  his 
duties;  but  there  is  ever  mixed  up  with 
his  various  and  unceasing  activities  the 
apostolical  sentiment,  "  Nevertheless  not 
me  but  the  grace  of  God  that  is  in  me." 
It  is  thus  that  his  humility  and  his  holi- 
ness keep  pace  together ;  and  he  feels 
himself  not  more  a  pensioner  upon  God 
for  the  pardon  of  his  offences,  than  he  is 
for  ability  to  think  a  right  thought  or  to 
do  a  right  and  acceptable  thing. 

The  two  gifts  are  inseparable.  All  who 
are  justified  are  sanctified.  All  who  truly 
receive  Christ  enter  immediately  upon,  a 
course  of  sanctification — in  which  course 
they  prosecute  a  departure  from  all  ini- 
quity, and  press  forward  to  the  perfection 
of  holiness  as  the  mark  of  their  earnest 
and  perse Mering  ambition.  Be  assured, 
that  you  have  not  received  Christ  if  you 
have  not  received  an  impulse  upon  your 
spirits  on  the  side  of  goodness  and  righte- 
ousness and  truth — that  if  He  be  not  wash- 


334 


LECTURE   LXV. CHAPTER    VIII,    32. 


ing  you,  you  have  no  part  in  Him — and 
that  in  the  very  act  of  stretching  forth 
upon  you  the  hand  of  a  Saviour,  He 
stretches  forth  upon  you  the  hand  of  a 
Saiictifier.  Hence  it  is  that  there  are  cer- 
tain tokens,  by  which  a  man  may  most 
assuredly  know  that  as  yet  he  hath  no 
part  nor  lot  in  the  matter.  If  he  have  not 
yet  begun  a  struggle  with  sin — if  he  do 
not  feel  a  new  tenderness  upon  his  con- 
science— if  he  be  not  visited  with  a  sight 
and  sense  of  his  ungodliness — if  he  be  not 
breaking  off  from  that  which  he  knows 
to  be  offensive  to  God — if  the  state  of  his 
heart  and  practice  be  not  a  thing  of  prac- 
tical concern  with  him — Then  is  there 
every  reason  to  fear,  or  rather  every  rea- 
son to  conclude,  that  as  yet  Christ  is  not 
his  and  he  is  not  Christ's.  If  Christ  had 
really  been  given  to  him,  a  change  of 
spirit  and  of  life  would  have  been  among 
the  very  first  of  the  all  things  given  along 
with  Christ.  And  if  no  such  change  has 
actually  taken  place,  there  is  as  yet  no 
interest  of  any  kind  in  the  Saviour. 

This  is  a  point  on  which  we  should  like 
you  to  have  a  clear  and  consistent  under- 
standing. Do  not  wait  till  you  be  holy, 
ere  you  shall  cast  your  confidence  on  the 
Saviour;  but  cast  your  confidence  on 
Him  even  now,  and  you  shall  be  made 
holy.  It  is  not  your  faith  that  is  the  ac- 
companiment of  your  holiness — but  it  is 
your  holiness  that  is  the  accompaniment 
of  your  faith.     The  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  is 


not  to  you  as  a  holy,  but  to  you  as  a 
sinful  creature;  and  we  entreat  the  most 
sinful  of  you  to  lay  hold  of  Him.  With 
Him  you  shall  receive  holiness.  After  ye 
have  believed,  ye  shall  be  sealed  with 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise.  I  do  not 
want  to  embarrass  the  simplicity  of  your 
dependence  upon  Christ,  when  I  speak 
of  holiness  as  the  unfailing  mark  of  your 
discipleship.  I  barely  inform  you  what 
you  have  to  look  for  as  the  fruit  of 
that  dependence.  Go  to  Him  now  and 
accept  of  the  offered  Saviour  ;  and  cer- 
tain it  is,  that  along  with  Him,  you  shall 
be  made  to  accept  of  a  clean  heart  and  a 
right  spirit.  But  do  not  invert  this  order, 
else  you  shall  never  arrive  at  peace  of 
conscience ;  and  as  little  will  you  ever 
arrive  at  holiness  of  character.  It  is  not 
your  sanctification  that  forms  the  step- 
ping-stone to  your  peace  ;  but  your  peace 
that  forms  the  stepping-stone  to  your  sanc- 
tification. Lay  hold  upon  Christ  as  your 
peace-offering;  and  then  the  very  God  of 
peace  shall  sanctify  you  wholly.  Come 
forward  at  the  gospel  call,  and  touch  the 
sceptre  of  forgiveness  which  it  holds  out 
to  you.  There  is  a  virtue  in  the  touch — 
a  purifying  as  well  as  a  pacifying  virtue. 
There  is  not  merely  spiritual  comfort  but 
spiritual  health  in  it;  and  the  soul  of  the 
patient  is  more  than  reconciled  from  a 
state  of  wrath  into  a  state  of  acceptance — 
it  is  renewed  from  sin  unto  holiness. 


LECTURE  LXVI. 


Romans  viii,  33,  34. 

"Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ■?  It  is  God  that  jnstifieth ;  who  is  he  thatcondemnethl  It  is 
Christ  that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  interces- 
sion for  ns." 


Let  your  first  act  be  an  act  of  reliance 
upon  Christ  for  pardon  ;  let  this  act  be  so 
repeated  by  you,  day  after  day  and  hour 
after  hour,  as  to  ripen  into  a  habit  of  re- 
liance— and  then  shall  we  confidently 
look  for  the  marks  and  evidence  of  your 
regeneration.  And  these  marks  may  at 
length  so  multiply  upon  you— they  might 
so  brighten  and  become  palpable  even  to 
the  eye  of  your  own  observation,  that  you 
shall  begin  to  suspect— nay  further  to 
guess— nay  further  still  to  be  assured,  and 
to  read  the  full  assurance,  that  you  are 
indeed  one  of  the  elect  of  Go^.  That  you 
are  among  the  elect  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
presumed  by  you  at  the  first;  but  a  thing 
gathered  by  you  afterwards,  from  your 
subsequent  history  as  a  believer.    If  you 


are  wise,  you  do  not  meddle  with  the  aoc- 
trine  of  election  at  the  outset — whatever 
comfort  or  establishment  of  heart  you 
may  draw  from  it,  in  the  ulterior  stages 
of  your  spiritual  progress.  When  you 
go  forth  on  the  career  of  Christianity, 
you  look  at  the  free  offer  of  the  gospel. 
You  perceive  it  to  be  addressed  to  you  as 
well  as  to  others.  You  yield  a  compli- 
ance therewith.  You  enter  into  peace 
with  God — in  obedience  to  His  own  call, 
whereby  He  now  beseeches  you  to  be  re 
conciled  to  Him.  It  were  great  presump 
tion  indeed  for  you,  to  start  with  the  as- 
surance that  your  name  is  in  the  book  of 
God's  decrees ;  which  He  keeps  beside 
Himself  in  heaven — but  no  presumption 
at  all,  to  set  out  with  the  assurance  that 


LECTURE   LXVI. CHAPTER,   Vlir,    33,    34. 


335 


you  are  spoken  to  in  that  book  of  God's 
declarations,  which  He  circulates  through 
the  work!.  The  ,''look  unto  me  all"  and 
the  "come  unto  me  all"  and  the  "who- 
soever will  let  him  come" — these  are  say- 
ings in  which  one  and  all  of  the  human 
family  have  most  obvious  interest.  You 
presume  nothing  when  you  presume  upon 
the  honesty  of  these  sayings.  And  if  fur- 
thermore you  proceed  upon  them — if  now 
you  strike  the  act  of  reconciliation,  and 
forthwith  enter  upon  that  walk  by  which 
they  who  receive  Christ  and  receive  along 
with  him  power  to  become  the  children  of 
God  are  sure  to  separate  themselves  from 
the  children  of  the  world — and  pray  for 
grace,  that  you  may  be  upheld  and  car- 
ried forward  therein — and  combine  a  life 
of  activity  with  a  life  of  prayer — Then, 
and  after  perhaps  many  months  of  suc- 
cessful perseverance,  you  may  talk  of 
your  election,  because  now  you  can  read 
it,  not  in  the  book  of  life  that  is  in  heaven, 
but  in  the  book  of  your  own  history  upon 
earth — not  that  you  have  drawn  out  the 
secret  from  among  the  archives  of  the 
upper  sanctuary;  but  because  now  it 
stands  palpably  engraven  upon  a  charac- 
ter the  light  of  which  shines  before  the 
eye  of  the  world,  and  which  is  read  and 
known  of  all  mon — not  that  you  have  ac- 
cess to  that  tabli;t  which  has  been  in- 
scribed from  eternity  by  the  finger  of  God  ; 
but  that  you  have  access  to  the  tablet  of 
your  own  heart,  and,  by  the  eye  of  con- 
science, can  discern  thereupon  the  virtues 
of  the  new  creature,  inscribed  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  within  the  period  of  your 
own  recollection. 

Even  the  apostle  went  no  higher  than 
this,  when  judging  of  the  state  of  his  own 
fonverts.  Their  election  was  to  him  not 
a  thing  of  presumption,  but  a  thing  of  in- 
ference—drawn, not  from  what  he  guess- 
ed, but  from  what  he  saw — brought,  not 
from  those  third  heavens  which  he  had  at 
one  time  visited,  but  lying  palpably  be- 
fore him  and  within  the  precincts  of  his 
own  earthly  home.  When  he  tells  the 
Thessalonians  that  he  knew  their  elec- 
tion, he  tells  them  how  he  knew  it, 
"Knowing  brethren  beloved  your  election 
of  God — for  our  gospel  came  not  unto  you 
in  word  only,  but  also  in  power  and  in 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  much  assurance, 
as  ye  know  what  manner  of  men  we 
were  among  you  for  your  sake,  and  ye 
became  followers  of  us  and  were  ensam- 
ples  to  all."  He  concluded  them  to  be  of 
the  elect,  not  from  any  access  that  he  had 
to  a  book  of  mysteries,  but  simply  from 
the  manner  of  men  they  were.  It  was 
not  because  of  any  high  communication 
that  he  had  with  Heaven  upon  the  sub- 
ject;  but  because  of  the  daily  compan- 
ionshio  that  he  had  with  his  disciples,  and  ; 


in  virtue  of  which  he  saw  the  very  things 
that  others  saw  also,  and  observed  nothing 
else  or  nothing  more  than  those  evidences 
of  faith,  those  graces  of  holy  and  new- 
born creatures,  which  were  known  and 
read  of  all  men. 

My  anxiety  is  that  you  do  not  embarrass 
yourselves  with  this  matter  of  election — 
for  there  is  positively  nothing  in  the  doc- 
trine which  ought  to  encumber  or  in  any 
way  to  darken  the  plain  and  practical 
woi'k  of  your  Christianity.  What  I  fear 
is  that  some  may  founder  at  the  outset  of 
their  discipleship,  by  prematurely  and 
previously  meddling  with  it.  I  want  that 
if  they  feel  any  speculative  ditficulty 
about  it  now,  that  they  may  not  waste 
their  strength  on  the  business  of  resolving 
it ;  but  set  out  on  the  scholarship  of  the 
gospel  in  a  plain  way,  and  leave  their 
election  to  be  gathered  afterwards  from 
the  progress  which  they  have  made  in 
that  way — which  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  way  of  holiness.  Then  they 
may  both  perceive  a  consistency,  and  feel 
a  most  precious  comfort,  in  the  doctrine  ; 
but  now,  and  I  speak  to  those  who  are 
meditating  an  entrance  on  that  path  which 
leadeth  unto  heaven,  now  their  concern  is 
to  accept  of  Christ  as  He  is  freely  offered 
to  them  in  the  gospel,  and  to  take  full 
encouragement  from  the  reasoning  of 
our  preceding  text,  "  He  that  spared  not 
his  own  Son  but  gave  him  up  unto  the 
death  for  us  all — how  shall  he  not  with 
him  also  freely  give  us  all  things'?"  I 
would  have  them  to  close  alike  with  the 
pledge  and  the  promise  ;  and  on  the  high 
vantage-ground  of  Christ  being  theirs  I 
would  have  their  hearts  to  be  gladdened 
even  now  with  the  assurance  of  faith,  and 
thence  that  they  should  pass  forward  to 
the  assurance  that  cometh  from  experi- 
ence— giving  all  diligence  to  make  their 
calling  and  election  sure,  and  assiduously 
labouring  at  those  things  of  which  it  is 
said  in  the  New  Testament,  that  if  a  man 
do  these  things  he  shall  never  fall. 

The  point  at  which  God  begins  in  the 
matter  of  our  salvation,  is  not  the  point 
at  which  man  begins.  The  apostle  as- 
signs the  order  of  God's  procedure  when 
he  says,  "Whom  he  did  foreknow,  he 
also  did  predestinate,  and  whom  he  did 
predestinate  them  he  also  called,  and 
whom  he  called  them  he  also  justified, 
and  whom  he  justified  them  he  also  glori- 
fied." It  is  at  the  call  that  man's  part 
commences.  Let  him  listen'  to  the  call — 
let  him  yield  a  compliance  with  the  call 
— let  him  take  both  the  comfort  and  direc- 
tion of  the  call — Understanding  it  to  be 
both  a  call'  from  wrath  unto  acceptance, 
and  a  call  from  sin  unto  righteousness.  It 
were  well  that  he  kept  by  his  own  share 
of  the  process,  and  encroach  not  on  the 


336 


LECTURE   LXVI. CHAPTER   VIII,    33,    34. 


part  or  the  prerogative  of  God.  These 
ambitious  speculations  about  God's  eter- 
nal decree  and  nian's  eternal  destiny, 
often  argue  a  creature  misconceiving  his 
own  place,  and  making  himself  like  ur)to 
his  Creator.  He  in  fact  comes  in  at  the 
middle,  between  the  decree  that  went 
before  and  the  destiny  that  comes  after  ; 
and,  alike  ignorant  of  both  at  the  outset 
of  his  Christianity,  his  distinct  and  only 
concern  is  with  the  matters  that  are  in 
hand — with  the  guilt  that  can  be  charged 
upon  his  person — with  the  vengeance  that 
lours  upon  his  prospects — with  the  offered 
interposition  of  a  Saviour  to  cleanse  away 
the  one  and  wholly  to  avert  the  other — 
with  the  honest  invitation  of  that  Sav- 
iour to  cast  upon  Him  the  burden  of 
every  fear,  and  .to  make  use  of  Him  as  the 
appointed  Mediator  whose  business  it  is 
both  to  reconcile  and  to  sanctify.  This  is 
the  opening  at  which  man  is  admitted  ; 
and  be  very  sure  that  you  misunderstand 
the  gospel,  and  are  entangling  yourselves 
■with  mysteries  that  you  would  be  greatly 
better  to  abstain  from — if  you  have  any 
other  conception  of  it,  than  that  there  is 
most  wide  and  welcome  admittance  for 
you  all ;  and,  let  your  obscurities  be  what 
they  may  about  that  high  transcendental 
process  which  connects  the  first  purpose 
of  the  Divine  Mind  with  your  final  place 
in  eternity,  there  should  at  least  be  no 
obscurity  in  that  process  which  you  have 
personally  and  individually  to  do  with, 
and  by  which  it  is  that  whosoever  believ- 
eth  shall  be  justified  and  whosoever  is 
sanctified  shall  be  glorified. 

I  would  therefore  say  to  all  who  profess 
their  faith  in  Christ,  that  the  great  busi- 
ness on  hand  is  their  sanctification.  And 
it  is  one  of  the  all  things  which  God  gives 
freely  along  with  His  Son  to  all  who  be- 
lieve upon  Him.  It  is  this  my  brethren 
which  constitutes  the  great  peculiarity  of 
their  practical  habit.  They  work,  not 
upon  the  strength  which  tney  natively 
possess,  but  upon  the  strength  which  they 
have  prayed  for — given  no  doubt  with 
freeness,  but  because  asked  in  faith  ;  and 
leading  to  vigorous  obedience,  but  from  a 
vigour  that  is  infused,  and  not  from  a 
vigour  which  properly  or  originally  be- 
longs to  them.  This  is  the  great  thing  in 
which  the  strength  of  a  Christian  lies. 
He  works  mightily  because  the  grace  of 
God  works  in  him  mightily  ;  and  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  harmonies  in  the  ex- 
perience of  every  true  Christian,  is  the 
accordancy  that  obtains  between  the 
worth  of  his  performances  and  the  fer- 
vency of  his  prayers.  It  is  in  this  walk  of 
secrecy  that  the  secret  of  the  Lord  is  at 
length  made  known  to  the  believer ;  and 
in  those  multiplied  exchanges  which  take 
place  between  prayer  and  the  answer  of 


prayer,  he  reads  the  tokens  of  his  coming 
destination.  As  the  present  grace  bright- 
ens upon  his  person,  the  future  glory 
brightens  to  his  hopes.  His  humility  and 
his  holiness  keep  pace  together — till  from 
the  increasing  splendour  of  the  one,  he 
may  without  violence  done  to  the  other 
conclude  that  his  election  is  of  God.  He 
ascends  from  the  platform  of  faith  to 
the  higher  platform  of  experience  ;  and 
though,  even  on  the  former,  he  may  join 
the  apostle  in  that  strain  of  triumph 
wherewith  he  brings  this  magnificent 
chapter  to  a  close — yet  it  is  from  the 
latter,  because  the  more  advanced  and 
loftier  elevation,  that  he  has  the  fullest 
confidence  in  saying,  *Who  shall  lay 
any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ] 
It  is  God  that  justifieth,  who  is  he  that 
condemneth  J' 

'It  is  God  that  justifieth,  who  is  he  that 
condemneth  "J '  I  have  already  said  all 
that  I  mean  to  do  at  present  which  bears 
relation  to  the  first  clause  of  the  verse, 
and  shall  now  proceed  to  a  few  observa- 
tions on  this  last  clause  of  it.  I  fear  that 
it  is  to  a  very  small  degree  experimentally 
known,  how  much  the  light  and  love  and 
liberty  of  a  Christian's  mind  depend  on 
the  sense  that  he  has  of  his  justification  ; 
and  that  he  is  in  his  very  best  and  healthi- 
est condition,  when, reviewing  the  grounds 
of  this  justification,  he  feels  his  security  to 
be  rivetted  as  it  were  and  himself  securely 
resting  upon  the  strength  of  them.  There 
is  one  aspect  of  justification  that  is  pe- 
culiarly fitted  to  impre.ss  a  comfort,  and  a 
clear  impression  of  deliverance,  on  the 
heart  of  a  believer — even  the  aspect  set 
before  us  in  the  text,  and  where  it  is  sta- 
ted as  proceeding  directly  and  of  his  own 
personal  act  from  God  himself.  'It  is 
God  that  justifieth.'  It  is  He  to  whom  he 
was  liable,  declaring  that  all  was  fully 
paid.  It  is  He  who  alone  was  entitled  to 
make  the  change  against  us,  declaring 
how  amply  and  conclusively  we  stood 
discharged  from  all  further  reckoning  on 
account  of  our  iniquities.  It  is  He  who 
before  was  our  offended  lawgiver.  Him- 
self undertaking  our  cause  and  pronoun- 
cing with  His  own  voice  upon  the  good- 
ness of  it.  It  is  the  God  from  whom  at 
one  time  we  had  nought  to  apprehend  but 
the  emphatic  condemnation  and  the  over- 
whelming vengeance — it  is  He  filling  His 
mouth  with  arguments  upon  our  side,  and 
pleading  our  cause,  and  protesting  how 
much  and  how  completely  He  is  satisfied. 
It  is  our  vindication  coming  from  the  very 
quarter  whence  our  vengeance  was  looked 
for;  and  that  Being  who  alone  had  the 
right  to  accuse,  not  merely  acquitting  and 
so  withdrawing  from  us  all  the  dishonour 
that  is  due  to  guilt ;  but  raising  us  above 
the  midway  state  of  innocence,  and  re- 


LECTURE   LXVI. CHAPTER   VIII,    33,    34. 


337 


garding  iis  with  all  the  positive  favour, 
and  as  entitled  to  all  the  positive  regard, 
that  is  due  to  righteousness.    It  is  He  who 
might  have  wreaked  upon  us  of  His  sorest 
displeasure,  now  telling  how  much  he  is 
pleased   with  us,  and  how  rightfully  we 
are  privileged  to  obtain  from  Him  the  re- 
wards of  a  happy  and  honourable  eter- 
nity.    It  is  He  of  whom  we  might  well 
have  dreaded,  that  when  the  arm  of  His 
justice  was  lifted  up  it  would  be  lifted  up 
to  destroy — it  is  Himself  saying,  that  this 
very  justice  demanded  not  only  our  exon- 
eration from  all  penalty,  but  our  prefer- 
ment to  the  glories  that  are  due  to  righte- 
ousness.    They  who  have  felt   the  terrors 
of  the  law — they  who  have  been   stung 
with   the- arrows  of  self  reproach;   and, 
alive  to  the  miseries  of  their  spiritual  con- 
dition, have  shrunk  from  the  dreaded  eye 
of  a  judge  and   an   avenger,   as   it  took 
cognizance  of  all  their  ungodliness — they 
who  have  laboured  under  the  agonies  of 
a  burdened  conscience,  and  to  whose  in- 
ner man  this  witness  hath  rung  the  alarm 
of  an  angry  God  and  of  His  utter  intol- 
erance for  evil — They   can   report   how 
blessed  the  emancipation  is,  when  through 
faith  in  "the  tidings  of  the  gospel,  they 
come  to  see  that  the   whole  account  be- 
tween them  and  the  Lawgiver  is  reversed  ; 
and  that  He  who  before  challenged  them 
becadse  of  their  offence,  now  challenges 
the   whole   universe  to   make   good   one 
charge   or   one  ground  of  condemnation 
against  them — when  from  His  own  mouth 
they  hear  how  valid  is  the  plea  that  now 
they  have  got  hold  of,  and  how  much  He 
has  reason  to  be  satisfied — when,  in  the 
precious  doctrine  of  our  redemption,  they 
are  made  to  perceive  that  the  suretiship 
was  an  equivalent  for  the  debt,  and  the 
atonement  by  Christ  a  full  reparation  to 
the  dignity  of  Heaven  for  all  the  outrage 
which  sinners  had  inflicted  on  it;  and  so 
that  all  is  clear  with  God,  who  now  can 
at  once  be  a  just  God  and  a  Saviour — can 
be  just  while  the  justifier  of  those  who  be- 
lieve in  Jesus — 'justifying  them  freely  by 
His  grace  through  the  redemption  that  is 
in  His  own  Son. 

I  might  expatiate  further  upon  how 
thoroughly  the  conscience  is  unburdened 
of  its  guilt,  by  the  very  Being  against 
whom  the  guilt  has  been  contracted  thus 
taking  the  work  of  our  vindication  into 
His  own  hands  ;  but  I  now  pass  on  to  re- 
mark upon  that  tendency  which  there  is 
in  us,  to  overlook  the  direct  interest  that 
God  the  Father  has  felt,  and  taken  all 
along,  in  the  matter  of  our  salvation.  We 
are  apt  to  regard  Him  as  having  no  great 
will  for  our  deliverance,  till  that  will  was 
wrought  upon  and  prevailed  over  by  the 
services  of  the  Mediator  in  our  behalf — 
that  whh  Him  lay  all  the  displeasure 
43 


which  wreaks  itself  upon  a  work  of  ven- 
geance, while  with  His  Son  lay  all  the 
delight  which  compassion  feels  in  a  work 
of  mercy — that  to  the  one  there  belongeth 
the  jealousy  of  a  vindictive  nature,  while 
to  the  other  there  iDclongeth  the  enga- 
ging generosity  of  a  jealous  nature  :  And. 
thus  1  fear,  that,  as  the  general  effect  in 
many  instances  of  the  whole  contempla- 
tion, the  government  of  Heaven  is  con- 
ceived to  be  in  the  hands  of  an  inflex- 
ible tyrant,  who,  at  the  same  time,  has 
had  his  severity  often  appeased  and  turned 
away  by  a  Son  of  popular  and  endearing 
qualities;  and  under  whose  administra- 
tion it  is,  that  character  of  the  divine  ju- 
risprudence is  disarmed  of  all  those  ter- 
rors by  which  it  would  else  have  been 
encompassed.  We  greatly  fear,  that  along 
with  the  general  truth  of  their  contem- 
plation, there  is  a  wrong  impression  of 
the  Godhead;  and  that,  along  with  the- 
truth  and  justice  and  holiness  of  the 
Lawgiver,  there  are  not  seen  the  tender- 
ness that  He  feels  towards  His  own  off- 
spring— the  softness  and  sincerity  of  His 
parental  longings,  after  the  children  who 
have  wandered  in  the  errors  of  their  diso- 
bedience away  from  Him. 

Now,  to  rectify  this  impression  and  re- 
store you  to  a  juster  sense  of  that  great 
Being  with  whom  you  have  to  do,  I  would 
have  you  to  gather  from  Scripture  the 
part  He  has  taken  in  the  whole  recovery 
of  our  fallen  world.  The  pity  of  God  has 
in  fact  been  working  upon  our  side  from 
the  very  outset  of  the  human  apostacy ; 
and  you  do  Him  wrong — you  bear  in 
3''our  heart  the  hardest  and  most  injurious 
thoughts  of  Him,  if  you  conceive  of  Him 
otherwise,  than  as  one  bereaved  of  His 
family,  and  bent  on  the  object  of  calling 
them  back  again. 

It  is  true — that,  for  what  in  reference 
to  the  government  of  His  moral  and  intel- 
ligent creation  may  significantly  enough 
be  called  Reasons  of  State — it  is  true, 
that,  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  His  throne 
— it  is  true,  that,  to  vindicate  the  attributes 
of  His  nature,  and  to  save  the  Universe 
which  He  had  thrown  around  Him  from 
the  spectacle  of  a  dishonoured  law  and  a 
degraded  Sovreign — There  behoved,  ere 
sin  could  be  passed  by,  there  behoved,  to 
be  a  sacrifice.  But  with  whom  did  this 
way  originate? — with  God  Himself  who 
found  out  the  ransom — with  Him  who  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  send  His  only- 
begotten  Son  into  it.  At  whose  expense 
was  the  sacrifice  made  ?  Had  the  Father 
think  you  to  bear  none  of  it,  when  He 
spared  not  the  Son  of  His  love  but  deliv- 
ered Him  up  unto  the  death  for  us  all  T 
Was  there  no  struggle  do  you  imagine  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Divinity  when  He  thus 
surrendered  the  object  of  His  dearest  affec- 


338 


LECTURE   LXVI. CHAPTER   VIU,    33,    34. 


tion,  and  laid  upon  Him  the  full  weight 
of  the  world's  atonement  ?  In  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  will  you  overlook  the  pal- 
pable expression  of  regard  for  our  alien- 
ated species,  manifested  by  Him  who 
consented  to  these  sufferings"? — and,  after 
looking  to  tliis  transaction  in  all  its  rela- 
tions and  its  bearings,  will  you  refuse  to 
allow,  that,  while  judgment  is  the  strange 
though  needful  work  of  the  Almighty, 
mercy  after  all  is  His  darling  attribute; 
and  that  to  strike  out  an  open  conveyance 
by  which  it  may  be  poured  exuberantly 
over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  was  in- 
deed a  grand  design  in  that  economy  of 
redemption,  which  Himself  did  frame  and 
which  Himself  hath  instituted.  All  along 
He  has  taken  a  dii-ect  and  an  interested 
part  in  the  object  of  our  world's  restora- 
tion. He  did  not  wait  in  passive  and 
unmoved  indifference,  till  another  should 
interfere  ;  or  cherish  the  stern  purpose  of 
revenge  within  his  bosom,  till  another 
should  step  forward  and  satiate  the  wrath 
that  else  was  unappeasable.  The  truth 
of  Heaven,  we  admit,  and  the  stable  in- 
terest of  Heaven's  high  monarchy,  did 
require  an  expiation  ;  but  it  was  the  love 
of  God  Himself  that  prompted  the  under- 
taking— it  was  in  love  that  he  prosecuted 
it  through  all  its  obstacles  and  its  hard 
necessities — it  was  in  earnest  busy  and 
persevering  love,  that  He  carried  forward 
the  enterprise  from  one  step  to  another  ; 
and  no  sooner  was  the  atonement  render- 
ed, and  the  great  moral  difficulty  resolved 
whereby  a  just  God  might  reinstate  the 
sinner  ii  acceptance  who  had  made  open 
defianc  to  the  authority  of  His  moral 
government — no  sooner  were  the  great 
sanctiois  and  securities  of  this  govern- 
ment piovided  for,  than  He  opened  the 
prison-door  of  the  grave,  and  raised  to 
His  throne  of  Mediatorship  the  once  cru- 
cified but  now  exalted  Saviour — no  sooner 
was  the  plea  of  His  everlasting  righteous- 
ness brought  in,  than  Himself  laid  hold 
of  it ;  and  it  is  now  His  delight  to  use  it 
for  the  purpose  of  our  vindication — So 
that  God  Himself  asserts  for  us  the  merits 
of  His  Son's  obedience  ;  and,  instead  of 
dissevering  Him  from  the  work  of  our 
salvation,  we  have  the  warrant  of  apos- 
tolical example  for  saying  that  God  Him- 
self affirms  our  cause,  and  that  it  is  God 
Himself  who  justifies. 

That  righteousness  which  Christ  brought 
in,  is  termed  in  various  places  the  right- 
eousness of  God.  The  Jews  stumbled  and 
fell  because  they  sought  to  be  justified  by 
their  own  righteousness,  and  would  not 
submit  to  the  righteousness  of  God.  But 
how  great  our  security,  if,  instead  of  being 
found  in  our  own  righteousness,  we  are 
found  in  that  which  God  calls  his  own. 
Well  may  He  be  said  to  justify  those  who 


believe,  when  He  holds  them  to  be  invest- 
ed with  a  righteousness  which  it  is  His 
part  to  vindicate,  because  to  Himself  it 
belongs — dear  to  Him  therefore  as  His 
own  chara:  ;er,  and  as  ready  to  be  assert- 
ed and  )>;ade  good  by  Him  in  the  eyes  of 
a  whf  "o  universe  as  the  attributes  of  His 
own  nature. 

Over  against,  and  in  counterpart  to  the 
office  of  God  as  our  justifier,  there  is  put 
the  question,  '  Who  is  he  that  condemn- 
eth!' — suggesting  the  idea  of  another  and 
an  opposite  party,  who  felt  an  interest  in 
our  guilt  and  was  intent  on  making  it 
good — who  had  charges  to  prefer,  and 
laboured  after  the  establishment  of  these 
charges — who  delighted  in  the  work  of 
accusation,  and  felt  a  satisfaction  and  a 
triumph  should  he  succeed  in  this  his 
favourite  employment.  It  instantly  re- 
calls the  title  which  is  given  to  our  great 
adversary  in  the  book  of  Revelation,  as 
the  accuser  of  the  brethren ;  and  in  the 
history  of  Job  there  is  given  a  very  forci- 
ble exhibition  of  the  characteristic  pleas- 
ure that  he  feels  in  pleading  on  the  side 
of  condemnation.  We  can  fancy  an  in- 
terest in  this,  because,  by  every  case  in 
which  he  fails  of  his  object,  he  is  abridg- 
ed of  his  monarchy  ;  and  each,  who, 
either  under  his  own  personal  righteous- 
ness or  under  the  provided  righteousness 
of  the  gospel  stands  justified  in  the  sight 
of  God,  is  one  man  more  wrested  from 
the  thraldom  of  his  power.  But  we  allude 
to  this,  not  for  the  purpose  of  remarking 
on  the  gratification  that  every  instance 
of  made-out  and  established  guilt  yields 
to  his  ambition,  as  on  the  gratification 
that  it  yields  to  his  malice.  In  like  man- 
ner as  I  would  lure  you  to  virtue,  by  set- 
ting forth  the  graces  of  its  pure  and  per- 
fect exemplification  in  Christ — so  I  would 
warn  you  against  all  vice,  by  setting  forth 
the  hideousness  of  its  deformity  in  the 
picture  that  is  given  of  him  whom  Christ 
came  to  destroy  :  and,  more  especially,  I 
would  have  you  to  understand  that  satis- 
faction in  another's  guilt  is  diabolical — 
that  in  the  complacency  which  is  felt  by 
some  on  the  discovery  of  a  neighbour's 
weakness  or  his  crime,  there  is  that  which 
savours  of  the  spirit  and  the  morale  of 
pandemonium — that  even  in  the  zest 
which  is  so  currently  felt  when  scandal 
mixes  up  of  its  infusions  with  the  gossip 
of  an  assembled  party,  there  are  the  dis- 
tinct traces  of  a  contagion  from  below — 
that  there  is  a  secret  exultation  of  heart 
on  some  humiliating  exposure  of  an  ac- 
quaintance, which  is  absolutely  fiendish 
— Nor  am  I  aware  of  any  test  that  so 
decisively  fixes  the  distinction  between 
a  good  and  an  evil  spirit  in  man,  as  the 
emotion  which  arises  in  his  bosom,  when 
there  is  brought  to  his  oars  the  delin- 


LECTURE   LXVI. CIIAPTEK.   VIII,    33,    34. 


339 


quency  of  one  to  whom  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  yield  the  homage  of  unim- 
peached  character.  The  grief  of  the  for- 
mer and  the  gladness  of  the  latter,  serve 
to  mark  two  characterestics  of  the  human 
heart,  which  stand  as  opposed  as  do  the 
elements  of  light  and  darkness.  It  is 
said  of  charity  that  it  rejoices  not  in  ini- 
quity. But  in  the  hateful  temperament 
which  I  am  now  labouring  to  expose, 
there  is  upon  the  sight  or  the  report  of 
such  iniquity  a  hellish  joy — a  gleam  of 
malignant  triumph,  that  is  peculiarl}'  hi- 
deous ;  and  were  I  called  to  fasten  on 
the  one  trait  that  forms  the  most  sure 
and  specific  indication  of  a  satanic  heart, 
1  would  say  that  never  is  it  given  forth 
so  unequivocally  as  by  him,  who,  on  the 
first  opening  to  a  brother's  humiliation  or 
disgrace,  would  eagerly  seize  upon  it,  and 
rejoice  in  the  hold  that  he  had  gotten — 
who  would  now  delight  himself  with  the 
ignominy  of  him,  on  whom  he  wont  to 
lavish  the  hypocrisies  of  his  seeming 
friendship  ;  and,  like  that  great  father  of 
lies  to  whom  he  bears  a  family  resem- 
blance so  strikingly  appropriate,  would 
convert  the  base  advantage  into  an  instru- 
ment by  which  he  might  tyrannize  and 
entangle  and  destroy. 

•It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea  rather  that  is 
risen  again.'  I  shall  not  expatiate  fur- 
ther on  the  death  of  Christ  as  the  basis  of 
our  justification  ;  but  only  advert  to  the 
way  in  which  the  argument  for  our  con- 
fidence, is  made  more  complete. and  con- 
clusive still  by  His  resurrection.  Instead 
of  looking  to  His  death,  let  us  look  rather 
to  His  having  risen  again.  In  a  former 
verse  of  this  epistle  where  He  is  said  to 
have  been  delivered  for  our  offences,  He 
is  said  to  have  risen  again  for  our  justi- 
fication. And  it  would  greatly  tend  to 
augment  your  security — did  you  only  re- 
alise the  contemplation  of  a  now  alive 
and  risen  Saviour,  at  the  Lawgiver's  right 
hand — were  the  eye  of  our  faith  open  to 
behold  Him,  sitting  and  holding  converse 
with  His  Father  there — could  you  only 
represent  to  yourself  the  present  and  the 
actual  state  of  matters  in  the  upper  Sanc- 
tuary, where  He,  who  by  His  own  death, 
,  expiated  the  sinner's  guilt,  now  interposes 
'  with  God  that  the  sinner's  trust  might  not 
be  put  to  shame — where  He  who  was  Him- 
self the  surety,  can  allege  the  debt  to 
have  been  fully  paid;  and  hands  up  His 
people's  prayers  to  the  seat  of  the  Eternal, 
mingled  with  the  incense  of  His  own 
merits,  accompanied  with  the  remem- 
brance and  the  plea  of  His  own  sacrifice. 
This  is  a  topic  on  which  I  cannot  expect  the 
unbeliever  to  sympathise — for  he  would 
need  to  have  a  spiritual  revelation  of  the 
objects,  ere  he  could  take  on  the  distinct 
or  the  vivid  impression  of  them.  But  only 


grant  of  any  human  creature  that  he  saw 
this  to  be  a  reality  ;  and  with  what  a  light 
and  unburdened  heart,  he  may  rejoice 
and  be  in  confidence  before  God.  Let 
him  but  figure  the  things  Avhich  arc  above 
as  we  have  now  represented  them — let 
him  take  a  correct  view  of  Heaven's  mer- 
cy-seat— let  him  look  to  the  Throne  of 
Grace  as  it  is  now  constituted  ;  and,  if  he 
just  see  it  as  it  is  what  should  restrain  him 
from  entering  with  all  boldness  thereunto. 

The  God  who  is  upon  it  waiting  to  be 
gracious — The  Mediator  who  is  beside  it 
beckoning  with  kindliest  welcome  the 
chief  of  sinners  to  draw  nigh,  and  under- 
taking to  be  the  Advocate  of  all  who  shall 
put  their  cause  for  eternity  into  His  hands 
— The  Father  delighting  to  honour  the 
Son,  and  give  full  effect  to  His  great  en- 
terprise— The  Son  presenting  to  His  Fa- 
ther another  and  another  application  for 
mercy  ;  and  with  this  resistless  argument 
of  the  Law  itself  being  more  proudly 
magnified  by  an  act  of  pardon  scaled 
with  the  blood  of  His  own  atonement, 
than  it  ever  would  have  been  by  the  obe- 
dience of  the  transgressor  for  whom  He 
pleads — The  perfect  unity  of  heart  and 
of  counsel  between  Him  who  intercedes 
for  mercy,  and  Him  who  judgeth  in  righ- 
teousness— And  the  golden  harmony  that 
now  awaketh  among  all  the  attributes  of 
the  Godhead,  when,  through  Him  that 
liveth  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchi- 
sedec.  His  full  and  His  finished  salvation 
is  accorded  to  the  offender.  It  is  by  this 
wondrous  economy  of  a  perpetual  and 
consecrated  priesthood,  that  such  music 
is  now  heard  in  Heaven  ;  and  that,  in 
sweetest  concord  with  the  whole  of  Hea- 
ven's jurisprudence,  love  for  the  sinner 
mingles  and  is  at  one  with  the  now  vindi- 
cated majesty  of  holiness  and  truth.  The 
believer,  before  the  eye  of  whose  enlight- 
ened understanding  these  things  stand  in 
open  and  convincing  manifestation,  feels 
all  the  glory  of  an  elate  confidence  as  he 
looks  to  the  grounds  and  the  guarantees 
of  his  safety  ;  but  then  does  he  chiefly 
rejoice  with  joy  exceeding  and  full  of  glo- 
ry, when  he  looks  to  Him  who  was  dead 
and  is  alive  again.  It  is  true  that  by  His 
obedience  unto  death.  He  has  furnished 
every  sinner  of  the  world  with  the  materi- 
als of  a  most  substantial  and  satisfying 
plea  ;  but  by  rising  again  He  has  Himself 
become  the  pleader — And  let  us  not  won- 
der if  the  apostle  himself  felt  as  if  ascend- 
ing upon' a  higher  vantage-ground — when, 
passing  from  the  consideration  of  the 
death  of  Christ,  he  so  exultingly  adds 
that  yea  rather  He  is  risen  again,  and  is 
even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us. 

I  may  just  here  advert  to  that"tistorical 
circumstancft  which  is  connected  with  the 


340 


LECTLTcE   LXVI. CHAPTER    Mil,    33,    34. 


resurrection  of  the  Saviour — even  that  it 
Avas  achieved  by  a  forth-putting  of  direct 
and  personal  agency  on  the  part  of  the 
Father.  On  this  subject  we  have  several 
express  testimonies  in  tiie  Bible.  "  Whom 
God  hath  raised  up."  "This  Jesus  hath 
God  raised  up."  "Being  by  tiie  right 
hand  of  God  exalted."  "Whom  God 
hath  raised  from  the  dead."  "Like  as 
Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the 
glory  of  the  Father."  '•If  the  Spirit  of 
him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead 
dwell  in  you."  "  Wherefore  also  God 
hath  highly  exahed  him."  There  are 
many  similar  testimonies,  and  the  be- 
liever has  not  overlooked  the  preciousness 
of  them.  To  him  all  scripture  is  profit- 
able; and  the  information  of  those  scrip- 
tures which  have  now  been  specifically 
cited,  has  not  been  without  its  use  in  the 


establishment  of  his  faith.  They  ■prove 
by  a  striking  historical  event  that  the  jus- 
tice of  God  has  been  satisfied — that  He 
has  accepted  of  the  sacrifice  as  a  full  and 
a  finished  expiation — that  in  releasing  our 
Surety  from  the  imprisonment  of  the  grave, 
He  has  now  ceased  from  all  further  legal 
demand  upon  us — that  in  placing  Him  by 
His  own  side  in  heaven,  He  testifies  His 
complete  approval  of  all  that  has  been 
done  for  the  salvation  of  the  world — In  a 
word,  that  the  great  errand  has  been  ful- 
filled ;  and  that,  with  the  now  admitted 
presence  of  our  forerunner  within  the  veil 
to  plead  the  accomplishment  of  it,  no- 
thing is  wanting  to  the  confidence  where- 
with we  may  now  leave  our  cause  in  His 
hand  and  look  for  the  sure  mercies  of 
David. 


LECTURE  LXVII. 


Romans  viii,  35 — 39. 

"  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ "!  shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness, 
or  peril,  or  sword  1  (As  it  is  written.  For  thy  sake  we  are  killed  all  the  day  long  ;  we  are  accounted  as  sheep  lor 
the  slaughter.)  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors,  through  him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am  per- 
suaded, that  neither  death  nor  life,  nor  angels  nor  principalities  nor  powers,  nor  things  present  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  lieight  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  ia 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord 


To  have  the  precise  understanding  of 
this  passage,  you  should  remember  that 
the  love  of  Christ  in  ver.  35,  and  after- 
wards the  love  of  God  in  ver.  39,  may  be 
understood  in  two  senses — either  as  signi- 
fying His  love  to  us,  or  our  love  to  Him. 
The  whole  context  seems  to  decide  for  the 
first  of  these  meanings — as  in  that  part 
of  it  which  goes  before,  it  is  of  God's 
dealings  with,  and  regards  to  His  elect ; 
it  is  of  His  being  upon  their  side  ;  it  is  of 
the  surrender  that  He  made  in  their  be- 
half, when  He  gave  up  His  Son  unto  the 
death,  and  with  Him  shall  freely  give 
them  all  things;  it  is  of  Christ  dying  and 
interceding  for  our  good  ;  it  is  of  the  love 
that  is  felt  in  heaven  and  is  pointed  down- 
wardly to  earth,  and  not  of  the  love  that 
is  felt  on  earth  and  is  pointed  upwardly 
to  heaven — that  the  argument  is  held : 
And  in  that  part  of  the  context  which  fol- 
lows, it  is  still  of  Him  who  loved  us  that 
he  speaks.  Notwithstanding  however, 
we  shall  find,  I  think,  on  a  narrower  ex- 
amination of  the  whole  passage,  that  our 
love  to  Him  is  embraced  therein,  though 
it  be  His  love  to  us  that  is  more  directly 
and  obviously  expressed  by  it. 

You  will  observe  that  there  is  nothing 
in  all  the  adversities  which  Paul  enuiner- 
ates,  that  would  in  the  first  instance  tend 


to  effect  a  separation  between  Christ's 
love  to  us  and  our  own  persons.  The 
tribulation  and  the  distress  and  the  perse- 
cution and  the  famine  and  the  nakedness 
and  the  peril  and  the  sword,  to  all  of 
which  the  Christians  of  that  day  lay  so 
peculiarly  exposed — there  was  nought  in 
these  that  could  of  themselves  alienate  the 
regard  of  the  Saviour  from  those  who  had 
enlisted  themselves  as  His  followers  and 
friends  ;  but  every  thing,  on  the  contrary, 
to  enhance  the  interest  and  the  tender- 
ness which  He  felt  for  them.  But  though 
they  did  not  effect  such  a  separation,  yet 
they  might  indicate  it.  At  least,  they 
who  were  weak  in  the  faith  might  be  dis- 
couraged into  such  a  conclusion.  They 
might  be  led  to  infer,  that,  as  the  ills  and 
adversities  of  life  were  the  portion  of 
those  who  embraced  the  Saviour,  there 
could  be  little  love  on  His  part  towards 
those  whom  He  had  the  power  to  rescue 
from  these,  but  did  not  choose  to  put  it 
forth.  When  they  saw  that  it  was  for 
His  sake  they  were  so  pursued  even  unto 
the  death,  their  courage  and  their  confi- 
dence might  have  given  way,  and  they 
have  stood  in  doubt  of  there  being  any 
regard  on  Heaven's  part  towards  them. 
Tiie  terrors  and  trials  of  that  distressing 
period  might  have  prevailed  against  them ; 


LECTURE   LXVn. CHAPTER   VIII,    35 — 39. 


341 


ana  they,  trusting  no  longer  to  the  affec- 
tion of  Christ  for  their  persons  or  their 
interests,  might  have  renounced  their  faith 
and  along  with  this  their  affection  for  the 
Saviour. 

Now  St.  Paul  in  the  passage  before  us, 
is  bearing  up  his  own  mind,  and  that  of 
his  converts,  against  the  despondency  of 
this  unbelief.  He,  as  it  were,  is  not  suffer- 
ing himself  to  think,  that  ail  these  dark 
and  lowering  adversities  manifest  either 
the  decay  or  the  dissolution  of  any  love 
for  them  on  the  side  of  their  merciful 
High  Priest.  He  comes,  in  fact,  to  the 
very  opposite  conclusion.  "Nay  in  all 
these  tilings,  we  are  more  than  conquer- 
ors through  him  that  loved  us."  He  looks 
back  to  the  great  fight  of  afflictions  that 
they  had  formerly  been  involved  in.  He 
recalls  the  manifold  escapes,  or,  what  is 
more  characteristic  of  victory,  the  occa- 
sions on  which  they  had  been  armed  with 
intrepidity  for  the  contest,  and  were 
enabled  to  face  all  the  hostilities  and 
hardships  of  the  Christian  profession  and 
to  endure  them.  And  he  connects  the 
inspiration  of  all  that  courage  by  which 
they  had  been  upholden  so  nobly,  with 
Him  from  whom  it  descended.  They  were 
conquerors,  only  through  Him  that  loved 
them.  It  was  He  who  nerved  them  for 
the  conflict.  It  was  He  who  gave  them 
either  wisdom  to  overcome  in  argument, 
or  strength  to  suffer  under  the  inflictions 
of  personal  violence.  It  was  a  moral 
warfare  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and 
in  this  He  enabled  them  to  conquer.  It 
was  a  struggle  between  pain  and  princi- 
ple ;  and  He  so  succoured  and  sustained 
the  latter,  as  that  they  could  bid  defiance 
to  the  fiercest  assaults  of  the  former — 
causing  the  spiritual  to  prevail  over  the 
animal  nature ;  and  between  these  two 
elements,  the  infused  heroism  of  the  new 
man  and  the  creeping  fearfulness  of  the 
old,  enabling  the  grace  to  make  head  in 
this  internal  conflict  against  the  corrup- 
tion and  to  carry  it. 

And  here  it  is  of  great  practical  impor- 
tance to  remark,  that  the  way  in  which 
God  often  manifests  His  protecting  and 
fatherly  care  of  us,  is,  not  by  obtaining 
for  us  the  safety  of  a  flight ;  but,  better 
and  nobler  than  this,  the  triumph  of  a 
victory.  In  plainer  words,  He  may  neither 
withdraw  the  calamity  from  us,  nor  us 
from  the  calamity  ;  but,  leaving  it  to  bear 
with  full  weight  upon  our  spirits,  He 
pours  a  strength  into  our  spirits  which 
enables  them  to  bear  up  under  it.  It  is 
in  this  way  frequently,  that  He  makes 
good  the  promise  of  not  suffering  us  to 
be  tried  beyond  what  we  are  able  to  bear. 
He  does  not  lighten  the  suffering,  but  He 
adds  to  the  strength  ;  and,  as  it  were, 
cradles  us,  by  the  education  of  a  severe 


spiritual  discipline,  into  a  state  of  spirit- 
ual maturity.  After  that  the  apostles  had 
been  threatened  by  the  Jewish  rulers  to 
desist  from  preaching,  they  did  not  pray 
that  no  more  threats  might  be  uttered,  or 
that  the  power  of  executing  their  menaces 
should  be  taken  away.  They  did  not 
pray  for  a  deliverance  from  the  outward 
trial;  but  for  a  supply  of  inward  resolu- 
tion, that  they  might  be  upheld  against  it. 
"  And  now  Lord,  behold  their  threaten- 
ings :  and  grant  unto  thy  servants  that  with 
all  boldness  they  may  speak  thy  word." 
And  so  with  Christians  of  all  ages.  They 
estimate  the  kindness  of  God  towards  them 
by  His  spiritual,  rather  than  by  His  tem- 
poral blessings.  They  count  not  that 
God  has  separated  or  withdrawn  Himself, 
because  His  earthly  comforts  have  aban- 
doned them.  The  most  distressing  sep- 
aration to  them  were  to  be  abandoned  by 
the  aids  of  His  grace.  That  they  fell  into 
suffering,  were  to  them  no  indication  of 
His  faded  or  expiring  regards  for  them  ; 
but,  should  they  fall  into  sin,  this  were 
the  sad  and  sorrowing  evidence  of  an 
angry  or  of  a  withdrawing  God.  When 
He  puts  some  dark  adversity  to  flight, 
this  may  prove  that  He  has  made  them  to 
be  safe.  But  higher  far  when  he  dis- 
charges this  adversity  upon  them,  and 
they  come  out,  of  erect  and  unhurt  spirit, 
from  the  onset  and  the  uproar  of  its  vio- 
lence— this  proves  that  He  maketh  them 
to  conquer,  and  to  be  more  than  conque- 
rors. 

The  great  object  in  fact  with  every  true 
Christian,  is,  not  that  the  life  of  sense 
shall  be  regaled  with  pleasures  or  pro- 
tected from  annoyance ;  but,  above  this 
and  ulterior  to  this,  that  the  life  of  grace 
shall  flourish  and  advance  under  all  the 
varieties  whether  of  sensible  pain  or  sen- 
sible enjoyment.  In  the  prosecution  of 
what  may  be  termed  this  higher  game, 
there  is  at  least  secured  to  him  that  which 
according  to  Lord  Bacon  forms  one  chief 
ingredient  of  human  happiness — even  he- 
roic feelings  or  heroic  desires.  The  man 
you  will  observe  whose  heart  is  thus  set, 
has  a  loftier  aim  than  those  of  an  every- 
day character,  and  he  may  be  said  to  ex- 
patiate in  a  loftier  region.  They  are 
certain  moral  and  spiritual  points  that  he 
tries  to  win ;  and  that,  in  the  face  of  cer- 
tain hurts  or  hazards  to  which  they  are 
exposed — and  in  this  higher  walk  of  profit 
and  loss,  you  will  at  once  sec  how  wholly 
dissimilar  his  engrossments  are  from  those 
who  travail  in  the  ordinary  pursuits  and 
speculations  of  merchandise.  It  is  most 
true  that  he  may  so  travail  and  yet  be  a 
Christian  ;  but  there  is  all  the  distance  in 
the  world  between  him  who  diligently 
labours  after  riches  as  the  ultimate  land- 
ing-place on  which  his  heart  does  termi-' 


342 


LECTURE  LXVII. — CHAPTER  VUI,  35—^39. 


nate,  and  him  who  while  not  slothful  in 
business  yet  fervent  in  spirit  labours  to 
keep  that  heart  with  all  diligence.  They 
look  wholly  dilTerent  ways ;  and  must  be 
variously  affected  by  the  same  events, 
according  to  what  that  is  which  mainly 
occupies  them.  Now  a  man  is  never  over- 
set, never  plunges  into  helpless  and  irre- 
coverable despair,  but  on  the  giving  way 
of  that  which  he  holds  to  be  his  main  in- 
terest ;  and  hence  you  will  perceive,  that 
the  same  visitation  of  calamity  which 
should  make  one  man  feel  that  he  is  un- 
done, might  give  to  another  a  sense  of 
noblest  independence — in  that  he  has  met 
the  poverty  or  the  pain  with  a  spirit  un- 
hurt, if  not  bettered  by  the  collision  ;  and 
that,  in  the  triumph  of  a  faith  which  looks 
onward  and  ahead  of  all  that  is  visible, 
he  can  rise  superior  to  the  disaster  and 
trample  it  beneath  him. 

V.  38,  39.  Before  taking  our  conclusive 
leave  of  this  subject,  I  should  like  to  un- 
fold if  I  could,  how  it  is  that  our  love  to 
God  and  God's  love  to  us  act  and  react 
the  one  upon  the  other.  There  is  an  am- 
biguity in  the  general  expression — the 
love  of  God — that  causes  it  to  be  signifi- 
cant of  either  of  these  two  affections ; 
and  we  do  think,  that  in  order  to  arrive 
at  the  full  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  pas- 
sage which  is  before  us,  reference  must 
be  made  to  both  of  them. 

For,  in  the  first  place,  our  persuasion 
of  God's  love  to  us,  is  of  all  other  things 
the  most  fitted  to  keep  alive  within  us  our 
love  to  God.  It  is  just  in  fact  the  spiritual 
process  of  faith  working  by  love.  We 
belivc  in  the  love  that  God  has  to  us,  and 
we  love  Him  back  again.  It  is  His  good- 
will to  us  acting  upon  our  gratitude  to 
Him — a  good-will  however  which  must 
be  perceived  and  trusted  in,  ere  the  res- 
ponding emotion  is  awakened  in  our 
hearts.  Apart  from  the  view  of  Christ, 
and  apart  from  the  conviction  of  God's 
good-will  to  us  in  Christ,  we  could  not 
possibly  love  Him.  The  heart  would  be 
preoccupied  with  another  affection,  which 
should  keep  love  from  entering  ;  for  if  it 
be  true  that  love  casts  out  fear,  it  is  just 
as  true  that  fear  keepeth  out  love.  Now 
while  the  view  of  God  in  Christ  awakens 
love,  the  view  of  God  out  of  Christ  awak- 
ens terror.  We  then  see  Him  as  a  law- 
giver armed  to  destroy  us — a  God  of  sa- 
credness  whose  hostility  against  sin  is 
unappeased  and  unappeasable — a  judge 
sitting  in  the  high  state  of  His  affronted 
dignity,  and  roused  by  the  jealousies  of 
His  holy  nature  to  an  act  of  Vengeance  on 
the  creatures  who  had  renounced  His  au- 
thority, and  cast  despite  and  defiance  upon 
His  throne.  It  is  thus  that  the  thought  of 
God  stirs  up  images  of  dread  and  distur- 
bance in  the  bosom,  amid  which  the  love 


of  God  most  assuredly  cannot  dwell ;  and 
it  is  not  till  this  dark  imagery  gives  place 
to  another  view  and  another  aspect  of  the 
Divinity — it  is  not  till  the  Mediator  steps 
between,  and  we  see  that  economy  of  wis- 
dom and  grace  by  which  the  Law  has 
been  disarmed  yet  the  Lawgiver  has  been 
pacified — it  is  not  till  we  behold  Him  as 
God  in  Christ,  through  whom  truth  and 
mercy  have  met  together,  and  good-will 
to  men  has  been  made  most  firmly  and 
harmoniously  to  unite  with  glory  to  God 
in  the  highest — It  is  then,  and  not  till  then, 
that  the  great  moral  revolution  is  brought 
about  in  the  sinner's  heart,  of  a  love  for 
that  Being  whom  he  before  stood  afraid 
of;  and  kindest  regard  for  that  awful  but 
now  amiable  Deity,  who,  in  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  stands  forth  in  all  the  graces 
of  His  manifested  kindness  towards  a 
guilty  world.  Let  but  this  persuasion  find 
entrance  into  the  bosom ;  and  it  will  clear 
away  the  distrust  and  the  alienation,  and 
I  will  add  the  hatred,  that  had  before  the 
possession  and  the  mastery  therein.  It  is 
the  exprest  persuasion  of  the  apostle  in 
our  text.  He  believed  the  love  of  God  in 
Christ  towards  him ;  and,  retaining  this 
belief  in  the  midst  of  disasters  and  of 
trials  which  would  have  shaken  the  con- 
fidence of  other  men — just  as  he  kept  by 
the  persuasion  that  these  dark  and  lower- 
ing appearances  did  not  indicate  any 
separation  of  God's  love  from  him,  so 
neither  did  they  eifectuate  any  separation 
of  his  love  from  God. 

It  was  the  strength  of  his  persuasion  in 
God's  love  to  him,  that  so  settled  and  se- 
cured his  love  to  God.  It  was  because  his 
persuasion  in  the  love  of  God  did  not 
give  way,  that  his  love  to  God  did  not 
give  way.  It  was  a  persuasion  brought 
to  the  trial  and  that  stood  its  ground 
against  it — and  just  by  the  very  force  of 
that  sentiment  which  made  Job  say,  that 
though  he  slay  me  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him, 
There  was  a  storm  that  might  well  have 
made  his  confidence  to  falter.  There 
wei-e,  in  those  days,  a  desertion  and  a 
dreariness  in  the  profession  of  the  gospel, 
by  which  God  meant  to  discipline  the 
spirit  of  its  converts  ;  but  which  by  the 
eye  of  sense  might  well  have  been  inter- 
preted into  the  manifestation  of  His  dis- 
pleasure. And  it  was  because  faith  pre- 
vailed over  sense-r-it  was  because  the 
persuasion  of  God's  love  to  him  availed 
the  heart  of  Paul,  like  an  anchor  of  hope 
that  kept  him  attached  and  steady  amid 
the  contlicts  and  fiercest  agitations  of  this 
world's  violence — it  was  because,  like 
Abraham  of  old,  he  staggered  not  out  of 
his  belief,  for  all  that  seemed  menacing 
in  the  persecutions  and  cruel  sufferings 
of  that  tempestuous  age — it  was  because, 
notwithstanding  of  these,  he  still  held  by 


LECTURE   LX\1I. CHATTER    VIII,    35 39- 


343 


the;  confidence  that  God's  love  was  not 
separated  from  him — that  neither  was  his 
love  separated  from  God. 

There  was  nothing,!  have  already  said, 
in  all  these  adversities,  that  could  etTect 
the  separation  of  God's  love  from  Paul 
and  his  disciples.  The  very  most  which 
they  could  do,  would  be  to  indicate  or  to 
make  them  fancy  such  a  separation — af- 
ter which,  and  when  driven  from  their 
trust,  they  would  lose  their  hold  of  the 
very  principle  by  which  their  love  was 
alimented ;  and  thus  although  there  was 
nought  in  this  world's  fortunes  which 
could  have  any  immediate  effect  in  sepa- 
rating God's  love  from  them,  they  might 
be  of  powerful  effect  in  separating  their 
love  from  God.  It  is  not  to  be  imagined 
indeed,  that  the  creature  can  have  such 
influential  operation  on  the  mind  of  the 
Creator,  as  to  detach  His  affections  from 
those  to  whom  they  had  been  given  ;  but 
it  may  have  influence  enough  upon  their 
mind  to  detach  their  affections  from  Him 
— after  which,  no  doubt,  He  ceases  His 
regards  from  those  who  have  thus  cast 
Him  off.  Their  prayers  for  aid  in  the 
hour  of  t^nptation  lose  all  efficacy,  be- 
cause no  longer  raised  with  the  faith  of 
those  who  utter  them.  The  love  of  God 
in  Christ  will  never  fail  those  who  keep  a 
firm  and  confiding  hold  of  it.  But  they 
let  go  their  hold,  and  so  fall  away  ;  and 
thus,  not  because  of  the  power  which  this 
world's  fortunes  have  over  the  mind  of 
God,  but  because  of  the  power  which 
they  have  over  the  minds  of  men,  there 
may  come  to  be  between  .hese  two  parties 
a  complete  and  conclusi\e  separation. 

It  is  on  these  considerations,  that  we 
deem  it  the  best  practical  way  of  closing 
our  lengthened  elucidations  upon  this 
passage,  shortly  to  urge  upon  you  the 
tendency  which  there  is  in  the  world  and 
its  fluctuations  to  separate  you  from  God  ; 
and  how,  making  head  against  this  ten- 
dency, you  should  retain  the  love  of  Him 
in  your  hearts,  and  so  retain  His  love  to- 
wards you,  under  all  the  varieties  whe- 
ther prosperous  or  adverse  of  this  present 
scene.  ^ 

For 'you  will  observe,  that,  in  Paul's 
enumeration  of  those  influences  which  ho 
stood  determined  to  resist,  but  which  cer- 
tainly exposed  to  hazard  the  steadfastness 
of  his  love  to  God,  there  is  room  allowed, 
not  for  the  assaults  of  adversity  alone, 
but  for  the  wiles  and  the  blandishments  of 
pre  sperity.  He  says  that  neither  life  nor 
denth  should  separate  him  from  the  love 
of  God — that  neither  things  present  nor 
things  to  come  should  do  it — that  no  crea- 
ture of  any  kind  whatever  should  do  it — 
All  giving  reason  to  believe  that  he  hnd 
in  his  eye,  what  was  agreeable  to  the  life 
of  sense  and  which  might  seduce  our  love 


from  God,  as  well  as  what  was  painful  or 
terrifying  and  which  might  cause  that 
love  to  perish  in  a  storm  of  calamity. 
And  vv^hat  we  now  propose  is,  to  attend  a 
little  to  each  of  these  distinct  influences, 
that  you  may  beware  alike  of  both,  and 
suffer  neither  the  joys  nor  the  griefs  of 
your  earthly  pilgrimage  to  separate  you 
from  God. 

First  then  as  to  the  effect  of  that  which 
regales  and  satisfies  the  life  of  sense,  in 
withdrawing  our  hearts  from  their  love  to 
God.  There  is  nothing,  we  admit,  in  it, 
that  should  induce  the  suspicion  of  God's 
unkindness  or  hostility  against  us — or 
that  should  make  us  cease  to  be  persuad- 
ed of  God's  love  to  us,  and  so  to  uphold 
the  love  of  our  gratitude  to  Him  back 
again.  We  may  continue  to  believe  as 
before  ;  and,  in  as  far  as  faith  worketh 
by  lave,  it  may  be  thought  that  there 
is  every  security  we  shall  love  as  be- 
fore. But  in  regard  to  the  operation  of 
faith  upon  the  character,  there  is  a  most 
important  principle  laid  down  by  the 
apostle  in  one  of  his  epistles  to  the  Corin- 
thians. He  there  speaks  of  our  believing 
in  vain,  unless  we  keep  the  truth  so  be- 
lieved in  our  memory.  The  use  of  our 
faith  in  any  truth,  is  that  we  may  ever  be 
recurring  in  thought  and  remembrance  to 
that  truth,  for  the  purpose  of  our  ever 
and  anon  keeping  its  appropriate  moral 
influence  close  upon  the  heart.  Without 
this,  it  would  appear,  that  the  faith  is  of 
no  use  to  us.  There  are  a  thousand  things 
which  we  at  one  time  believed,  and  which 
we  would  believe  again  were  they  called 
up  to  the  remembrance,  but  which  now 
lie  as  forgotten  things  in  the  mind's 
dormitory.  Our  faith  in  them  is  of  no 
further  use.  There  are  many  events, 
through  the  years  that  have  gone  by,  of 
private  and  personal  history,  which  we 
believed  at  the  time  on  the  testimony  of 
others — many  of  which  we  have  read,  and 
read  with  conviction,  in  books  of  public 
and  political  information — many  proposi- 
tions of  science  so  demonstrated  as  to  car- 
ry our  firm  assent  to  their  truth,  and  all 
of  which  have  now  faded  and  escaped 
from  the  memoiy  for  evei*.  We  once  be- 
lieved in  them,  and  were  they  recalled 
into  the  mind's  presence,  we  should  be- 
lieve in  them  again.  But  ceasing  to  be 
thought  of,  all  their  practical  influence 
has  ceased  also ;  and  the  very  same  holds 
and  is  indeed  expressly  affirmed  by  the 
apostle,  of  the  truths  of  Christianity.  It 
is  of  no  use  that  on  some  one  day  they 
have  been  acquiesced  in — if  day  after 
day  they  are  not  adverted  to.  Even  the 
death  of  Christ  it  would  appear  loses  its 
efficacy  for  salvation,  if  it  have  not  been 
kept  in  remembrance.  And  even  though 
we  should  have  once  believed  the  love 


844 


LECTURE  LXVII. CHAPTER  VIU,  35 39. 


which  God  has  to  us — this,  if  not  dwelt 
upon  in  thought  and  cherished  as  our 
habitual  recollection,  is  of  no  effect  to 
perpetuate  or  keep  alive  our  love  to  Him 
Hack  again. 

You  will  hence  understand  the  hazard 
to  which  this  affection  is  exposed  from 
prosperity.  It  does  not  make  us  cease  to 
believe  that  God  has  a  yet  unseparated 
love  to  us;  but  it  makes  us  cease  to  think 
of  it.  We  are  satisfied  with  things  pre- 
sent, and  we  look  no  farther.  Or  we 
dwell  on  the  bright  and  golden  hopes  of 
the  things  that  are  to  come,  and  the  mind 
so  occupied  ceases  to  have  God  in  its  ha- 
bitual contemplation.  It  is  thus  that  both 
things  present  and  things  to  come,  neither 
of  which  the  apostle  was  determined 
should  separate  his  love  from  God,  do  in 
point  of  fact  separate  and  withdraw  the 
affections  of  many  from  Him,  who  is  the 
fountain  of  all  that  they  have  arid  all 
that  they  hope  for.  The  mind  is  otherwise 
engaged  than  with  the  thought  of  Him. 
The  heart  is  otherwise  engaged  than  with 
the  love  of  Him.  It  is  taken  up  with  sen- 
sible things,  and  forgets  the  unseen  God 
on  whom  they  all  are  suspended.  The 
apostle,  by  way  of  contrasting  two  habits 
of  the  soul  which  are  opposite  and  incom- 
patible, says  of  one  set  of  men  that  their 
conversation  is  in  heaven,  and  that  thence 
they  look  for  the  Saviour  ;  and  of  another 
set  of  men,  that  they  mind  earthly  things. 
Now  the  effect  of  our  prosperity  is  to  en- 
gross the  mind  with  earthly  things  ;  and 
to  withdraw  its  conversation  and  its  look- 
ings  from  Heaven,  and  from  all  the  bene- 
volence which  is  there.  We  cease  to  love 
the  God  whom  we  have  forgotten.  He  is 
out  of  mind,  and  so  out  of  heart.  He  is 
dispossessed  as  an  object  of  thought,  and 
so  is  dispossessed  as  an  object  of  affection. 
What  is  not  present  to  our  view,  is  not  of 
power  to  stir  up  our  emotions  ;  and,  not 
because  prosperity  has  shaken  us  out  of 
any  belief  that  we  ever  had  in  God's  love 
to  us,  but  because  it  hath  stolen  us  away 
from  the  thought  of  it,  therefore  our  love 
to  Him  waxeth  cold. 

This  effect  of  prosperity  in  making  us 
forget  God  and  His  love,  by  fastening  our 
regards  upon  other  objects,  is  palpably 
evinced  by  the  state  and  tendencies  of 
almost  every  heart  throughout  the  winged 
hours  of  a  free  and  festive  holiday — when 
we  give  ourselves  wholly  up  to  the  fasci- 
nation of  things  present ;  and,  amid  the 
glee  and  bustle  and  vivacity  of  our  suc- 
cessive enjoyments,  not  the  futurities  alone 
of  an  eternal  world,  but  even  all  the  futu- 
rities of  our  earthly  pilgrimage  are  for- 
gotten. We  just  ask  you  to  compute  how 
much  or  how  little  of  God  there  is  in  the 
bosom  that  is  thus  animated — whether  it 
is  not  in  reality  true,  that  the  exhilara- 


tions of  such  a  day  banish  all  thought  of 
Him  ;  and  though  the  lake  or  the  land- 
scape on  which  you  make  deligh'ed  ex- 
cursion be  of  His  workmanship ;  and 
the  happy  faces  by  which  you  are  sur- 
rounded be  lighted  up  by  a  life  and  a 
spirit  that  He  has  breathed  into  every 
moving  creature  ;  and  all  the  luxuries  by 
which  your  various  senses  are  regaled  to 
the  uttermost  have  been  scattered  from 
the  hand  of  Him,  who  hath  opened  it 
wide,  and  poured  them  liberally  forth  on 
the  face  of  a  world,  which  He  hath  most 
bountifully  stocked  and  most  beauteously 
adorned — Yet  we  ask  you,  on  your  own 
recollection  of  the  joyous  party  and  all 
that  gladdened  them  in  the  shape  of  na- 
ture's brilliancy  without,  or  the  music 
and  the  dance  and  the  plenteous  hospi- 
tality and  the  costly  decorations  and  the 
ring  of  merry  companionship  within — we 
would  just  ask,  if,  amid  the  turmoil  of  all 
these  bright  and  busy  im-.ges  which  are 
then  made  to  occupy  the  heart,  there  has. 
been  room  during  one  r  nort  minute  of 
the  whole  protracted  grfitification  for  the 
thought  of  God  as  your  reconciled  Father, 
of  God  as  the  friend  to  wliom  all  the  glory 
and  the  gratitude  should  arise  1  Now  the 
life  of  a  prosperous  man  is  one  length- 
ened holiday.  His  busiiess  is  the  game, 
and  the  successful  game  at  which  he 
plays.  His  rapidly  succeeding  centages 
are  the  stakes  that  have  been  won  by 
him,  and  which  lead  him  onward  to  bold- 
er adventures  than  before.  His  bills  and_ 
his  bargains  and  his  law-suits,  are  the 
moves  and  the  checks  wherewith  he  car- 
ries the  enterprise  to  a  fortunate  termina- 
tion. In  launching  a  speculation,  there 
are  felt  by  him  the  sport  and  the  high- 
blown spirit  of  the  race,  and,  in  its  run 
and  prosperous  return  laden  with  spoils 
and  with  profits,  there  is  felt  by  him  all 
the  exultation  of  victory.  Between  the 
gains  of  the  counting  house  and  the 
hours  of  evening  enjoyment  with  his  fam- 
ily— between  the  calls  of  his  urgent  busi- 
ness and  the  delights  of  his  summer 
recreation — between  the  season  at  which. 
he  hardly  and  heartily  labours,  and  the 
season  at  which  he  relaxes  amid  th& beau- 
ties of  his  magnificent  retreat  and  the 
blandishments  of  expensive  luxury — We 
see  nought  in  the  life  of  a  thriving  citizen, 
but  that  still  its  reigning  character  is  that 
of  a  busy  and  protracted  holiday — a  life 
taken  up  to  the  full  with  the  interest  and 
the  urgency  of  present  things — where 
that  which  is  seen  dispossesses  the  heart 
of  all  regard  to  that  which  is  unseen — 
where  in  the  hurry  and  the  splen  lour 
and  the  successive  evolutions  of  one  thing 
to  delight  and  occupy  the  heart  after 
another,  the  thoughts  of  God  and  of  His 
love  are  kept  at  a  wide  and  habitual  dis- 


LECTURE   LXVII. CHAPTER   VIII,    35 39. 


345 


tance  from  the  bosom  ;  and,  without  once 
caring  whether  the  love  of  God  be  sepa- 
rated from  you,  you  have  abandoned  your 
feelings  to  the  force  and  ascendancy  of 
things  present,  and  so  separated  your- 
selves from  all  love  to  God. 

And  in  such  a  life  there  are  not  only 
things  present,  but  things  to  come,  that 
withdraw  our  hearts  from  the  love  of  God. 
Man  lives  in  futurity.  The  desire  which 
stretches  forth  to  a  distant  good  has  far 
greater  mastery  over  the  heart,  than  the 
delight  wherewith  it  regales  itself  in  the 
good  which  is  actually  realised.  The 
charm  of  a  coming  prosperity,  has  more 
power  to  fascinate  and  detain  the  heart 
from  every  other  object,  than  even  all  the 
joys  of  our  existing  prosperity.  The 
mind  is  still  more  engrossed  with  the 
prospects  of  a  speculation  that  is  still 
afloat,  than  with  the  actual  proceeds  of  a 
speculation  that  is  now  terminated.  And 
it  is  this  I  imagine,  which  must  constitute 
the  main  hazard  to  your  souls,  of  that 
walk  on  which  many  who  now  hear  me 
are  to  be  found — hasting  perhaps  with 
too  much  eagerness  after  the  wealth  that 
perisheth — giving,  it  may  be,  every  aflec- 
tion  and  energy  within  you  to  some  fan- 
cied sufficiency  thai  you  have  not  yet 
attained,  and  the  possession  of  which  you 
hold  to  be  enough  for  happiness — fasten- 
ing all  your  thoughts  and  regards  on  this 
object  which  is  placed  below,  and  so 
of  necessary  consequence  shifting  them 
away  from  every  object  that  is  above — 
occupying  the  mind  with  that  which  is 
earthly,  and  in  that  very  proportion  with- 
drawing the  mind  from  that  which  is 
heavenly.  We  do  not  suppose  that  you 
have  admitted  a  wrong  belief  all  the 
while  into  your  understanding.  If  you 
once  gave  credit  to  God's  testimony  of 
His  love  to  you  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  like- 
lihood is  that  on  the  question  being  put, 
you  will  profess  the  same  credit  still. 

You  are  not  sensible  of  any  such  revo- 
lution in  your  opinions  on  this  subject,  as 
should  either  change  or  in  any  way  im- 
pair the  orthodoxy  of  your  creed.  The 
thing  is  credited  as  before,  but  it  is  not 
attended  to  as  before.  When  the  mind 
does  come  into  contact  with  the  doctrine, 
it  just  entertains  it  as  it  wont,  and  judges 
of  it  as  it  wont ;  but  then  it  is  not  so  ha- 
bitually in  contact  with  it  as  it  wont. 
We  do  not  complain  that  now  you  think 
of  it  erroneously,  but  we  complain  that 
now  you  seldom  or  never  think  of  it  at 
all.  The  love  to  you  of  God  in  Christ  is 
seldom  present  to  the  eye  of  the  mind, 
because  the  eye  is  elsewhere  directed  ; 
and  so  it  is  that  your  love  back  again 
waxes  cold.  When  the  good-will  ceases 
to  be  seen — the  gratitude  ceases  to  be  felt. 
The  object  is  not  kept  in  the  memory, 
44 


and  so  the  aftection  which  that  object  is 
fitted  to  awaken  is  not  kept  in  the  heart. 
When  the  one  disappears  the  other  dies 
away  ;  and  it  is  this  which  explains  the 
decline  and  at  length  the  utter  extinction 
of  Christianity  with  many,  whose  notions 
were  all  evangelical  and  even  continue  to 
be  so — but  whose  zeal,  fervent  and  de- 
clared as  it  may  at  one  lime  have  been,  is 
now  scarcely  ever  felt,  just  because  the 
things  which  awaken  zeal  are  now  scarce- 
ly ever  thought  of  The  man  does  not 
understand  the  things  differently  from  be- 
fore, but  he  does  not  look  to  it  so  fre- 
quently as  before.  He  is  otherwise  taken 
up.  The  engagements  of  business  have 
gotten  the  entire  hold  of  him.  The  mul- 
titude of  his  prospects  and  affairs  and 
brooding  speculations  wields  an  entire 
and  absolute  mastery  over  his  spirit.  He 
lives  under  the  power  of  things  that  are 
to  come,  but  they  are  not  the  things  of 
faith  and  eternity.  They  are  altogether 
the  things  of  a  perishable  world — the 
coming  profits  of  some  goodly  adventure 
— the  coming  result  of  some  keen  and 
busy  negociation — the  coming  market^ 
whose  sales  might  elevate  his  fortune  to 
to  that  of  the  most  affluent  and  honour- 
able among  the  citizens.  In  the  turmoil 
of  such  engrossments  as  these,  the  man 
has  never  changed  his  creed — he  has  had 
no  lime  for  it.  He  is  every  way  as  sound 
and  evangelical  as  ever — and  if  one  time 
the  professor  of  a  strict  and  serious  ortho- 
doxy, may  still  have  a  name  to  live,  while 
in  spirit  and  in  reality  he  is  altogether 
dead.  And  thus  we  have  not  to  go  back 
to  the  apostle's  days — that  we  may  wit- 
ness the  power  either  of  present  or  future 
things  to  separate  the  heart  from  the  love 
of  God.  We  see  the  vivid  exemplifica- 
tion of  it  around  us ;  and  as  much  we 
fear  on  the  walks  of  peaceful  and  pros- 
perous merchandise,  as  in  any  bygone 
age  of  persecuting  violence — as  much  in 
the  seduction  of  this  world's  good,  as  in 
the  terrors  of  this  world's  dark  and  me- 
nacing adversity. 

But  we  mistake  the  matter,  if  we  think 
that  sensible  things  derive  their  power  to 
alienate  the  heart  from  God,  only  from  the 
deceit  and  the  blandishment  which  lie  in 
prosperity.  It  should  never  be  forgotten, 
that  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  we 
can  be  made  to  love  God  than  by  our 
looking  to  His  love  for  us — no  other  way 
by  which  we  can  keep  ourselves  loving 
Him  habitually,  than  by  our  looking  at 
Him  habitually.  Whatever  then  with- 
draws the  eye  of  our  mind  from  Him,  will 
withdraw  the  regards  of  our  heart  from 
Ilim  ;  and  we  just  ask  you  to  think,  whe- 
ther the  things  that  distress  or  terrify  the 
spirit,  have  not  to  the  full  as  great  a  mas- 
tery over  the  attention,  as  the  things  that 


LECTTTRE   LXVII. CHAPTER    VIII,    35 39. 


346 


satisfy  and  regale  it.  Have  not  grief  for 
some  actual  adversity,  and  fearful  an.viety 
for  a  coming  one,  have  not  these  as  great 
a  power  of  engrossment  as  either  the  pre- 
sent delight  or  the  bright  and  joyful  anti- 
cipations of  prosperity  ]  They  affect  the 
mind  differently  it  is  true  ;  but  each  may 
in  its  turn  take  up  the  mind  wholly  and 
exclusively,  and  so  be  alike  mischievous 
in  keeping  the  thoughts  at  a  distance  from 
God.  And  it  argues  an  enlightened  dis- 
cernment by  Scripture  of  the  human  spi- 
rit and  all  its  mysteries,  that,  while  it  pro- 
nounces of  this  world's  riches  how  they 
beset  the  entrance  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  it  also  affirms  that  there  is  a  sor- 
row of  this  world  which  worketh  death  ; 
and  you  do  well  to  notice  that  in  the  pa- 
rable of  the  sower,  where  the  heart  of  an 
engrossed  and  overcrowded  man  is  com- 
pared to  the  ground  that  is  overrun  with 
thorns,  and  on  which  the  vegetation  of  the 
good  seed  is  stifled  and  destroyed — you 
do  well  to  notice,  that  they  are  not  merely 
the  riches  and  the  pleasures,  but  also  the 
cares  of  this  life,  which  choke  and  hinder 
from  ever  coming  to  maturity  the  good 
seed  of  the  word  of  God. 

Such  then  being  the  effect  of  crosses 
and  adversities  on  your  spiritual  condi- 
tion— is  it  the  safe  plan  for  you  as  Chris- 
tians to  lengthen  out  or  to  contract  the 
line  of  your  exposure  to  them  1  Ought 
you  not  to  pause  ere  you  comply  with  the 
invitations  for  some  new  enterprise,  that 
shall  bring  along  with  it  a  train  of  hazards 
and  anxieties  and  fearful  misgivings,  ere 
the  termination  be  arrived  at;  and  per- 
haps after  all  a  termination  of  defeat  and 
disaster  that  may  utterly  overwhelm  you  1 
We  know  little  of  the  details  of  your  mer- 
chandise ;  but  we  know  enough  to  affirm, 
in  the  general,  that,  if  your  means  be  li- 
mited, the  field  of  your  operations  ought 
proportionally  to  be  moderate  and  ma- 
nageable— that  what  is  true  in  the  busi- 
ness of  other  things  is  also  true  in  the 
business  of  trade,  you  ought  not  to  med- 
dle with  matters  too  high  for  you — that 
every  risk  which  you  cannot  meet  with 
your  own  property,  and  every  daring  ad- 
venture by  which  that  of  others  is  brought 
to  hazard,  should  be  avoided  as  unlawful. 
This  much  we  know  ;  and  that  neverthe- 
less there  is  an  insidious  temptation  that 
is  perpetually  operating,  and  by  which 
the  ambitious  and  the  unwary  are  led  into 
a  higher  game  than  they  are  adequate  to 
all  the  chances  of — that  oft  there  is  a 
floating  vision  which  dances  before  their 
eyes  in  the  shape  of  some  goodly  or  gain- 
ful speculation,  and  by  which  they  suffer 
themselves  to  be  lured  into  a  sea  of  trou- 
bles— that  thus  their  cares  and  their  con- 
cerns are  greatly  multiplied;  and  the 
ground  on  which  they  stand,  now  become 


more  precarious  than  before,  is  felt  as  if 
it  tottered  under  them  ;  and  in  expedients 
for  putting  off  the  evil  day,  and  shifts  for 
temporary  credit,  and  devices  and  dis- 
guises innumerable,  they  flounder  from 
one  difficulty  to  another — with  a  heart 
wholly  oppressed  and  overcharged.  Even 
had  fortune  smiled  on  their  aerial  voyage, 
there  would,  as  we  have  already  endea- 
voured to  show,  have  been,  in  the  pros- 
perity that  crowned  it,  an  influence  to 
war  against  their  souls.  But  in  the  cala- 
mity which  crosses  it,  there  may  lie  a 
tenfold  hostility ;  and  when  we  look  to 
the  sadly  beset  and  bewildered  man,  as 
he  writhes  in  secret  under  the  necessities 
that  encompass,  or  ruminates  on  the  sad 
explosion  of  disgrace  that  is  before  him — 
when  we  think  of  the  way  in  which  his 
heart  is  occupied,  and  that  positively  there 
is  not  room  in  it  for  any  thoughts  of  God 
— when  we  consider  thought  as  the  ali- 
ment of  affection,  and  that  we  can  only 
love  our  Maker  in  as  far  as  we  have  time 
and  space  for  the  leisurely  and  undisturb- 
ed contemplation  of  His  love  to  us — when 
we  compute  the  manifold  distractions  of 
such  a  misguided  individual,  and  the  con- 
stant weight  or  agitation  that  lie  upon  his 
spirits — Then  we  can  no  longer  wonder, 
that,  in  reference  to  the  things  of  faith 
and  of  an  eternal  world,  his  soul  should 
have  been  utterly  dispossessed  as  if  by 
the  violence  of  fierce  invaders — that  other 
thoughts  and  other  feelings  should  wholly 
monopolize  him  ;  and  that,  with  an  outset 
perhaps  of  seemly  professorship,  he  should 
at  length,  because  pierced  through  with 
many  sorrows,  have  separated  between 
himself  and  all  sacredness,  and  become 
an  alien  and  an  apostate  from  his  God. 

There  is  danger  to  your  soul  from  the 
abundance  of  this  world's  cares,  as  well 
as  from  the  abundance  of  this  world's 
comforts ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  you 
should  avoid  all  wanton  or  unnecessary 
exposure  to  the  former,  even  as  you  ought 
to  be  vigilant  and  sedate  and  sober  mind- 
ed amid  the  blandishments  of  the  latter. 
That  there  is  a  power  in  earthly  sadness, 
as  well  as  in  earthly  joy,  to  dispossess 
the  heart  of  its  love  for  God,  may  be  ex- 
emplified by  what  we  sometimes  see  in  a 
case  of  forlorn  widowhood.  It  has  occur- 
red that  the  sufferer  under  such  a  be- 
reavement has  been  irrecoverably  woe- 
struck,  and  so  abandoned  herself  to  help- 
less and  hopeless  melancholy — wholly 
unable  to  lift  her  spirits  up  from  their 
dejection,  and,  with  a  determination  some- 
what like  impracticable  sullenness  utterly 
refusing  to  be  comforted.  That  under  a 
grief  so  immeasurable  and  absorbing 
there  are  very  many  things  wl^ich  now 
cease  to  interest  her,  is  not  marvellous ; 
but  what  most  indicates  the  dispossessing 


LECTURE    LXVII. CHAPTER   VIII,    35 — 39. 


347 


power  of  this  affection,  is  that  now  she 
should  cease  to  love  her  own  children — 
that  even  to  those  whom  nature  had  so 
powerfully  endeared  to  her,  her  heart  has 
become  cold  and  alienated  ;  and,  immov- 
ably fixed  as  it  is  on  the  departed  object 
of  her  tenderness,  all  its  affinities  with 
present  objects  have  been  broken.  This 
is  rare  we  admit ;  but  it  proves  what  a 
force  of  separation  there  is  in  grief,  if, 
even  once  or  at  any  time,  the  strong  pa- 
rental attachment  has  been  thereby  dis- 
severed :  And  much  more  does  it  prove 
how  possible  it  is,  that  an  affection  at  all 
times  so  slender  as  that  of  love  to  the  un- 
seen Deity,  should  give  way  under  the 
power  of  a  similar  visitation — how  in 
grief  for  the  loss  of  fortune,  there  might 
be  a  force  at  least  equivalent  to  that  of  se- 
parating us  from  the  love  of  God — how 
that  which  though  rarely  is  the  cause  of 
a  literal  suicide  inflicted  upon  the  person, 
may  frequently  be  the  cause  of  a  moral 
and  spiritual  suicide  inflicted  upon  the 
soul ;  and  so,  by  hasting  to  be  rich,  have 
many  fallen  into  temptation  and  a  snare 
and  erred  from  the  faith;  and,  just  be- 
cause they  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows,  have  they  also  drown- 
ed themselves  in  destruction  and  perdi- 
tion. 

If  then  there  be  danger  to  the  soul,  both 
from  success  in  business  and  from  its 
crosses  and  misfortunes — what,  it  may  be 
asked,  should  they  who  are  immersed  in 
the  prosecution  of  it  do  1  Not  withdraw 
from  their  callings  certainly  ;  but  so  regu- 
late and  restrain  and  rectify,  as  that  their 
callings  shall  not  withdraw  them  from  the 
love  of  God.  There  must  be  a  way  of 
being  not  slothful  in  business,  and  yet  of 
being  fervent  in  spirit ;  and,  lest  we 
should  be  charged  for  having  dealt  in  this 
important  question  with  generalities  alone 
let  me  conclude  with  one  plain  and  prac- 
tical direction  to  you.  The  thing  which 
separates  your  love  from  Christ,  is,  that, 
with  so  much  of  the  earthly  to  think  of, 
you  think  but  little  and  perhaps  never  of 
His  love  to  you.  What  I  hold  to  be  in- 
dispensable for  the  preservation  within 
you  of  spiritual  life,  is  that  you  clear  out 
for  yourselves  a  season,  and  that  too  a 
frequently  recurring  season,  of  contem- 
plation and  prayer.  In  the  constant  ap- 
pliance of  sensible  objects  and  sensible 
interests  to  your  heart,  all  the  grace  that 
is  in  it  must  wither  and  decay  ;  and,  un- 
less you  take  up  the  sentiment  of  the 
apostle,  and  desire  with  him,  that  neither 
things  present  nor  things  to  come,  neither 
the  pride  and  prosperity  of  life  nor  the 
death  of  all  our  worldly  hopes,  nor  any 
creature  whatever  shall  have  power  to 
separate  you  from  the  love  of  Christ — 
,your  religion  may  perish  amid  the  many 


urgencies  by  which  you  are  surrounded. 
What  I  hold  to  be  your  peculiar  necessity 
is,  that  you  so  arrange  as  frequently  to 
escape  from  these  urgencies.  It  were  well 
that  you  had  many  a  breathing-time,  and 
for  this  purpose  it  is  not  enough  that  your 
Sabbaths  be  hallowed  to  the  exercises  and 
the  studies  of  sacredness — you  should 
have  many  a  hallowed  moment  through 
the  week — you  should  have  a  morning 
and  an  evening  sacrifice — you  should 
train  your  spirit  to  the  work  of  oft  retir- 
ing within  itself,  and  oft  raising  up  its  fa- 
culties that  it  may  lay  hold  of  God.  Even 
in  the  heat  and  bustle  of  the  day  there 
might  be  room  for  the  occasional  aspira- 
tion ;  and  though  nojght  more  disparag- 
ing to  Christianity  than  to  fancy  it  a  reli- 
gion of  days  and  forms  and  stated  punc- 
tualities, yet,  beset  and  occupied  as  many 
of  you  are,  I  hold  that  the  highest  princi- 
ple, as  well  as  the  highest  prudence,  is 
involved  in  your  set  and  regular  observa- 
tions of  sacredness.  The  soul  might  else 
move  adrift  among  the  countless  influen- 
ces that  are  ever  and  anon  bearing  upon 
it ;  and  such  is  the  actual  opposition  be- 
tween all  the  things  which  are  in  the 
world  and  the  love  of  the  Father,  that  the 
drift  is  away  from  God.  To  recover  those 
thoughts  of  God  and  Christ  which  the 
world  would  dissipate — along  with  the 
stray  thoughts  to  recall  the  stray  affec- 
tions, and  so  maintain  and  constantly  re- 
new a  fellowship  of  heart  with  the  Father 
and  the  Son — to  light  again  and  again  the 
flame  of  sacredness  within,  and  so  to  keep 
it  from  expiring  utterly — ^to  lift  yourselves 
from  the  deadness  and  degradation  of  the 
things  that  are  beneath — I  am  aware  of 
no  better  expedient  than  that  you  have 
your  times  of  communing  through  the 
Bible  and  prayer  with  the  things  that  be 
above,  and  that  you  determinedly  adhere 
to  them.  Let  not  the  urgencies  of  busi- 
ness separate  you  from  those  precious 
minutes,  which  you  should  give  to  the 
remembrance  of  God's  love  to  you  in 
Christ  Jesus ;  and  then  the  fortunes  of 
business,  whether  prosperous  or  adverse 
shall  not  be  able  to  separate  your  hearts 
from  that  love  v/hich  you  owe  to  God  in 
Christ  Jesus  back  again.  Pray  unceas- 
ingly for  His  grace  to  overcome  the  world 
and  you  shall  be  more  than  conquerors 
through  Him  that  loved  you. 

It  is  high  time  to  break  away  from  this 
world's  entanglements — to  dispossesu  your 
heart  of  things  present,  and  turn  them  to 
the  things  that  are  to  come  ;  and  that  not 
to  the  coming  things  of  your  earthly  pil- 
grimage, but  overleaping  these  and  the 
death  which  is  beyond  them,  to  look  on- 
ward to  the  awful  realities  which  lie  upon 
the  other  side.  If  you  have  not  yet  made 
the  movement  from  the  habit  of  walking 


t48 


LECTURE  LXVII. CHAPTER  VUI,  35 — 39. 


by  sight  to  that  of  walking  by  faith,  it  is 
a  movement  which  must  be  made  ere  you 
die — else  the  life  eternal,  which  is  only  to 
those  with  whom  all  old  things  have  been 
done  away  and  all  things  have  become 
new,  you  shall  never  never  realise.  And 
it  concerns  you  all  to  understand,  that,  by 
every  day  of  postponement,  you  are  gel- 
ting  more  helplessly  implicated  in  the 
slavery  of  sense  and  of  sin  than  before — 
that  if  you  seek  not  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,  every  other  thing  which  you  seek 
and  set  your  affections  upon  just  widens 
your  distance  from  Him  the  more — that 
the  love  of  all  which  is  in  the  world  sepa- 
rates and  alienates  the  heart  the  more 
irrecoverably  from  Him  who  made  the 
world — that  thus  in  every  footstep  you 
make,  there  is  a  farther  departure  from 
the  Being  whose  favour  is  life,  but  whose 
frown  is  endless  and  irremediable  destruc- 
tion :  And,  more  particularly,  may  every 
fresh  speculation  in  which  3'ou  engage, 
and  that  constant  trooping  of  successive 
cares  and  hopes  and  interests  from  one 
mercantile    engrossment  to  another,  so 


multiply  the  ties  by  which  you  are  re  Aed. 
and  fastened  down  to  a  perishable  scene 
— that  when  at  length  overtaken  and  torn 
forcibly  away  from  it  by  the  last  messen- 
ger, you  shall  be  found  to  be  wholly  of 
the  earth  and  altogether  earthly — overrun 
with  carnality,  and  having  a  full  part  in 
the  saying  that  the  carnal  mind  is  death. 
I  ask  you,  not  to  be  hermits  and  to  aban- 
don either  the  world  or  its  business,  but  I 
ask  you  to  be  aware  of  the  evil  of  it.  I 
ask  your  instantaneous  and  habitual  re- 
currence to  the  objects  of  faith,  that  the 
objects  of  sight  may  no  longer  have  the 
ascendant  over  you.  I  ask  you  so  to  re- 
tire and  separate  yourselves  from  the  love 
of  things  present,  that  you  may  not  be 
separated  from  the  love  of  God — not  to 
give  up  the  use  of  the  world,  but  so  to  use 
it  as  not  to  abuse  it — not  to  cast  away  from 
you  the  good  things  of  this  life,  but,  by 
your  habitual  regard  to  the  better  things 
of  another  life,  to  strip  them  of  their  pow- 
er,  so  as  that  they  shall  not  be  able  to 
separate  you  from  the  high  interests  of  an 
accountable  and  imperishable  creature. 


LECTURE  LXVIII. 


Romans  ix,  1 — 3. 

"I  say  the  truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  conscience  also  bearing  me  witness  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  I  have  great 
heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  in  my  heart.  For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my 
brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  Aesh." 


The  matter  of  which  Paul  here  makes 
such  strong  asseveration,  is  not  one  that 
could  be  looked  upon  by  the  eyes  of  those 
whom  he  addresses  ;  but  one  that  himself 
only  could  take  direct  and  immediate 
cognizance  of  It  had  not  its  residence 
without,  so  that  others  should  have  access 
to  it  by  any  faculty  of  external  observa- 
tion ;  but  had  its  residence  within — within 
the  repository  of  the  apostle's  own  bosom, 
and  he  only  had  access  to  it  by  the  fac- 
ulty of  conscience.  He  could  not  there- 
fore say  of  it — this  is  true,  for  come  and 
see  that  it  is  so — he  could  not  thus  make 
his  appeal  to  the  senses  of  other  men,  for 
no  other  earthly  eye  was  upon  it  than 
that  of  his  own  mind.  He  therefore  had 
recourse  to  the  only  expedient  which  those 
in  general  have,  who  feel  that  a  certain 
suspicion  attaches  to  their  testimony,  and 
who  have  no  additional  testimony  where- 
with to  confirm  it — even  that  of  strenuous 
and  repeated  affirmation,  '  I  say  the  truth, 
I  lie  not.' 

But  Paul,  in  this  necessary  defect  of 
human  witnesses,  does  make  mention  of 
other  witnesses  ;  and  which  he  seems  at 


least  to  appeal  to.  He  does  not  simply  assert 
that  he  says  the  truth  but  that  he  says  it  'in 
Christ;'  neither  does  he  simply  quote  the 
testimony  of  his  conscience,  but  his  con- 
science as  bearing  him  witness  '  in  the 
Holy  Ghost' — most  competent  witnesses 
assuredly  to  the  matter  here  spoken  of,  see- 
ing that  both  had  thorough  insight  into  the 
recesses  of  the  human  spirit — Christ  know- 
ing what  is  in  man — the  Holy  Ghost 
searching  all  things,  and  how  much  more 
the  things  of  man,  when  He  searcheth 
even  into  the  deep  things  of  God. 

In  our  readings  of  the  Bible,  we  often 
acquit  ourselves  of  the  task  very  current- 
ly ;  and  are  apt  to  speed  our  way  over 
whole  phrases,  without  being  at  all  ar- 
rested  by  any  thought  or  feeling  of  their 
significance — and  that  too  with  a  book 
where  there  is  nothing  insignificant.  The 
introduction  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  this  verse,  has  perhaps  with 
most  of  us  never  stirred  up  any  enquiry 
into  the  mind  and  meaning  of  the  apos- 
tle, when  he  thus  refers  to  them.  We 
recognise  their  names  as  well-known 
sounds,  that  are  quite  familiar  to  the  ear ; 


LECTURE   LXVIII. — CHAPTER   IX,    1 — 3. 


349 


and  the  understanding  therefore  not  start- 
led, as  it  were,  into  vigilance,  by  any 
strange  or  rarely  uttered  vocable,  remains 
asleep  and  insensible  to  the  thought  which 
lies  couched  in  the  phraseology  of  the 
apostle.  It  is  thus  that  it  fares,  we  ap- 
prehend, in  very  many  instances  with 
the  Bible — that  this  mine  of  precious 
things  is  passed  over  without  being  entered 
into — that,  full  though  it  is  of  truth  and 
of  meaning  throughout  all  its  clauses, 
there  is  little  drawn  out  of  it  by  the  daily 
perusals  of  the  mere  formalist  in  Christi- 
anity, who,  satisfied  with  running  his  eye 
over  the  pages  of  Scripture,  obtains  no 
view  whatever  of  the  richness  that  is  un- 
derneath ;  or  who  content  that  with  his 
mouth  he  should  pronounce  the  language 
of  inspiration,  although  with  his  mind  he 
never  touches  or  comes  close  to  the  reali- 
ties which  that  language  embodies,  is  tru- 
ly one  of  those  to  whom  the  kingdom  of 
God  cometh  in  word  only  and  not  at  all 
in  power. 

It  was  for  the  sake  of  Christ  that  Paul 
made  departure  from  the  great  body  of 
his  countrymen.  It  was  to  win  Christ, 
that  he  counted  all  the  honours  which  his 
zeal  and  his  talent  might  have  earned  for 
him  among  the  Jews,  and  all  the  pleasure 
which  he  had  enjoyed  in  their  society — 
that  he  counted  them  but  loss  in  his  esti- 
mation. They  looked  on  his  association 
with  Christ,  as  the  act  by  which  he  had 
broken  friendship  with  them.  He  had  at 
least,  however,  given  full  evidence  of  his 
sincerity  by  it.  He  had  relinquished  all 
hopes  of  earthly  preferment,  and  had 
braved  all  the  terrors  of  persecution.  In 
speaking  of  his  truth  in  Christ,  he  spake 
of  that  by  which  his  truth  was  most  no- 
bly accredited.  His  being  in  Christ  was 
that  which  gave  the  fullest  possible  de- 
monstration of  his  own  uprightness  ;  and, 
in  the  face  -of  the  Jewish  apprehension 
that  because  the  friend  of  Christ  he  was 
an  enemy  of  theirs,  he  in  that  very  name 
affirms  his  desire  for  their  eternal  welfare 
to  be  the  most  urgent  feeling  of  a  bosom, 
■which  still  felt  all  its  wonted  affinities  to 
his  countrymen,  and  glowed  with  all  its 
wonted  affection  towards  them.  And  be- 
sides, the  joining  of  that  name  to  an  affir- 
mation was  tantamount  to  the  confirming 
of  it  by  an  oath.  It  was  a  name,  they 
might  well  have  known,  which  he  never 
could  have  associated  with  the  utterance 
of  a  falsehood  ;  and  so,  to  overcome  the 
impression  which  obtained  among  the 
people  of  his  own  nation,  as  if  he  had 
lost  all  his  ancient  and  natural  regard  for 
them,  he  appeals  to  that  very  Jesus  for 
whose  sake  he  had  abandoned  the  faith 
of  his  countymen,  in  support  of  his  so- 
lemn averment  that  he  had    not   aban- 


doned any  part  of  that  friendship  which 
he  ever  entertained  for  them. 

There  must  be  also  a  meaning  which 
he  intended  to  convey,  when  he  spake  of 
his  conscience  bearing  him  witness  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  competent  for  any 
man's  conscience  to  take  notice  of  any 
urgent  or  strongly  felt  affection  that 
might  be  at  work  in  his  bosom — as,  for 
example,  of  the  great  heaviness  and  con- 
tinual sorrow  that  was  in  his  heart.  It 
needs  not  the  special  intervention  of  any 
divine  or  supernatural  agent  to  inform  a 
human  creature,  whether  it  be  joy  or  sad- 
ness or  anger  or  fear  that  is  the  occu- 
pant of  his  heart  for  the  time  being ; 
and  we  should  therefore  like  to  find  what 
the  precise  addition  was,  or  what  the  pe- 
culiarity which  distinguished  it  from  a 
mere  ordinary  intimation  of  conscience, 
when  Paul's  conscience  bore  him  witness 
in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Apart  from  the  force  which  the  very 
mention  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
gives  to  this  asseveration  of  the  apostle, 
as  if  calling  upon  them  to  be  witnesses 
of  its  truth,  and  so  giving  to  his  utterance 
all  the  sanction  and  solemnity  of  an  oath 
— apart  from  this,  there  is  conveyed  to  us 
by  the  phrase  in  question,  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  at  the  time  of  this  affirmation 
in  Paul — that  it  had  to  do  with  his  con- 
science while  it  testified  of  that  which  was 
in  the  heart  of  the  apostle,  and  had  to  do 
with  his  heart  by  putting  and  upholding 
that  affection  in  it  of  which  his  con- 
science bare  witness.  The  fruit  of  the  Spi- 
rit it  is  said  is  in  all  goodness  and  right- 
eousness and  truth.  It  is  by  the  last  of 
these  fruits,  by  the  truth  which  it  puts  in- 
to the  inward  parts,  that  it  both  enlight- 
ens and  directs  the  conscience.  It  acts 
by  enabling  the  conscience  to  look  more 
clearly  on  its  own  proper  field  of  obser- 
vation— by  shedding  a  greater  brightness 
and  legibility  on  the  lineaments  of  that 
inward  tablet  whereon  are  graven  all  the 
characteristics  of  a  man's  soul — whether 
that  soul  be  now  an  epistle  of  Christ,  so 
that  in  reading  it  we  examine  ourselves 
and  ascertain  that  we  are  indeed  in  the 
faith — or  it  still  bears  the  unaltered  in- 
scription of  original  and  unrenewed  na- 
ture, so  that  in  reading  it  we  become  con- 
vinced of  sin.  It  is  thus,  by  revealing  to 
the  eye  of  conscience  the  real  condition 
of  the  inward  parts,  that  the  Spirit  per- 
forms the  office  either  of  aiding  in  the 
work  of  self-examination,  or  of  convinc- 
ing a  man  of  sin  ere  he  becomes  a  Chris- 
tian. And  He  not  only  makes  truth 
known  to  the  conscience,  but  He  makes 
the  man  who  professes  to  utter  the  inti- 
mations of  this  conscience  to  be  strictly 
observant  of  the  truth — so  that  the  man 


350 


LECTURE  LXVm. CHAPTER  IX,  1 — 3. 


whose  conscience  bears  him  witness  in 
the  Holy  Ghost,  is  both  a  man  who  is  not 
deceived  himself  in  regard  to  the  real 
nature  of  his  own  internal  feelings,  and 
neither  would  deceive  others  when  he  re- 
ports what  these  feelings  are. 

But  further,  the  Holy  Ghost  not  only 
enabled  him  clearly  to  apprehend  the  af- 
fection by  which  he  was  actuated,  not 
only  guided  him  to  make  true  and  faith- 
ful declaration  thereof — but  gave  him  the 
affection  itself;  and,  in  virtue  of  His  fruit 
being  goodness  as  well  as  truth,  put  into 
him  that  good  and  gracious  distress  which 
so  overweighed  his  spirit  when  he  bo- 
thought  him  of  the  spiritual  condition  of 
his  own  countrymen.  What  would  have 
been  a  natural  in  others,  was  in  the  heart 
of  Paul  made  by  the  Holy  Ghost  a  sanc- 
tified affection.'  There  was  something 
most  natural,  and  I  could  almost  add  jus- 
tifiable, even  in  the  pride  of  Jewish  pa- 
triotism— for  never  was  a  nation  so  dis- 
tinguished  ;  and  never  had  a  people,  even 
among  those  whom  history  has  most  gor- 
geously blazoned  in  all  the  honours  of 
ancestry  and  of  great  achievement,  such 
marvellous  distinctions  to  boast  of.  All 
the  trophies  of  conquest  and  of  literature 
and  of  all  earthly  renown,  make  not  out 
a  crown  of  traditional  glory  for  any  of 
the  states  or  monarchies  of  other  days, 
which  is  at  all  like  unto  that  crown  of 
transcendental  glory,  that  halo  from  hea- 
ven, which  sits  on  the  character  and  the 
fortunes  of  the  children  of  Israel.  There 
is  nought  in  the  sages,  and  in  the  warri- 
ors, and  in  all  that  is  recorded  either  of 
the  prowess  or  the  philosophy  of  any 
other  land,  which  serves  so  to  irradiate 
its  name, — :as  the  name  and  the  land  of 
the  Hebrews  are  irradiated  by  their  pa- 
triarchs and  their  prophets  and  their  holy 
men  of  God.  The  traveller,  whose  ima- 
gination has  been  sublimed  among  the 
historic  remembrances  which  he  saw 
around  him  in  the  classical  territory  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  has  confessed  a  deeper 
visitation  of  awe  and  of  lofty  emotion,  as 
he  walked  over  the  priestly  and  consecra- 
ted land  of  Judea.  Even  the  very  hum- 
blest of  that  outcast  race,  kindles  in  the 
recollection  of  his  own  ancestral  dignity, 
and  feels  a  sort  of  conscious  superiority 
to  other  men — when  he  thinks  of  himself 
as  one  of  that  selected  nation  whom  seers 
did  instruct,  and  whom  angels  visited ; 
and  that  they  were  forefathers  of  his,  who 
heard  from  Sinai's  flaming  top  the  words 
of  the  Eternal.  Paul  seems  to  have  felt 
some  such  patriotic  inspiration — as  he 
made  mention  of  the  Israelites  to  whom 
pertamed  the  adoption  and  the  glory  and 
the  covenants  and  the  giving  of  the  law 
and  the  service  of  God  and  the  promises — 
whose,  he  says,  are  the  fathers ;  and  of 


whom,  so  far  from  having  lost  all  sense 
of  their  nobleness  by  having  become  a 
Christian,  he  sums  this  heraldry  of  his 
nation  by  what  he  deemed  the  brightest 
of  all  its  ensigns — even  that  of  them  as 
concerning  the  flesh  Christ  came,  who  is 
over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever,  amen. 

It  may  serve  to  guard  you  against  a 
delusion — should  you,  on  this  subject, 
make  the  proper  distinction  between  that 
which  was  natural  and  that  which  was 
spiritual  in  this  patriotic  affection  of  the 
apostle.  The  former  might  be  deponed 
to  by  an  ordinary  intimation  of  the  con- 
science— the  latter  is  wholly  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  can  only  be  mani- 
fested to  the  man  who  has  it,  by  the  con- 
science bearing  him  witness  in  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  will  perhaps  make  the  distinc- 
tion between  these  two  things  all  the 
more  palpable — if  wc  only  ask,  what 
this  high  and  heavenly  ingredient  has  at 
all  to  do  with  those  compositions  of  our 
recent  poetry  known  under  the  title  of 
'  Hebrew  Melodies.'  It  has  truly  nothing 
to  do,  either  with  the  genius  and  enthusi- 
asm of  those  who  framed  them,  or  with 
the  delighted  admiration  of  those  who 
listen  to  and  perform  them.  The  poetry, 
the  pathos,  the  music,  the  beauteous  and 
touching  imagery,  the  recollections  of 
domestic  tenderness,  the  resolves  and  the 
vows  of  lofty  patriotism — these  are  natu- 
ral feelings,  and  must  all  be  put  down  to 
the  account  of  nature.  But  it  follows  not, 
ye  sons  and  daughters  of  song,  alive 
though  ye  be  to  the  fascination  of  these 
touching  numbers,  that,  because  you  kin- 
dle at  the  inspiration  of  genius  you  have 
any  part  in  the  inspiration  of  Heaven.  It 
is  not  for  us  to  pronounce  on  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  men  who  emanated  these 
magical  eifusions  ;  but  we  affirm  it  to  be 
possible  of  the  very  man  whose  hand  has 
so  embellished  these  .sacred  themes,  that 
in  his  heart  there  might  not  have  been  a 
particle  of  sacredness.  And  so  with  you, 
who  melt  in  all  the  luxury  of  emotion 
over  these  strains  of  ancient  psalmody  ; 
and  which  only  now,  when  set  to  the  ca- 
dence of  modern  versification  and  the 
music  of  our  modern  drawing-rooms, 
have  become  strains  of  enchantment. 

V.  2. — 'That  I  have  great  heaviness  and 
continual  sorrow  of  heart.' 

But  to  return  from  this  digression.  In 
the  heart  of  Paul,  we  have  no  doubt,  that 
both  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  were 
blended  ;  and,  in  the  estimation  oi  uncon- 
verted men,  the  former  might  of  itself 
account,  for  the  great  sorrow  and  contin- 
ual heaviness  that  was  in  his  heart.  He 
felt  for  the  overthrow  of  such  a  nation. 
He  had  sympathy  for  its  fallen  greatness. 
It  would  seem,  from  the  enumeration  that 
he  made  of  its  glories,  as  if  its  proud  and 


LECTURE   LXVIII. CHAPTER,   IX,    1 — 3. 


351 


prosperous  days  had  passed  in  recollec- 
tion before  him ;  and  he  could  not  but 
mourn  over  the  prostrate  condition  that 
awaited  it,  when  it  should  be  trodden  un- 
der foot  of  the  Gentiles,  and  become  the 
outcast  and  the  mockery  of  all  people. 
He  would  have  sorrowed,  and  that  most 
profoundly,  although  he  had  felt  no  more 
than  other  Hebrews  feel,  because  of  their 
dispersed  nation,  their  ruined  temple,  their 
profaned  and  desolated  sanctuary.  The 
sadness  of  nature  would  have  been  enough 
to  overwhelm  him  in  such  a  contempla- 
tion ;  but  the  heart  of  our  apostle  was 
weighed  down  by  a  still  more  oppressive- 
sadness.  He  was  not  insensible  to  the 
sorrows  of  wounded  patriotism,  but  his 
were  the  deeper  and  more  distressful  sor- 
rows of  reflecting  piety.  He  sorrowed 
for  his  countrymen  after  a  godly  sort. 
He  had  his  eye  upon  their  rejected  souls, 
their  now  hopeless  salvation,  their  undone 
eternity.  And  of  far  more  bitter  endur- 
ance to  him  than  even  the  slaughtered 
hosts  and  the  captive  families  of  Israel, 
was  the  miscarriage  of  his  heart's  fondest 
desire  for  them  that  they  might  be  saved. 

V.  3. — 'For  I  could  wish  that  myself 
were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  breth- 
ren, my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh.' 

Whatever  be  the  precise  import  of  those 
terms  in  which  the  apostle  here  expresses 
his  affection  for  the  Israelites,  there  is 
one  thing  of  which  there  can  be  no  mys- 
tery or  mistake — and  that  is,  the  strength 
and  exceeding  urgency  of  the  affection 
itself.  The  circumstance  of  their  being 
his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,  gave 
him  a  special  interest  in  their  welfare  ; 
and  the  interest  which  he  thus  felt  was 
mainly  directed  to  the  welfare  of  their 
immortality.  On  whatever  other  question 
criticism  may  stumble  and  go  astray, 
there  can  be  no  misunderstanding  of  this. 
The  literal  sense  of  the  verse  may  in  one 
thing  be  somewhat  unintelligible.  But  its 
moral  and  spiritual  expression  is  alto- 
gether obvious.  We  have  here  the  long- 
ing earnestness  of  an  apostle  after  the 
salvation  of  his  countrymen ;  and  those 
sympathies  of  kindred,  which  in  the 
hearts  of  ordinary  men  lead  but  to  earth- 
ly gifts  and  earthly  services,  we  see  them 
in  the  instance  before  us  taking  a  heaven- 
ward direction,  and  prompting  the  efforts 
and  the  expostulations  and  the  prayers  of 
this  great  Christian  minister — not  for  the 
temporal  but  the  everlasting  welfare  of 
those  to  whom  he  stood  related  by  the  af- 
finities of  blood.  We  cannot  doubt  the 
strength  of  these  affinities,  even  in  the 
hearts  of  the  veriest  children  of  this 
world ;  and  that  innumerable  are  the 
kindnesses  and  the  charities  of  domestic 
life,  to  which  they  give  rise.  We  cannot 
refuse,  even  to  unsanctified  nature,  those 


warm  and  benevolent  affections  which 
have  their  living  play  in  the  bosom  of 
almost  every  family,  and  by  whose  work- 
ings it  is  that  the  society  of  earth  is  up- 
held. The  lesson  of  the  text  is  not  that 
we  should  love  our  relatives,  for  this  is 
what  untaught  and  instinctive  humanity 
can  do.  But  to  love  the  souls  of  our 
relatives — this  comes  of  something  higher 
than  the  motives  or  the  tendencies  of 
spontaneous  nature.  Any  man's  con- 
science may  bear  him  witness  that  he  has 
parent's  instinctive  fondness  for  his  own 
children  ;  but,  ere  he  can  vouch  with 
truth  for  a  regard  at  all  so  strong  or  so 
lively  to  their  imperishable  souls,  there 
must  be  a  higher  agent  than  nature  at 
work  with  him.  Ere  he  can  say  it  with 
truth,  he  must  say  the  truth  in  Christ — 
Ere  his  conscience  bear  witness  to  it,  it 
must  bear  him  witness  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
But  let  us  dwell  at  greater  length  on 
this  phenomenon  of  character  and  feeling 
— for  it  is  in  truth  an  exhibition  of  human- 
ity, most  pregnant  with  inference,  and 
titled  more  especially  to  prove  how  wide 
an  interval  there  is  between  the  things  of 
sense  and  the  things  of  sacredness.  The 
agony  of  an  infant's  dying-bed  is  not  more 
real,  than  the  agony  inflicted  by  it  on  a 
mother's  bosom.  The  sufferings  endured 
by  the  one  have  not  a  more  stable  or  un- 
doubted certainty,  than  the  sympathy 
which  is  felt  for  them  by  the  other.  They 
alike  belong  to  man's  sentient  nature — in 
virtue  of  which  there  is  scarcely  a  parent 
to  be  found,  who  bears  not  in  his  heart  a 
thorough  devotion  to  all  the  earthly  inter- 
ests of  those  who  have  sprung  from  him  ; 
and  shares  not  in  all  the  distresses,  to 
which,  by  pain  in  their  bodies,  or  disap- 
pointment in  their  fame  or  in  their  for- 
tunes, they  as  earthly  creatures  are  ex- 
posed. In  other  words,  all  that  belongs  to 
our  sensitive  economy  which  is  taken 
down  at  death,  is  most  feelingly  sympa- 
thised with  ;  and  what  we  affirm  is,  that, 
with  all  that  belongs  to  our  spiritual  eco- 
nomy that  survives  death,  there  might  be 
no  concern  and  no  sympathy  whatever. 
After  all  then,  this  tenderness  for  relatives 
might  at  the  very  best  be  but  a  mere  ani-  • 
mal  sensibility — an  instinct,  which  has 
just  as  little  of  fellowship  with  the  things 
of  faith  and  of  eternity,  as  has  the  similar 
instinct  of  any  inferior  creature.  And  it 
is  indeed  most  striking  to  observe,  under 
how  many  a  parental  roof,  all  the  ameni- 
ties of  nature's  charity  and  of  nature's 
care  are  absorbed,  and  have  their  full  ter- 
mination in  earthliness — how,  while  the 
bodily  wants  of  every  little  nurseling  is 
most  tenderly  provided  for,  it  is  forgotten 
all  the  while  that  their  spirits  are  im- 
perishable— how,  amid  all  the  sighs  and 
all  the    tenderness  of  family  affection, 


352 


LECTURE  LXVUI. CHAPTER  IX,  1 3. 


scarce  one  effort  is  ever  made  to  secure 
and  scarce  one  alarm  is  ever  felt  lest  they 
should  fall  short  of  a  blissful  eternity — 
So  that  while  v/e,  alive  at  every  pore  to 
all  that  is  present  or  visible  in  the  condi- 
tion of  our  children,  do  watch  over  their 
sick-beds,  and  weep  over  their  tombs — we 
rarely  ever  think  of  those  fearful  possi- 
bilities, which,  on  the  other  side  of  death, 
may  still  be  in  reserve  for  them  ;  and  sel- 
dom does  the  dread  alternative  of  their 


future  hell  or  their  future  heaven  cost  us 
one  moment's  agitation. 

That  such  is  experimentally  the  fact, 
we  have,  I  am  persuaded,  the  responding 
testimony  of  many  a  conscience  among 
yourselves  ;  and  melancholy  as  the  con- 
templation is,  we  should  like  to  prolong 
it  through  one  or  two  lectures  more,  for 
the  sake  of  those  practical  uses  to  which 
it  is  subservient. 


LECTURE  LXIX. 

Romans  ix,  3. 
"For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren,  my  kiasmen  according  to  the  flesh." 


And  first,  it  may  be  employed  to  recti- 
fy that  meagre  theology  which  is  so  far 
satisfied  with  man  as  he  is,  that  it  would 
hold  a  few  slight  and  superficial  amend- 
ments to  be  enough  of  themselves  for 
changing  him  into  man  as  he  ought  to  be. 
This  is  one  use  to  which  we  should  turn 
what  we  have  just  observed  of  the  paren- 
tal affection.  The  earthliness  of  its  whole 
drift  proves  man  to  be  a  creature  alto- 
gether earthly  ;  and  the  very  strength  of 
the  affection  serves  to  aggravate  this  les- 
son the  more,  and  to  betray  all  the  more 
palpably  our  state  of  spiritual  destitution. 
That  the  same  parent  who  is  so  intent  on 
the  preferment  of  his  children  in  the 
world,  should  be  so  utterly  listless  of 
their  prospects,  nor  put  forth  one  endea- 
vour to  obtain  for  them  preferment  in 
heaven — that  he  who  would  mourn  over 
it  as  the  sorest  of  his  family  trials,  should 
one  of  them  be  bereft  of  any  of  the  corpo- 
real senses ;  and  yet  should  take  it  so 
easily,  although  none  of  them  have  a 
right  sense  of  God  or  a  right  principle  of 
godliness — that  he,  who  would  be  so  sore- 
ly astounded  did  any  of  his  little  ones 
perish  in  a  conflagration  or  a  storm, 
should  be  so  unmoved  by  all  the  fearful 
things  that  are  reported  of  the  region  on 
the  other  side  of  death,  where  the  fury  of 
an  incensed  Lawgiver  is  poured  upon  all 
who  have  fled  not  to  Christ  as  their  refuge 
from  the  tempest,  and  they  are  made  to 
lie  down  in  the  devouring  fire  and  to 
dwell  with  everlasting  burnings — that  to 
avert  from  the  objects  of  our  tenderness 
the  calamities,  or  to  obtain  for  them  the 
good  things  of  this  present  life,  there 
should  be  so  much  of  care  and  of  busy 
expedient,  while  not  one  practical  mea- 
sure is  taken  either  to  avert  from  them 
that  calamity  which  is  the  most  dreadful, 


or  to  secure  for  them  that  felicity  which 
is  the  most  glorious — Why  there  is  indeed 
such  obvious  demonstration  in  all  this  of 
time  being  regarded  as  our  all,  and  eter- 
nity being  counted  by  us  as  nothing — so 
light  an  esteem  in  it  of  that  God,  an  in- 
heritance in  whom  we  treat  as  of  far  less 
value  for  those  who  are  dear  to  us  than 
that  they  should  be  made  richly  to  inherit 
the  gifts  of  His  providence — such  a  prefer- 
ence for  ourselves,  and  for  the  fleeting 
generations  that  come  after  us,  of  the 
short-lived  creature  to  the  Creator  who 
endureth  for  ever — As  most  .strikingly  to 
mark,  even  by  the  very  loves  and  amia- 
ble sensibilities  of  our  hearts,  how  pro- 
foundly immersed  we  are  in  the  grossest 
carnality — that  after  all  it  is  but  an  earth- 
ly horizon  that  bounds  us,  and  an  earthly 
platform  we  grovel  on — that  Nature,  even 
in  her  best  and  most  graceful  exhibitions, 
gives  manifest  token  of  her  fall,  proving 
herself  an  exile  from  Paradise  even  in 
the  kindest  and  honestest  of  the  sympa- 
thies which  belong  to  her — that,  retaining 
though  she  does  many  soft  and  tender  af- 
finities for  those  of  her  own  kind,  she  has 
been  cast  down  and  degraded  beneath  the 
high  aims  and  desires  of  immortality — 
accursed  even  in  her  moods  of  greatest 
generosity,  and  evil  in  the  very  act  of 
giving  good  gifts  unto  her  children. 

But  another  le.'^son  than  that  of  rectify- 
ing the  meagre  theology  of  the  general 
public,  is  that  of  rebuking  those  peculiar 
few  who  disown  this  theology,  and  hold 
themselves  lo  be  sound  in  the  failh.  We 
greatly  fear,  that,  in  many  instances,  this 
soundness  in  the  faith  is  little  more  than 
a  holding  of  the  form  of  sound  words. 
The  expression  of  the  truth  is  acquiesced 
in,  but  the  truth  itself  is  not  realised.  A 
mere  holding  of  the  dogmata  of  a  creed 


LECTURE   LXIX. CHAPTER.   IX,    3. 


353 


is  not  faith.  It  is  not  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  neither  is  it  the  evidence 
of  things  not  seen.  The  man  who  looks 
onward  to  some  station  of  emolument  for 
his  son,  who  provides  him  with  the  best 
education  to  qualify  him  for  its  duties, 
who  himself  superintends  the  preparation 
and  strenuously  plies  him  with  the  fit  ex- 
ercises for  his  training  and  future  habits, 
who  bestirs  himself  in  the  work  of  secur- 
ing friends  and  soliciting  patronage — this 
man  may  be  laudably  employed,  but  he 
is  walking  by  sight.  To  look  onward 
for  your  children  to  a  place  in  heaven — 
to  enter  them  accordingly  into  a  process 
of  spiritual  education — to  watch  and  ex- 
amine and  labour,  until  the  spiritual  prin- 
ciples be  established  and  the  spiritual 
character  be  formed  in  them — to  besiege 
in  prayer  the  upper  sanctuary,  that  you 
may  obtain  the  patronage  of  the  great 
Intercessor  who  is  there  in  behalf  of  your 
family,  and  through  Him  the  grace  and 
liberality  of  the  King  upon  the  throne — 
Let  me  practically  see  this,  and  I  would 
say  of  it  that  it  was  walking  by  faith.  It 
is  not  the  mere  verbiage  of  an  orthodox 
phraseology  that  constitutes  you  a  believ- 
er. You  believe  substantially  only  if  you 
do.  It  is  not  by  the  professing  of  these 
things  that  you  show  faith.  It  is  by  pro- 
ceeding on  the  reality  of  these  things. 
The  man,  upon  whose  work  and  upon 
whose  walk  the  futurities  of  the  unseen 
world  have  the  same  deciding  power,  as 
the  futurities  of  the  seen  and  the  sensible 
world  that  is  before  him — he  it  is  who 
has  the  substance  and  not  the  shadow, 
the  faith  unfeigned.  It  will  show  itself  in 
the  regulation  of  the  family,  as  much  as 
in  any  other  of  his  personal  affairs.  The 
man  whose  heart  is  set  on  the  conversion 
of  his  children — the  man  whose  house  is 
their  school  of  discipline  for  eternity — He 
it  is,  and  we  fear  he  only  of  all  other 
parents,  who  lives  by  faith.  If  you  love 
your  children  and  at  the  same  time  are 
listless  about  their  eternity,  what  other 
explanation  can  be  given  than  that  you 
believe  not  what  the  Bible  tells  of  eter- 
nity ?  You  believe  not  of  the  wrath  and 
the  anguish  and  the  tribulation  that  are 
there.  Those  piercing  cries  that  here 
from  any  one  of  your  children  would  go 
to  your  ver)'  heart,  and  drive  you  frantic 
with  the  horror  of  its  sufferings,  you  do 
not  believe  that  there  is  pain  there  to  call 
them  forth.  You  do  not  think  of  the 
meeting-place  that  you  are  to  have  with 
them  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  looks  of  anguish  and  the  words 
of  reproach  that  they  will  cast  upon  you, 
for  having  neglected  and  so  undone  their 
eternity. 

The  awful  sentence  of  condemnation — 
the  signal  of  evcrlating  departure  to  all 
45 


who  know  not  God  and  obey  not  the  gos- 
pel— the  ceaseless  moanings  that  ever  and 
anon  shall  ascend  from  the  lake  of  living 
agony — the  grim  and  dreary  imprison- 
ment whose  barriers  are  closed  insupera- 
bly and  for  ever  on  the  hopeless  outcasts 
of  vengeance — These,  ye  men  who  wear 
the  form  of  godliness  but  show  not  the 
power  of  it  in  your  training  of  your  fami- 
lies— these  are  not  the  articles  of  your 
faith.  To  you  they  are  as  the  imagina- 
tions of  a  legendary  fable.  Else  why  this 
apathy  ?  Why  so  alert  to  the  rescue  of 
your  young  from  even  the  most  trifling  of 
calamities,  and  this  dead  indiflerence 
about  their  exposure  to  the  most  tremen- 
dous of  all  1  O,  the  secret  will  be  out. 
The  cause  bewrayeth  itself  You  have 
not  faith  ;  and,  compassed  about  though 
you  be  with  sabbath  forms  and  seemly 
observations  and  the  semblances  of  a 
goodly  and  well-looking  profession,  yet, 
if  you  labour  not  specifically  and  in  prac- 
tical earnest  for  the  souls  of  your  children, 
your  doings  short  of  this  are  we  fear  but 
the  diseased  and  lame  offerings  of  hypo- 
crisy— your  Christianity  we  fear  is  a  de- 
lusion. 

Let  me  therefore,  in  the  third  place, 
charge  it  upon  parents,  that  they  make 
proof  of  their  own  Christianity  by  look- 
ing well  to  the  Christianity  of  their  chil- 
dren. They  profess  the  rewards  and  the 
glories  of  Paradise  to  be  the  noblest  ob- 
jects which  an  immortal  being  can  aspire 
after.  To  these  objscts  then,  let  them 
guide  the  ambition  of  those  young  im- 
mortals who  are  under  their  own  roof; 
and,  instead  of  regarding  them  as  the  in- 
mates of  a  habitation  that  is  to  last  for 
ever,  let  them  be  treated  as  passengers  in 
the  same  vessel  with  themselves — as  fel- 
low-voyagers to  an  eternal  home.  In  the 
work  of  their  common  preparation  for 
such  a  home,  let  them  never  cease  to  ply 
the  household  with  their  precepts,  or  to 
ply  Heaven  with  their  prayers.  Paul 
travailing  in  birth  that  Christ  may  be 
formed  in  his  converts,  is  fit  to  image  forth 
the  effort,  the  assiduity,  the  intense  moral 
earnestness,  wherewith  parents  should 
long  and  should  labour  for  the  conversion 
of  their  children.  Be  assured  tha%  this  is 
an  object  for  which  one  and  all  may  be 
instant  in  season  and  out  of  season  :  and 
that  no  application,  however  pointedly 
directed  and  however  urgently  borne 
home  on  the  consciences  of  any  of  your 
offspring,  if  under  the  guidance  of  that 
wisdom  which  winneth  souls,  is  too  much 
for  an  achievement  so  precious.  O  re- 
member that  undej'  the  roof  of  your  lowly 
tenement,  there  might  happen  an  event 
which  shall  cause"  the  high  arches  of 
heaven  to  ring  with  jubilee  ;  and  that  sur- 
passing far  the  pomp  of  this  world's  his- 


354 


LECTURE   LXIX. — CHAPTER   IX,    d. 


tory,  is  the  history  of  many  a  cottage  home 
— at  which  a  son  or  a  daughter  turned  unto 
righteousness  becomes  the  reward  of  a 
parent's  faithfulness,  the  fruit  of  a  parent's 
prayers. 

But — fourthly — let  me  not  forget  that 
the  affection  of  Paul,  as  expressed  in  the 
passage  before  us,  was  not  that  of  a  Chris- 
tian parent  for  his  children,  but  that  of  a 
Christian  man  for  his  kinsmen  in  general. 
It  was  in  love  for  the  souls  of  all  his  rela- 
tives, that  he  could  have  endured  any  sa- 
crifice by  which  he  might  have  procured 
salvation  to  them.  It  was  an  affection 
which  went  round  the  whole  circle  of  his 
relationship ;  and,  under  the  impulse  of 
which,  we  would  not  confine  our  apQstolic 
zeal  and  activity  to  the  single  object  of 
Christianising  the  young  of  our  own  fa- 
mily, but  would  lay  ourselves  out  for  the 
souls  of  others  of  our  kindred — whether 
they  lived  with  us  under  the  same  roof,  or 
exchanged  with  us  the  visits  of  a  familiar 
and  frequent  hospitality.  And  we  cannot 
look  Upon  this  extension  of  the  duty, 
without  adverting  to  a  most  powerful  and 
a  most  peculiar  obstacle  in  the  way  of  it 
■ — a  certain  mysterious  delicacy,  most 
deeply  felt  in  many  a  bosom,  though  most 
difficult  to  be  analysed — a  repugnance  so 
much  as  to  talk  of  Christianity  in  the 
hearing  of  parents  or  brethren  or  more 
distant  relatives,  in  the  spirit  of  religious 
tenderness-^and  a  repugnance  that  would 
almost  strengthen  into  a  moral  impossi- 
bility, did  we  propose  to  urge  upon  them 
the  Christianity  of  their  own  souls.  How- 
ever undescribable  this  antipathy  is,  yet 
we  are  confident  of  our  speaking  to  the 
inward  experience  of  many,  when  we 
affirm  the  existence  of  it ;  and  that  in 
truth  it  is  often  stronger  and  more  sensitive 
far  in  reference  to  our  own  kindred,  than 
in  reference  to  any  of  our  more  distant 
and  general  companionship.  The  solitary 
Christian  of  that  household,  where  all  but 
himself  are  yet  carnally-minded  and  of 
the  world,  feels  as  if  spell-bound  among 
the  entanglements  of  an  insuperable  deli- 
cacy ;  nor  can  he  find  utterance  at  all  for 
the  things  of  sacredness,  among  the  pa- 
rents and  the  sisters  and  the  other  inmates 
and  daily  familiars  even  of  a  much-loved 
relatioirship  ;  and  the  seriousness,  where- 
with his  heart  has  of  late  been  visited, 
lodges  there  in  solitude  and  in  silence — 
as  if  ashamed  to  disclose  itself  in  the 
midst  of  a  now  uncongenial  society  ;  and, 
marvellous  to  tell,  it  can  experience  a 
greater  freedom  and  facility  of  religious 
converse  with  the  irreligious  neighbours, 
than  it  can  with  the  irreligious  members 
of  his  own  family.  And  thus,  by  an  in- 
explicable peculiarity  of  temperament, 
do  the  nearest  of  relatives  often  maintain 
on  that  topic  which  most  nearly  concerns 


them,  a  dead  and  immovable  silence,  and 
which  for  the  world  they  cannot  break; 
and  though  posting  on  to  eternity  toge- 
ther, yet  on  all  the  prospects  and  all  the 
preparations  of  eternity  their  lips  are 
scaled  ;  and  while  on  every  other  partner- 
ship, whether  of  interest  or  of  feeling, 
there  is  the  frankest  and  the  easiest  com- 
munication— yet,  on  this  mightiest  inter- 
est of  all,  each  wraps  himself  in  his  own 
impregnable  disguise,  and  positively  dares 
not  lay  it  open.  It  is  so  very  singular, 
that  it  almost  looks  like  a  satanic  influ- 
ence— a  sorcery  by  which  the  prince  of 
darkness  obstructs  this  sort  of  reciprocal 
interchange  in  families,  lest  his  kingdom 
should  suffer  by  it — a  device  by  which 
he  guards  the  very  approaches  of  reli- 
gious conversation  ;  and  so  scares  even 
the  devout  and  desirous  Christian  away 
from  it,  that  he  stands  speechless  and  awe- 
struck even  in  the  presence  of  his  own 
brother.  It  is  indeed  a  curious  anomaly 
of  our  nature,  and  might  well  excite  to 
philosophic  speculation ;  but  it  has  a 
higher  claim  upon  our  notice,  in  that  it 
stays  the  operation  of  the  gospel  leaven 
among  men,  and  forms  one  of  the  sorest 
impediments  to  the  growth  of  Christianity 
in  the  world. 

We  feel  the  whole  diflSculty  of  advising 
in  a  matter  which  so  many  have  found  to 
bo  unconquerable  ;  and  yet,  formidable 
as  the  difficulty  is,  we  cannot  help  being 
assured  of  this  as  of  all  other  temptations 
— that  if  you  resist  the  devil  he  will  flee 
from  you.  We  are  persuaded  that  had 
you  only  courage  to  break  the  accursed 
incantation,  a  most  cheering  and  trium- 
phant result  would  often  come  out  of  it. 
It  is  our  conjecture  that  by  a  frank  and 
intrepid  management  of  the  case,  it  would 
in  many  instances  have  an  issue  more 
pleasing  and  more  prosperous  than  we  at 
first  do  apprehend.  We  believe,  that,  did 
you  openly  avow  to  your  kinsman  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh  the  recent  awakening 
that  had  come  upon  you,  and  did  you 
pour  into  his  ear  the  affectionate  urgency 
of  your  now  christianized  regards  for 
him — there  might  ensue  a  gratitude  and  a 
confidence  that  to  your  old  and  previous 
fellowship  was  altogether  unknown.  We 
are  hopeful,  that  by  taking  the  direct  way 
with  that  relative  whom  you  want  to  asso- 
ciate with  yourself  on  the  path  of  heaven, 
and  telling  him  plainly  both  of  sin  and  of 
the  Saviour — that  in  his  kindliness  to  you, 
and  perhaps  in  the  conversion  of  his  own 
soul,  your  fearlessness  and  your  faithful- 
ness would  have  their  reward.  We  have 
no  doubt,  that,  did  every  Christian  come 
forth  in  the  bosom  of  his  own  household 
with  more  bold  and  explicit  testimonies, 
we  should  at  length  have  vastly  more  of 
Christianity  in  our  land  ;  and  that,  did 


LECTURE  LXI\.  — CHAPTEE.  IX,  3. 


355 


our  love  for  souls  and  our  sense  of  the 
worth  of  eternity  so  far  prevail  as  to  force 
a  way  for  us  thi'ough  the  tremors  and  the 
delicacies  of  this  our  mysterious  nature, 
we  should  at  times  realise  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  home  the  noblest  achievements 
of  the  missionary.  That  there  would  be 
a  frequent,  and  even  perhaps  on  occasions 
a  fierce  resistance,  is  unquestionable  ;  and 
then  the  generous  adventurer  for  human 
souls  would  be  put  upon  his  charity  and 
his  wisdom.  "  Give  not  that  which  is  holy 
unto  dogs,"  and  "east  not  your  pearls  be- 
fore swine,"  these  are  the  precepts  which 
might  afterwards  have  their  turn  when  he 
had  acquitted  himself  of  the  duty  to  con- 
fess Christ  before  men,  and  proved  him- 
self not  to  be  ashamed  of  His  testimony. 
Yet  even  in  suffering  and  in  silence  he 
would  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  perhaps  more  emphatically  than  if 
with  all  eloquence  and  all  argument.  Let 
but  the  meekness  of  wisdom  never  aban- 
don him — let  peace  and  truth  and  kind- 
ness be  at  once  the  guide  and  the  orna- 
ment of  his  walk — let  him  command  that 
homage  to  his  practice  which  he  failed  to 
obtain  for  his  principles — let  him  carry 
that  admiration  for  the  virtues  of  his  life 
which  by  the  doctrines  of  his  creed  he 
could  not  carry — And  thus  what  he  did 
not  by  his  expostulations,  he  might  do  by 
his  example  and  by  his  prayers. 

It  were  well  that  we  had  a  conscience 
altogether  clear  in  this  matter — that  we 
stood  fully  acquitted  of  what  we  owe  to 
each  others'  souls — that  we  could  lay  our 
hands  upon  our  hearts  ;  and  say  that  we 
had  done  all  which  we  ought,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  rescuing  from  the  delusion  that  is 
unto  death,  him  who  is  ready  to  perish — 
that  we  held  faithful  and  intrepid  dis- 
course with  our  fellow-pilgrims  on  the 
high  topics  of  eternity  ;  and  did  whatever 
wisdom  could  approve,  even  among  those 
that  are  without,  for  awakening  them  from 
the  lethargy  of  nature,  and  impressing 
that  movement  upon  their  spirits  by  which 
they  might  turn  from  the  world  unto  God. 
We  know  that  there  are  difficulties  and 
delicacies  in  the  way  ;  but  we  also  know 
how  gladly  it  is  that  many  a  desirous 
Christian  takes  shelter  under  them.  We 
know  that  the  formal  attempt  to  Chris- 
tianise has  often  misgiven  ;  and  that  there 
have  been  occasions,  when  the  whole  ef- 
fect of  a  rash  and  misguided  enterprise 
has  been  just  to  call  forth  from  the  heart 
the  reaction  of  a  stouter  and  more  resolute 
hostility  than  before.  And,  upon  this  con- 
sideration, there  are  men,  even  of  reli- 
gious earnestness,  who  have  exonerated 
themselves  from  the  task  of  religious  con- 
versation altogether.  Now  there  may  in 
this  be  a  guilty  cowardice.  God  knoweth. 
There  may,  in  this  inveterate  silence  be- 


fore men,  be  the  cruellest  indifference  to 
the  fate  of  their  eternity.    The  benevo- 
lence of  nature  may  expatiate  among  all 
the  kindnesses  and  courtesies  of  the  life 
that   now  is — while  the   benevolence  of 
faith  is  most  profoundly  asleep  to  the  mo- 
mentous  interests  of  the   life   that  is  to 
come.  In  a  word,  because  of  our  criminal 
reserve,  souls  may  have  perished  everlast- 
ingly ;  and,  just  because  Christianity  is  left 
out  by  us  in  conversation,  many  perhaps 
there  are  who  have  been  confirmed  in  the 
habit  of  leaving  it  out  of  their  concern  alto- 
gether. Surely  that  which  even  the  friends 
of  the  gospel  deem  not  worthy  of  a  place 
among  the  other  topics  of  science  or  of 
taste  or  of  politics  or  of  trade  or  of  agri- 
culture, which  take  their  respective  turns 
in  every  party — we  may  well  deem  not 
worthy  of  any  large  or  very  prominent 
place  in  the  general  system  of  our  affaii's. 
It  is  that  by  our  shrinking  timidity,  a  coun- 
tenance is  given  to  that  spirit  of  worldli- 
ness  wherewith   the  earth  throughout  all 
its   companies   is   overspread  ;    and,  just 
because  Christians  are  not  so  free  and 
frequent  in  their  avowals  as  they  should, 
the  mischief  is  propagated  more  widely 
and  settled  more  inveterately  than  before. 
We  are  aware,  at  the  same  time,  that  evil 
might  ensue  from  unbridled  and  unrea- 
sonable urgencies  of  talk  upon  this  sub- 
ject;  and  that  there  is  a  time  to  refrain, 
as  well  as  a  time  to  venture  forward.    It 
were  well,  however,  if  amid  the  excuses 
and  exonerations  of  which  we  are  so  fain 
to  avail  ourselves,  we,  like  Paul,  could 
vouch  to  our   own  consciences   for   the 
perfect  sincerity  wherewith  we  longed  af- 
ter the  salvation  of  those  who  are  around 
us.    He  could  speak  for  himself  in  this 
matter — his  conscience  bearing  him  wit- 
ness in  the  Holy  Ghost.     This  heavenly 
judge  is  now  looking  towards  us  ;  and, 
agreeably  to  that  impressive  passage  from 
the  book  of  Proverbs,  He  knows  whether 
to  charge  us  with  the  barbarity  that  would 
neglect  the  means  of  averting  from  others 
their  awful  and  everlasting  condemnation. 
"  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are 
drawn  unto  death,  and  those  that  are  rea- 
dy to  be  slain  ;  if  thou  sayest  Behold  we 
knew  it  not — doth  not  he  that  pondereth 
the  heart  consider  it  ?  and  he  that  keepeth 
thy  soul  doth  not  he  know  it  1 — And  shall 
not  he  render  to  every  man  according  to 
his  works  ]" 

It  were  well  if  what  I  have  said  should 
subserve,  not  merely  its  own  proper  and 
immediate  purpose,  but  should  serve  the 
purpose  of  a  general  conviction  regarding 
the  state  of  your  own  souls.  Ere  you  can 
be  practically  in  good  earnest  about  the 
eternity  of  your  children,  you  must  have 
in  your  own  spirit  a  sense  of  the  worth 
of  eternal  things.   Ere  you  can  labour  for 


356 


LECTURE   LXIX. — CIIAPTEn,   IX,    3. 


the  good  of  their  immortality,  there  must 
be  a  faith  in  that  immortality — oven  the 
faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen.  Ere  you  can  make  a  distinct  and 
business  object  of  their  conversion  from 
sin  unto  the  Saviour,  you  must  be  imprest 
with  the  guilt  and  danger  of  the  one,  as 
well  as  the  all-sufficiency  of  the  other. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  your  habitual 
listlessnoss  in  the  matter  of  family  reli- 
gion, is  an  experimental  proof  that  you 
are  destitute  of  all  these  things.  From  a 
thing  so  familiar,  as  just  your  domestic 
and  daily  habit  in  reference  to  those  of 
your  own  house  ;  and  from  a  thing  so  ac- 
cessible, as  just  the  state  of  your  own 


j  heart  in  regard  to  the  affection  which  it 
bears  for  the  souls  of  your  children — from 
these  we  may  gather  the  evidences,  we 
fear,  of  the  entire  spiritual  destitution  of 
many  who  are  here  present.  In  urging 
the  Christian  duty  which  lies  upon  you 
of  watching  over  their  souls,  we  feel  as  if 
we  had  to  go  back  to  a  duty  more  ele- 
mentary still — that  is,  of  fleeing,  for  your- 
selves, from  the  wrath  that  shall  come 
upon  all  those  of  carnal  and  unrenewed 
nature,  who  have  not  yet  made  the  transi- 
tion from  death  unto  life ;  nor  taken  refuge 
in  that  Saviour  whose  blood  alone  can 
make  atonement  for  the  past,  whose  Spirit 
alone  can  revive  and  rectify  the  future. 


LECTURE  LXX. 


Romans  ix,  3. 
"  For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh." 


Before  bidding  a  final  adieu  to  this  to- 
pic on  which  I  have  at  such  length  de- 
tained you,  I  may  take  notice  of  another 
interesting  aspect  which  it  opens  to  our 
view.  You  will  observe  that  the  ferven- 
cy of  affection  professed  by  Paul  in  this 
passage,  is  all  in  behalf  of  his  own  coun- 
trymen ;  and  yet  none  more  zealous  and 
more  indefatigable  than  he,  in  the  la- 
bours of  a  Christian  missionary  among 
the  distant  climes  and  countries  of  the 
world.  What  gives  more  importance  to 
this  remark  is  the  tendency  in  our  own 
day  to  place  these  two  causes  in  opposi- 
tion to  each  other — as  if  they  were  con- 
flicting interests  that  could  not  both  be 
befriended  by  the  same  heart,  or  helped 
forward  by  one  and  the  same  hand.  It 
might  serve  as  a  useful  corrective,  to  look 
at  Paul,  and  at  the  one  comprehensive  af- 
fection which  actuated  his  bosom — cleav- 
ing with  utmost  tenacity,  and  with  all  the 
devotedness  of  a  thorough  patriot,  to  the 
families  of  his  own  land  ;  and  yet  carry- 
ing him  abroad  and  beyond  the  limits  of 
a  contracted  patriotism,  among  all  the 
families  of  the  earth.  The  truth  is,  that 
home  and  foreign  Christianity,  instead  of 
acting  upon  the  heart  like  two  forces  in 
opposite  directions,  draw  both  the  same 
way — so  that  he  who  has  been  carried 
forward  to  the  largest  sacrifices  in  behalf 
of  the  one,  is  the  readiest  for  like  sacri- 
fices in  behalf  of  the  other — The  friends 
of  the  near  being  also,  as  they  have  op- 
portunity, the  most  prompt  and  liberal  in 
their  friendship  to  the  distant  enterprise — 


recognising  in  man,  wherever  he  is  to  be 
found,  the  same  wandering  outcast  from 
the  light  and  love  of  heaven,  and  the  same 
befitting  subject  for  the  offers  of  a  free 
salvation.  We  cannot  therefore  sympa- 
thise with  those  who  affect  an  indifference 
to  the  Christianization  of  the  heathen,  till 
the  work  of  Christianization  shall  have 
been  completed  at  our  own  door.  Let 
them  be  careful,  lest  there  do  not  lurk 
within  them  a  like  indifference  to  both — 
lest  the  feelings  and  the  principles  of  all 
true  philanthropy  lie  asleep  in  their  bo- 
soms: and  they,  unlike  to  Paul  who  found 
room  for  the  utmost  affection  towards  the 
spiritual  well-being  of  his  own  kinsfolk 
and  the  utmost  activity  among  the  aliens 
and  idolaters, of  far  distant  lands,  shall 
be  convicted  of  deep  insensibility  to  the 
concerns  of  the  soul,  of  utter  blindness  to 
the  work  of  eternity. 

It  holds  out  indeed  a  marvellous  exhi- 
bition of  our  nature,  that,  with  such  dread 
realities  as  the  death  and  the  judgment 
before  us,  we  should  be  so  unmoved  by 
any  fear  for  ourselves  and  by  any  sym- 
pathy for  our  fellow-men — that  such 
should  be  our  heedlessness  or  our  hardi- 
hood,  that  we  can  drown  every  gloomy 
anticipation  ;  and  spend  whole  hours  of 
joyous  conpanionship  with  those  whom 
yet,  accordmg  to  our  own  principles,  we 
still  deem  to  be  in  the  abyss  of  impeni- 
tency — that  we  can  view  them  as  on  the 
brink  of  a  precipice  whence  they  are  to 
be  engulphed  in  irreversible  wretchedness 
and   woe ;  and,   without  so  much  as  a 


LECTURE   LXX. — CHAPTER   IX,    3. 


357 


friendly  whisper  by  which  to  warn  them 
of  their  state,  can  thus  while  away  the 
precious  intervening  moments  in  the  jest 
and  the  song  and  the  various  other  fasci- 
nations of  a  free  and  festive  society — 
that  even  they  who  wear  the  semblance 
of  a  more  declared  and  ostensible  seri- 
ousness, can  so  lend  themselves  to  a  deep 
and  ruinous  illusion — and  be  the  instru- 
ments of  cradling  into  a  still  profounder 
infatuation  than  before,  those  familiars  of 
their  own  who  are  speeding  merrily  on- 
ward to  a  hopeless  and  undone  eternity. 
It  is  not  that  we  are  wholly  destitute  of 
feeling — for  often  they  are  the  very  men 
with  whom  we  should  not  only  rejoice 
when  placed  beside  them  at  the  hospita- 
ble board,  but  with  whom  we  should  weep 
in  the  hour  of  their  dark  and  distressful 
visitation — stretching  forth  a  hand  of  rea- 
dy assistance  in  the  midst  of  their  diffi- 
culties, and  bearing  in  our  bosom  a  heart 
of  kindest  sympathy  towards  them. 
What  other  possible  explanation  can  there 
be  then  for  a  phenomenon  so  glaring, 
than  that  we  are  destitute  of  faith  ] — and 
did  the  Saviour  now  descend  to  the  judg- 
ment amongst  us,  and  did  the  sound  of  the 
last  trumpet  bring  the  world  to  a  pause, 
we  fear,  we  fear,  that,  even  in  this  age  of 
goodly  profession  and  of  gathering  re- 
spect for  the  forms  and  the  doctrines  of 
godliness,  there  might  be  room  for  the 
question  which  Christ  put  to  His  disci- 
ples, "  Verily,  verily,  when  the  Son  of  man 
Cometh  shall  he  find  faith  upon  the 
earth  V 

We  now  come  to  a  less  important  mat- 
ter— the  difficulty  which  occurs  in  the 
third  verse  of  this  chapter,  where  Paul 
says  that  he  could  wish  himself  accursed 
from  Christ  for  his  brethren,  his  kinsmen 
according  to  the  flesh.  Before  However 
attempting  our  solution  of  it,  on  which 
by  the  way  we  lay  no  great  stress,  let  us 
premise  one  observation  on  the  subject 
of  those  occasional  puzzles  in  Scripture, 
which  have  often  exercised  and  some- 
times even  baffled  all  the  ingenuities  of 
criticism.  We  are  aware  of  the  objection 
that  has  been  founded  on  them,  as  if  they 
threw  an  air  of  hopeless  and  impractica- 
ble mystery  over  the  pages  of  inspiration 
— as  if  they  were  utterly  at  variance  with 
the  character  which  the  Bible  assumes, 
and  which  infidels  say  it  should  better 
have  supported,  of  being  a  light  unto  our 
feet  and  a  lamp  unto  our  path — as  if  they 
darkened  that  road  to  heaven,  of  which  it 
is  written  that  a  wayfaring  man  though  a 
fool  should  not  err  therein — and  as  if  they 
made  the  faith  of  Christians  to  rest  on  the 
precarious  foundation  of  controversies 
that  never  can  be  settled,  of  hard  and 
enigmatical  sayings  that  never  can  be 
satisfactorily  explained  or  clearly  under- 


stood— Thus  throwing  a  painful  suspicion 
over  the  whole  record  of  Christian  doc- 
trine ;  and  reducing  those  who  are  carried 
about  by  every  wind  of  new  and  fanci- 
ful interpretation,  to  the  state  of  ever 
learning  and  yet  of  never  coming  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth. 

Now  it  might  serve  to  disarm  this  ob- 
jection, did  we  compare  the  real  value  of 
that  which  is  palpable  with  that  which  is 
hidden  or  obscure  in  the  passage"  before 
us.  Grant  that  this  imprecation  of  Paul 
upon  himself  docs  resist  all  our  attempts 
at  explanation,  and  abide  an  unsolved 
mystery  in  our  hands — shall  we  therefore 
say  of  the  casket  which  holds  it,  that  any 
moral  or  intellectual  treasure  it  may  con- 
tain is  useless  to  us,  because  locked  in 
the  concealment  of  a  disguise  that  is  im- 
penetrable "]  Whatever  we  may  make  of 
the  terms  by  which  he  expresses  his  affec- 
tion, is  not  the  affection  itself  patent  as  the 
light  of  day'?  Can  the  most  unlettered 
reader  here  mistake  the  high  worth  which 
an  apostle  sets  upon  eternity  ?  This  at 
least  stands  forth  most  unequivocally, 
along  the  course  of  these  few  sentences. 
The  sense  of  one  little  clause  may  be  un- 
der shade,  but  the  sentiment  of  the  whole 
passage  is  most  broadly  and  openly  mani- 
fest.  The  longing  of  the  apostle's  heart 
after  the  salvation  of  his  countrymen — 
the  largeness  of  the  personal  surrenders 
that  he  would  make  to  obtain  it — the  im- 
pressiveness  of  all  this  in  the  way  of  ex- 
citement and  example  to  ourselves — the 
entire  moral  and  practical  force  of  the 
lesson  which  is  thus  held  forth  to  us — Of 
these  we  have  a  most  fully  lucid  exhibi- 
tion— nor  are  we  aware  that  any  critical 
solution  of  the  difficulty  in  question, 
would  at  all  sensibly  or  materially  add  to 
the  power  of  them.  In  other  words,  within 
the  limit  of  these  verses  there  is  enough 
of  revelation  for  the  conscience,  though 
not  enough  perhaps  for  the  curiosity  of 
the  reader.  The  spirit  of  them  might  be 
caught  by  the  very  simplest  of  Christ's 
disciples,  although  in  the  letter  of  thera 
there  may  be  a  something  to  baffle  our 
profoundest  commentators.  We  have  tried 
to  expound  some  of  the  obvious  instruc- 
tion wherewith  this  passage  is  replete — 
and  if  there  be  not  enough  in  it  to  satisfy 
the  ambition  of  that  knowledge  which 
puffeth  up,  there  is  at  least  enough  in  it  to 
light  up  in  every  soul  the  glorious  inspi- 
ration of  that  charity  which  edifieth. 
There  may  lie  within  its  confines  a  yet 
undeveloped  mystery,  even  as  there  is  a 
spot  in  the  sun  which  sensibly  impairs  not 
the  force  or  the  splendour  of  that  lumi- 
nary. And  so,  in  the  words  of  doubtful- 
ness upon  which  we  at  present  have 
alighted,  there  is  nothing  that  can  obscure 
the  general  character    of  the    whole— 


358 


LECTURE   LXX. — CHAPTER   IX,    3. 


nothing  to  cloud  or  to  enfeeble  the  ex- 
pression of  its  great  principle  ;  or  that 
can  in  any  way  dim  the  manifestation  of 
that  Christian  philanthropy,  which  so 
blazed  forth  in  the  soul  of  our  devoted 
apostle,  whose  heart's  desire  and  prayer 
to  God  for  Israel  was  that  they  might  be 
saved. 

Now  we  need  not  have  stopped  perhaps 
for  the  utterance  of  such  an  observation, 
did  it  not  apply  to  the  whole  Bible.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  in  this  book,  there 
are  some  things  hard  to  be  understood  ; 
and  that  the  intellect  of  man  is  still  kept 
at  bay,  by  some  of  its  yet  unravelled  diffi- 
culties. And  still,  notwithstanding,  it  may 
be  as  fit  an  instrument  for  the  general 
illumination  of  our  species — as  the  sun, 
with  all  the  partial  obscurations  which 
lie  scattered  over  its  surface,  is  fit  for  be- 
ing the  lamp  of  our  world.  For,  in  truth, 
with  all  its  occasional  difficulties — it,  in 
every  great  lesson  which  it  concerns  man 
to  know,  shines  forth  with  most  unam- 
biguous splendour.  Who,  for  example, 
can  misunderstand  the  high  power  and 
presidency  which  it  throughout  ascribes 
unto  God — the  subordination  in  which  it 
places  all  creatures  to  their  glorious  and 
sovereign  Creator — the  great  moral  cha- 
racteristics of  truth  and  consistency  and 
awful  sacredness  which  it  everywhere 
assigns  to  Him — His  deep  antipathy  to 
sin,  and  the  sad  ruin  which  has  followed 
in  the  train  of  this  plague  and  destroyer 
of  our  species  ]  And  the  grand  scheme 
of  man's  recovery  ;  and  the  mission  to 
our  world  of  that  great  celestial  Being 
who  is  at  once  its  author  and  its  finisher  ; 
and  the  tidings  of  a  purchased  forgive- 
ness in  His  name  ;  and  the  offered  aids 
of  a  Spirit  to  begin  and  to  perfect  that 
repentance,  without  which  we  shall  all 
likewise  perish  ;  and  the  great  lessons  of 
faith,  and  of  charity,  and  of  heavenly- 
mindedness,  and  of  self-renunciation,  and 
of  crucifixion  to  the  world  that  now  is, 
and  of  living  in  the  hope  of  a  better  and 
lovelier  world  that  is  beyond  it,  and  of 
grateful  dedication  to  the  Saviour,  and  of 
piety  to  God,  and  of  peace  and  truth  and 
unbounded  kindness  among  all  our  fel- 
lows, and  of  long-suffering  in  the  midst 
of  provocation,  and  of  hallowed  purity  not 
in  speech  or  in  action  only  but  in  the 
secret  imaginations  of  our  own  heart — 
these,  whether  in  the  shape  of  doctrine  or 
of  duty,  are  all  written  as  with  a  sun- 
beam on  the  page  of  Revelation  :  And,  let 
the  occasional  blots  or  shadings  of  a 
darker  cast  be  what  they  may — these  give 
an  overruling  splendour  to  the  whole  mass 
and  assemblage  of  those  materials  whereof 
this  book  is  composed.  And  thus  again, 
like  the  glorious  lamp  of  heaven,  is  this 
Spiritual  Sun  a  light  that  may  enlighten 


all  lands.  The  prying  telescope  of  the 
astronomer  may  find  spots  upon  the  one, 
which  nevertheless  casts  a  broad  efful- 
gence among  the  habitations  of  men. 
And  the  keener  scrutiny  of  critics  or  com- 
mentators may  lead  to  the  view  of  diffi- 
culties in  the  other,  which  nevertheless 
escape  the  notice  of  ordinary  readers, 
who  find  enough  of  guidance  in  its  gene- 
ral illumination  for  the  business  of  their 
souls.  And  many  is  the  unlettered  peasant 
who  rejoices  in  the  light  thereof  It  has 
translated  him  out  of  darkness  ;  and  he 
feels  surrounded  by  an  element  of  suffi- 
cient transparency,  both  for  the  direction 
of  his  footsteps  and  for  the  irradiation  of 
his  hopes.  It  may  not  be  an  altogether 
unclouded  luminary,  yet  a  luminary  of 
force  and  light  enough  for  all  people — 
providing  them  with  a  medium  of  noon- 
day through  which  they  may  walk,  and 
casting  a  general  brightness  and  beauty 
over  the  whole  field  of  their  spiritual 
vision. 

And  striking  indeed  is  the  difference  in 
point  of  manifestation,  between  the  ac- 
complished theologian  who  has  nothing 
but  the  light  of  erudition  to  carry  him 
through  the  Bible,  and  that  simple  Chris- 
tian in  whose  mind  a  light  has  been  struck 
out  between  the  doctrines  of  Scripture  and 
the  depositions  of  his  own  conscience — 
between  him  who  can  argue  from  Greek 
the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  and  him 
who  believes  it  to  be  true  because  he  dis- 
cerns it  to  be  the  very  aliment  that  is 
needed  by  his  soul — between  the  scholar 
who  is  convinced  by  his  study  of  its 
proofs,  and  the  sinner  who  is  convinced 
by  his  feeling  of  its  preciousness.  The 
one  sees  his  Bible  to  be  true  by  the  light 
of  a  by^gone  history — the  other  sees  it  to 
be  true  by  the  light  of  a  present  conscious- 
ness. To  him  belongs  a  deeper  scriptu- 
ral wisdom  than  all  scholarship  can  be- 
stow— a  wisdom  grounded  on  his  percep- 
tion of  the  internal  evidence,  as  made 
known  by  the  adaptations  of  all  the  doc- 
trine which  is  without  to  all  the  felt  ne- 
cessities of  the  spirit  which  is  within. 
That  is  no  visionary  evidence  which  is 
thus  evolved  between  his  readings  of  the 
Bible  and  the  responses  of  his  own  heart. 
It  is  as  stable  and  satisfying,  even  to  the 
eye  of  intellect,  as  the  other  ;  and  is  as 
much  more  impressive  as  the  vivacity  of 
sentiment  surpasses  the  coldness  of  mere 
speculation. 

After  these  general  remarks  I  shall  not 
take  up  so  much  of  your  time  with  the 
critical  solutions  which  have  been  offered 
of  the  difficulty  in  the  letter  of  the  pas- 
sage, as  I  have  done  in  attempting  to 
unfold  and  to  impress  upon  you  the  un- 
doubted spirit  of  it.  We  hold  it  to  be  a 
triumphant  vindication  of  the  Bible  from 


LECTURE    LXX. CHAPTEB.   IX,    3. 


359 


the  charge  now  adverted  to — that  while 
the  letter  is  occasionally  shaded  with 
obscurities,  which  however  by  dint  of 
scholarship  are  gradually  clearing  away, 
yet,  in  the  whole  spirit  of  it,  all  is  direct 
and  intelligible  and  decisive.  In  other 
■words,  there  can  be  no  mistake  in  regard 
to  that  which  is  really  of  most  impor- 
tance ;  and  if,  at  times,  the  curiosity  of 
man  should  be  left  unappeased — yet  that 
far  higher  principle  of  our  nature,  even 
the  conscience  of  man,  is  never  left  with- 
out the  most  explicit  and  satisfying  light 
on  all  which  concerns,  either  a  Christian's 
peace  with  God,  or  the  regeneration  of 
tiis  heart  and  his  walk  before  Him.  Be 
assured,  that  it  is  not  he  whose  curiosity 
is  all  alive  to  the  difficulties  of  Scripture, 
while  his  conscience  is  asleep  to  the  clear 
and  impressive  simplicities  thereof — who 
is  the  most  hopeful  of  its  disciples.  And 
I  shall  therefore  count  it  enough  if  you 
have  caught  the  inspiration  of  the  apos- 
tle's ardour  in  behalf  of  human  souls,  and 
feel  how  incumbent  it  is  both  to  long  and 
to  labour  for  the  good  of  their  immortality. 
I.  accordingly  do  not  hold  it  necessary, 
to  detain  you  by  the  solutions  which  have 
been  given  of  the  difficulty  in  the  verse 
that  is  before  us.  If  understood  in  the 
strictly  literal  sense  of  the  English  into 
which  it  has  been  rendered,  it  would  be 
startling  enough — for,  high  and  heroic  as 
the  virtue  of  a  devoted  patriotism  is,  we 
could  never  reconcile  our  feelings  to  a 
sentiment  so  monstrous,  as  that  of  wishing 
oneself  to  be  eternally  damned,  were  it 
possible  to  obtain  by  this  step  that  others 
should  be  eternally  saved.  We  are  requir- 
ed to  love  our  neighbours  as  ourselves, 
but  this  were  loving  them  better  than  our- 
selves—besides involving  in  it  somewhat 
like  the  impiety  of  a  voluntary  exile  from 
God  and  enmity  towards  Him,  and  that 
everlastingly.  The  common  interpreta- 
tion that  is  given  of  this  passage,  though 
by  no  means  the  unanimous  one,  is,  that 
the  word  anathema  in  the  original,  and 
which  we  read  here  accursed,  was  the 
technical  expression  applied  to  that  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  by  which  the 
members  of  the  Hebrew  church  were  put 
forth  of  its  communion,  and  so  made  out- 
casts from  all  those  privileges  on  which 
the  countrymen  of  the  apostle  set  so  high 
a  value.  He  had  become  the  member  of 
'  another  church  that  had  distinct  privi- 
leges of  its  own  ;  and  whereof  the  Jews 
would  naturally  imagine  that  Christians 
must  have  the  same  preference,  and  hold 
them  in  the  same  sort  of  exclusive  regard 
which  themselves  felt  for  the  proud  dis- 
tinctions of  their  own  establishment. 
They  would  think  more  particularly  of 
our  apostle,  that,  in  renouncing  the  one 
and  passing   over   to   the   other,   he  ex- 


changed one  set  of  privileges  for  what  he 
of  course  did  conceive  to  be  nobler  and 
higher  privileges  still ;  and  Paul  meets 
this  imagination  by  assuring  them,  that 
there  is  not  a  privilege  belonging  to  the 
Christian  Society  as  a  visible  church 
upon  earth,  which  he  would  not  give  up 
most  willingly  if  they  were  only  to  take 
up  his  place,  and  enter  into  the  fellowship 
from  which  himself  had  been  cast  out 
It  is  not  that  he  would  give  up  his  fina* 
salvation,  but  that  he  would  give  up  all 
which  was  short  of  his  final  salvation — 
that,  for  example,  he  who  made  himself 
all  things  to  all  men  if  by  any  means  he 
might  save  some,  would  make  every  law- 
ful approximation  in  order  to  reconcile 
his  countrymen  to  Christ,  even  though  in 
doing  so  he  should  give  such  offence  to  all 
other  Christians,  as  to  bring  about  his  own 
expulsion  from  their  society.  He  would 
consent  to  all  temporal  infamy  and  suf- 
fering— rather  than  that  his  compatriots 
the  Jews  should  persevere  in  their  obsti- 
nate rejection  of  the  Saviour,  and  incur 
that  awful  destruction  which  he  saw  to  be 
approaching.  He  was  addressing  h^^lf 
in  fact  to  men  who  in  a  great  degre^^ere 
strangers  to  the  conception  of  a  spiritual 
economy,  or  of  those  its  spiritual  privi- 
leges which  had  their  chief  place  and 
fulfilment  in  eternity.  Apart  from  these 
altogether,  the  expression  of  the  text  had 
all  the  strength  which  it  could  possibly 
have  to  a  Jewish  understanding,  although 
Paul's  imprecation  upon  himself  was  felt 
to  extend  no  further  than  to  the  loss  of 
those  present  distinctions  which  belonged 
to  him,  while  in  communion  with  the 
Christian  church,  and  as  a  recognized 
member  of  the  Christian  society.  It  is 
somewhat  in  this  strain  that  commenta- 
tors have  attempted  to  vindicate  this  efFu  • 
sion  of  the  apostle — though  after  all  it 
may  not  be  capable  of  full  vindication. 
There  might  really  have  been  a  distem- 
pered extravagance  in  the  mind  of  the 
apostle  upon  this  subject,  even  as  there 
seems  to  have  been  in  Moses,  when, 
pleading  for  the  forgiveness  of  the  child- 
ren of  Israel,  he  offered  himself  as  an 
expiation  for  their  sins.  "  Yet  now  if  thou 
wilt  forgive  their  sin  ;  and  if  not  blot  me 
I  pray  thee  out  of  the  book  which  thou 
hast  written."  The  proposal  met  with 
rebuke  and  resistance  in  the  answer  that 
was  given  to  it — "And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  whosoever  hath  sinned  against  me 
him  will  I  blot  out  of  my  book." 

Before  leaving  this  part  of  the  subject, 
I  may  just  take  notice  of  an  interpretation 
which  I  do  think  the  original  admits  of, 
although  not  much  insisted  on  by  scrip- 
ture critics.  The  translation  really  ap- 
pears more  literal,  when,  instead  of  being 
rendered  'I  could  wish,'  it  is  rendered 


360 


LECTURE   LXX. CHAPTER   IX,    3. 


that  I  did  wish  that  myself  were  accursed 
or  separated  from  Christ  for  my  brethren 
my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh.  This 
signification  has  the  further  advantage  of 
being  historically  true.  Paul  at  one  time 
did  for  the  sake  of  his  countrymen,  did, 
for  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  honour 
and  the  good  of  his  nation,  embark  in  a 
most  -esolute  opposition  to  Christ  and  to 
His  fiith,  and  would  gladly  have  con- 
sented to  be  in  a  state  of  everlasting  dis- 
union from  Him  :  And  this  is  quite  perti- 
nent to  quote  now,  in  proof  of  the  affec- 
tion which  he  still  retained  for  the  children 
of  Israel.  He  appeals  to  the  zeal  mani- 
fested then  in  their  behalf;  and  assures 
them  that  the  same  spirit,  misdirected 
though  it  was  at  a  former  part  of  his  life, 


of  fervent  and  devoted  attachment  to 
those  of  his  own  nation,  still  remained 
with  him — although  under  the  guidance 
of  other  views,  and  now  directed  to  other 
objects.  It  is  analagous  to  other  appeals 
made  by  the  apostle,  when  called  to  make 
his  own  vindication.  "  I  have  served  God 
with  all  good  conscience  unto  this  day." 
"  This  I  confess  to  thee,  that  so  worship  I 
the  God  of  my  fathers — believing  all  the 
things  which  are  written  in  the  law  and 
the  prophets."  And  then  in  this  place,  I 
protest  that  I  have  great  heaviness  of 
heart,  for  on  your  account,  I  did  indeed 
wish  myself  separated  from  that  very 
Christ,  whom  now  I  press  upon  your  ac- 
ceptance. 


LECTURE  LXXL 

^^  Romans  ix,  4 — 10,  12. 

♦'  Who  are  Israelites  ;  to  whom  pertaineth  the  adoption  and  the  glory  and  the  covenants  and  the  giving  of  the  law 
and  the  service  of  God  and  the  promises ;  whose  are  the  fathers,  and  of  whom,  as  concerning  the  tlesh,  Christ  came, 
who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever.  Amen.  Not  as  though  the  word  of  God  hath  taken  none  effect.  For  they 
are  not  all  Israel  which  are  of  Israel :  neither,  because  they  are  the  seed  of  Abraham,  are  they  all  children  :  but,  in 
Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called ;  thai  is  they  which  are  the  children  of  the  flesh,  these  are  not  the  children  of  God, 
but  the  children  of  promise  are  counted  for  the  seed.  For  this  is  the  word  of  promise.  At  this  time  will  I  come. 
And  Sarah  shall  have  a  son.  And  not  only  this,  but  when  Rebecca  also  had  conceived  by  one,  even  by  our  father 
Isaac,  it  was  said  unto  her,  The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger." 


V.  4.  '  Who  are  Israelites,  to  whom  per- 
taineth the  adoption  and  the  glory  and  the 
covenants  and  the  giving  of  the  law  and 
the  service  of  God  and  the  promises.' 

After  the  utterance  of  his  affection  for 
the  Jews,  he  enters  upon  the  record  of 
their  distinctions  ;  and  to  no  nation  under 
the  sun  does  there  belong  so  proud,  so 
magnificent  a  heraldry.  No  minstrel  of 
a  country's  fame  was  ever  furnished  so 
richly  with  topics ;  and  the  heart  and 
fancy  of  our  Apostle  seem  to  kindle  at 
the  enumeration  of  them.  They  were 
first  Israelites,  or  descendants  of  a  venera- 
ble patriarch — then,  selected  from  among 
all  the  families  of  the  earth,  they  were 
the  adopted  children  of  God  ;  and  to  them 
belonged  the  glory  of  this  high  and 
heavenly  relationship  ;  and  with  their  an- 
cestors were  those  covenants  made  which 
enveloped  the  great  spiritual  destinies 
of  the  human  race  ;  and  the  dispensation 
of  the  Law  from  that  mountain  which 
smoked  at  the  touch  of  the  Divinity  was 
theirs ;  and  that  solemn  temple  service 
where  alone  the  true  worship  of  the  Eter- 
nal was  kept  up  for  ages  was  theirs ; 
and  as  their  history  was  noble  from  its 
commencement  by  the  fathers  from  whom 
they  sprung,  so  at  its  close  did  it  gather 
upon  it  a  nobility  more  wondrous  still  by 


the  mighty  and  mysterious  descendant  in 
whom  it  may  be  said  to  have  terminated 
— even  Him  who  at  once  is  the  root  and 
the  offspring  of  David,  and  with  the  men- 
tion of  whose  name  our  apostle  finishes  this 
stately  climax  of  their  honours — '  of  whom 
as  concerning  the  flesh  Christ  came,  who 
is  over  all  God  blessed  for  ever.  Amen.* 
They  are  far  the  most  illustrious  people 
on  the  face  of  our  world.  There  shines 
upon  them  a  transcendental  glory  from  on 
high  ;  and  all  thai  the  history  whether  of 
classical  or  heroic  ages  hath  enrolled  of 
other  nations  are  but  as  the  lesser  lights 
of  the  firmament  before  it. 

V.  5.  '  Whose  are  the  fathers,  and  of 
whom  as  concerning  the  flesh  Christ  came 
who  is  over  all  God  blessed  for  ever. 
Amen.' 

We  do  not  insist  upon  this  very  une- 
quivocal expression  of  our  Saviour's  di- 
vinity, in  proof  of  the  doctrine.  This  is 
not  necessary,  for  in  every  simple  and 
unsophisticated  mind  an  instantaneous  be- 
lief must  be  lighted  up — provided  only 
that  the  Bible  is  held  to  be  true.  There  is 
a  delusion  to  which  the  very  controversial 
style  of  almost  all  our  theology  has  given 
rise — that  our  chief  business  with  every 
doctrine  of  Chri.stianity  is  to  prove  it. 
Now  this  is  not  true.    Our  chief  business 


LECTUEE  LXXI. CHAPTEE  IX,  4 — 10,  12. 


361 


with  every  doctrine  is  to  proceed  upon  it. 
To  bring  it  home  to  our  conviction,  tliere 
may  be  often,  as  in  the  present  instance, 
no  need  of  argument — for  it  may  effectu- 
ally be  brought  home,  and  that  immedi- 
ately, by  a  simple  and  authoritative  state- 
ment. And  it  is  a  deep  practical  delusion, 
that  after  you  have  lodged  a  truth  in  the 
understanding  where  it  lies  stored  among 
the  other  articles  of  your  orthodoxy,  your 
concern  with  it  is  all  over ;  and  you  may 
now  regard  it  as  a  matter  settled  and  set 
by.  Now,  instead  of  this,  your  concern 
with  it  is  only  yet  beginning  ;  and,  so  far 
from  being  done  with  it  because  you  now 
have  reached  a  faith  in  its  reality,  that 
faith  is  but  the  commencement  of  those 
various  influences  which  it  is  fitted  to 
have  upon  the  heart  and  history  of  a  be- 
liever. The  effect  of  our  controversial 
theology  is  to  make  us  regard  the  doctrine 
itself  as  the  ultimate  landing-place,  at 
which  when  we  arrive  we  may  go  to  rest. 
But  in  Scripture,  instead  of  the  place  at 
which  we  land,  it  is  in  fact  regarded  as 
the  place  from  which  we  start.  A  doc- 
trine is  never  revealed  to  us  merely  for  its 
own  sake.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  something 
produced  by  itself,  and  therefore  ulterior 
to  itself.  In  the  contests  of  human  author- 
ship, the  terminating  object  is  to  gain  the 
intellect  of  man  to  some  doctrinal  position. 
In  this  book  of  divine  authorship,  the  in- 
tellect is  but  the  avenue  through  which  a 
new  impulse  may  be  given  to  his  alfec- 
tions,  or  a  new  direction  may  be  impressed 
upon  his  conduct.  And  thus  the  divinity 
of  our  Saviour,  so  far  from  being  but  one 
of  the  articles  or  abstractions  of  a  meta- 
physical creed,  is  proposed  to  us  in  the 
Bible  chiefly  for  the  moral  and  spiritual 
account  to  which  it  is  capable  of  being 
turned  ;  and,  agreeably  to  this,  let  us  very 
briefly  advert  to  two  of  those  lessons 
which  may  be  urged  upon  you  from  the 
consideration  that  Christ  is  God. 

The  first  lesson  is  that  of  condescension 
to  those  of  lower  estate  than  ourselves. 
This  is  the  very  lesson  which  the  apostle 
urges  upon  the  Philippians  ;  and  it  is  just 
for  giving  enforcement  and  a  motive  to 
this  plain  and  practical  and  every-day 
morality  of  the  Christian  life,  that  he  an- 
nounces to  us  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour. 
He  brings  down  this  mystery  from  heaven, 
for  the  purpose  of  lighting  up  by  it  a  mu- 
tual kindness  between  manandnian  upon 
earth — So  that  in  his  hand,  instead  of  be- 
ing as  in  the  hand  of  Athanasius  a  fire- 
brand to  burn  up  and  to  destroy,  it  is  that 
mild  and  peaceful  luminary,  which  sheds 
over  the  face  of  human  society  the  radi- 
ance of  a  virtue  the  most  beautiful  and 
the  most  gracious.  "In  lowliness  of  mind, 
let  each  esteem  other  better  than  them- 
selves ;"  and  "  look  not  every  man  on  his 
46 


own  things  but  every  man  also  on  the 
things  of  others ;"  and  "  let  this  mind  be 
in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it 
not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  but 
made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and  took 
upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was 
made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and  being 
found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled 
himself  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross." 

It  is  for  the  enhancement  then  of  this 
moral  lesson,  that  we  are  told  of  the  dig- 
nity of  that  Personage  who  lighted  upon 
our  world,  and  that  on  an  errand  of  be- 
neficence and  mercy  to  its  sinful  genera- 
tions— that  it  was  not  the  visit  of  some 
fellow-subject  from  some  distant  place  of 
the  creation,  but  a  visit  from  the  sovereign 
Himself,  who  owned  all  creation  as  His 
monarchy,  and  upholdeth  all  the  things 
that  are  therein  by  the  word  of  His  power. 
— that  the  earth  which  we  tread  upon  was 
on  that  occasion  honoured  by  the  foot- 
steps, not  of  angel  or  of  archangel,  but  by 
the  footsteps  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh 
— and  that  He,  in  bowing  Himself  down 
to  the  lowliest  offices  of  humanity  for  our 
sakes,  did  so  for  the  purpose  of  an  exam- 
ple as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  an  expi- 
ation, even  that  we  might  look  on  no 
living  and  created  thing  as  beneath  the 
notice  or  the  condescension  of  our  ser- 
vices. The  distance  upward  between  us 
and  that  mighty  mysterious  Being  who  let 
Himself  down  from  heaven's  high  con- 
cave upon  our  lowly  platform,  surpasses 
by  infinity  the  distance  downward  be- 
tween us  and  any  thing  that  breathes. 
Under  the  impulse  of  such  a  contempla- 
tion, not  only  might  the  lordliest  of  us  all 
condescend  to  the  wretched  and  worth- 
less of  our  own  species,  whom  either  mis- 
fortune or  crime  has  made  the  veriest 
outcasts  of  humanity ;  but  we  feel  our- 
selves carried  by  it  beyond  and  beneath 
the  limits  of  our  species,  and  that  it  should 
extend  the  compassionate  regards  of  every 
Christian  over  the  whole  of  sentient  and 
suffering  nature.  The  high  court  of  par- 
liament is  not  degraded  by  its  attentions 
and  its  cares  in  behalf  of  inferior  crea- 
tures— else  the  sanctuary  of  heaven  has 
been  degraded  by  its  counsels  in  behalf 
of  the  world  we  occupy;  and  in  execu- 
tion of  which  the  Lord  of  heaven  Himself 
relinquished  the  highest  seat  of  glory  in 
the  universe,  and  sojourned  amidst  con- 
tempt and  cruelty  and  contradiction  of 
sinners  in  this  its  humble  and  accursed 
territory.  By  our  benevolence  to  all  that 
is  beneath  us,  we  only  imitate  the  glorious 
munificence  that  is  above  us;  and  though 
v/e  have  now  lingered  for  such  a  time 
upon  these  few  verses,  that  even  the  beau- 
ties of  a  lesson  so  delightful  must  not 


J62 


LECTURE  LXXI. CHAPTER  IX,  4 — 10,  12. 


tempt  us  to  expatiate  any  further— yet  we 
cannot  refrain  from  one  observation  on 
the  contrast  which  is  suggested  by  it  be- 
tween  the  theology  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
theology  although  made  up  of  the  very 
same  doctrinal  positions  but  urged  by 
human  expounders  in  the  spirit  of  a  fierce 
and  intolerant  dogmatism.  That  article 
of  faith  which  in  the  one  theology  is  a 
moral  principle,  and  carries  us  forward 
at  once  to  its  moral  application,  so  that 
we  instantly  find  ourselves  in  the  midst 
either  of  the  most  easy  and  familiar  graces, 
or  of  the  most  noble  virtues  by  which  our 
nature  can  be  adorned— undergoes  in  the 
other  theology  a  transmutation  into  a 
thing  of  another  air  and  aspect  altogether, 
a  dry  hard  ferocious  metaphysical  dogma, 
glaring  frightfully  upon  us  with  an  eye 
of  menace,  and  set  round  in  characters  of 
dread  and  denunciation  against  all  who 
•  shall  refuse  to  fall  down  and  worship  it. 
This  is  not  the  way  in  which  the  triumphs 
of  genuine  orthodoxy  are  won  ;  and  the 
man,  who  exemplifies  the  godlike  virtues 
of  Him  who  is  at  once  our  God  and 
Saviour,  will  do  more  to  recommend  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  than  the  stoutest 
and  sturdiest  polemic  who  has  nought  but 
the  armour  of  controversy  to  brandish  in 
its  cause.  The  benign  condescensions  of 
a  Howard  who  went  about  continually 
doing  good,  will  do  more  to  accredit  that 
evangelical  system  which  he  embraced 
so  cordially,  than  the  boisterous  invec- 
tives of  a  Horsley — even  with  all  the  might 
and  momentum  of  that  polemic  arm  which 
he  lifted  in  defence  of  it  It  is  not  that 
his  victory  was  doubtful,  or  that  on  the 
field  of  conflict  with  his  adversary  he  did 
not  achieve  a  most  signal  and  conclusive 
triumph.  But  it  was  a  triumph  on  the 
arena  of  intellect  alone  ;  and  there  is  not 
a  truth  in  Christianity,  which  is  not 
divested  of  more  than  half  its  power  to 
convince  and  conciliate,  if,  propped  up 
only  by  argument,  there  is  no  exhibition 
given  of  its  mastery  over  the  affections 
and  the  principles  of  our  moral  nature. 
It  is  not  by  the  warfare  of  argument,  but 
by  the  meekness  of  wisdom,  that  we  ob- 
tain the  conquests  of  the  faith.  It  is  when 
urged  in  the  gentle  and  peaceable  spirit 
which  is  from  above  that  truth  is  omni- 
potent, instead  of  being  urged  in  that 
wrath  of  man  which  worketh  not  the 
righteousness  of  God. 

The  second  lesson  is  founded  on  the 
subservience  of  this  doctrine  to  the  peace 
of  the  believer,  even  as  the  first  is  founded 
on  its  subservience  to  his  charity.  We 
have  already  said  that  the  divinity  of 
Christ  enhanced  the  worth  of  His  exam- 
ple, in  those  condescending  services  which 
He  rendered  to  the  world.  We  now  say 
that  His  divinity  enhanced  the  worth  of 


that  expiation,  which  to  us  is  the  most 
precious  of  His  services.  However  un- 
fathomable in  all  its  depth,  that  mystery 
might  be  which  angels  desired  to  look 
into,  certain  it  is,  that  the  most  unlettered 
Christian  can  apprehend  a  sufficiency, 
and  can  draw  a  comfort  from  the  reflec- 
tion that  the  Saviour  who  died  for  him 
was  God.  There  is  none,  we  deem,  who 
has  ever  trembled  at  the  thought  of  that 
offended  sacredness  against  which  he  has 
sinned,  who  has  not  felt  a  most  significant 
and  a  most  substantial  consolation  from 
the  thought  that  there  is  an  equal  sacred- 
ness in  the  atonement  which  has  been 
made  for  sin.  There  is  none  who  has  been 
duly  arrested  by  a  sense  of  that  guilt, 
against  which  the  truth  and  the  justice 
and  the  holiness  of  the  divinity  are  all 
leagued  together  for  its  everlasting  con- 
demnation;  who,  if  a  solid  and  satisfying 
hope  have  arisen  from  the  midst  and  the 
profoundness  of  this  despair,  does  not  feel 
that  it  is  intimately  linked  with  the  divi- 
nity of  Him,  who  poured  out  His  soul  unto 
the  death — even  that  the  world's  guilt 
might  be  washed  away.  That  the  dignity 
of  the  sacrifice  which  has  been  made  is 
commensurate  to  the  dignity  of  the  law 
which  has  been  violated — that  the  force 
of  the  divine  wrath  against  moral  evil  has 
had  the  force  of  a  divine  propitiation  to 
neutralise  it — that  if  the  sin  of  the  trans- 
gressor brought  forth  an  arm  of  infinite 
strength  to  destroy,  the  sacrifice  for  sin  is 
one  of  such  prevailing  force  and  efficacy 
as  to  have  brought  forth  an  arm  of  infinite 
strength  to  save  him — In  all  this,  my  bre- 
thren, there  is  something  more  than  the 
unmeaning  jingle  of  a  mere  sonorous  or 
scholastic  antithesis.  There  is  many  a 
disciple  who  feels  it  to  be  the  very  ali- 
ment of  his  confidence  and  peace,  that 
Christ  is  God  over  all  blessed  for  ever, 
Amen. 

V.  6.  '  Not  as  though  the  word  of  God 
hath  taken  none  effect.  For  they  are  not 
all  Israel  which  are  of  Israel.' 

He  had  just  said  of  his  brethren,  his 
kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,  that  they 
were  Israelites  ;  and  that  to  them  belong- 
ed the  promises.  And  yet  it  might  appear 
that  these  promises  had  not  been  verified 
upon  them — seeing  that  they  were  on  the 
eve  of  being  rejected  by  God,  for  that  by 
this  time  they  had  rejected  His  Son.  This 
calls  out  the  apostle  to  a  vindication  of 
God's  truth  in  the  promises  which  He  had 
made  of  old  respecting  this  people.  His 
word  in  these  promises  had  not  failed  in 
its  effect,  although  the  whole  of  nominal 
Israel  should  not  be  saved.  All  the  de- 
scendants of  Israel  were  named  after  his 
name,  but  that  did  not  constitute  them  to 
be  of  the  true  Israel — in  like  manner  as 
he  had  said  before  that  he  is  not  a  Jew 


LECTURE  LXXI. CHAPTER  IX,  4 — 10,  12, 


363 


which  is  one  outwardly,  neither  is  that 
circumcision  which  is  outward  in  the 
flesh  ;  but  he  is  a  Jew  which  is  one  in- 
wardly ;  and  circumcision  is  that  of  the 
heart,  in  the  spirit  and  not  in  the  letter, 
whose  praise  is  not  of  men  but  of  God. 

V.  7.  'Neither  because  they  are  the 
seed  of  Abraham  are  they  all  children, 
but  in  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called.' 

The  promise  was  given  to  Israel — yet 
it  no  more  followed  from  this  that  all  the 
descendants  of  Israel  should  have  an  in- 
terest therein,  than  that  all  the  seed  of 
Abraham  should  be  included  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  promised  blessing — because, 
when  announced  to  him  at  the  first,  it 
was  nakedly  and  generally  expressed, 
without  any  restriction  of  it  to  one  part 
of  his  seed  more  than  to  another.  In  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Genesis,  it  is  stated 
that  the  Lord  appeared  unto  Abraham 
and  said,  that  "unto  thy  seed  will  I  give 
this  land."  Yet  we  afterwards  read  in 
the  twenty -first  chapter  of  a  very  numer- 
ous division  of  his  posterity,  who  were  to 
havie  no  part  in  this  inheritance,  even  the 
descendants  of  Ishmael — "for  in  Isaac 
shall  thy  seed  be  called,"  and  the  bond- 
woman and  her  son  were  cast  out  accord- 
ingly. This  part  of  the  Old  Testament 
history  is  adverted  to  in  another  of  Paul's 
epistles ;  and  for  the  very  purpose  of 
illustrating  the  distinction  between  the 
nominal  and  the  true  Israel,  between  the 
children  of  the  flesh  and  the  children  of 
the  promise,  between  the  earthly  Jerusa- 
lem which  then  subsisted  in  the  bondage 
of  her  yet  unextinguished  ritual  and  the 
Jerusalem  which  is  above  and  is  free — 
and  so  of  vindicating  that  great  step  of 
the  divine  administration,  by  which  so 
many  even  of  Israel's  natural  descend- 
ants were  put  forth  of  God's  spiritual 
kingdom,  and  admittance  was  given  to  the 
men  of  other  tribes  and  other  families. 

V.  8.  '  That  is,  They  which  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  flesh,  these  are  not  the  children 
of  God ;  but  the  children  of  the  promise 
are  counted  for  the  seed.' 

The  object  of  the  apostle  is  to  break 
down  that  confidence  in  the  flesh  (as  he 
terms  it  in  his  epistle  to  the  Philippians) 
by  which  his  countrymen  were  so  gen- 
erally blinded  ;  and  in  virtue  of  which 
they  arrogated  so  much  of  what  might  be 
termed  a  religious  nobility  to  themselves, 
just  because  of  their  literal  descent  from 
the  patriarch  Abraham.  To  meet  and 
rectify  this  imagination,  he  goes  back  with 
them  to  their  own  primeval  history.  He 
first  shows  how  Isaac  superseded  Ishmael 
— ^how  the  child  of  faith,  born  out  of  due 
time  and  in  opposition  to  all  the  likeli- 
hoods of  nature,  superseded  the  child  of 
ordinary  descent  and  in  whose  birth  there 
was  nothing  of  the  miraculous — thereby 


giving  one  instance  of  a  disinheritance 
that  God  had  passed  even  on  the  posterity 
of  the  patriarch  in  whom  they  gloried ; 
and  of  another  posterity  being  formed  for 
him  in  virtue  of  a  gracious  promise  on 
the  part  of  God,  and  of  a  faith  in  that  pro- 
mise on  the  part  of  man.  It  is  thus  that 
he  laboured,  by  such  types  and  symbols 
as  their  own  history  furnished,  to  bring 
down  the  arrogance  of  those  who  vaunted 
in  Abraham  as  their  father,  and  said  "  we 
be  his  seed  and  were  never  in  bondage  to 
any  man."  It  is  thus  that  he  prepared 
the  understandings  of  those  whom  he  ad- 
dressed for  another  disinheritance — even 
of  those  who  grounded  all  their  imagined 
privileges  on  a  carnal  obedience,  and 
sought  not  to  be  justitified  by  faith.  And 
it  is  thus  also  that  he  typified  by  Isaac, 
the  child  of  promise  and  given  out  of  the 
course  of  nature  and  experience  to  that 
patriarch  who  against  hope  believed  in 
hope,  all  those  who  shall  afterwards  walk 
in  the  steps  of  faithful  Abraham,  and  be- 
come the  children  of  God  by  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus — who  are  born  again,  not  of 
blood  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh  nor  of 
the  will  of  man,  but  of  God. 

V.  9.  '  For  this  is  the  word  of  promise 
At  this  time  will  I  come  and  Sarah  shall 
have  a  son.' 

In  this  verse  he  specifies  the  limitation 
that  was  actually  made  on  the  general 
promise  unto  Abraham's  seed, — whereby 
the  descendants  of  Ishmael,  although  they 
could  plead  the  same  natural  relationship 
to  the  patriarch,  were  nevertheless  ex- 
cluded from  that  more  close  and  pecu- 
liar relationship  to  the  God,  into  which  he 
was  pleased  to  admit  the  descendants  of 
Isaac.  , 

V.  10,  12.  '  And  not  only  this,  but  when 
Rebecca  also  had  conceived  by  one,  even 
by  our  father  Isaac' — '  It  was  said  unto  her 
The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger.' 

He  here  states  a  further  limitation,  and 
shows  still  more  strikingly  of  how  little 
avail  the  general  promise  given  at  the 
first  was,  for  all  and  every  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Abraham.  There  might  appear 
a  good  natural  reason  why  Isaac  should 
be  preferred  before  Ishmael — the  son  of 
the  wife  before  the  son  of  the  bondmaid  ; 
and  besides,  as  this  preference  took  place 
after  their  births  and  after  the  insolent 
behaviour  of  the  one  in  mocking  the  other, 
it  might  warrant  the  idea  that  his  rejection 
was  a  thing  of  desert  and  of  moral  govern- 
ment, and  not  a  thing  of  absolute  and 
antecedent  sovereignty  on  the  part  of  God. 
It  therefore  brings  this  out  more  une- 
quivocally, when  the  election  is  made 
between  two  children  of  the  same  mother  ; 
and,  moreover,  when,  in  opposition  to  the 
natural  claims  of  seniority,  the  elder  is  re- 
jected and  the  younger  is  chosen.    There 


364 


LECTURE  LXXI. CHAPTER  IX,  4 10,  12. 


is  even  somethine  in  this  latter  peculi- 
arity, that  might  be  made  to  bear  on  the 
fulfilment  which  took  place  in  the  days 
of  the  apostle,  when  the  first  were  made 
last  and  the  last  first ;  or,  in  other  words, 
when  the  Jews  that  ancient  people  were 
rejected,  and  God,  in  the  course  of  His 
now  more  advanced  administration,  chose 
the  Gentiles  in  their  place.  This  was 
matter  of  prophecy  and  preordination 
anterior  to  the  birth  of  the  children,  as 
is  evident  from  the  intimation  of  God 
himself  to  Rebecca,  of  which  we  read  in 
the  book  of  Genesis.  And  as  by  the  for- 
mer instance  of  a  limitation  on  the  gen- 
eral promise,  the  apostle  teaches  that  the 
children  by  faith  and  by  miraculous  re- 
generation have  the  preference  over  the 
children  of  nature — so,  by  the  present 
instance,  he  rather  points  to  the  sove- 
reignty of  God.  In  looking  to  the  one,  we 
are  led  to  connect  an  admission  into  the 
great  spiritual  family  with  the  new  birth 
that  takes  place  in  men  upon  earth.  In 
looking  to  the  other  we  are  led  to  connect 
it  with  the  mysterious  counsels  and  desti- 
nations of  eternity,  with  the  high  pur- 
poses of  God  in  heaven. 

Thus  much  at  all  events  is  clear  in  the 
apostle's  argument.  There  was  a  promise 
given  to  Abraham  in  regard  to  his  pos- 
terity ;  yet  one  branch  of  that  posterity 
was  rejected  without  invalidating  the 
truth  of  the  promise.  After  this  first  re- 
striction the  promise  was  to  the  seed  of 
Isaac ;  yet  one  great  division  of  his  off- 
spring was  also  rejected,  without  those 
Jews  against  whom  the  apostle  now  rea- 
soned deeming  the  promise  to  have  been 
at  all  violated.  Last  of  all  it  was  restrict- 
ed to  Jacob  or  Israel ;  and  what  the  apos- 
tle arguSs  is,  that  a  still  furl  her  rejection 
might  lake  place  even  of  his  descendants, 
and  yet  God  not  be  chargeable  with  hav- 
ing uttered  a  promise  that  was  of  none  ef- 
fect. As  with  all  the  former  and  successive 
excisions  that  were  made  on  the  posterity 
of  Abraham,  still  a  portion  was  reserved 
on  whom  the  promised  blessings  had  their 
verification  or  their  fulfilment — so,  in  the 
tremendous  excision  that  was  about  to 
take  place  by  the  utter  destruction  of  the 
Jewish  polity,  a  remnant  might  be  saved. 
And  not  only  so,  but  by  movements  yet 
undisclosed  in  the  womb  of  futurity,  and 
by  the  new  light  which  these  should 
evolve  on  the  sense  and  bearing  of  the 
ancient  prophecies,  might  there  be  evinc- 
ed such  an  enlargement  of  the  family  of 
Abraham,  as  should  harmonise  witii  all 
the  former  passages  of  scripture  history  in 
regard  to  it,  and,  so  far  from  falsifying, 
shed  a  lustre  of  consistency  and  truth 
over  all  its  declarations. 

I  have  the  feeling  on  this  part  of  our 
chapter,  that,  without  a  very  extended 


comparison  of  passages  both  in  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament,  which  were  more 
properly  addressed  through  the  medium 
of  authorship  to  a  student  in  his  closet 
than  from  the  pulpit  to  a  listener  in  the 
church,  I  cannot  make  full  exhibition  of 
those  mystic  harmonies  between  the  one 
and  the  other,  which,  though  loss  obvious 
to  the  general  eye,  are,  to  the  dcjvoted  en- 
quirer after  the  truth  and  meaning  of  the 
sacred  volume,  both  most  satisfying  and 
most  precious ;  and  which  serve  to  con- 
vince him  that  it  is  one  wondrous  design 
which  runs  through  this  composition  of 
many  ages — one  great  presiding  Spirit 
that  has  harmonised  and  that  actuates  the 
whole.  We  feel  most  thoroughly  per- 
suaded, that,  without  entering  upon  the 
regions  of  fancy  at  all,  even  the  most  lit- 
eral and  sober  of  our  ordinary  Christians, 
if  he  only  give  time  and  patience  to  the 
study,  will  reap  the  most  substantial  con- 
viction of  a  marvellous,  a  supernatural 
accordance  between  the  two  dispensa- 
tions ;  and  that,  as  on  the  one  hand  he 
will  find  even  the  books  of  Moses  to  be 
impregnated  with  gospel — so,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  will  find  the  doctrine  which 
apostles  taught,  after  being  visited  with 
the  light  and  enlargement  of  Pentecost,  to 
be  but  the  expansion  of  an  earlier  dawn, 
the  development  of  truths  that  were  dimly 
shadowed  forth  in  the  imagery  uf  the  Mo- 
saic ritual.  We  ask  but  the  perseverance 
of  his  attention,  and  without  any  aid  from 
the  imaginative  faculties  of  his  nature,  we 
promise  him  the  discovery  of  many  tra- 
ces and  analogies  that  are  now  hidden 
from  his  eyes  ;  and  which,  as  evincing 
that  the  one  economy  has  given  its  im- 
press to  the  other,  will,  at  the  same  time, 
evince  that  both  are  the  productions  of  a 
loftier  and  more  recondite  wisdom  than 
that  of  man,  and  that  both  have  proceeded 
from  the'same  author.  And  this  holds,  not 
alone  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  Jewish 
ceremonial,  but  also  in  the  passages  of 
the  Jewish  history — which  things,  says 
the  apostle  of  one  of  its  plainest  narra- 
tives, are  an  allegory.  It  is  thus  that  the 
age  of  our  earliest  patriarchs  was  but  the 
morning  of  a  lengthened  day,  whose 
gradually  increasing  light  shone  more 
brightly  along  the  track  of  its  advance- 
ment ;  but  still  shone  on  the  same  truths 
now  disclosed  to  the  eye  in  fuller  manifes- 
tation— even  as  the  sun  in  the  firmament 
has  not  altered  the  landscape  on  which 
there  rested  his  twilight  obscurity  a  few 
hours  before,  but  only  invests  the  same 
objects  in  a  clearer  element  of  vision,  only 
irr.idiates  the  whole  more  gloriously. 

And  I  might  here  advert  to  a  very  fre- 
quent experience  of  Christians;  and  that 
is  their  growing  relish,  as  they  advance  in 
life,  for  the  types,  and  the  prophecies, 


LECTUEE  LXXI. — CHAPTER  IX,  4 10,  12. 


365 


and  the   sketches  of  character,  and  the 
strains  of  olden  inspiration,  and  the  many 
beauteous  passages  of  most  pleasing  and 
picturesque  history,  and  the  description 
of  that  whole  machinery  even  to  the  mi- 
nutest parts  in  it  of  Israel's  figurative  or 
symbolical   church,  which  are  so  abun- 
dantly met  with  in  the  Old  Testament. 
Even  fhose  stories  which  wont  to  charm 
them  in  early  boyhood,  while  they   pre- 
serve all  the  delight  of  this  association, 
now  recur  to  them  with  the  force  of  an 
augmented  interest,  because  they  now  see 
them  to  be.  throughout  pervaded  by  the 
character  and  the  meaning  of  their  own 
spiritual  dispensation.     Like  the  disciples 
of  Emmaus  their  hearts  burn  within  them, 
while   their   understandings    are  opened 
to  understand  these  scriptures ;  and  when 
recognising   Ohrist  in   every  page,  they 
are  made  to  behold  the  bearing  and  the 
significancyof  the  things  which  are  written 
in  the  law  of  Moses  and  in  the  Prophets 
and  in  the  Psalms  concerning  Him.  Very 
pleasant  as  to  the  mind  of  good  Bishop 
Home  were  the  songs  of  Zion,  when  ev- 
ery morning   called   him   anew  to  their 
study,  and  every  evening  found  his  spirit 
more  satisfied  than  before  with  their  rich- 
ness— very  pleasant  to  many  a  humble 
Christian,  are  the  things  which  God,  at 
sundry   times  and   in    diverse   manners, 
spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets.    It  is  as  if  the  delights  of  ima- 
gination were  superadded  to  the  delights 
of  piety,  when  the  doctrines  of  the  New 
are  beheld  in  the  drapery  of  the  Old  dis- 
pensation ;  and  if  there  be  any  aged  here 
present,  who,  exempted  from   the  cares 
that  engrossed  the  morning  or  the  middle 
of  their  days,  can  now  afford  to  live  and 
to  look  more  heaven-ward  than  before — 
we  promise  them,  not  a  different  gospel  in 
the  earlier  from  what  they  have  found  in 
the  later  scriptures,  but  the  same  gospel 
seen  through  a  veil  of  ever  brightening 
transparency,  and  heightened  by  the  zest 
of  many  dear  and  youthful  remembran- 
ces.    It  is  thus  that,  in  the  study  of  the 
Old  Testament,  the  faded  spirits,  the  dim 
and  the  decaying  lights  of  age  have  been 
revived  again  ;  and  in  the  solace  and  sat- 
isfaction  of   its  repeated    perusal,   they 
have  experienced  of  the  things   that  be 
recorded  there,  that  they  are  written,  not 
alone  for  older  generations,  but  for  our 
admonition  also  to  whom  the  latter  ends 
of  the  world  have  come. 

We  are  aware  that  some  will  concur 
with  us,  in  looking  upon  these  as  the  be- 
fitting studies  of  age,  just  because  they 
regard  all  typical  and  all  prophetical  in- 
terpretations as  so  many  senilities — even 
as  Voltaire,  in  the  examples  which  he  has 
quoted  of  the  aberrations  of  the  human 
understanding,  along  with  the  case  of  Ro- 


ger Bacon  having  written  upon  witchcrafl 
brings  forward  also  that  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  having  in  his  declining  life  writ- 
ten a  commentary  upon  the  book  of  Rev- 
elation. 

Now  fully  admitting,  as  we  do,  that 
manifold  have  been  the  visions  and  the 
vagaries  of  those  who  have  adventured 
too  far  either  on  the  field  of  propheoy  or 
in  the  work  of  spiritualising  the  Old  Tes- 
tament,, yet  we  confidently  affirm,  that 
none  can  enter  upon  this  walk  of  contem- 
plation with  intelligence  and  candour, 
without  being  satisfied  of  a  most  substan- 
tial accordancy  between  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments — that  they  are  indeed  the  two 
witnesses  of  Heaven  speaking  the  same 
things;  and,  instead  of  emitting  such 
cross  lights  as  are  fitted  to  bewilder  the 
eye  of  the  observer,  they  are  the  two 
candlesticks  which  man  hath  not  planted, 
but  which  stand  before  the  God  of  the 
whole  earth.  And  as  to  our  great  philos- 
opher, who  transferred  his  mighty  intel- 
lect from  the  study  of  the  works  of  God 
to  the  study  of  his  word,  this  may  have 
taken  place  at  the  decline  of  his  years,  but 
not  most  certainly  at  the  decline  of  his 
understanding.  The  truth  is  that  he  felt  a 
kindredness  between  his  old  and  his  new 
contemplations — that  after  having  seen 
further  than  all  who  went  before  him  into 
the  godlike  harmonies  of  the  world,  he 
was  tempted  to  search  and  at  length  did 
behold  the  traces  of  a  wisdom  no  less 
marvellous  in  the  godlike  harmonies  of 
the  word — that  after  having  looked  and 
with  stedfastness  for  years  on  the  mazy 
face  of  heaven,  and  evolved  thencefrom 
the  magnificent  cycles  of  astronomy,  he 
then  turned  him  to  Scripture,  and  found, 
in  the  midst  of  now  unravelled  obscuri- 
ties, that  its  cycles  of  prophecy  were 
equally  magnificent — and  whether  he  cast 
his  regards  on  the  book  of  Revelation  or 
on  the  book  of  Daniel,  who,  placed  on  the 
eminence  of  a  sublime  antiquity  looked 
through  the  vista  of  many  descending 
ages,  and  eyed  from  afar  the  structure 
and  the  society  of  modern  Europe,  he, 
whose  capacious  mind  had  so  long  been 
conversant  with  the  orbits  and  the  periods 
of  the  natural  economy,  could  not  but 
acknowledge  the  footsteps  of  the  same 
presiding  divinity  in  the  still  higher  orbits 
of  that  spiritual  economy  which  is  un- 
folded in  the  Bible.  And  while  we  cannot 
but  lament  the  deadly  mischief,  which  the 
second-rate  philosophy  of  infidels  has 
done  to  the  inferior  spirits  of  our  world  ; 
we  feel  it  an  impressive  rebuke  on  their 
haughty  pretentions,  that  all  the  giants 
and  the  men  of  might  in  other  days,  the 
Newtons  and  the  Boyles  and  the  Lockes 
and  the  Bacons  of  high  England,  have 
worshipped  so  profoundly  at  its  shrine. 


366 


LECTURE  LXXI. CHAPTER  IX,  4 — 10,  12. 


But  chief  of  these  is  our  great  Sir  Isaac, 
who,  throned  although  he  be  by  universal 
sufferage  as  the  very  prince  of  philoso- 
phers, is  still  the  most  attractive  specimen 
of  humanity  which  the  world  ever  saw  ; 
and,  just  because  the  meekness  of  his 
Christian  worth  so  softens  while  it  irradi- 
ates  the  majesty  of  his  genius  :  And  never 
was  there  realised  in  the  character  of 
man  so  rare  and  so  beauteous  a  harmony, 


that  he  who  stands  forth  to  a  wondering 
species  of  loftiest  achievement  in  science, 
should  nevertheless  move  so  gently  and 
so  gracefully  among  his  fellow-men — not 
more  honoured  for  the  glory  he  won  on 
the  field  of  discovery,  than  loved  by  all 
for  the  milder  glories  of  his  name — his 
being  the  modest  the  unpretending  graces 
of  a  child-like  nature — his  being  the  pious 
simplicity  of  a  cottage  patriarch.* 


LECTURE  LXXII. 


Romans  ix,  11,  13 — 24. 

m 

"For  the  children  being  not  yet  born,  neither  having  done  any  good  or  evil,  that  the  purpose  of  Ood  according  to 
election  might  stand,  not  of  works  but  of  him  that  calleth." — "As  it  is  written  Jacob  have  1  loved  but  Esau  have  I 
hated.  What  shall  we  say  then  !  Is  there  unrighteousness  with  God  1  God  forbid.  For  he  saith  to  Moses  I  will 
have  mercy  on  whom  I  will  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  compassion  on  whom  I  will  have  compassion  So  then 
it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy.  For  the  Scripture  saith 
unto  Pharoah,  Even  for  this  same  purpose  have  I  raised  thee  up,  that  I  might  show  my  power  in  thee  and  that  my 
name  miglit  be  declared  throughout  all  the  earth.  Therefore  hath  he  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and 
whom  he  will  he  hardeneth.  Thou  wilt  say  then  unto  me,  Why  doth  he  yet  find  fault?  for  who  hatli  resisted  his 
wiin  Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that  formed 
it,  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus?  Hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay,  of  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel 
unto  honour  and  another  unto  dishonour?  What  if  Gocl,  willing  to  show  his  wrath  and  to  make  his  power  known, 
endureth  with  much  long-suffering  the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction  ;  and  that  he  might  make  known  the 
riches  of  his  glory  on  the  vessels  of  mercy  which  he  had  afore  prepared  unto  glory,  even  us  whom  he  hath  called, 
not  of  the  Jews  only  but  also  of  the  Gentiles  ?" 


We  have  read  these  verses  at  once  and 
together,  because  of  the  one  principle 
which  runs  through  them  all — even  the 
unexpected  sovereignty  of  God,  in  the 
exercise  of  which  He  is  so  absolute, 
and  at  the  same  time  so  incomprehen- 
sible. Many  of  you  will  recollect, 
that,  in  former  parts  of  this  epistle,  the 
same  doctrine  met  us  on  our  way  ;  and 
that  we  at  the  time  bestowed  very  length- 
ened discussion  upon  it.  To  revive  that 
agument  in  all  its  fulness,  merely  because 
months  have  elapsed  since  its  delivery, 
would,  in  fact,  be  making  a  barrier  of 
this  passage  through  which  we  should 
never  find  our  way,  and  compelling  our- 
selves to  be  forever  stationary.  I  must 
therefore  be  content  with  as  summary 
a  recapitulation  as  possible,  that  we  may 
be  enabled,  ere  taking  leave,  to  bring  not 
merely  this  passage  but  also  this  chapter 
to  a  conclusion.  My  apology,  as  hereto- 
fore, for  meddling  at  all  with  a  topic  that 
is  deemed  by  many  to  be  so  stubborn  and 
so  hopeless,  is,  that  we  really  are  not  at 
liberty  to  blink  any  of  those  informations 
which  the  Scripture  sets  before  us ;  and 
if,  on  the  one  hand,  wc  should  not  go  out 
of  our  way  to  meet  a  theme  that  has  been 
so  burdened  with  controversy  as  this — 
neither  ought  we  to  go  out  of  our  way  to 
shun  this  theme,  whenever  obtruded  upon 
our  notice  as  it  is  here  in  the  record  of 
the  counsel  of  God.  While  I  have  alrea- 
dy endeavoured  to  grapple  with  such  dif- 


ficulties as  I  hold  to  be  conquerable  in 
this  high  argument — I  will  frankly  con- 
fess, what  the  other  difficulties  are  which 
appear  to  me  beyond  the  treatment  of 
human  strength  or  human  .sagacity  to  deal 
with  ;  and  before  which  we  should  bow 
in  silence,  till  the  mystery  of  God  is 
finished  and  made  known  to  us.  We 
think  that  the  passage  now  road,  brings 
that  line  of  demarcation  into  view,  which 
marks  off  the  one  set  of  difficulties  from 
the  other  ;  and  it  is  our  honest  aim  in  the 
management  of  this  question,  instead  of 
ministering  to  the  gratification  of  an  idle 
or  speculative  curiosity,  so  to  shape  our 
observations  as  that  they  shall  recommend 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  free  ac- 
ceptance of  all,  and  have  a  bearing  on 
the  great  interests  of  practical  godliness. 
The  first  point  then  which  we  have 
already  laboured  to  impress  is,  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  chance  or  contingency 
in  any  department  of  nature — that  this 
principle  so  readily  admitted  in  regard  to 
the  world  of  matter,  should  also  be  ex- 
tended to  the  world  of  mind— that  if  the 
one  have  its  laws  of  motion  and  its  regu- 
lar successions  and   its   unvarying   pro- 


*  It  must  be  owned  however,  that  with  all  the  sound 
philosophy  which  he  evinced  in  the  general  question  of 
the  Christian  evidences — even  as  B.icon  did  in  the  general 
view  which  he  gave  of  the  inethods  of  investigation — So, 
as  the  latter  failed  in  his  more  special  disquisitions  on 
the  particular  phenomena  and  laws  of  Nature— did  the 
former  alike  fail,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe,  in  his 
understanding  both  of  particular  texts  in  the  Bible,  and 
particular  doctrines  of  Christianity. 


LECTURE  LXXII. — CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13 — 24. 


367 


cesses,  the  other  has  its  laws  of  thought 
and  of  feeling  ;  and,  in  virtue  of  these,  has 
all  its  processes  alike  regular  and  alike  un- 
varying— that  in  neither  is  there  ought  so 
monstrous  as  an  event  uncaused,  or  com- 
ing forth  of  the  womb  of  nonentity  with- 
out having  a  progenitor  in  some  event 
that  went  before  it ;  and  if  not  uncaused 
then  necessary,  having  the  same  certain 
and  precise  dependence  on  something 
preceding  itself  which  the  posterior  has 
on  the  prior  term  of  any  sequence — So 
that  the  phenomena  of  thinking  and  feel- 
ing and  willing  and  doing  in  the  spiritual 
department  of  Nature,  do  as  surely  result 
from  the  previous  consthution  which  has 
been  given  to  it,  as  any  of  the  varied  phe- 
nomena in  the  material  department  result 
from  its  constitution.  According  to  this 
view  the  history  of  our  species  may  be  re- 
garded as  one  vast  progression,  carried  for- 
ward by  definite  footsteps  ;  and  with  the 
state  of  each  individual  as  surely  fixed  at 
every  moment  of  time  by  the  laws  of 
mental  nature,  as  is  the  situation  of  any 
planet  above  or  of  any  particle  of  dust 
below  by  the  physical  laws  which  are 
established  in  the  material  world.  This 
is  that  doctrine  of  philosophical  neces- 
sity, whose  ablest  advocate  is  President 
Edwards  of  America — a  clergyman  of 
whom  we  might  have  feared  that  the 
depth  of  his  philosophy  would  have  spoil- 
ed him  of  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ, 
did  we  not  recollect  that  it  is  not  against 
all  philosophy  that  we"  are  warned  in  the 
Bible,  but  only  against  vain  philosophy  ; 
and  of  whom  we  might  have  feared  tiiat 
his  transcendent  ability  for  science  would 
have  hurt  his  sacredness,  did  we  not  re- 
collect that  it  is  not  all  science  which 
the  Bible  denounces  but  only  the  science 
that  is  falsely  so  called  :  And  it  does  re- 
concile us  to  the  efforts  of  highest  scho- 
larship in  the  defence  and  illustration  of 
our  faith,  when,  looking  to  Edwards, 
we  behold  the  most  philosophical  of  all 
theologians,  at  the  same  time  the  humblest 
and  the  holiest  of  men — the  most  power- 
ful in  controversy  with  the  learned,  and 
yet  the  most  plain  and  powerful  of  ad- 
dress to  the  consciences  of  a  plain  unlet- 
tered congregation — the  most  successful 
in  finding  his  way  through  the  mazes  of 
metaphysic  subtlety,  and  yet  the  honour- 
ed instrument  of  many  awakenings,  the 
most  successful  in  the  work  of  winning 
souls. 

This  first  consideration  on  the  side  of 
a  strict  and  determinate  necessity,  even 
in  the  world  of  mind  as  in  that  of  matter, 
might  be  suggested  by  a  mere  view  of 
nature  to  the  philosophical  observer  of 
its  sequences  and  its  laws  ;  but  our  second 
consideration  is  founded  on  the  view  of 
nature's  God.    It  seems  hard  to  deny  Him, 


either  a  prescience  over  all  the  futurities^ 
or  a   sovereignty  over  all  the  events  of 
that  universe  which  Himself  did  create ; 
or  that,  sitting  as  we  conceive  Him  to  do 
on  a  throne  of  omnipoter  ^e,  there  should 
be   so  much  as  one    r'  apartment   of  His 
vast  empire,  where   xlis  power  does  not 
fix  all,  and  His  intoiligence  does  not  fore- 
see all.     It  greatly  enhances  this  argu- 
ment,   when   the  department  in  question 
happens  to  be  far  the  highest  and  noblest 
in  creation ;    and  it  does  seem  to  place 
our    doctrine    on    very    secure   vantage- 
ground — that  the  denial  of  it  would  ap- 
pear to   involve  the  degradation  of  hea- 
ven's high  monarch  from  entire  and  un- 
excepted  supremacy,  not  over  the  mate- 
rial world,  but  certainly  over  the  spiritu- 
al world.      The  apostle  contends   for  as 
great  a  mastery  on  the  part  of  God  over 
the    spirits    which    He    has    formed,   as 
the   potter  has  over   the   clay   which  he 
fashions  as  it  pleases  him  ;  but  the  adver- 
saries of  an  overruling  necessity  in  miad 
as  well  as  in  matter,  would  limit  God  as 
well  as  man  to  a  mere  dominion  of  clay 
— or,   in   other   words,  while  they  admit 
that   it  is  the  strength  of  His  almighty 
arm  which  gives  impulse  to  all  the  parti- 
cles,   and    both    their    place    and    their 
movement  to  the  most  unwieldy  masses 
of   mute   and    passive    and   unconscious 
materialism,  they  would  strip  Him  of  the 
like    ascendency  over  the  moral  world  ; 
they  would  people  the  whole  of  His  liv- 
ing creation  with  a  host  of  wayward  and 
independent    forces,    in  the   agency   of 
which  the   world  of  intelligence  and  of 
life   took  its  own  random  direction,  and 
drifted   away   from  the  control  of  Him 
who  formed  and  who  upholds  it.    For, 
really,  should  any  thing  happen  not  be- 
cause the  Creator  hath  so  appointed  it, 
but  because  of  some  power  and  liberty  in 
the   creature,   that    thing  is   beyond   the 
scope  of  the  sovereignty  of  God — it  hath 
made  its  appearance  in  this  universe  by 
Him  unbidden  and  unwilled — the  history 
of  men  is  abandoned  to  a  wild  misrule, 
through   the  caprice   and   confusion   of 
which   not  even  Omniscience  itself  can 
descry  beforehand  any  character  of  cer- 
tainty ;  and,  in  as  far  as  the  history  of 
men  is  at  all  mingled  with  or  has  influ- 
ence on  the  history  of  things,  there  is  a 
vast   progression   of  events   over   which 
God  has    no  hold,   and  that  wilders  in 
loose  and  lawless  contingency  away  from 
Him.     We   vainly  try  to  reconcile  with 
this  imagination,  either  the  foreknowledge 
or  the  supremacy  of  God — impossible  as 
it  is  that  the  eye  even  of  His  prophecy 
can  look  any  way  through  the  descend- 
ing steps  of  a  series  liable  at  every  turn 
to  the  intervention  of  what  is  purely  self- 
originated  and  spontaneous,  or  that  the 


36S 


LECTURE  LXXII. CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13 24. 


hand  of  His  power  can  have  the  entire 
guidance  and  government  thereof.  This 
consideration  obtains  great  additional 
force  on  seeing,  as  we  do  experimentally 
every  day,  how  closely  interwoven 
causes  the  most  minute  are  with  conse- 
quences the  most  momentous,  in  the  his- 
tory of  human  affairs.  It  is  quite  famil- 
iar to  us,  that  the  word  or  thought  or  feel- 
ing of  a  moment  might  germinate  a  big 
and  a  busy  story — that  on  what  appeared 
the  accidental  meeting  of  two  individuals 
in  a  street,  such  events  and  arrangements 
might  turn  as  shall  give  a  wholly  new  di- 
rection to  the  futurity  of  both — that  in 
this  way,  on  the  very  humblest  of  inci- 
dents the  very  greatest  passages  of  histo- 
ry have  been  suspended ;  and  could  all 
the  movements  of  a  nation's  policy  be 
traced  to  their  mysterious  springs  in  the 
character  or  circumstances  of  the  actors 
concerned  in  them,  that,  what  in  itself 
looked  an  unimportant  casualty,  drew 
the  fortune  of  many  nations,  and  the  suc- 
cessive evolutions  of  many  centuries  in 
its  train.  In  a  world,  so  linked  and  con- 
stituted as  ours  is,  if  the  destination  of 
God  do  not  reach  to  its  things  of  great- 
est minuteness,  then  are  its  things  of 
greatest  magnitude  beyond  the  reach  of 
His  ascendency.  If  He  ordain  not  the 
fall  and  the  flight  of  every  sparrow,  then 
it  is  not  He  who  ordains  the  rise  and  fnW 
of  empires.  If  He  reign  not  supreme  in 
every  little  chamber  where  the  passions 
and  the  purposes  of  men  are  formed,  then 
is  He  divested  of  all  power  and  of  all 
presidency  in  the  larger  transactions  of 
our  world.  If  He  have  not  the  command 
over  every  latent  spring  in  the  mechan- 
ism of  human  society,  then  must  that  me- 
chanism drift  uncontrollably  away  from 
Him.  And  thus,  it  is  argued,  that,  if  all 
things  do  not  fall  out  with  fixed  and  de- 
terminate certainty  upon  earth.  He  who 
has  been  styled  its  governor  occupies  in 
heaven  but  the  semblance  of  a  throne. 
His  are  the  mock  ensigns  of  authority  ; 
and  if  man  be  not  a  necessary  agent,  God 
is  a  degraded  Sovereign. 

Our  third  consideration  is,  that,  let  this 
necessity  be  as  rigid  and  adamantine  as 
it  may,  it  leaves  all  the  motives  and  all 
the  influences  of  human  activity  precisely 
where  it  found  them.  Although  God  is 
the  primary,  the  overruling  cause  of  every 
one  event,  whether  in  the  world  of  mind 
or  of  matter,  this  does  not  supersede  the 
proximate  and  the  instrumental  causes 
which  come  immediately  before  it.  Al- 
though He  worketh  all  in  all,  yet  if  it  be 
by  means  that  He  worketh,  the  application 
of  these  means  is  still  indispensable.  It  is 
so  for  the  consummation  of  a  good  har- 
vest, which  never  comes  round  without 
labour  on  our  earth  below,  and  the  genial 


influences  of  shower  and  of  sunshine 
from  the  heaven  above.  And  it  is  equally 
so  for  the  attainment  of  any  good  in  hu- 
man life — in  pressing  forward  to  which, 
man  never  thinks  of  acting  upon  that  ex- 
tended contemplation,  which  reaches  from 
the  first  decree  of  God  in  eternity,  lo  the 
final  destination  in  which  that  decree  has 
its  accomplishment.  He  comes  in  as  it 
were  at  an  intermediate  part  of  the  series  ; 
and  enters  at  once  into  close  and  busy  en- 
gagement with  those  terms  of  it,  which 
succeed  to  each  other  at  the  place  that  he 
occupies.  In  labouring  for  example  af- 
ter an  earthly  fortune,  he  never  thinks 
of 'mounting  upwards  to  the  purpose 
of  the  divine  mind  regarding  it ;  and 
scarcely  ever  of  i-eaching  his  anticipa- 
tions forward,  either  to  the'  sum  which 
shall  be  realised  at  death,  or  which,  after 
the  accumulation  and  perhaps  the  rever- 
ses of  future  years,  shall  fall  into  the 
hands  of  his  children's  children.  There 
is  a  darkness  which  hangs  over  the  dis- 
tant past,  which  he  makes  no  attempt  to 
penetrate.  There  is  a  darkness  which 
hangs  over  the  distant  future,  that  he  as 
little  attempts  to  penetrate.  Instead  of 
acting  the  part  of  a  speculatist  with  the 
things  which  lie  remotely  away  from  him, 
he  acts  with  all  intensity  and  practical 
earnestness  on  the  things  which  are  at 
hand.  They  are  the  likelihoods  of  the 
present  adventure — they  are  the  means 
which  he  possesses,  and  the  arrangements 
which  are  held  out  to  him,  for  his  next  spe- 
culation— they  are  the  openings  of  trade 
and  of  correspondence  which  lie  immedi- 
ately before  him — they  are  the  calculations 
which  he  makes  upon  existing  appearan- 
ces, of  the  returns  that  might  arise  from 
his  existing  operations — These  are  what 
set  his  utmost  desire  and  his  utmost  dili- 
gence agoing,  and  just  under  the  excite- 
ment of  a  hope  after  the  proceeds  which 
he  longs  and  which  he  labours  to  realise.' 
His  ambition,  his  keen  and  unsated  appe- 
tite, his  legitimate  aim  for  the  provision 
and  then  his  interminable  arpirations  af- 
ter the  splendour  of  a  rising  family,  the 
ardent  spirit  of  rivalry  with  competitors 
on  the  same  gainful  walk  of  merchandise 
with  himself,  and  the  powerful  charm 
which  the  fortune  and  the  magnificence 
that  lie  in  golden  perspective  befure  him 
have  over  his  sanguine  imagination — these 
may  be  the  instruments  in  the  hand  of 
God  for  ensuring  some  precise  destination 
that  may  have  been  in  the  view  of  the 
divine  mind  from  the  infinity  that  is  be- 
hind us;  and  yet  with  man  who  never 
once  looks  backward  to  that  infinity,  these 
may  be  the  very  stimuli  which  operate  on 
his  heart,  and  make  him  the  busy  earnest 
and  aspiring  creature  that  he  is.  And 
just,  my  brethren,  as  with  the  business  of 


LECTURE   LXXII. CHAPTER   IX,    11,    13 24. 


369 


working  for  your  interest  in  time,  so  it  is 
with  the  business  of  working  for  your 
interest  in  eternity.  I  have  no  wish  to 
theorise  you  into  the  doctrine  of  predesti- 
nation ;  but  rather  to  convince  you  of 
predestination,  article  though  it  be  of  my 
own  and  our  church's  creed,  that  it  has 
no  more  to  do  with  the  present  and  the 
practical  business  of  your  Christianity, 
than  it  has  to  do  with  the  present  and  the 
practical  business  of  your  counting-hou- 
ses. It  is  in  the  religious  as  it  is  in  the 
trading  world.  You  fetch  not  your  induce- 
ments from  the  hidden  things  that  lie 
shrouded  to  mortal  eye  in  the  eternity 
which  is  past,  neither  do  you  fetch  them 
from  the  things  that  be  alike  hidden  to  us 
in  the  yet  untra veiled  depths  of  the  eter- 
nity which  is  to  come  ;  but  you  walk  in 
the  light  which  is  immediately  around 
you.  With  the  decree  that  is  written  in 
the  book  of  heaven,  with  its  correspond- 
ing fulfilment  to  be  manifested  on  the  clos- 
ing day  of  this  world's  history,  these  are 
the  secret  things  which  belong  unto  God, 
and  these  you  have  positively  nothing  to 
do  with.  But  there  are  revealed  things 
which  belong  unto  yourselves  and  unto 
your  children,  and  with  these  you  have  to 
do.  Repent  or  you  shall  perish — with  that 
you  have  to  do.  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  you  shall  be  saved — with  that 
also  you  have  to  do.  Cease  to  do  evil  and 
learn  to  do  well — these  are  matters  in 
hand  and  with  these  you  have  to  do.  Seek 
ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found,  call 
ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near — this  cai-- 
ries  in  it  the  urgency  of  a  very  pressing 
and  present  application,  and  with  this  you 
have  to  do — God  has  His  designs,  and  He 
employs  the  very  passions  and  the  very 
interests  which  we  are  now  addressing 
for  the  accomplishment  of  them.  Yet 
man's  part  is  not  to  speculate  on  these 
designs,  but  to  be  moved  by  this  passion, 
even  the  fear  of  the  coming  wrath ;  and 
to  proceed  upon  this  high  interest,  even 
the  good  of  his  coming  immortality.  We 
are  now  standing  together  at  one  link  of 
that  extended  chain  which  reaches  from 
God's  first  decree  to  your  final  destina- 
lion  ;  and  the  fastening  of  that  link  is  by 
Him  who  alone  gives  earnestness  to  the 
voice  of  the  preacher,  who  alone  gives 
susceptibility  to  the  heart  of  the  hearers 
— Yet  the  one  is  at  his  post  when,  igno- 
rant as  he  is  both  of  decrees  and  of  des- 
tinies, he,  arrested  by  the  worth  of  your 
imperishable  souls,  beckons  you  to  that 
plain  and  palpable  way  whereon  they 
shall  be  saved ;  and  you  are  at  yours, 
when,  alike  ignorant  of  matters  that  are 
indeed  too  high  for  us,  you  catch  the  im- 
pression of  a  kindred  feeling  from  his 
lips,  and  simply  and  practically  betake 
yourselves  to  that  way.  It  is  thus  that 
47 


the  high  predestinations  of  Heaven  affect 
not  the  proceedings  or  the  business  of 
practical  Christianity  upon  earth  ;  and 
that  while  God,  on  the  one  hand,  preor- 
dains all  the  children  of  His  election  unto 
life — man,  on  the  other,  presses  forward 
unto  life  by  putting  to  the  utmost  strenu- 
ousness  of  their  laborious  and  busy  play 
all  the  activities  of  his  nature. 

Our  next  consideration  and  the  last  we 
can  propound  with  any  degree  of  confi- 
dence— feeling,  as  we  do,  that  we  are  now 
approaching  that  limit  which  separates 
the  known  from  the  unknown — is,  that, 
as  the  doctrine  of  necessity  thus  under- 
stood seems  to  affect  not  our  most  familiar 
motives  to  human  activity ;  so  neither 
does  it  seem  to  affect  the  familiar  estimate 
which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  forming 
every  day,  with  regard  to  the  moral  char- 
acter whether  it  be  a  character  of  vice  or 
of  virtue  in  human  actions.  •  There  is  a 
species  of  force  that  does  exonerate  and 
excuse  a  man  from  all  moral  responsi- 
bility— the  force  of  external  violence,  and 
by  which  he  is  compelled  against  his  will 
to  do  that  which  in  the  matter  of  it  is 
wrong ;  as  to  inflict,  for  example,  some 
dire  and  dreadful  perpetration  with  his 
hand,  which  in  his  heart,  and  with  all  the 
feelings  and  principles  of  his  spontaneous 
nature,  he  utterly  recoils  from.  The  case 
is  altogether  ditferent,  when,  instead  of 
the  deed  being  against  the  will,  the  will 
goes  along  with  the  deed ;  and  when,  in- 
stead of  being  driven  thereto  by  a  strength 
that  is  without  him  which  he  finds  to  be 
resistlesss,  he  is  pi'ompled  thereto  by  the 
strength  of  an  inclination  within  him 
which  also  turns  out  to  be  resistless.  The 
first  necessity  does  away  all  the  moral 
characteristics  ;  but  the  second  necessity, 
it  will  be  found,  so  far  from  doing  away, 
serves  to  fix  and  to  enhance  them  the 
more.  The  man  into  whose  hand  you 
have  forced  the  instrument  of  death,  and 
compelled  against  all  his  strong  and  strug- 
gling antipathies  to  plunge  it  unto  the 
bosom  of  a  friend,  you  would  never  re- 
gard as  the  object  of  any  condemnation. 
The  man,  on  the  other,  who  has  done  the 
same  act,  but  done  it  wilfully,  either  to 
execute  his  revenge  or  to  satiate  his  thirst 
for  blood,  you  never  fail  to  execrate  as  a 
monster ;  and  if  told  of  one  who  had 
doubly  a  greater  strength  within  him  of 
murderous  disposition  than  another,  so  that 
you  incurred  twice  a  greater  danger  by 
meeting  him  in  a  lone  place,  you  would 
hold  him  to  be  doubly  the  more  fiendish 
and  execrable  of  the  two.  And  it  is  the 
same  with  all  the  other  vicious  propensi 
ties.  The  stronger  they  are  the  more 
hateful,  nay  the  more  criminal  and  wor- 
thy both  of  reprehension  and  of  punish 
ment  do  you  regard  the  owner  of  them. 


370 


LECTURE  LXXn. — CHAPTER  EX,  11,  13 — 24. 


If  of  two  men  you  felt  it  necessary  to  be 
greatly  more  on  your  guard  in  an  act  of 
negotiation  against  tiie  one  than  the  other, 
because  the  lirst  if  you  be  not  on  your 
utmost  vigilance  will  be  greatly  more 
sure  to  deceive  and  to  defraud  you  than 
the  second — this  greater  sureness,  arising 
of  course  from  the  greater  strength  of  his 
sordid  and  selfish  appetencies,  will,  in- 
stead of  palliating,  just  fasten  the  taint  of 
a  greater  delinquency  on  his  character. 

And  this  is  true  of  the  good  as  well  as 
of  the  evil  propensities  of  our  nature.  The 
God,  for  example,  who  cannot  lie — whose 
very  omnipotence  is  thus  limited  by  the 
force  of  a  moral  necessity— who  could 
certainly  lie  if  He  would  ;  but  with  whom, 
from  the  very  revoltings  of  His  holy  and 
righteous  nature  against  all  that  is  evil,  it 
is  impossible  that  He  would — We  say  of 
this  necessity,  that  it  enhances  the  worth 
of  His  character,  and  enthrones  Him  in 
the  higher  reverence  of  all  His  worship- 
ers. And  it  is  just  so  with  any  of  our  fel- 
lows, who,  if  so  constituted  as  to  lay  upon 
him  a  moral  necessity  to  be  righteous 
which  he  felt  to  be  invincible — would 
just  be  all  the  more  good  and  estimable 
in  our  eyes.  Let  such  be  his  inward  me- 
chanism, that  he  could  not  find  it  in  his 
heart  to  do  an  act  of  cruelty  or  unkind- 
ness  to  any  thing  that  breathes ;  or  such 


the  strength  of  his  antipathies  to  all  that 
is  perfidious  or  base,  that  he  would  rather 
die  than  be  dishonourable;  or  such  his 
unswerving  fidelity  to  every  utterance 
which  falls  from  him,  that  you  may  count 
with  as  great  certainty  on  the  fulfilment 
of  all  his  promises  as  you  would  on  any 
predicted  eclipse  in  the  firmament  of 
heaven  ;  or,  in  a  word,  let  such  be  his  un- 
faltering adherance  to  rectitude  in  the 
midst  of  strongest  temptations,  that  you 
might  reckon  on  his  constancy  to  truth 
and  to  virtue  with  as  firm  an  assurance 
as  you  would  on  the  constancy  of  Nature 
— why,  my  brethren,  all  these  are  so  many 
necessities,  and  yet  they  are  necessities, 
which,  so  far  from  annihilating  the  moral 
characteristics  of  him  who  is  their  sub- 
ject, only  serve  to  enhance  and  to  illus- 
trate them  the  more.  And  they  do  prove, 
that  while  there  is  a  necessity  which, 
acting  on  the  muscles  of  the  outer  man, 
would  sweep  away  the  distinction  be- 
tween good  and  evil — there  is  another 
necessity,  which,  acting  on  the  motives 
of  the  inner  man,  would  but  shed  a 
brighter  moral  exaltation  over  the  one, 
and  put  a  stigma  on  the  other  of  a  deeper 
moral  debasement :  And,  so  far  from  nul- 
lifying the  difference  between  them,  would 
aggravate  the  characteristics  of  both. 


LECTURE  LXXIII. 


Romans  ix,  11,  13 — 24. 

"For  the  children  being  not  yet  born,  neither  having  done  any  good  or  evil,  that  the  purpose  of  God  according  to 
election  might  stand,  not  of  works  but  of  him  that  calleth." — "As  it  is  written  Jacob  have  I  lovtd  but  Esau  have  I 
hated.  What  shall  we  say  then  1  Is  there  unrighteousness  with  God  1  God  forbid.  For  he  saith  to  Moses  I  will 
have  mercy  on  whom  I  will  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  compassion  on  whom  I  will  have  compassion.  So  then 
it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that  showelh  mercy.  For  the  Scripture  saith 
unto  Pharoah,  Even  for  this  same  purpose  have  I  raised  thee  up,  that  I  might  show  my  power  in  thee  and  that  my 
name  might  be  declared  throughout  all  the  earth.  Therefore  hath  he  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and 
whom  he  will  he  hardeneth.  Thou  wilt  say  then  unto  me,  Why  doth  he  yet  find  fault'!  for  who  hath  resisted  his 
will  1  Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God  ?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that  formed 
it.  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus?  Hath  not  tne  potter  power  over  the  clay,  ot  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel 
unto  honour  and  another  unto  dishonour  1  What  if  God,  willing  to  show  his  wralh  and  to  make  his  power  known, 
endured  with  much  long-suffering  the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction;  and  that  he  might  malce  known  the 
riches  of  his  glory  on  the  vessels  of  mercy  which  he  had  afore  prepared  unto  glory,  even  us  whom  he  hath  called, 
not  of  the  Jews  only  but  also  of  the  Gentiles  t" 


Within  the  circle  of  the  preceding  re- 
marks there  lies  enough  for  the  guidance 
of  man's  conduct  in  time,  though  not 
enough  for  scanning  the  counsels  of  God 
in  eternity.  The  high  doctrines  of  pre- 
destination leaves  all  the  scope  which 
they  ever  had,  to  the  active  and  moral 
principles  of  our  nature ;  and  just  as  not- 
withstanding that  great  planetary  move- 
ment of  our  world,  in  the  tremendous 
velocity  of  which  man  it  might  be  fancied 
would  be  hurried  off  its  platform,  yet  can 


he  walk  his  earthly  rounds  with  as  great 
security  as  if  all  were  at  rest — so,  amid 
the  lofty  and  comprehensive  movements 
of  the  great  spiritual  economy,  man  has 
a  definite  and  prescribed  path,  in  which  it 
is  simply  his  business  to  move  forward  ; 
and,  let  the  past  decrees  or  the  coming 
destinies  which  begin  and  which  end  the 
mighty  cycle  of  Heaven's  administration 
be  what  they  may,  it  is  our  part  if  we  but 
knew  the  place  which  belongs  to  us — it  is 
our  part  to  work,  and  to  watch,  and  to 


LECTURE  LXXm. — CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13 — 24. 


371 


striv^e,  and  to  pray,  and  to  go  through  the 
whole  walk  and  warfare  of  practical 
Christianity,  just  as  before. 

This  should  be  enough  for  one  who  is 
simply  bent  on  the  attainment  of  his  sal- 
vation, though  not  enough  to  satisfy  the 
proud  the  restless  spirit  of  soaring  adven- 
turous and  speculative  man — who,  not 
content  with  knowing  all  that  belongs 
unto  himself,  would  lift  up  the  enquiries 
of  his  mind  to  matters  that  are  greatly 
too  high  for  it ;  and  seize,  as  if  within  the 
lawful  domain  of  his  intellect,  on  all  that 
belongs  unto  God.  It  is  precisely  at  this 
point,  we  think,  that  the  real  difficulties 
of  the  question  begin  ;  and  they  are  just 
such  difficulties  as  it  is  our  wisdom,  not 
to  brave,  but  to  retire  from.  This  is  the 
very  point  at  which  the  apostle  repels  the 
question  which  he  is  either  not  willing, 
or  more  likely  not  able  even  with  all 
his  apostolical  endowments,  to  resolve — 
*Thou  wilt  say  then  Why  doth  he  yet 
find  fault,  for  who  hath  resisted  his  will"!' 

You  will  observe  that  in  these  words, 
there  is  an  arraignment  of  God,  and  a  call 
or  a  challenge  for  His  vindication.  The 
part  which  belongs  to  man,  when  plied  as 
ne  is  most  urgently  and  most  affection- 
ately by  the  offers  of  the  gospel,  is  abun- 
dantly clear.  But  in  point  of  fact  some 
do  accept  these  offers,  while  others  turn 
away  from  them  ;  and  when  this  difference 
between  the  one  and  the  other  is  traced  to 
the  power  and  predestination  of  God,  this 
brings  the  high  policy  of  the  Eternal  into 
view,  and  the  reasons  of  that  policy  are 
not  so  clear.  Were  the  question  never 
stirred  as  to  the  part  which  God  has  in 
the  matter,  there  might  be  nought  to  em- 
barrass or  disturb  us — for  all  is  simple 
and  shining  as  the  light  of  day,  about  the 
part  which  man  has  in  the  matter.  Could 
we  only  prevail  on  him  to  bestow  all  his 
intensity  on  the  things  which  properly 
belong  unto  himself,  and  which  himself 
has  personally  to  do  with,  all  would  be 
plain  and  practical ;  and  the  great  work 
of  salvation  would  go  on  most  prosper- 
ously. But  we  will  be  meddling  with  the 
things  which  belong  unto  God  ;  and  thus 
it  is  that  a  theology  floundering  beyond 
her  depths,  and  compassed  about  with 
difficulties  through  which  she  cannot 
make  her  way,  gives  forth  her  hard  sen- 
tences and  her  cabalistic  sayings — when 
she  might  be  otherwise  and  far  better  em- 
ployed, in  lifting  the  direct  and  the  urgent 
and  withal  the  clearly  intelligible  calls  of 
the  gospel.  It  is  when  in  the  act  of  ply- 
ing these  calls  that  the  minister  of  the 
New  Testament  stands  upon  his  vantage- 
ground.  It  is  when  charged  with  the  over- 
tures of  forgiveness  to  guilty  men,  he,  in 
the  name  of  a  beseeching  God,  presses  the 
acceptance  of  them  upon  every  creature 


who  is  within  the  reach  of  his  voice.  It 
is  when,  in  the  discharge  of  his  ample  and 
unexcepted  commission  to  all  who  are 
sitting  and  listening  around  him,  he  in- 
vites each,  and  forbids  none,  to  cast  their 
confidence  on  the  great  propitiation  ;  and 
then  it  is  impossible  they  can  perish.  It 
is  when  on  the  strength  of  this  precious 
declaration,  that  whosoever  cometh  shall 
in  no  wise  be  cast  out,  he  both  sends  the 
invitation  abroad  among  the  multitude, 
and  brings  it  specifically  home  and  with 
all  the  power  of  his  tender  and  most 
earnest  solicitations  to  the  heart  ot"  each 
individual.  With  him  there  is  no  distinc- 
tion between  the  elect  and  the  reprobate, 
for  he  knocks  at  every  door  ;  and  while  it 
is  most  true,  that  some  do  welcome,  and 
others  do  most  obstinately  and  impregna- 
bly  withstand  him,  yet  his  business  is  to 
address  a  free  gospel  unto  all,  and  to  lift 
in  the  hearing  of  all  the  assurance — that, 
for  each  and  for  every  of  our  species, 
there  is  an  open  mediatorial  gate  to  that 
mercy-seat  where  God  waiteth  to  be  gra- 
cious. Again  it  may  be  asked  to  explain 
this  wondrous  diversity  of  influence  among 
men,  and  why  it  is  that  some  do  reject 
and  others  do  receive  these  tidings  of  sal- 
vation 1  Our  answer  roundly  and  abso- 
lutely is  that  we  do  not  know.  But  this 
we  know,  that  the  way  to  lessen  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  shall  reject,  and  to  add 
to  the  number  of  those  who  shall  receive, 
is  just  to  ply  these  tidings  as  heretofore  in 
the  hearing  of  all  and  for  the  behoof  of 
all.  It  is  most  true  that  God  has  the  power 
over  human  hearts,  to  turn  them  whither- 
soever he  will ;  and  if  demanded  why 
then  do  not  all  the  hearts  of  men  receive 
that  touch  from  the  hands  of  His  omnipo- 
tence which  might  turn  them  unto  the 
way  of  life,  our  reply  is  still  that  we  can- 
not say.  But  this  we  are  empowered  to 
say,  that  there  is  not  a  hard-hearted  sin- 
ner amongst  you,  who  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  the  invitation,  Come  ye  also  and 
be  saved ;  and  to  your  prayers  for  the 
clean  heart  and  the  right  spirit,  a  soften- 
ing and  a  sanctifying  influence  will  be 
made  to  descend  upon  you.  For  aught 
we  know  our  world  might  have  never 
fallen,  or  after  having  fallen,  a  voice  may 
have  gone  forth  again  from  Heaven,  armed 
with  a  force  and  an  efficacy  of  grace,  to 
recall  every  individual  of  its  departed 
generations  ;  and  if  again  the  question  be 
reiterated,  why  is  it  not  so  with  the  world 
we  occupy,  again  it  is  our  answer  that  we 
cannot  tell:  But  this  we  can  truly  tell, 
that  not  an  individual  is  here  present,  who 
has  not  the  word  and  the  warrant  from 
Heaven's  high  throne,  to  believe  in  Christ 
that  he  might  be  saved.  That  thing  may 
be  conceived,  whereof  we  have  the  woful 
evidence  that  it  has  not  been  realised — 


372 


LECTURE  LXXUI. CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13 24. 


even  a  sinless  universe,  whose  every  sun 
lighted  up  the  habitations  of  unspotted 
holiness,  and  whose  every  planet  was 
proof  against  the  inroads  of  every  ruth- 
less  destroyer;  and  if  called  upon  to  vin- 
dicate either  the  entry  or  the  continuance 
of  moral  evil,  we  sink  under  the  burden 
of  the  deep  and  the  hopeless  mystery, 
and  feel  it  to  be  impracticable  ;  but  of 
this  we  can  assure  you,  even  a  plain  and 
a  practicable  way  of  escape  for  ourselves, 
both  from  the  tyranny  of  evil  and  from 
the  terrors  of  that  vengeance  which  is 
due  to  it.  And  O  if  we  but  stopped  at  the 
place,  where  apostles  stood  silent  and 
solemnized  and  did  reverently  stop  before 
us — if,  forbearing  a  scrutiny  into  the  coun- 
sels of  Heaven,  we  simply  betook  our- 
seives  to  that  bidden  walk  upon  earth, 
which  will  at  length  conduct  us  both  to 
the  light  and  love  of  its  unclouded  habita- 
tions— if,  waiting  and  working  at'  our 
allotted  task  here  below,  we  would  but 
suspend  that  judgment,  which  we  can 
neither  pluck  from  the  mazes  of  the  eter- 
nity that  is  past,  nor  from  the  yet  unex- 
plored distances  of  the  eternity  before  us 
— in  a  word,  if,  instead  of  speculating  we 
were  humble  enough  to  submit,  and, 
instead  of  dogmatising  were  teachable 
enough  and  obedient  enough  to  do — This 
were  the  way  for  arriving  at  the  resolu- 
tion of  all  difficulties ;  and  we  should  at 
length,  when  the  mystery  of  God  was 
finished,  emerge  into  that  region  of  purest 
transparency  where  we  shall  know  even 
as  we  are  known. 

Peter  says  of  Paul  in  one  of  his  epis- 
tles, "  and  account  that  the  long-sufTering 
of  the  Lord  is  salvation, — even  as  our  be- 
loved brother  Paul,  according  to  the  wis- 
dom given  unto  him,  has  written  unto  you, 
as  also  in  all  his  epistles,  speaking  in 
them  of  these  things,  in  which  are  some 
things  hard  to  be  understood,  which  they 
that  are  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest,  as 
they  do  also  the  other  scriptures,  unto 
their  own  destruction." 

We  doubt  not  that  in  the  reference 
which  the  one  apostle  makes  to  the  writ- 
ings of  the  other,  he  in  the  first  instance 
had  in  his  eye  that  passage  in  the  second 
chapter  of  the  Romans,  where  Paul  says, 
"Despisest  thou  the  riches  of  his  good- 
ness and  forbearance  and  long-suffering, 
not  knowing  that  the  goodness  of  God 
leadeth  thee  to  repentance'!  but  after  thy 
hardness  and  impenitent  heart,  treasures! 
up  unto  thyself  wrath  against  the  day  of 
wrath  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judg- 
ment of  God,  who  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  deeds."  But  we  have 
as  little  doubt,  that  he,  in  the  second  in- 
stance, had  in  his  eye  some  of  those  very 
things  which  now  engage  our  attention  in 
this  ninth  chapter  of  the  Romans; 'and 


more  especially  that  passage  which  forms 
a  most  remarkable  counterpart  to  the  one 
last  quoted,  and  where  the  long-suffering, 
instead  of  being  related  as  it  is  by  Peter  to 
the  salvation  of  sinners,  seems  as  if  rela- 
ted by  Paul  to  their  destruction — "  What 
if  God,  willing  to  show  his  wrath  and  to 
make  his  power  known,  endured  with 
much  long  suffering  the  vessels  of  wrath 
fitted  to  destruction  ;  and  that  he  might 
make  known  the  riches  Of  his  glory  on 
the  vessels  of  mercy  which  he  had  afore 
prepared  unto  glory,  even  us  whom  be 
hath  called*iiot  of  the  Jews  only  but  also 
of  the  Gentiles." 

We  shall  go  over  a  few  of  the  verses  of 
this  chapter,  and  lay  aside  that  in  them 
which  is  hard  to  be  understood  from  that 
which  is  otherwise.  It  will  be  uniformly 
found  that  all  that  is  difficult,  attaches  to 
those  prior  steps  which  belong  to  the  part 
wherewith  God  had  to  do,  before  that 
man's  part  fell  to  be  performed — leaving 
as  clear  and  as  comprehensible  as  before, 
both  the  part  which  man  has  to  do,  and 
also  those  posterior  steps  of  the  divine 
administration  which  follow  on  the  part 
which  we  shall  have  taken  in  the  world. 
Or,  in  other  words,  if  there  be  not  enough 
of  revelation  to  appease  the  restless  curi- 
osity of  man  that  would  pry  into  the  con- 
cerns of  God,  there  is  enough  to  enlighten 
his  conscience  and  to  guide  his  hopes  in 
every  thing  which  relates  to  his  own  pro- 
per and  personal  concerns. 

In  the  eleventh  verse  then,  we  cannot 
refuse  the  statement  that  God  had  before 
the  birth  of  Jacob  and  Esau  an  anterior 
purpose  respecting  their  destinations ;  and 
that  the  actual  and  historical  difference 
which  afterwards  took  place  between  the 
two,  was  the  effect  of  that  purpose.  Of 
this  election  on  the  part  of  God  I  can  give 
no  account — I  submit  to  be  informed  of 
the  fact,  but  I  am  utterly  in  the  dark  as 
to  the  reason  of  it.  I  have  to  remark, 
however,  that,  although  this  purpose  ac- 
cording to  election  is  not  of  works  but  of 
Him  that  calleth — although  the  purpose 
of  the  divine  mind  was  the  primary,  the 
originating  cause  of  the  favour  shown 
to  Israel,  yet  it  foUoweth  not,  that  works 
on  the  part  of  those  whom  He  does  favour 
are  not  indispensable.  You  would  say  of 
a  stream  of  water  that  issued  first  from 
a  fountain-head,  and  then  was  collected 
into  a  reservoir  or  second  fountain  whence 
it  flowed  anew,  you  would  say  that  though 
it  came  through  the  lower  fountain,  it  came 
from  or  of  the  higher.  And  so  of  this 
high  predestination  on  the  part  of  God. 
All  that  regards  either  our  history  in  time, 
or  our  final  condition  in  eternity,  might 
originate  there ;  and  yet  it  may  be  true, 
that  we  cannot  pass  onward  to  glory  in 
heaven,  without  passing  through  a  course 


LECTURE   LXXIIl. CHAPTER   IX,    11,    13 — 24. 


373 


of  personal  righteousness  upon  earth. 
The  primary  will  of  God  may  be  the 
aboriginal  fountain  of  all  the  blessings 
which  the  children  of  life  are  to  enjoy  ; 
and  yet  there  may  be  a  secondary  foun- 
tain derived  therefrom — even  a  fountain 
of  grace  struck  out  in  the  heart  of  man, 
and  whence  all  the  virtues  of  moral  worth 
and  of  spiritual  excellence  overflow  upon 
his  history.  It  is  thus  that  we  can  harmo- 
nize the  doctrine  of  an  absolute  preordi- 
nation on  the  part  of  God,  with  the  indis- 
pensable necessity  of  a  conditional  obe- 
dience on  the^part  of  man — So  that  whilei 
we  admit  the  one  as  true  on  the  strength 
of  the  passage  now  before  us,  we  can,  in 
perfect  consistency  therewith,  admit  to  be 
true,  and  on  the  strength  of  other  pas- 
sages, that  without  holiness  no  man  can 
see  God — that  all  shall  receive  according 
to  their  works — that  those  who  are  pre- 
destinated unto  life  eternal  are  predesti- 
nated to  be  conformed  beforehand  unto 
the  image  of  Christ,  so  that  they  shall  not 
be  ushered  into  the  place  of  His  exalta- 
tion, without  being  first  adorned  by  the 
virtues  of  his  example — and  lastly,  which 
describes  the  successive  steps  of  this  pro- 
cess, that  "  by  grace  are  ye  saved  through 
faith,  and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the 
gift  of  God,  not  of  works  lest  any  man 
should  boast,  for  we  are  his  workmanship 
created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works, 
which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we 
should  walk  in  them."  So  that  though 
God's  primary  decree  is  not  of  works,  it 
is  at  least  to  works — insomuch  that  even 
among  the  children  of  the  predestined 
Israel,  the  rewards  and  the  preferments 
of  eternity  follow  in  the  train  of  good 
works ;  and  among  the  children  of  rep- 
robate Esau,  the  disgrace  and  the  wretch- 
edness of  their  irretrievable  condemna- 
tion followed  in  the  train  of  their  evil 
works.  In  the  thirteenth  verse  we  have 
a  quotation  from  Malachi,  where  the 
love  and  the  hatred  might  not  be  the 
feelings  on  the  part  of  the  Godhead  which 
prompted  Him  to  His  respective  acts  of 
election,  but  the  feelings  wherewith  He 
regarded  the  respective  characters  of  the 
good  and  the  evil — not  the  prior  affection 
which  caused  the  difference  ;  but  the  pos- 
terior affection  of  a  Being  of  whom  we 
distinctly  know  that  He  loveth  righteous- 
ness, and  as  distinctly  know  that  He  hateth 
iniquity. 

The  posterior  affection  is  all  that  we 
have  to  go  by,  for  indicating  the  moral 
character  of  God.  The  prior  one  is  hid- 
den in  a  depth  that  is  behind  us,  and  is  to 
us  unfathomable.  On  this  point  we  can 
say  no  more  than  the  apostle  has  done 
before  us.  He  can  but  assert,  for  he  makes 
no  attempt  to  argue,  that  God  may  with- 
out injustice  thus  affix  His  distinctions 


beforehand,  on  the  creatures  whom  He 
calls  into  existence.  He  gives  us  only 
assertion  for  this  in  the  fourteenth  verse, 
and  no  more  than  the  bare  assumption  of 
a  sovereignty  for  God  in  the  fifteenth 
vei'se.  It  is  true  that  in  the  sixteenth  verse, 
he  makes  a  statement  which  admits  of  be- 
ing qualified  in  the  very  same  way  with 
the  previous  statement  that  the  purpose 
of  God  according  to  election  is  not  of 
works.  In  like  manner  as  the  predesti- 
nation on  the  part  of  God  should  be  ante- 
dated before  the  performances  or  the 
works  of  righteousness  on  the  part  of 
man,  and  yet  these  works  are  indispen- 
sable— so  the  predestinating  mercy  of 
God  should  be  antedated  before  the  willing 
and  the  running  of  man,  and  yet  this 
willing  and  this  running  are  indispensa- 
ble. The  way  in  which  this  prior  will  of 
God  goes  forth  and  takes  effect  upon  us, 
is  to  set  us  a-willing.  The  way  in  which 
this  prior  work  of  grace  by  God  goeth 
forth  and  taketh  effect  upon  us,  is  to  set 
us  a-working.  He  works  in  us,  not  to 
supersede,  but  to  stimulate  our  working 
for  ourselves.  He  works  in  us  to  will  and 
to  do  of  His  good  pleasure.  And  He  does 
so,  by  the  efficacy  which  He  gives  to 
those  familiar  and  every-day  instruments, 
which  are  within  the  reach  of  man.  He 
does  so  by  the  moral  urgency  of  bibles, 
and  pulpits,  and  zealous  messengers  of 
salvation,  and  Christian  parents  labour- 
ing for  the  immortality  of  their  children, 
and  bringing  the  truths  and  the  lessons 
of  revelation  to  bear  upon  their  con- 
sciences— so  that,  while  behind  the  cur- 
tain of  our  visible  world  there  is  a  pre- 
destinating God,  the  movements  of  whose 
finger  we  can  neither  trace  nor  account 
for,  yet  before  that  curtain  there  is  a  scene 
of  movements,  which  correspond  to  those 
that  be  veiled  from  observation  on  the 
other  side,  and  which  being  on  this  side 
are  palpably  before  our  eyes  ;  and  what 
we  behold  of  all  those  destined  heirs  of 
immortality  is,  that  they  are  striving  to 
enter  through  the  gate  which  leads  to  it — 
and  working  out  their  own  salvation — and 
so  willing  and  running  as  that  they  may 
obtain — and  putting  forth  all  the  activi- 
ties of  their  nature,  in  quest  of  a  blissful 
eternity — and  carrying  their  point,  only 
by  urging  onward  with  an  intensity  of 
effort  which  our  Saviour  Himself  has 
characterised  by  the  epithet  of  violence — 
Insomuch  that  He  hath  told  us,  how,  under 
that  economy  which  He  has  instituted,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and 
the  violent  take  it  by  force. 

I  cannot  bid  you  too  often,  my  brethren, 
distinguish  between  the  anterior  part  of 
this  process  which  belonged  to  God,  and 
the  present  or  the  posterior  parts  which 
belong  to  man — between  those  secret  foot- 


374 


LECTURE  LXXm. CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13 — 24. 


Steps  of  the  Almighty  which  preceded  the 
ushering  of  His  creatures  into  the  theatre 
of  their  actual  existence,  and  the  parts 
which  now  that  they  have  been  intro- 
duced upon  the  theatre  they  are  called 
upon  to  perform.  The  darkness  of  thick- 
est midnight  may  rest  upon  the  one  quar- 
ter  of  contemplation,  while  the  other  is 
lighted  up  by  the  blaze  of  noon-day  efful- 
gence. The  question  of  what  man  ought 
to  do,  may  be  met  by  the  promptest  and 
the  plainest  deliverance.  The  question 
of  what  God  has  done  amid  the  counsels 
and  the  measures  of  His  past  eternity,  or 
what  He  is  now  doing  behind  that  impene- 
trable mantle  which  lies  on  the  hidden 
part  of  His  ways — this  question  may  be 
one  of  deepest  and  most  hopeless  obscu- 
rity. I  may  know  the  present  counsel 
which  should  be  given  to  my  fellows.  1 
know  not  the  past  counsels  of  the  pro- 
found, the  predestinating  Deity. 

This  is  a  reflection  that  falls  with  over- 
whelming force  on  the  perusal  of  the  two 
following  verses,  and  with  mightiest  em- 
phasis of  all  when  we  come  to  the  last 
clause  of  them.  To  the  demand  for  a  vin- 
dication of  God's  proceeding  in  this  mat- 
ter, I  can  only  reply  with  the  apostle  in 
the  three  following  verses  ;  but,  while  pro- 
fessing all  the  impotence  of  a  child  when 
viewing  God's  part  of  the  question,  I  can- 
not look  to  man's  part  of  it  without  such 
distinct  and  decisive  feelings,  as  I  am  sure 
will  be  sympathised  with  by  all  who  hear 
me.  It  was  the  part  which  a  haughty 
tyrant  had  taken  against  the  liberties  of  a 
captive  and  subjugated  people,  whose 
piteous  meanings  had  now  reached  unto 
heaven,  and  the  blood  of  whose  slaughtered 
little  ones  ci'ied  aloud  for  vengeance.  But 
ere  the  stroke  of  vengeance  should  fall, 
the  voice  of  warning  was  sent  unto  him  ; 
and  repeated  miracles  were  wrought  be- 
fore his  eyes ;  and  demonstrations  were 
given  of  a  power  that  was  long  brandished 
over  his  head,  before  it  came  down  upon 
him  with  the  fell  swoop  of  a  final  and 
irreversible  destruction  ;  and,  at  each  of 
the  ten  successive  plagues,  there  were 
space  and  opportunity  given  for  repent- 
ance ;  and  if  he  would  but  have  been 
righteous  and  redressed  the  wrongs  of  a 
sorely  outraged  and  oppressed  nation, 
neither  would  the  angel  of  death  have  put 


forth  his  hand  upon  the  families  of  Egypt, 
nor  Pharaoh  and  his  mighty  hosts  have 
been  overwhelmed  in  the  Red  sea.  But 
after  every  new  chastisement,  did  ho 
gather  into  a  stiffer  and  a  prouder  atti- 
tude than  before;  and  alike  cast  the  judg- 
ments of  Israel's  God  and  the  remon- 
strances of  Israel's  patriarchs  away  from 
him  ;  and,  in  despite  of  that  sore  and  bit- 
ter cry  which  reached  to  his  inner  cham- 
ber from  all  the  weeping  families  of  a 
people  to  whom  his  own  had  owed  their 
preservation,  did  he  send  forth  from  his 
despot  throne  the  mandates  of  a  still  more 
reckless  and  relentless  cruelty — aggrava- 
ting a  bondage  that  was  already  intolera- 
ble, and  trampling  more  fiercely  and 
scornfully  than  ever  on  the  trembling  vic- 
tims of  his  wrath.  We  again  say,  that 
we  positively  are  not  able  to  pronounce 
on  the  movements  of  that  secret  but 
supreme  power,  in  whose  hands  the  whole 
power  of  Egypt's  monarchy  was  but  an 
instrument  for  the  accomplishment  of 
higher  purposes  ;  but,  looking  to  him  who 
filled  that  monarchy,  we  instantly  and 
decisively  pronounce  upon  the  doom  that 
rightfully  belonged  to  him — nor,  while  the 
heart  of  man  remaineth  as  it  is,  can  he 
keep  it  from  revolting  against  this  false 
and  unfeeling  oppressor,  or  from  rejoicing 
in  the  destiny  which  hurled  him  from  his 
throne.  And  should,  in  this  world's  lat- 
ter day,  the  scene  be  acted  over  again, 
between  the  struggles  of  a  patriot  nation 
and  the  stern  resolves  of  a  lordly  and  bar- 
baric despotism — neither  what  is  told  and 
authoritatively  told  of  the  mysteries  of  a 
predestinating  God,  nor  what  is  reasoned 
and  irrefragably  reasoned  of  the  meta- 
physics of  an  unveering  necessity,  shall 
ever  overbear  the  judgment  or  the  sensi- 
bilities of  our  moral  nature  ;  but,  in  spite 
of  ourselves,  should  the  spectacle  again 
be  offered  of  a  triumphant  people  and  a 
tyrant  overthrown — still,  as  heretofore, 
should  we  feel  it  to  be  a  retribution  of 
Heaven's  high  justice  upon  the  one  ;  and 
still  unite  with  the  other  in  their  lofty 
acclaims  of  gratitude,  loud  as  from  the 
hosts  of  Israel  when  the  horses  and  the 
chariots  of  Pliaraoh  were  cast  into  the 
sea,  and  joyful  as  the  song  of  Moses  over 
his  now  liberated  nation. 


LECTURE  LXXIV. — CHAPTER  IX,  11,  13—24. 


375 


LECTURE  LXXIV. 

Romans  ix,  19 — 24. 

"ThoH  wilt  say  then  unto  me,  VVhf  doth  he  yet  find  fault,  for  who  hath  resisted  his  will  1  Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art 
thou  that  repliest  against  God  ?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that  formed  it.  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus  % 
Math  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay,  of  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto  honour  and  another  unto  dis- 
honour'! What  if  God,  willing  to  show  his  wrath  and  to  make  his  power  known,  endured  with  much  long-suffer- 
ing the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction  ;  and  that  he  might  malce  known  the  riches  of  his  glory  on  the  vessels 
of  mercy  which  he  had  afore  prepared  unto  glory,  even  us  whom  he  liath  called,  not  of  the  Jews  only  but  also  of 
the  Gentiles  1" 


But  before  entering  upon  the  affirma- 
tion  of  Peter,  we  again  recommend  your 
attentive  comparison  of  the  two  passages 
in  Paul — in  the  one  of  which  the  part 
which  God  has  in  the  processes,  either  of 
man's  ruin  or  of  his  recovery,  is  adverted 
to  by  the  apostle  ;  and  in  the  other  of 
which  the  part  is  adverted  to  that  man 
himself  has  in  these  processes.  The  first 
passage  is  in  Romans,  ix,  22 — 24  :  "  What 
if  God,  willing  to  show  his  wrath,  and  to 
make  his  power  known,  endured  with 
much  long-suffering  the  vessels  of  wrath 
fitted  to  destruction  ;  and  that  he  might 
make  known  the  riches  of  his  glory 
on  the  vessels  of  mercy,  which  he  had 
afore  prepared  unto  glory,  even  us,  whom 
he  hath  called,  not  of  the  Jews  only,  but 
also  of  the  Gentiles  T'  The  second  in 
Romans,  ii,  4 — 11 :  "  Or  despisest  thou 
the  riches  of  his  goodness  and  forbear- 
ance and  long-suffering  ;  not  knowing  that 
the  goodness  of  God  leadeththee  to  repent- 
ance ?  but,  after  thy  hardness  and  impen- 
itent heart,  treasurest  up  unto  thyself 
wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath  and  reve- 
lation of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  ; 
who  will  render  to  every  man  according 
to  his  deeds :  to  them  who,  by  patient 
continuance  in  well-doing,  seek  for  glory 
and  honour  and  immortality,  eternal  life; 
but  unto  them  that  are  contentious,  and 
do  not  obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unright- 
eousness, indignation  and  wrath :  trib- 
ulation and  anguish  upon  every  soul 
of  man  that  doeth  evil,  of  the  Jew  first, 
and  also  of  the  Gentile  :  but  glory,  hon- 
our, and  peace  to  every  man  that  work- 
eth  good;  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to 
the  Gentile :  for  there  is  no  respect  of 
persons  with  God."  You  will  observe 
that  what  the  inspired  writer  says  of 
God's  anterior  processes  regarding  the 
vessels  of  wrath  and  the  vessels  of  mercy, 
is  in  the  form  of  a  query  and  not  of  an 
express  deliverance.  This  is  not  a  sub- 
ject on  which  he  lays  himself  out  for  the 
satisfaction  of  his  readers,  and  so  it  re- 
mains an  unrevealed  mystery.  But  what 
is  of  chief  because  of  practical  impor- 
tance to  us  is,  that  they,  of  whom  it  is 
said  in  the  9th  chapter,  that  the  long- 
suffering  of  God  will  terminate  in  their 


destruction,  are  only  those  who  in  the 
language  of  the  2nd  chapter  shall  be 
found  to  have  despised  that  long-suffer- 
ing— that  they  who  are  called  vessels 
of  wrath  and  whom  God  is  said  to  have 
hardened  in  the  obscure  passage,  are  they 
who  in  the  clear  passage  are  said  after 
their  own  hardness  and  impenitent  heart  to 
treasure  up  unto  themselves  wrath  against 
the  day  of  wrath  and  revelation  of  the 
righteous  judgment  of  God — that  while  in 
the  one  God  is  represented  as  preparing 
aforehand  unto  glory,  yet  in  the  other  He 
is  represented  as  rendering  to  every  man 
according  to  his  deeds — that  while  in  the 
one  He  is  set  before  us  as  calling  Jews  or 
Gentiles  of  His  own  past  ordination,  yet, 
this  must  be  in  harmony  with  that  which 
is  our  present  concern,  even  that  God 
giveth  eternal  life  to  those  who  have  ob- 
served a  patient  continuance  in  well- 
doing ;  and  tribulation  and  anguish  to 
every  soul  of  man  that  doeth  evil,  wheth- 
er Jew  or  Gentile,  for  there  is  no  respect 
of  persons  with  God.  And  thus  again 
while  a  hopeless  and  as  yet  impi'acticable 
obscurity  sits  on  God's  part,  there  is  none 
whatever  which  sitteth  upon  ours.  We 
do  not  know  why  He  may  have  selected 
us  as  the  individuals  in  whom  He  work- 
eth  to  will  and  to  do ;  but  we  do  know 
what  is  incumbent  on  us,  which  is  to 
work  out  our  own  salvation.  We  do  not 
know  why  any  individuals  ever  come  into 
contact  with  the  first  influences  of  that 
hardening  process  which  shall  terminate 
in  their  destruction  ;  but  we  know  it  to 
be  the  pressing,  and  we  shall  add  the 
practicable  duty  of  all  individuals,  to  har- 
den not  their  own  hearts — and  that  if  any 
individual  here  present  shall  but  awaken 
unto  a  concern  for  his  own  soul,  and  be- 
take himself  in  good  earnest  to  his  peru- 
sals of  the  Bible  and  to  his  prayers,  God 
is  in  readiness  to  descend  with  an  influ- 
ence that  shall  soften  and  shall  save  him, 
saying  unto  one  and  all  "Turn  unto  me 
and  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  you." 
This  brings  me  to  the  utterance  of 
Peter  "  that  the  long-suffering  of  the  Lord 
is  salvation" — not  willing,  as  he  says 
some  verses  before,  that  any  should  perish 
but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance. 


376 


LECTURE   LXXIV.— CHAPTER   IX,    19 — ^24. 


We  are  aware  of  the  distinction  made  by 
theologians  between  the  secret  and  the  re- 
vealed will  of  God  ;  and  the  only  use  we 
should  like  to  make  of  it  is  this,  that 
whatever  is  secret  belongs  unto  Him  and 
we  have  nothing  to  do  with  it — whatever 
is  revealed  belongs  unto  us  and  with  that 
we  have  to  do.  What  God's  past  ordina- 
tions are  in  regard  to  us  we  do  not  know. 
Paul  singles  out  no  individuals.  He  treats 
the  doctrine  generally,  and  even  then  bids 
adieu  to  it  with  a  question  which  he  leaves 
unsolved ;  and  so  let  us  leave  it.  What 
God's  present  attitude  is  in  regard  to  us 
we  do  know  ;  for  Peter,  instead  of  gues- 
sing at  it  by  a  question,  tells  us  of  it  by 
an  affirmation  the  most  distinct  and  deci- 
sive— and  not  only  so,  but  bids  us  beware 
of  suffering  ought  that  has  been  said  by 
Paul  to  defeat  or  to  do  away  the  impres- 
sion of  it.  Our  wisdom  is  to  forbear  the 
question,  and  to  proceed  upon  the  affir- 
mation ;  to  imitate  the  one  apostle  in  his 
speculative  reserve,  and  to  take  from  the 
other  apostle  the  impress  of  his  practical 
earnestness — assured,  that,  however  im- 
penetrable the  haze  may  be  which  hangs 
over  the  path-way  of  God  from  His  first 
decrees  to  the  present  moment  of  our 
history,  there  is  now  a  clear  path-way  for 
man;  and  on  which  God  Himself  invites 
one  and  all  of  you  to  enter.  He  has  suf- 
fered you  so  long,  that  He  might  still  ply 
you  with  the  offers  of  a  free  salvation. 
He  did  not  cut  you  down  yesterday,  that 
this  day  you  might  be  met  by  at  least  one 
call  more  ;  and  have  another  opportunity 
of  making  good  your  reconciliation  ;  and 
be  again  told  of  the  open  door  of  Christ's 
mediatorship  ;  and  that  deep  as  is  the 
crimson  dye  of  your  manifold  iniquities, 
and  provoking  as  the  indifference  has 
been  of  your  past  feelings  to  that  gospel 
which  has  so  oft  been  sounded  in  your 
hearing  and  sounded  in  vain — yet  this  one 
day  more  if  you  will  but  hear  His  voice, 
are  we  empowered  to  say  to  each  and  to 
every  that  God  is  still  willing  and  still 
waiting  to  be  gracious. 

And  there  is  one  way  in  which  you 
might  turn  to  plain  and  practical  account 
the  doctrine  of  God's  agency.  You  may 
propitiate  it  by  your  obedience.  You 
may  obtain  it  by  your  prayers.  Instead 
of  probing  into  the  mystery  of  God  hard- 
ening the  heart  of  Pharaoh,  know  that 
there  is  one  way  in  which  you  may  realise 
a  hardening  process  upon  your  own  heart 
— even  by  your  resistance  of  our  present 
call.  That  will  harden  you  the  more 
against  the  impression  of  every  future 
call.  Or,  instead  of  waiting  for  a  special 
and  a  satisfying  operation  upon  your 
own  soul,  know  that  there  is  a  way  by 
which  you  may  work  for  it.  Give  all  your 
present  strength  to  the  doing  of  God's  will, 


and  ask  for  more.  Think  not  that  the 
way  of  your  salvation  is  one  of  hidden 
and  impracticable  mystery.  It  is  indeed 
a  plain  and  a  practicable  way,  and  the 
way  that  we  now  want  to  reduce  you  to. 
Never  was  there  a  more  distinct  and  open 
path  laid  down  by  any  sovereign  for  the 
return  of  his  offending  subjects,  than  the 
Sovereign  of  heaven  and  earth  has  laid 
down  for  us  His  apostate  creatures.  He 
offers  you  forgiveness  through  the  blood 
of  Christ.  He  promises  you  strength  and 
sanctification  through  the  influences  of 
His  own  free  Spirit.  He  tells  you  what 
the  new  obedience  of  the  gospel  is.  And 
He  bids  you  enter  on  that  obedience, 
trusting  in  the  Lord  and  doing  good  con- 
tinually. To  incite  your  earnestness.  He 
addresses  Himself  to  the  various  feelings 
and  principles  of  your  nature — at  one 
time  moving  your  fears  by  His  report  of 
the  coming  vengeance,  and  at  another 
your  desires  and  your  hopes  by  His  re- 
presentation of  heaven  and  its  unfading 
glories.  And,  to  crown  all.  He  stretches 
out  even  now  to  the  guiltiest  of  you  all 
the  hand  of  a  purchased  and  a  proffered 
reconciliation — declaring  that  if  you  will 
only  come  over  from  sin  unto  the  Saviour, 
He  will  be  forthwith  a  leather  unto  you, 
your  guide  in  time,  your  guarantee  for 
an  inheritance  in  eternity.  Surely  the 
God  who  is  doing  all  this  is  wiping  His 
hands  of  you.  Your  blood  will  be  upon 
your  own  heads ;  and  He,  clear  when  He 
speaketh  and  justified  when  He  judgeth, 
when  He  says  what  more  could  I  have 
done  for  my  vineyard  that  I  have  not 
done  for  it,  will  leave  you  without  a 
speech  and  without  an  argument. 

This  doctrine  of  predestination  ought 
never  to  be  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way 
of  your  entertaining  the  overtures  of  the 
gospel.  Leave  it  to  God  himself  to  har- 
monise those  everlasting  decrees,  by 
which  He  hath  distinguished  between  the 
elect  and  the  reprobate,  with  His  present 
declarations  of  good-will  to  one  and  to  all 
of  the  human  family.  Your  business  is 
to  let  the  decrees  alone,  and  to  cast  your 
joyful  confidence  upon  the  declarations. 
Should  an  earthly  monarch  send  a  mes- 
sage of  friendship  to  your  door,  must  you 
reject  it  either  as  unintelligible  or  unreal, 
because  you  have  not  been  instructed  in 
all  the  mysteries  of  his  government] 
Because  you  cannot  comprehend  the  pol- 
icy of  his  empire,  must  you  therefore  not 
receive  the  offered  kindness  which  had 
come  from  him  to  your  dwelling-place? 
And  ere  you  can  appreciate  the  gift  which 
he  holds  out  for  your  single  and  specific 
acceptance,  must  you  first  be  able  to  trace 
all  the  workings  and  all  the  ways  of  the 
vast  the  varied  superintendence  which 
belongs  to  him !    It  is  truly  so  with  God, 


LECTURE  LXXIV. — CHAPTER  IX,  19 — 24. 


377 


who,  although  presiding  over  a  manage- 
ment which  embraces  all  worlds  and 
reaches  from  everlasting  to  everlasting, 
has  nevertheless  sent  to  each  individual 
amongst  us,  the  special  intimation  of  His 
perfect  willingness  to  admit  us  into  fa- 
vour ;  and  must  we,  I  ask,  suspend  our 
comfort  and  our  confidence  therein,  till 
we,  the  occupiers  of  one  of  the  humblest 
tenements  in  creation  and  only  the  crea- 
tures but  of  yesterday,  till  we  shall  have 
mastered  the  economy  of  this  wondrous 
universe  and  scanned  the  counsels  of 
eternity  1 

Although  I  have  expatiated  at  such 
length  upon  this  subject,  it  was  not  for  the 
purpose  of  schooling  you  into  the  doc- 
trine of  predestination — for,  while  we 
deem  it  to  be  true  in  itself,  we  deem  it  not 
to  be  a  truth  the  belief  of  which  is  essen- 
tial to  salvation.  It  is  not  even  in  the 
hope  that  our  argument  in  its  favour 
should  be  understood  by  all ;  nor  do  we 
hold  such  an  understanding  to  be  at  all 
indispensable.  Far  less  was  it  in  the  pre- 
sumptuous imagination,  that  I  could  vin- 
dicate all  the  ways  of  God  to  man — for 
small  indeed  is  that  part  of  His  ways  to 
which  we  have  access.  But  it  was  solely 
with  the  view  to  urge  upon  you,  that, 
whatever  obscurity  was  cast  by  this  high 
doctrine  on  the  ways  of  God  to  man,  the 
ways  of  man  to  God  were  not  altered, 
and  should  not  at  all  be  obscured  by  it — 
but  rather  that  the  hopes  and  the  obliga- 
tions and  the  whole  business  of  your 
practical  Christianity,  are  left  by  it  on 
the  same  familiar  footing  as  before  ;  and 
that  with  the  view  of  averting  a  great 
mischief  incurred  by  those  unstable  and 
unlearned  who  wrest  this  scripture,  even 
as  they  do  the  others,  to  their  own  destruc- 
tion. You  may  not  even  understand  how 
it  is  that  God's  predestination  affects  not 
your  practice,  but  be  assured  that  so  it  is  ; 
and  grievous  indeed  will  be  your  condem- 
nation, if  one  principle  about  which  you 
are  confessedly  in  the  dark,  shall  be  found 
to  have  bewildered  you  away  from  the 
light  of  those  other  principles  which  are 
clear  and  conspicuous,  and  by  proceeding 
with  honesty  and  in  good  earnest  upon 
which  it  is  that  you  are  saved.  We  can 
truly  own  that  we  entered  upon  this  sub- 
ject with  reluctance,  and  only  because  it 
stood  in  our  way.  We  now  leave  it  with- 
out regret,  unwilling  to  say  more  and  yet 
feeling  that  we  could  scarcely  have  said 
less — though,  after  all,  there  is  perhaps  a 
remaining  obscurity  essentially  inherent 
in  the  subject,  and  which  no  explanation 
can  do  away. 

But  let  me  hope  that  a  time  is  coming, 
when  many  here  present  shall  fondly  and 
with  felt  advantage  recur  to  it — even  when 
48 


after  having  laboured  with  all  diligence, 
and  being  compassed  about  with  all  the 
virtues  of  heaven,  they  shall  attain  the 
assurance  therefrom  that  heaven  is  their 
destined  habitation.  Then  indeed  may 
the  doctrine  be  contemplated  both  with 
safety  and  with  profit  by  aged  and  ad- 
vanced Christians,  when  they  reflect  on 
all  that  way  by  which  they  have  been  led, 
and  recognise  in  it  the  grace  and  provi- 
dence  of  a  God  who  has  so  evidently  spi- 
ritualised them — when  they  shall  adopt 
the  language  of  the  apostle  that  it  is  by 
the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am ;  and 
when,  to  the  comfort  and  the  gratitude 
which  such  a  reflection  is  fitted  to  inspire, 
they  shall  add  the  humility  of  this  other 
sentiment,  It  is  God  alone  who  hath  made 
us  to  differ,  and  we  have  nothing  that  we 
did  not  receive. 

V.  24.  '  Even  us,  whom  he  hath  called, 
not  of  the  Jews  only,  but  also  of  the  Gen- 
tiles.' 

I  recur  to  this  verse  for  the  purpose  of 
noticing  a  distinction  of  sentiment  be- 
tween two  classes  of  theologians  on  that 
subject  which  has  recently  engrossed  us 
— the  first  of  whom  would  extend  the 
doctrine  of  predestination  to  individuals, 
and  make  the  final  and  everlasting  condi- 
tion of  each  single  man  the  subject  of  an 
absolute  and  rigorous  decree  from  all 
eternity ;  and  the  second  of  whom,  re- 
volted by  what  they  feel  to  be  the  utter 
harshness  of  such  a  representation,  would 
at  the  same  time  yield  so  far  to  the  au- 
thority of  Scripture,  as  to  advocate  a  cer- 
tain application  of  this  doctrine  to  whole 
nations  or  collective  bodies  of  men.  That 
is — they  will  allow,  not  of  certain  indi- 
viduals being  predestinated  to  life  eternal 
in  heaven  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others  ; 
but  they  will  allow  of  certain  nations  be- 
ing predestined  to  the  light  of  Christian- 
ity upon  earth,  while  others  are  left  in  the 
darkness  of  superstition  or  of  paganism. 
They  cannot  refuse,  for  example,  that  the 
call  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  rejection  of 
the  Jews  were  both  of  them  matters  of 
prophecy  and  of  predestination  in  the 
counsels  of  heaven.  But  this  they  con- 
tend  for  as  the  whole  length  to  which  the 
doctrine  of  God's  fixed  and  irreversible 
decrees  ought  to  be  carried — arguing,  in 
fact,  that  the  only  purpose  of  the  apostlo 
was  to  vindicate  the  great  national  move- 
ment which  the  true  religion  made  in  his 
day  away  from  his  people,  and  onward  to 
the  other  countries  and  people  of  the 
world..  They  hold  the  doctrine  to  be  tol- 
erable thus  far,  and  chiefly  because  it 
does  not  infringe  on  the  warrant  of  each 
individual  man  to  embrace  the  gospel  in 
those  places  where  the  gospel  is  pro- 
claimed ;  and  appears  to  leave  untouched 


378 


LECTURE  LXXIV. — CHAPTER  IX,  19 — 24. 


all  the  practical  influences,  by  which  men 
are  led  to  choose,  and  to  resolve,  and  to 
endeavour,  and  to  strive,  and  to  put  forth 
all  the  activities  of  their  nature  in  the 
business  both  of  willing  and  of  working 
out  their  own  salvation. 

We  have  already  laboured  to  assure 
you,  that  the  most  staunch  and  sturdy  ad- 
vocates of  a  predestination  which  reaches 
even  to  individuals,  would  contend  as 
earnestly  as  others  for  the  unexcepted 
range  of  the  gospel  call,  and  for  the  freest 
and  widest  scope  to  all  the  activities  of 
gospel  obedience.  And  we  further  con- 
cede the  great  object  of  the  apostle 
throughout  the  whole  argumentation  of 
this  chapter,  to  have  been  just  to  establish 
a  national  predestination  ;  and  that  with 
the  purpose  of  justifying  the  transference 
which  was  about  to  be  made  of  the  true 
religion  from  Jews  to  Gentiles.  Neverthe- 
less, he,  in  the  course  of  his  argument, 
unfolds  to  us  the  power  or  the  prec^stina- 
tion  of  God  as  extending  to  individuals 
also — to  the  good  destinies  of  Isaac  and 
Jacob  on  the  one  hand — to  the  evil  desti- 
nies of  Ishmael  and  Esau  and  Pharaoh 
upon  the  other.  The  truth  is,  it  is  by  an 
influence  upon  the  hearts  and  the  histo- 
ries of  individuals,  that  He  gives  a  direc- 
tion to  the  fortune  and  to  the  history  of 
nations;  and  again,  on  the  state  of  a  na- 
tion may  turn  both  the  present  character 
and  the  future  nay  eternal  condition  of 
each  individual  belonging  to  it.  They 
who  admit  of  a  predestination  in  regard 
to  the  larger  historical  movements  of  this 
world's  kingdoms,  cannot  escape  from  the 
necessity  pf  this  predestination  having  an 
influence  upon  individuals  and  upon  fam- 
ilies. More  especially  upon  the  light  of 
the  gospel  having  been  predestinated  for 
any  nation,  may  there  depend  the  eternal 
life  of  every  separate  man  in  that  nation 
who  shall  have  embraced  the  gospel. 
But  we  now  bid  our  final  adieu  to  the 
general  argument ;  and  we  should  like  to 
do  it  in  the  very  spirit  wherewith  our 
Saviour  met  the  speculative  question  of 
that  enquirer,  who  asked  him  if  there 
were  many  that  should  be  saved.  He  was 
bidden  to  recall  his  attention  from  this 
wide  and  general  survey,  and  simply  look 


to  himself  and  labour  for  his  own  salva^ 
tion.  The  reply  was  strive  to  enter  in  at 
the  straight  gate — for  many  shall  seek  to 
enter  in  and  shall  not  be  able.  And  so, 
my  brethren,  would  I  have  you  to  turc 
yourselves  from  the  general  survey  ot 
God's  arrangements,  to  a  personal  search 
and  application  of  your  own  case  and 
interest  therein.  He  has  at  least  intro- 
duced the  light  of  the  gospel  to  that  coun- 
try in  which  you  dwell.  He  has  at  least 
visited  you  with  Christian  Sabbaths  and 
Christian  opportunities.  The  effect  of 
His  having  so  selected  and  signalised  our 
nation  is,  that  He  has  selected  and  signal- 
ised each  individual  amongst  you  by  a 
pointed  personal  offer  of  reconciliation. 
This  is  the  matter  that  concerns  you ; 
and,  could  we  only  prevail  upon  you  duly 
to  entertain  this  matter,  we  should  hold  it 
a  far  higher  achievement,  than  to  furnish 
you  with  all  the  arguments,  and  exhibit 
even  to  your  full  conviction  all  the  parts 
and  proportions  of  our  systematic  theol- 
ogy. We  tell  you  of  God's  beseeching 
voice.  We  assure  you,  in  His  name,  that 
He  wants  you  not  to  die.  We  bid  you 
venture  for  pardon  on  the  atonement 
made  by  Him  who  died  for  all  men.  We 
bid  you  apply  forthwith  to  the  Spirit  of 
all  grace  and  holiness,  that  you  may  be 
qualified  to  enter  into  that  beatific  heaven 
from  whose  battlements  there  wave  the 
signals  of  welcome,  and  whose  gates  are 
wide  open  to  receive  you.  We  would 
bring  this  plain  word  of  salvation  nigh 
unto  every  conscience,  and  knock  with  it 
at  the  door  of  every  heart ;  and,  commis- 
sioned as  we  are  to  preach  the  gospel  not 
to  a  chosen  few  while  we  keep  it  back 
from  the  hosts  of  the  reprobate,  but  to 
preach  it  to  every  creature  under  heaven, 
we  again  entreat  that  hone  here  present 
shall  forbid  themselves — for  most  assur- 
edly God  hath  not  forbidden  them.  But 
come  unto  Christ  all  of  you  who  labour 
and  are  heavy-laden,  and  ye  shall  have 
rest.  Look  unto  him  all  ye  ends  of  the 
earth  ;  and,  though  now  placed  at  the  far- 
thest outskirts  of  a  moral  distance  and 
alienation,  even  look  unto  Him  and  ye 
shall  be  saved. 


LECTURE  LXXV. CHAPTER  IX  25 33. 


379 


LECTURE  LXXV. 

I 

Romans  ix,  25 — 33. 

"As  he  saith  also  in  Osee,  I  will  call  them  my  people  which  were  not  my  people  ;  and  her  beloved  which  was  not 
beloved.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  in  the  place  where  it  was  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  not  my  people,  there 
shall  they  be  called  the  children  of  the  living  God.  Esaias  also  crieth  concerning  Israel^  Though  the  number  of 
the  children  of  Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  a  remnant  shall  be  saved  :  for  he  will  finish  the  work,  and  cut  it 
short  in  righteousness  ;  because  a  short  work  will  the  Lord  make  upon  the  earth.  And  as  Esaias  said  before,  Ex- 
cept the  Lord  of  sabaoth  had  left  us  a  seed,  we  had  been  as  Sodoma,  and  been  made  like  unto  Gomorrha.  What 
shall  we  say  then?  That  the  Gentiles,  which  followed  not  after  righteousness,  have  attained  to  righteousness, 
even  the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith:  but  Israel,  which  followecf  after  the  law  of  righteousness,  nath  not  at- 
tained to  the  law  of  righteousness.  Wherefore  1  Because  they  sought  it  not  by  faith,  but  as  it  were  by  the  works 
of  the  law:  for  they  stumbled  at  that  stumbling-stone;  as  it  is  written,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Sion  a  stumbling-stone 
and  rock  of  offence  :  and  whosoever  believeth  on  nim  shall  not  be  ashamed." 


V.  25.  '  As  he  saith  also  in  Osee,  I  will 
call  them  my  people  which  were  not  my 
people  ;  and  her  beloved  which  was  not 
beloved.' 

The  apostle,  with  his  usual  skill  and 
dexterity  of  argument,  addressed  himself 
as  a  Jew  to  the  Jews ;  and  so  brings  their 
own  scriptures  to  bear  upon  them.  He 
first  quotes  a  prophecy  from  Hosea  re- 
garding the  Gentiles  ;  and  of  whom  it  is 
most  distinctly  stated  that  they  were  to  be 
admitted  to  the  same  favour,  by  which  the 
children  of  Israel  had  been  specialised, 
and  from  which  themselves  had  hereto- 
fore been  outcasts.  He  thus  takes  shelter 
under  the  old  and  venerable  authorities, 
which  the  very  people  against  whom  he 
contended  held  in  equal  reverence  with 
himself,  and  proves  that  it  is  no  new  idea 
— this  extension  of  the  family  of  God,  in 
such  a  way  that  other  nations  might  enter 
into  the  same  close  relationship  with  Him 
of  His  people,  which  had  hitherto  been 
confined  to  the  descendants  of  Israel. 

V.  26.  '  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 
in  the  place  where  it  was  said  unto  them, 
Ye  are  not  my  people,  there  shall  they  be 
called  the  children  of  the  living  God.' 

This  verse  seems  necessary  for  describ- 
ing the  precise  manner  in  which  the  ex- 
tension was  to  take  place.  It  had  been 
no  unwonted  thing  for  Gentiles  to  become 
proselytes  ;  but  still  the  land  they  occu- 
pied was  regarded  as  an  outcast  region 
of  heathenism,  and  they  looked  to  Judea 
as  the  Holy  Land — to  Jerusalem  as  the 
priestly  and  the  consecrated  place  where- 
unto  they  looked  as  the  great  metropolis 
of  religion,  and  whither  many  of  them 
repaired  every  year  to  join  in  the  solemn 
services  of  the  temple.  It  was  not  in  this 
sense  however  that  the  coming  enlarge- 
ment was  to  be  brought  about.  In  the 
language  of  our  Saviour  to  the  woman  of 
Samaria,  the  hour  was  at  hand  when 
neither  in  this  mountain  nor  yet  at  Jeru- 
salem  the  Father  was  to  be  worshipped. 
Even  the  local  affinity,  between  the  true 
religion  and  the  country  or  the  cities  of 
he  people  of  Israel,  was  forthwith  to  be 
dissolved;  and  in  every  nation  he  that 


feared  God  and  wrought  righteousness 
was  to  be  accepted  of  Him.  Still  prose- 
lytes from  every  nation  under  heaven 
came  to  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  their 
great  festival ;  but  now,  without  any  such 
annual  migration,  a  priesthood  and  a 
religious  service  and  an  acceptable  wor- 
ship were  to  be  established  in  the  very 
seats  of  idolatry.  In  the  place  where  it 
was  said  unto  them  Ye  are  not  my  people, 
there  shall  they  be  called  the  children  of 
the  living  God. 
•V.  27.  'Esaias  also  crieth  concerning 
Israel,  Though  the  number  of  the  children 
of  Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  a  rem- 
nant shall  be  saved.' 

The  prophecy  of  Hosea  respected  the 
Gentiles ;  and  is  quoted  for  the  purpose 
of  reconciling  the  children  of  Israel  to 
their  participation,  in  what  had  been  hi- 
therto the  distinguishing  privileges  of  but 
one  people.  The  prophecy  of  Isaiah  re- 
spects Israel  itself;  and  is  quoted  for  the 
purpose  of  showing,  and  from  the  mouth 
of  their  greatest  Prophet,  that,  although 
God  had  uttered  promises  in  behalf  of 
a  seed  numerous  as  the  sand  of  the  sea- 
shore, yet  that  He  regarded  not  these  pro- 
mises as  broken  although  they  were  made 
good  only  to  a  remnant  of  them.  That 
prophecy  referred,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  a  fell  destruction  which  came  on  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  reduced  them  to 
but  a  remnant — proving  it  to  be  no 
strange  thing  in  God,  to  have  abandoned 
to  their  ruin  a  vast  majority  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Abraham,  even  notwithstanding 
the  word  of  promise  which  He  had  made 
to  the  patriarch ;  and  therefore  that  this 
promise  would  be  as  little  falsified  now  as 
it  was  then,  although  the  great  bulk  of  the 
nation  should  be  reft  of  the  divine  favour, 
and  but  a  small  fraction  of  them  should 
remain  in  that  favour  by  embracing  Chris- 
tianity. "Esaias  also  crieth  concerning 
them.  Though  the  number,  the  predicted 
and  promised  number  to  Abraham,  of  de- 
scendants who  should  spring  from  him, 
was  that  they  should  be  as  the  sand  of  the 
sea,  yet  but  a  remnant  shall  be  saved." 

V.  28.    'For  he  will  finish  the  work 


S80 


LECTiniE   LXXV. CHAPTER   IX,    25 — 33. 


and  cut  it  short  in  righteousness,  because 
a  short  work  will  the  Lord  make  upon  the 
earth.' 

This  alludes  to  the  work  of  vengeance, 
that  in  His  righteous  indignation  was  ex- 
ecuted upon  the  children  of  Israel ;  and 
that,  by  a  sudden  and  overwhelming  in- 
vasion of  their  enemies.  The  same  work 
was  speedily  to  be  done  over  again  by  the 
forces  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and,  in  like 
manner  as  the  truth  of  God's  promise  to 
Abraham  stood  unimpeachable  and  firm 
because  of  the  remnant  that  survived  the 
sweeping  destruction  of  these  former 
days — so  the  impending  destruction  of  the 
latter  days  would  also  leave  a  remnant 
which  should  vindicate  the  word  of  God 
from  the  charge  of  having  taken  none 
effect. 

V.  29.  '  And  as  Esaias  said  before.  Ex- 
cept the  Lord  of  sabaoth  had  left  us  a 
seed,  we  had  been  as  Sodoma,  and  been 
made  like  unto  Gomorrha.' 

The  Lord  of  Sabaoth  signifies  the  Lord 
of  Hosts.  Had  He  left  no  remnant,  had 
He  made  a  clean  and  total  destruction  of 
Israel,  then  it  would  have  shared  in  the 
fate  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah — cities  of 
which  now  no  vestige  is  to  be  found,  and 
of  whose  people  the  descendants  are  alto- 
gether lost  in  the  history  of  our  species. 
It  is  not  so  with  the  Jews.  A  goodly  num- 
ber of  them  were  obedient  unto  the  faith, 
and  in  them  all  the  blessings  promised  to 
Abraham  had  their  richest  accomplish- 
ment. Even  those  who  stood  obstinately 
out  in  their  rejection  of  the  Saviour  were 
not  all  cut  off;  and  their  posterity  main- 
tain a  separate  and  a  monumental  charac- 
ter to  this  very  day — at  once  affording  a 
most  impressive  evidence  of  that  special 
part  which  the  Divinity  takes  in  their 
affairs  ;  and  forming  a  reserve,  as  it  were, 
for  the  fulfilment  of  such  restoration  upon 
them  as  shall  pour  a  lustre  on  all  the 
prophecies  which  have  been  delivered  in 
their  behalf;  and  make  it  obvious,  that, 
after  the  many  dark  reverses  and  humili- 
ations which  this  singular  people  have 
undergone,  that,  after  all,  there  is  not  a 
promise  which  has  been  uttered  to  their 
patriarchs  of  old  which  has  not  obtained 
a  splendid  verification  in  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  race. 

V.  30.  '  What  shall  we  say  then  ?— That 
the  Gentiles  which  followed  not  after 
righteousness  have  attained  to  righteous- 
ness, even  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
faith.' 

It  might  well  disarm  predestination  of 
all  its  terrors,  when  we  look  to  the  way 
in  which  its  fulfilments  are  practically 
brought  about.  There  is  the  offer  of  a 
justifying  righteousness  made  unto  all ; 
and  they  who  accept,  as  the  Gentiles  in 
the  present  instance,  are  the  obiects  of  a 


blessed  predestination.  The  reprobate 
are  they  who  decline  that  offer.  How- 
ever tremendous  it  may  look  when  viewed 
by  us  from  afar,  among  the  sublime  and 
mysterious  altitudes  of  that  past  eternity 
where  be  the  primary  links  of  a  vast  pro- 
gression reaching  from  the  decrees  of  the 
unsearchable  God  to  the  yet  unrevealed 
destinies  of  all  His  creatures — certain  it 
is,  that  God  when,  instead  of  being  con- 
templated in  His  place  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  chain  where  He  stands  at  so 
lofty  and  incomprehensible  a  distance 
away  from  us,  is  contemplated  in  the 
place  He  occupies  at  the  present  and  the 
contiguous  links,  appears  to  us  under  a 
very  different  aspect  from  that  in  which 
our  imagination  arrays  Him,  when  we  cast 
our  regards  athwart  the  boundless  inter- 
val of  those  ages  which  are  past.  And 
whether  is  it  better,  we  ask,  to  take  our 
impressions  of  the  Divinity  in  the  act  of 
looking  to  Him  as  God  at  a  distance — or 
in  the  act  of  listening  to  Him  as  a  God 
who  is  at  hand  1  Whatever  He  may  have 
purposed  or  done  then,  when  creation  and 
all  its  issues  were  fixed  by  an  act  of  pre- 
ordination, that  reached  forward  unto  all 
and  embraced  all — this  is  what  He  is 
doing  now.  He  is  stretching  out  for  your 
acceptance  the  title-deeds  to  an  inherit- 
ance of  glory.  He  is  offering  to  put  into 
your  hands  a  right  of  entry  into  the  city 
which  hath  foundations.  He  is  making 
the  issues  of  your  eternity,  at  least,  to  turn 
upon  this — whether,  accepting  of  Christ's 
righteousness  as  a  gift  and  so  coming  into 
possession  of  a  valid  plea  for  the  honours 
and  rewards  of  heaven,  you  shall  obtain 
sure  entrance  thereinto,  or,  declining  this 
offer  and  casting  the  die  upon  your  own 
righteousness,  you  shall  utterly  fail  of 
everlasting  bliss.  Grant  that  you  are  the 
objects  of  a  blessed  predestination,  here  is 
the  way  in  which  you  make  it  good — even 
by  accepting  through  faith  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  as  your  meritorious  plea  of 
acceptance  with  God.  Grant  that  any  of 
you  shall  turn  out  to  have  been  the  ob- 
jects of  dire  reprobation,  this  will  not  be 
without  your  refusal  of  an  offer  complied 
with  by  others,  but  made  also  unto  you — 
made  without  reserve  and  without  excep- 
tion unto  all.  Let  me  entreat  you  then, 
once  more,  to  forego  the  distant,  and  to 
take  up  with  the  near  contemplation. 
Attend  not  to  God's  past  decrees,  but  to 
God's  present  dealings  with  you — not  to 
what  He  has  written  of  you  in  that  book 
of  His  secret  counsels  which  is  up  in 
heaven,  but  to  what  He  has  written  to  you 
in  that  book  of  His  open  declarations 
which  is  now  circulating  freely  on  earth, 
and  on  a  copy  of  which  each  may  lay 
his  hand.  In  the  language  of  the  next 
chapter — try  not  to  pluck  the  secret  of 


LECTURE  LXXV. CHAPTER  IX,  25 — 33. 


381 


your  destiny  from  heaven  above,  or  from 
the  recesses  of  that  eternity  vi'hich  is  be- 
hind— try  not  to  fetch  it  into  the  light  of 
day  from  the  profundity  that  is  under 
your  feet,  or  from  the  yet  untravelled 
depths  of  that  eternity  which  is  before ; 
but  take  all  your  direction,  and  the 
guidance  of  every  footstep,  from  the  word 
which  is  nigh  unto  you.  There  you  read 
of  God's  beseeching  voice — of  His  pro- 
testations, nay  of  His  very  oaths,  that  in 
your  death  He  has  no  pleasure — of  this 
proclamation  the  sound  whereof  reaches 
from  the  mercy-seat  to  the  farthest  out- 
skirts of  His  sinful  family,  even  that 
"  whosoever  calleth  upon  the  name  of  his 
Son  shall  be  saved."  And  if,  on  looking 
across  the  medium  of  that  endless  retro- 
spect where  clouds  and  darkness  at  last 
terminate  the  vision,  you  could  descry 
nought  to  cheer  you  into  confidence,  learn 
now  to  regard  the  present  attitude,  and 
hearken  to  the  present  accents  of  a  God — 
all  whose  thoughts  to  those  who  seek  after 
Him,  are  thoughts  of  graciousness,  and 
who  now  holds  Himself  forth  unto  all  as 
a  God  benign  and  placable  and  tender. 

It  is  said  of  the  Gentiles  that  they  fol- 
lowed not  after  righteousness  and  yet  ob- 
tained it.  The  righteousness  of  that  law 
which  was  written  in  the  books  of  Moses, 
they  were  generally  ignorant  of.  The 
righteousness  of  that  law  which  was  writ- 
ten in  their  own  hearts,  they  knew  but 
they  did  not  follow  ;  but  there  was  a 
righteousness  followed  after,  even  till  it 
Avas  finished,  by  Christ  Jesus  as  the  sub- 
stitute of  sinners.  This  was  declared  to 
them  as  a  righteousness  in  which  they 
might  appear  with  acceptance  before  God 
— a  declaration  believed  by  many,  and 
according  to  their  belief  so  was  it  done 
unto  them. 

V.  31.  '  But  Israel  which  followed 
after  the  law  of  righteousness  hath  not 
attained  to  the  law  of  righteousness.' 

The  law  of  righteousness  here  is  the 
same  with  the  righteousness  of  the  law. 
They  strove  by  their  obedience  to  its  pre- 
cepts after  a  right  to  its  rewards.  It  was 
not  with  a  view  of  simply  adorning  their 
character  by  the  graces  or  virtues  of  the 
law,  nor  was  it  from  the  impulse  of  a  love 
for  its  righteousness,  that  they  so  labour- 
ed. It  was  with  the  view  of  making  good 
that  condition,  on  which  they  conceived 
that  the  reward  was  suspended — after 
which  they  could  challenge  that  reward 
as  their  due,  as  a  thing  that  they  had  as 
much  won  as  either  the  wages  for  which 
they  had  served,  or  the  goods  for  which 
they  had  paid  down  the  purchase-money. 
This  was  that  after  which  they  laboured, 
and  this  they  fell  short  of  Their  obe- 
dience did  not  come  up  to  the  high  requi- 
sitions of  the  law,  and  so  they  missed  of 


its  reward.  On  the  contrary,  their  dis- 
obedience, both  in  transgressing  and  in 
coming  short — their  sins,  both  of  commis- 
sion  and  of  omission,  brought  them  under 
its  clear  and  decisive  condemnation. 
They  may  have  fulfilled  in  some  things, 
but  they  failed  in  many  things ;  and 
though  toiling  with  all  the  strenuousness 
of  men  whose  eternity  was  at  issue,  none 
could  overtake  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  its  commandments. 

Now  observe  the  precise  effect  of  this 
state  of  matters.    However  willing  God 
might    be    that    all    these   transgressors 
should  be  admitted  into  Heaven — yet  this 
admittance  of  them  might  not  be  po^ible, 
so  long  as  they  on  the  other  hand  are  not 
willing  to  be  admitted  there,  but  on  the 
footing  of  a  remuneration  for  their  obe- 
dience.   There  might  be   enough  of  the 
disposition  of  kindness  on  the  part  of  God 
to  bestow  heaven  upon  them  as  a  present ; 
but  there  might  be  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  man  to  decline  it  in  this  character, 
and  to  demand  it  as  the  term  of  a  contract 
which  they  challenge  the  other  party  to 
fulfil.    This  brings  the  parties  to  a  stand, 
and  it  is  no  light  matter  which  they  stand 
for.    It  is  for  a  high  principle  of  divine 
jurisprudence,  of  which   we   are   taught 
in  the  Bible  that  there  is  a  moral  impos- 
sibility that  it  should  be  violated.     Upon 
the  ditference  between  heaven  as  a  thing 
of  free  grace  to  the  sinner,  or  heaven  as 
a  thing  of  due  and  merited  return  to  him 
for  his  obedience  as  it  is,  there  just  turns 
the  difference  between  a  vindicated  and  a 
dishonoured   law.     This   difference  man, 
obtuse  and  deadened  as  he  is  in  all  the 
sensibilities  of  his   moral   nature,   might 
feel  to  be  a  slight  one  ;  but  it  was  not  so 
felt  among  the  pure  and  ethereal  intelli- 
gences of  the  upper  sanctuary.     The  an- 
gels who  are  there  saw  the  dilemma,  and 
looked  on  with  most  intense  earnestness 
to  the  evolutions  of  that  great  problem  by 
which  it  might  be  extricated.     It  was  a 
question  of  pure  and  lofty  jurisprudence  ; 
and,  however  shadowy  it  might  appear  to 
beings  of  our  grosser  faculties,  and  withal 
darkened   and  made  dull   in  all  our  per- 
ceptions of  what  is  due  to  Heaven's  high 
sacredness  by  the  blight   which  sin  has 
cast  upon  them — it  was  truly  a  question 
for  which  all  heaven  was  put  in  motion  ; 
and  on  which  the  King  who  sitteth  upon 
its  throne,  put  forth  the  resources  and  the 
energies  of  a  wisdom  that  is  infinite.    And 
His  authoritative  declaration  to  this  our 
rebel  world  is,  that  the  sanctions  of  His 
law  could  not  be  nullified — that  all  crea- 
tion must  pass  away  rather  than  that  any 
of  its  promises  or  any  of  its  threatenings 
should  fail — that  the  truth  and  justice  and 
righteousness  of  the  lawgiver,  admitted  of 
nothing  short  from  the  rigid  execution  of 


382 


LECTDRE   LXXV.— -CHAPTER   DC,    25 — 33. 


all  its  penalties — that  sinners  could  not  be 
admitted  to  His  complacency,  till  their  sin 
had  been  branded  with  the  mark  of  an 
adequate  condemnation  ;  and,  more  par- 
ticularly, that  He  would  not  descend  to 
any  compromise  with  those,  who,  instead 
of  trembling  as  they  ought  lest  the  fire  of 
an  offended  jealousy  should  go  forth  upon 
them  to  bL'.rn  up  and  to  destroy,  persisted 
for  their  plea  of  acceptance  in  an  obedi- 
ence so  paltry  and  so  polluted,  as  being 
honourable  enough  to  the  Law  and  as 
every  way  good  enough  for  the  exalted 
Lawgiver. 

V.  32.  •Wherefore?  Because  they 
sou^it  it  not  by  faith  but  as  it  were  by 
the  works  of  the  law.  For  they  stumbled 
at  that  stumbling-stone.' 

This  is  a  most  important  question,  and 
a  most  instructive  reply  to  it — more  espe- 
cially when  we  view  it  as  given  by  the 
apostle  newly  emerged  from  the  subject 
of  predestination,  on  which  he  had  just 
been  arguing.  All  fresh  as  he  was  my 
brethren  from  the  high  topic  of  God's  de- 
crees, yet,  on  the  moment  that  he  turns 
himself  to  consider  the  reason  why  Israel 
fell  short  of  the  promised  blessing,  he 
lays  it  on  the  familiar  topic  of  man's  do- 
ings. The  cause  of  their  not  attaining  to 
righteousness,  and  so  of  their  being  ex- 
cluded from  life  everlasting,  is  here  re- 
solved, not  into  the  destinies  of  the  Crea- 
tor, but  into  the  doings  of  His  creatures — 
not  into  the  predestination  that  is  made 
by  God  above,  but  into  the  wrong  and  the 
wilfully  wrong  direction  that  is  taken  by 
man  below.  Instead  of  speculating  on 
the  incomprehensible  mystery  of  that  will 
in  heaven  by  which  some  are  elected  into 
life,  he  tells  us  of  the  way  upon  earth 
which  all  men  should  take  in  order  to  ar- 
rive at  it.  And  the  reason  simply  why 
the  children  of  Israel  missed  the  object 
of  a  blissful  eternity,  at  least  the  only 
reason  which  either  they  or  we  have  to  do 
with,  is  that  they  took  the  wrong  way. 
They  sought  a  righteousness  which  might 
justify  them  before  God  by  the  works  of 
the  law ;  and  this  proved  a  stumbling- 
stone  at  which  they  stumbled  and  fell,  and 
that  very  far  short  indeed  of  the  goal  to 
■which  they  were  pressing  forwards. 
They  tried  to  master  the  requisitions  of 
the  law,  in  order  thereby  to  get  at  its  re- 
ward; and  the  law  proved  too  hard  for 
them.  They  chose  to  enter  the  lists  with 
the  judgment  of  the  law,  and  that  judg- 
ment therefore  must  take  effect  upon 
them.  They  have  sped  according  to  their 
own  choice.  They  threw  their  stake  on 
the  commandments  of  the  law ;  and,  not 
having  won  the  length  of  perfect  obedi- 
ence thereunto,  nothing  remains  but  that 
they  must  abide  its  condemnation. 

Now  what  they  did,  the  natural  legality 


of  the  human  heart  prompts  the  men  of 
all  ages  to  do.  Our  first,  our  natural 
tendency,  is  to  seek  after  a  righteousness 
— and  that  by  a  conformity  to  the  rule  of 
perfect  righteousness.  Did  we  attain  the 
righteousness,  we  would  thereby  acquire 
a  title  to  the  reward.  But  the  universal 
fact  is  that  none  do  attain  ;  and  hence, 
with  all  who  persist  in  seeking  life  by  the 
law,  there  is  but  one  or  other  term  of  this 
alternative.  They  either  live  in  the  apa- 
thy  of  a  false  and  an  ill-founded  peace, 
or  they  live  in  the  alarm  of  a  well-found- 
ed terror — on  good  terms  with  themselves 
because  of  their  imagined  adequate  fulfil- 
ment of  the  demands  of  the  law,  or  on 
bad  terms  with  themselves  because  of 
their  sad  distance  and  deficiency  there- 
from. And  so  they  sink  down  into  the 
state  of  mere  formalists  in  obedience,  or 
into  the  restless  unconfirmed  and  withal 
most  unfruitful  as  well  as  unhappy  state 
of  a  perpetual  fearful ness.  In  either  state 
they  are  destitute  of  an  availing  right- 
eousness for  their  acceptance  with  God. 
He  will  not,  on  the  one  hand,  merely  be- 
cause men  are  satisfied  with  themselves, 
recognise  the  incomplete  and  tainted  offer- 
ings of  their  human  imperfection — as  if 
they  made  out  a  full  and  satisfying  homage 
to  that  law,  all  whose  demands  are  on  the 
side  of  a  personal  spiritual  and  universal 
holiness.  Neither,  on  the  other  hand, 
will  He  sustain  the  dread  and  the  distress 
and  the  painful  anxieties  of  those  who 
are  not  satisfied  with  themselves,  as  a 
sufficient  homage  done  to  His  law.  What 
He  wants  with  them  further  is,  that  they 
should  do  homage  to  His  gospel.  It  is 
well  that  they  have  such  a  true  discern- 
ment of  God's  law,  as  clearly  to  perceive, 
that  no  effort  of  theirs  can  reach  upward 
to  its  sublime  and  empyreal  elevation. 
But  it  is  also  essential,  that  they  should 
have  such  a  true  discernment  of  His 
grace,  as  to  perceive,  that,  by  its  conde- 
scensions and  by  its  offers,  it  reaches 
downward  even  to  a  worthlessness  as 
humbling  and  as  polluted  as  theirs.  It  is 
right  that  they  should  defer  to  the  terror 
of  those  penalties  which  are  denounced 
by  the  one ;  but  it  is  equally  right  that 
they  should  defer  to  the  truth  of  those 
promises  which  are  held  forth  by  the 
other.  They  ought  to  tremble,  when  be- 
thinking them  of  their  violations  of  the 
law ;  but  they  ought  to  feel  re-assured, 
and  to  cease  from  trembling  when  be- 
thinking themselves  of  the  sufficiency  of 
the  gospel.  If  it  be  an  offence  to  have 
done  disobedience  to  the  precepts  of  His 
authority,  it  is  also  an  offence  to  have 
done  discredit  to  the  overtures  of  His 
good- will.  And  so  we  read  of  the  fearful 
and  the  unbelieving,  as  well  as  of  the  pre- 
sumptuously secure,  that  both  alike  have 


LECTURE  LXXV. — CHAPTER  IX,  25 — 33. 


883 


a  plact.  issigned  to  them  in  the  abodes  of 
conden-nation. 

V.  33.  '  As  it  is  written,  Behold  I  lay  in 
Zion  a  stumbling-stone  and  a  rock  of 
offence,  and  whosoever  believeth  on  him 
shall  not  be  ashamed.' 

Our  only  method  of  escape  from  this  is 
by  fleeing  unto  Christ,  and  casting  a  con- 
fidence upon  Him  which  shall  never  be 
put  to  shame.  He  is  represented  as  being 
to  some  a  stumbling-stone  and  rock  of  of- 
fence. It  were  entering  upon  a  subject 
far  too  wide  for  us  at  present,  did  we  en- 
large upon  all  the  varieties  of  that  repug- 
nance which  is  felt  by  men  towards  Christ 
— the  absolute  nausea  of  some  at  the  very 
utterance  of  His  name — the  utter  distaste 
for  all  conversation  regarding  Him — the 
antipathy,  nay  even  hatred,  which  rise  in 
the  bosoms  of  many  against  His  pecu- 
liarly marked  and  devoted  followers; 
and,  along  with  the  toleration  which  very 
generally  obtains  for  a  meagre  and  mo- 
derate and  mitigated  Christianity,  the  se- 
cret revolt  and  the  open  declaration 
against  those,  who  carry  the  doctrines  and 
the  demands  of  Christianity  to  what  is 
apprehended  to  be  a  great  deal  too  far. 
In  a  certain  decent  and  regulated  propor- 
tion, it  is  borne  with  ;  but  very  apt  to  be 
impatiently  or  indignantly  flung  at,  when 
it  offers  to  engross  the  whole  heart,  or  to 
make  too  large  or  ostensible  an  inroad  on 
the  state  and  history  of  human  affairs. 
But  for  a  field  of  so  much  extent  and  la- 
titude, we  verily  at  present  have  no  time  ; 
and  must  be  content  now  with  but  one 
observation  on  a  certain  apparent  cross- 
ness or  contrariety  of  sentiment  in  the 
doctrines  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles — 
which  has  an  effect  rather  to  gravel  the 
understanding,  than  to  alienate  the  affec- 
tions of  men.  We  advert  to  the  place 
which  the  law  and  the  works  of  the  law 
have  in  the  theological  system  of  the 
New  Testament — where  at  one  time  they 
are  set  aside  as  utterly  insignificant ;  and 
at  another  it  seems  to  be  represented  as 
the  very  end  as  the  ultimate  landing-place 
of  Christianity,  to  make  its  disciples 
zealous  and  perfect  and  thoroughly  fur- 
nished unto  all  good  works.  There  is  the 
semblance  of  a  most  obvious,  nay  very 


glaring  inconsistency  here,  which  does 
embarrass  even  honest  enquirers;  and 
put  them  at  a  loss  for  the  right  adjustment 
of  this  whole  question.  It  is  a  question 
which  stumbles  them,  which  perplexes 
them,  and  has  all  the  effect  of  a  painful 
and  puzzling  ambiguity  upon  their  minds. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  disgrace 
and  the  disparagement  which  appear  to 
be  cast  by  the  men  called  evangelical,  on 
the  worth  and  the  importance  e^nd  the  no- 
ble character  of  virtue,  constitute  at  least 
one  of  the  offences,  one  ground  of  strong 
and  sensitive  aversion,  against  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

I  cannot  pretend  to  a  full  deliverance 
upon  this  subject ;  and  will  therefore  only 
suggest  a  distinction  which  can  be  stated 
in  one  sentence;  and  should,  as  far  as 
that  goes,  be  all  the  more  memorable ; 
and  which,  if  duly  pondere'd  upon,  will 
achieve  for  you  I  think  the  extrication  of 
this  whole  difficulty.  The  distinction  is 
between  the  legal  right  to  heaven  which 
obedience  may  be  supposed  to  confer,  and 
the  moral  rightness  of  obedience  in  itself. 
When  the  New  Testament  affirms  the 
nullity  of  good  works,  it  is  their  nullity 
from  their  not  being  perfect  to  the  object 
of  establishing  our  legal  right  to  the  re- 
wards of  eternity.  When  the  New  Tes- 
tament affirms  the  value  of  good  works, 
it  is  their  value,  even  though  not  yet  per- 
fect, in  regard  to  their  moral  rightness — 
which  moral  rightness  brightens  more  and 
more  unto  perfection,  till  at  length  it 
passes  into  the  sacredness  of  heaven,  and 
becomes  meet  for  the  exercises  and  the 
joys  of  eternity.  A  Christian  utterly  re- 
nounces all  good  works,  as  having  any 
value  in  them  to  confer  a  legal  right  to 
heaven.  And  yet  a  Christian  devotes 
himself  assiduously  to  the  performance 
of  good  works,  as  having  in  them  that 
virtue  of  moral  rightness  which  is  in  it- 
self the  very  essence  of  heaven.  For  his 
legal  right  to  heaven,  his  whole  reliance 
is  on  the  obedience  of  Christ,  as  that  which 
hath  alone  won  and  purchased  it.  For 
his  personal  meetness  for  heaven,  he  plies 
all  the  strength  that  is  in  him,  whether  by 
nature  or  by  grace,  in  order  to  perfect  his 
own  obedience. 


.     LECTURE  LXXVI. 

Romans  x,  1. 
"  Brethren,  my  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel  is,  that  they  might  be  saved." 

The  words  of  this  text  derive  a  special  I  position  which  it  here  occupies.    You  will 
and  an  augmented  interest  from  the  very  |  observe  that  it  is  at  the  close  of  a  very 


384 


LECTURE  LXXVI. CHAPTER  X,  1. 


elaborate  argument  held  by  our  apostle 
on  the  high  topic  of  predestination  ;  and 
from  which  the  reader  is  fully  warranted 
to  imagine,  that  those  Israelites,  in  whose 
behalf  he  plies  Heaven  with  such  fervent 
importunity,  had  already  been  the  objects 
of  Heaven's  irrevocable  decree.  It  is  alto- 
gether worthy  of  notice,  that,  in  this  in- 
stance, the  preordination  of  the  Creator 
did  not  supersede  the  prayers  of  the 
creature  ;  and  that  he  who  saw  the  far- 
thest into  the  counsels  of  the  Divinity 
above,  saw  nothing  there  which  should 
aflFect  either  the  diligence  or  the  devotions 
of  any  humble  worshipper  below.  We 
believe  that  there  are  some  men  with 
loftier  reach  of  intellect  than  their  fel- 
lows, who  can  discern  the  harmony  be- 
tween these  two  things  ;  or  how  it  is  that 
the  seat  of  the  Eternal  might  be  assailed 
with  prayer,  on  a  matter  whereabout  the 
purposes  of  the  Eternal  have  been  unal- 
terably fixed  from  the  foundations  of  the 
world.  They  can  perceive  that  either  the 
prayer,  or  the  performance  of  man,  is  but 
a  step  in  that  vast  progression  which  con- 
nects his  final  destiny  with  the  first  pur- 
poses of  God ;  and  that,  being  as  indis- 
pensable a  step  as  any  single  link  is  to 
the  continuity  of  the  whole  chain,  it  must 
be  made  sure  else  we  shall  never  arrive 
at  the  right  or  prosperous  termination. 
In  other  words,  if  man  will  not  address 
himself  to  the  business  of  supplication, 
the  blessing  of  salvatioii  will  not  follow  ; 
and,  however  indelible  the  characters 
may  be  in  which  the  ultimate  futurities  of 
man  are  written  in  the  book  of  heaven, 
this,  it  would  appear,  should  not  foreclose 
but  rather  stimulate  both  his  prayers  and 
his  efforts  upon  earth.  There  be  a  few 
who  can  clearly  discern  the  adjustments 
of  this  seeming  difficulty  ;  but  for  these, 
there  are  many,  who,  should  they  attempt 
to  resolve,  would  sink  under  it  as  a  mys- 
tery of  all  others  the  most  hopeless  and 
impracticable.  To  these  we  would  say 
that  they  should  quit  the  arduous  specu- 
lation, and  keep  by  the  obvious  duty — 
taking  their  lesson  from  Paul,  who,  though 
just  alighted  from  the  daring  ascents 
which  he  had  made  among  the  past  or- 
dinations of  the  Godhead,  forthwith  busies 
himself  among  the  plain  and  the  present 
duties  of  the  humble  Christian  ;  and  so 
makes  it  palpable  to  the  Church  through- 
out all  ages,  that,  however  deep  or  hard 
to  be  understood  his  article  of  predestina- 
tion may  be,  there  is  nothing  in  it  which 
should  hinder  performance,  there  is  no- 
thing in  it  which  should  hinder  prayer. 

Theology  has  its  steeps  and  its  alti- 
tudes— pinnacles  far  out  of  sight,  or  shoot- 
ing upwardly  to  heaven  till  lost  in  the 
cloudy  envelopment  which  surrounds 
them.    Yet  this  does  not  hinder  that  there 


should  be  a  most  distinct  and  discernible 
path  which  winds  around  its  basement, 
and  by  which  the  lowliest  of  Zion's  travel- 
lers may  find  an  ascending  way,  that  at 
length  when  the  toils  of  his  pilgrimage 
are  ended,  will  land  him  in  a  place  of 
purest  transparency,  where  he  shall  know 
even  as  he  is  known.  There  are  some 
whose  vision  can  cnrry  them  more  aloft 
among  the  heights  of  arduous  speculation. 
Yet  let  none  be  discouraged — for  there  is 
a  way  of  duty  that  may  be  practised  and 
of  doctrine  that  may  be  understood  which 
is  accessible  to  all — a  way  the  entrance 
upon  which  requires  but  the  union  of  a 
desirous  heart  with  a  doing  hand — a  union 
this  that  is  often  realized  by  the  veriest 
babe  in  intellect;  who,  wholly  unable 
though  he  be  to  scan  the  awful  mysteries 
of  a  predestinating  God,  yet  can  lift  the 
prayer  both  of  affection  and  confidence, 
while  looking  to  Him  in  the  more  legible 
as  well  as  more  lovely  aspect  of  a  God 
that  waiteth  to  be  gracious. 

Our  first  remark  then  is  that  predesti- 
nation should  be  no  barrier  in  the  way  of 
prayer.  Our  second  is,  that  unless  the 
desire  of  the  heart  goes  before  it,  it  is  no 
prayer  at  all.  Prayer  is  the  utterance  of 
desire,  and  without  desire  is  bereft  of  all 
its  significancy.  The  virtue  does  not  lie 
in  the  articulation — but  altogether  in  the 
wish  which  precedes,  or  rather  which 
prompts  it.  Prayer  is  an  act  of  the  soul ; 
and  the  bodily  organ  is  but  the  instru- 
ment and  not  the  agent  of  this  service. 
The  soul  which  thinks  and  wills  and 
places  its  hopes  or  its  affections  on  any 
given  object — this  and  this  alone  is  the 
agent  in  prayer.  Insomuch  that  although 
not  one  word  should  have  been  framed  by 
the  lips,  or  emitted  in  language  from  the 
mouth — the  man  might  substantially  be 
praying.  It  is  thus  that  he  might  pray 
without  ceasing.  In  company,  or  in  busi- 
ness, or  in  any  scene  whatever  whether 
of  duty  or  of  discipline,  there  might  at 
least  be  a  prayerful  heart  apart  from  the 
formalities  of  prayer — a  supplicatory,  a 
kneeling  attitude,  on  the  part  of  his  inner 
man,  and  to  which  he  is  bowed  down 
continually  by  an  aspiring  earnestness 
on  the  one  hand  to  be  and  to  do  at  all 
times  as  he  ought ;  and  by  a  lowly  sense 
on  the  other  hand  of  his  native  insuffi- 
ciency and  dependence  on  a  higher  power 
than  his  own,  for  being  constantly  up- 
holden  in  the  way  of  rectitude.  This  will 
be  sustained  as  prayer  by  Him  wh» 
weigheth  the  secrets  of  the  spirit ;  and,  on 
the  contrary,  all  expression  disjoined  from 
this  will  be  dealt  with  as  an  affronting 
mockery  of  Heaven.  It  is  true  that  in  the 
case  of  prayer,  God  has  committed  Him- 
self to  the  amplest  promises  of  fulfilment ; 
and  all  nature  and  providence  would  be 


LECTCRE  LXXVI. — CHAPTER  X,  1. 


385 


■at  our  command,  if  the  mere  verbality  of 
a  petition  upon  our  part  were  to  bring 
upon  God  the  literal  obligation  of  these 
promises.  But  He  is  not  pledged  to  the 
accomplishment  of  any  prayer  where  the 
desire  of  the  heart  does  not  originate  the 
utterance  of  the  mouth.  The  want  of 
such  desire  nullities  the  prayer;  and  to 
imagine  otherwise  would  be  to  revive  the 
superstition  of  other  days — when  a  reli- 
gious service,  instead  of  being  held  as  a 
community  of  thought  and  spirit  between 
the  creature  and  the  Creator,  consisted  in 
the  mere  handiwork  of  a  certain  and 
stated  ceremonial.  And  be  assured — that 
neither  the  counting  of  beads  nor  the  con- 
ning of  Pater-nosters  is  at  all  more  irra- 
tional, than  are  those  devotions,  whether 
of  the  closet  or  the  sanctuary,  which  the 
heart  does  not  emanate,  or  the  heart  does 
not  go  along  with. 

This  remark,  obvious  although  it  be, 
should  be  urged  more  especially  on  the 
coming  round  of  every  great  religious 
anniversary.  Although  Popery  in  respect 
of  denomination  may  have  gone  conclu- 
sively forth  of  our  borders — yet  in  respect 
of  spirit  and  character  may  it  still  abide 
in  the  land,  and  be  as  inveterately  rooted 
as  ever  in  the  hearts  of  our  population. 
Even  long  after  that  the  creed  of  these 
realms  has  been  purified  of  all  that  is  erro- 
neous in  the  dogmata  of  Catholics,  might 
the  conscience  be  infected  with  a  certain 
Catholic  imagination,  which  in  truth  forms 
by  far  the  most  misleading  heresy  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  It  consists  in  the  charm 
■  which  is  ascribed  to  mere  handiwork,  to 
performance  separate  from  principle,  to 
that  bodily  exercise  Avhereof  the  apostle 
saith  that  without  godliness  which  is  a 
thing  of  soul  and  sentiment  altogether  it 
profiteth  little.  Their  delusion  is  that  it 
profiteth  much  ;  and  we  fear  it  is  a  delu- 
sion which  has  left  deep  and  enduring 
traces  behind  it,  even  among  a  people 
who  have  abjured  the  communion  of  Po- 
pery, and  would  treat  its  disciples  wiih 
intolerance.  Under  all  the  disguises  of 
our  Protestantism,  the  inveteracy  of  the 
olden  spirit  breaks  forth  at  sacraments. 
And  when  we  behold  of  many  who 
breathe  the  element  of  irreligion  through 
the  year,  how  at  the  proclamation  of  this 
great  religious  festival  they  come  forth  in 
families — how  although  on  any  other  Sab- 
bath the  ordinary  services  of  the  house 
of  God  should  be  honoured  with  but  half 
a  congregation  or  with  half  an  attend- 
ance, yet  on  the  Sabbath  and  the  service 
•extraordinary,  the  place  should  teem  to 
an  overflow  with  worshippers — how  an 
importance  so  visible  should  be  given  to 
this  solemnity,  and  by  those  who  have 
not  habitually  in  their  hearts  any  solemn 
reverence  for  the  things  or  obligations  of 
49 


sacredness — We  cannot  but  recognise 
somewhat  like  the  dregs  of  our  ancient 
superstition  in  this  great  periodical  hom- 
age, founded  as  it  often  is  on  a  sort  of  ma- 
gical or  mystic  spell  which  is  ascribed  to 
sacraments. 

Be  assured  of  this  and  of  every  other 
ordinance  of  Christianity,  that,  unless  im- 
pregnated with  life  and  meaning,  it  is  but 
a  skeleton  or  framework — a  body  without 
a  soul — a  mere  service  of  bone  and  mus- 
cle— which  the   hand  can  perform,   but 
which  the  heart  with  all  its  high  functions 
of  thought  and  sensibility  has  no  share 
in.     It  stands  in  the  same  relation  of  in- 
feriority  to    genuine    religion,   that    the 
drudgery  of  an  animal  does  to  the  devo- 
tion of  a  seraph.    This  is  not  the  service 
which  God  who  is  a  Spirit  requires  of  his 
worshippers — who,  to  worship  Him  ac- 
ceptably, must  do  it  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
Religion  is  no  doubt  the  homage  of  crea- 
tures who  are  immeasurable  beneath  the 
Sovereign  whom  they  address;  but  still  it 
is  the  homage  of  intelligent  creatures — 
the  homage  of  the  subordinate  to  the  Su- 
preme intelligence — of  beings,  therefore, 
who  look  with  the  eye  of  their  mind  to- 
wards Him  who  sits  in  presiding  author- 
ity over  the  universe  which  He  has  made ; 
and  who  at  the  same  time  are  conscious, 
that  they  are  looked  upon  with  the  eye  of 
a  Mind  that  discerns  all  and  that  judges 
all.    In  one  word,  if  in  the  doing  of  any 
ordinance  there  be  not  the  intercourse  of 
mind  with  mind,  there  substantially  is  no- 
thing ;  and  yet  we  fear  it  to  be  just  such 
a  nothmgness  as  is  yielded  by  many  who 
are   regular   in    prayer,   and   who   walk 
with    decency    and    order    through    the 
rounds  of  a  sacrament.     In  this  wretched 
drivelling,  both  superstition  and  hypocri- 
sy appear  to  be  blended — a  vain  confidence 
in  the  efficacy  of  forms,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  willing  substitution  of  them  for 
the  purer  but  more  arduous  services  of  a 
moral  and  spiritual  obedience.    It  is  this 
last  alone  which  availeth.     Your  sacra- 
ment  is   vain,   if  the   dedication   of  the 
whole  life  to  God  do  not  come  after  it. 
Your  prayer  is  vain,  if,  unlike  the  apos- 
tle's in  the  text,  the  desire  of  the  whole 
heart  have  not  gone  before  it. 

But  let  us  now  attend  to  the  subject  of 
the  prayer — even  that  Israel  might  be 
saved.  And  here  we  may  remark  that 
although  desire  be  a  constituent  part  of 
prayer  and  therefore  essential  both  to  its 
reality  and  to  its  acceptance — yet  it  is 
not  all  desire  thus  lifted  up  from  earth 
that  will  meet  with  acceptance  in  heaven. 
It  were  an  attempt  much  too  unwieldy  at 
present,  yet  none  more  interesting,  to 
specify  what  all  the  desires  are  of  crea- 
tures here  below  which  are  sure  of  wel- 
come and  of  a  willing  response  in  the 


386 


LECTUKE  LXXVI. CHAPTER  X,  1. 


sanctuary  above.  It  is  not  every  random 
desire  that  will  meet  with  such  a  recep- 
tion— for  the  same  scripture  which  holds 
out  the  promise  of  "  ask  and  ye  shall  re- 
ceive," has  also  held  out  the  warning  that 
many  ask  and  receive  not  "  because  they 
ask  amiss,  that  they  may  consume  it  upon 
their  lusts."  Still,  believing  as  we  do, 
that  Scripture  does  furnish  the  principles 
by  which  to  discriminate  the  warrantable 
from  the  unwarrantable — and  so,  if  I  may 
thus  speak,  to  classify  the  topics  of  prayer 
— we  know  not  any  exposition  of  greater 
practical  importance,  than  what  those 
things  are  which  we  may  confidently 
seek  at  the  hand  of  God  even  till  we  have 
obtained  them ;  and  what  those  other 
things  on  the  seeking  after  which  the 
Bible  lays  such  discouragement,  that  we 
dare  not  or  rather  cannot  though  we 
would  pray  for  them  in  faith,  or  pray  for 
them  in  that  which  gives  to  every  request 
its  prevalence  and  its  power.  As  an  ex- 
ample of  what  now  I  can  but  briefiy 
touch  upon,  it  is  written  "  that  if  we  ask 
any  thing  according  to  his  will  he  hear- 
eth  us."  This  does  not  confer  a  sanction 
upon  every  suit  or  solicitation  that  wc 
may  press  at  the  court  of  heaven,  but 
certainly  upon  a  vast  number  of  them. 
Thus  surely,  every  petition  in  that  prayer 
which  He  himself  hath  dictated,  even  the 
Lord's  prayer  may,  as  according  most 
thoroughly  with  His  own  will,  be  prefer- 
red with  utmost  confidence  on  our  part ; 
and  so  it  is  that  while  we  have  no  war- 
rant to  pray  for  this  world's  riches,  we 
have  a  perfect  warrant  to  pray  for  daily 
bread.  The  same  principle  of  agreeable- 
ness  to  the  will  of  God  sustains  our  faith, 
when  praying  in  behalf  either  of  our- 
selves or  others,  for  the  riches  of  a  glori- 
ous immortality — being  expressly  told 
that  God  willeth  such  intercessions  to  be 
made  for  all  men,  and  on  this  ground 
too  that  He  willeth  all  men  to  be  saved. 
Such  is  the  large  and  liberal  warrant 
that  we  have  from  God  Himself  for  turn- 
ing our  desire  into  a  request,  when  the 
object  of  that  desire  is  salvation.  No 
imagined  desire  on  the  part  of  God,  or 
imagined  destiny  on  the  part  of  man, 
should  lay  an  arrest  on  this  plain  exercise. 
Let  there  be  but  a  desire  in  our  heart 
after  salvation,  even  as  there  was  a  desire 
in  the  heart  of  Paul  for  the  salvation  of 
his  countrymen  the  Jews  ;  and  the  patent 
way  of  arriving  at  our  object  is  just  to 
vent  this  desire  in  confident  utterance 
before  the  mercy-seat  of .  Heaven.  So 
near  does  God  bring  salvation  to  us — So 
fully  does  He  place  it  within  the  reach  of 
all,  and  at  the  receiving  of  all.  It  is  just 
as  if  we  had  it  for  the  taking ;  or  as  if  no 
obstacle  whatever  intervened  between  our 
Sincere  wish  for  it,  and  our  secure  posses- 


sion of  it.  At  least  there  seems,  in  that 
gracious  economy  under  which  we  live, 
to  be  but  one  stepping-stone  between 
them  ;  and  that  is  prayer.  So  very  near 
and  accessible  to  us  has  God  made  tho 
blessedness  of  our  eternity.  He  has  pos- 
itively committed  His  attribute  of  truth  to 
the  declaration,  that  if  men  will  but  ask 
He  will  bestow.  He  has  invested,  as  it 
were,  every  honest  petitioner  with  a 
power  over  his  own  future  and  everlast- 
ing destiny;  and  made  the  avenue  so 
open  between  the  earth  we  tread  upon 
and  His  own  upper  sanctuary,  that  if  the 
bent  or  aspiration  of  our  soul  be  towards 
heaven,  heaven  with  all  its  glory  and  its 
happiness  is  our  own.  This  at  least  is 
the  object  of  a  most  legitimate  desire,  and 
that  prayer  is  a  most  legitimate  one  which 
proceedeth  therefrom.  Ask  and  ye  shall 
receive,  is  a  promise  which  embraces 
within  the  rightful  scope  of  it,  all  that  is 
good  for  the  soul  and  for  the  soul's  eter- 
nity. And  so  let  us  ask  till  we  receive — 
let  us  seek  till  we  find — let  us  knock  till 
the  door  of  salvation  is  opened  to  us. 

But  thus  to  say  that  we  may  have  salva- 
tion for  the  asking,  certainly  points  out 
what  may  be  called  a  very  cheap  way  of 
obtaining  it — Cheaper  far  than  we  natural- 
ly or  usually  have  any  imagination  of.  For 
what  may  be  easier  it  is  thought  than  the 
utterance  of  a  prayer — and  even  although 
desire  should  be  indispensable  to  the  suc- 
cess of  it,  we  will  not  on  that  account 
lose  our  object  in  the  present  instance — 
for  who  is  there  that  desireth  not  the  sal- 
vation of  his  soul]  Is  there  a  humarv 
creature  that  breathes,  who  would  not 
like  to  be  assured  of  his  exemption  from 
the  agonies  of  a  hideous  and  intolerable 
hell,  and  who  would  not  prefer  to  spend 
his  eternity  in  the  palaces  of  heaven?  Put 
the  question  even  to  the  most  reckless 
and  abandoned  in  all  sorts  of  profligacy, 
would  it  not  be  his  dread  and  his  aver- 
sion to  lie  down  amongst  the  everlasting 
burnings  of  the  place  of  condemnation ; 
and  would  it  not  be  his  choice  rather,  to 
be  regaled  throughout  the  unceasing  ages 
of  a  glorious  immortality,  by  those  rivers 
of  pleasure,  and  amid  those  sounds  of  ju- 
bilee, which  cease  not  day  nor  night  in 
the  paradise  of  Godi  There  is  an  in- 
stinctive horror  of  pain  which  belongs  to 
all,  and  there  is  an  instinctive  love  of 
enjoyment  which  equally  belongs  to  all ; 
and  these  it  may  be  thought,  will  guaran- 
tee a  desire  and  an  honest  desire  with 
every  possessor  of  a  sentient  nature  for 
his  salvation  from  the  one,  and  for  his 
secure  inheritance  of  the  other.  So  that 
if  it  be  enough  for  the  salvation  of  any 
that  it  should  be  his  heart's  desire  and 
prayer  to  be  saved — who  after  all  wants 
the  desire,  and  who  is  there  that  might 


LECTURE  LXXVI. — CHAPTER  X,  1. 


387 


not  pray]  This  of  all  subjects,  it  may 
well  be  reckoned,  should  be  one  where 
the  instigation  of  the  heart  is  in  unison 
with  the  utterance  of  the  mouth ;  and 
thus  while  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all, 
and  man  both  wills  and  asks  it,  what 
obstacle  can  exist  in  the  way  of  Heaven 
— or  why  should  there  be  the  distance  of 
a  single  hairbreadth  between  any  soul  and 
the  certainty  of  its  salvation? 

That  you  may  apprehend  aright  how 
thi.s  matter  stands,  let  me  state  to  you  the 
whole  extent  and  import  of  the  term  sal- 
vation. We  are  aware  of  its  common 
acceptation  in  the  world — as  if  it  signified 
but  a  deliverance  from  the  penalty  of  sin. 
Whereas,  additionally  to  this,  it  signifies 
deliverance  from  sin  itself.  He  shall  be 
called  Jesus  said  the  angel,  for  He  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins — save  them 
from  a  great  deal  more  let  me  assure  you 
than  the  torment  of  sin's  penalty,  even 
from  the  tyranny  of  sin's  power.  The 
one  salvation  is  spoken  of  when  it  is  said 
of  Jesus  that  he  hath  delivered  us  from 
the  wrath  which  is  to  come.  The  other 
salvation  is  spoken  of  when  it  is  said  of 
Him,  that  He  hath  delivered  us  from  the 
present  evil  world.  The  first  secures  for 
the  sinner  a  change  of  place.  The  second 
secures  for  him  a  change  of  principle.  By 
the  one  there  is  effected  a  translation  of  his 
person,  from  what  is  locally  hell  to  what' is 
locally  heaven.  By  the  other  there  is  ef- 
fected a  translation  of  his  heart  and  spirit, 
from  that  which  is  the  reigning  character 
of  hell  to  that  which  is  the  reigning  charac- 
ter of  heaven.  The  one  is  but  a  personal 
emancipation  from  the  agonies  of  a  tre- 
mendous suffering  which  is  physical,  to 
the  joys  of  an  exquisite  gratification  which 
is  also  physical.  The  other  is  a  higher 
for  it  is  a  moral  emancipation  from  the 
thraldom  of  sensuality  and  sin  to  the  light 
and  the  love  and  the  liberty  of  a  new 
heaven-born  sacredness.  This  last  is  an 
inseparable  constituent  of  the  gospel  sal- 
vation— or  rather  I  would  say  that  it  is 
the  constituting  essence  of  it.  The  other 
is  more  the  accompaniment  than  the  es- 
sence. The  essential  salvation  surely  is 
that  which  stands  related  to  the  moral 
economy  of  man,  even  his  deliverance 
from  sin  unto  holiness.  The  subordinate 
or  the  accessory  salvation  is  that  which 
stands  related  to  his  animal  or  sentient 
economy,  even  his  deliverance  from  the 
fire  and  brimstone  of  hell  to  the  music 
and  the  splendour  and  the  sensible  enjoy- 


ments and  the  everlasting  security  of  hea- 
ven. The  one  takes  place  after  death. 
The  other  takes  place  now.  At  least  it 
has  its  commencement  in  time,  though  its 
perfect  consummation  is  in  eternity. 

You  will  now  understand  what  the  le- 
gitimate desire  is  which  should  animate 
the  heart  when  the  mouth  utters  a  prayer 
for  salvation.     There  is  the  desire  it  is 
true  for  a  future  and  everlasting  happi- 
ness— but  there  is  also  desire  for  present 
holiness.     There    is  no   other    salvation 
held  out  to  us  in  promise  or  in  prospect 
throughout  the  New  Testament.    It  is  the 
only  salvation  which  man  has  a  warrant 
to  ask ;  and  it  is  the  only  salvation  which 
God  is  willing  to  bestow.     Nothing  more 
true   than   that  if  man   really  wills  the 
thing  which  he  prays  for,  and  if  the  thing 
be  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God,  he  will 
certainly  obtain  it.    Now  God,  on  the  one 
hand,  willeth  all  men  to  be  saved  ;  and  if 
any  one  of  these  men,  on  the  other,  will 
for  his  salvation,  every  barrier  appears  to 
be  done  away,  and  the  sinner  is  on  the 
eve  of  a  great  and  glorious  enlargement. 
But  be  sure  that  you  understand  what  this 
will  for  salvation  means.   It  is  not  merely 
that  the  hand  of  vengeance  shall  be  lifted 
off  from  you.     It  is  also  that  the  spirit  of 
glory  and  of  virtue  shall  rest  upon  you.. 
It  is  not  merely  that  you  shall  obtain  a 
personal  exemption  from  that  lake  of  liv- 
ing agony  into  which  are  thrown  the  out- 
casts of  condemnation.     It  is  also  that  you 
shall  obtain  a  spiritual  .exemption  from 
the  vice  and  the  voluptuousness  and  all 
the  worldly  affecfions  which  animate  the 
passions  and  pursuits  of  the  unregenerato 
upon   earth.    It   is   not   alone  for  some 
vague  and  indefinite  blessedness  in  future. 
It  is  for  a  renovation  of  taste  and  of  char- 
acter at  present.    The  man  in  fact  who 
desires  aright  and  prays  ai'ight  for  the 
object  of  his  salvation,  is  not  merely  on 
the  eve  of  a  great  revolution  in  his  pros- 
pects for  eternity.     He  is  on  the  eve  of  a 
great  moral  revolution  in  his  heart  and 
in  his  history  at  this  moment.    His  prayer 
to  be  saved  embraces  it  is  true  the  trans- 
ference of  his  person  on  the  other  side  of 
death,  from  the  torments  of  hell  to  the 
transports    of   paradise — but    without  a~ 
transference  of  character  on  this  side  of 
death  the   thing   is   impossible ;   and  so 
there  is  enveloped  in  the  prayer  this  cry 
of  aspiring  earnestness — "  O  Gdfl  create 
in  me  a  clean  heart,  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me." 


388 


LECTURE  LXXVn. CHAPTER  X,  1. 


LECTURE  LXXVII. 

Romans  x,  1. 

"  Brethren,  my  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel  is,  that  they  might  be  saved." 


Man  on  the  one  hand  might  like  to  be 
put  into  a  state  of  happiness  without  holi- 
ness ;  but  God  on  the  other  hand  does  not 
like  that  such  a  happiness  shall  be  con- 
ferred upon  him.  Let  a  sinner  pray  with 
all  fervency  for  his  deliverance  from  hell 
and  translation  into  heaven — he  prays  for 
that  which  is  not  agreeable  to  the  will  of 
God,  if  he  desire  not  at  the  same  time  to 
be  filled  with  heaven's  charity  and 
heaven's  sacredness.  Heaven  we  are  told 
is  that  pure  and  holy  place  into  which 
nought  that  is  impure  and  nought  that  is 
unholy  can  enter  ;  and  the  sinner  who 
cries  for  salvation  yet  would  keep  by  his 
impurities,  is  wasting  the  desirousness  of 
his  heart  on  an  object  that  is  impossible. 
It  is  most  assuredly  not  God's  will  that 
heaven  should  be  peopled  with  any  but 
those,  who,  of  the  same  family  likeness 
with  Himself,  reflect  His  own  image  back 
again  upon  that  throne  which  is  irradia- 
ted with  the  lustre  and  the  loveliness  of 
all  virtue.  It  is  said  that  when  He  first 
willed  the  visible  creation  into  existence, 
and  looked  over  that  terrestrial  platform 
which  His  hand  had  garnished  with  so 
many  beauties,  He  pronounced  it  to  be  all 
very  good.  Even  for  the  graces  of  mute 
and  unconscious  materialism  the  Divinity 
may  be  said  to  have  a  taste  and  an  appro- 
bation ;  and  in  the  tints  and  the  forms  of 
Nature's  glorious  panorama,  its  ocean  and 
its  landscapes  and  its  skies,  hath  the  Su- 
preme Architect  of  our  universe  embodied 
His  own  primary  conceptions  of  the  fair 
and  the  exquisite  and  the  noble.  He  de- 
lights in  beauty,  and  is  revolted  by  de- 
formity even  in  the  world  of  matter  ;  and 
the  far  higher  characteristics  which  ob- 
tain in  the  world  of  spirits,  call  forth  pro- 
portionally higher  and  stronger  affec- 
tions in  the  breast  of  the  Godhead.  He 
loves  the  happiness  of  His  creatures,  but 
He  loves  their  virtue  more.  And  so  from 
that  moral  landscape  in  paradise  by 
which  His  own  immediate  presence  is 
surrounded,  all  that  offendeth  shall  be 
rooted  out.  There  is  nought  of  the  sinful 
or  the  sordid  that  can  be  admitted  there. 
The  God  who  loveth  righteousness  and 
hateth  iniquity  would  not  tolerate  the 
sight  of  what  is  evil.  Heaven  is  the  place 
of  His  own  especial  residence  ;  and  He 
will  fill  and  beautify  it  according  to  His 
own  taste  for  the  higher  graces  of  the 
mind,  to  His  own  conceptions  of  spiritual 
worth  and  spiritual  excellence.    To  suit 


Him,  it  must  be  a  land  of  uprightness  ; 
and  love  must  be  the  music  which  glad- 
dens it ;  and  the  atmosphere  which  blows 
and  circulates  around  its  habitations  must 
be  one  of  ethereal  purity.  Himself  will 
lay  out  and  decorate  the  precincts  of  His 
own  dwelling-place — nor  will  He  suffer 
aught  to  settle  there  which  can  violate 
the  moral  harmony  of  such  a  scene,  or 
mar  the  spectacle  of  its  perfect  and  un- 
spotted holiness. 

Now  remember  that  in  praying  to  be 
saved,  you  just  pray  that  such  a  heaven 
may  be  the  place  of  your  settlement 
through  all  eternity.  Else  there  is  no 
significancy  in  your  prayer.  It  is  not 
enough  that  you  seize  by  faith  on  a  deed 
of  justification.  You  must  with  diligence 
and  effort  and  all  the  expedients  of  moral 
and  spiritual  culture,  enter  forthwith  on  a 
busy  process  of  sanctification.  It  is  well 
that  Jesus  Christ  hath  by  the  expiation  of 
the  cross,  moved  away  that  barrier  which 
obstructed  our  access  to  the  Jerusalem 
above.  But,  now  that  a  way  for  the  ran- 
somed of  the  Lord  is  open,  let  us  forget 
not  that  it  is  the  way  of  holiness.  There 
is  a  work  of  salvation  going  on  in  heaven, 
and  by  which  Jesus  Christ  in  some  way 
that  He  hath  not  explained  is  there  em- 
ployed in  preparing  a  place  for  us.  "  1  go 
to  prepare  a  place  for  you."  But  there  is 
also  a  work  of  salvation  going  on  in  earth, 
and  by  which  Jesus  Christ  through  His 
word  and  Spirit  is  here  employed  in  pre- 
paring us  for  the  place.  And  our  distinct 
business  is  lo  be  ever  practising  and  ever 
improving  ourselves  in  the  virtues  of  this 
preparation.  It  is  not  a  selfish  affection 
for  happiness  in  the  general  which  forms 
the  leading  principle  of  Christianity.  It 
is  a  sacred  affection  for  that  happiness 
which  lies  in  holiness — or  rather  for  that 
holiness,  which,  to  every  being  possessed 
of  a  moral  nature,  brings  the  best  and  the 
highest  happiness  in  its  train.  In  one  word, 
if  you  take  the  right  aim  for  salvation,  it 
must  be  a  moral  heaven  to  which  you  as- 
pire ;  and  ere  you  can  find  entrance  into 
such  a  heaven  you  must  be  moralised. 

This  desire  for  salvation  then,  if  rightly 
understood,  is  desire  for  a  present  holi- 
ness.  This  longing  after  heaven  at  the 
last,  is,  with  every  honest  and  intelligent 
disciple^  a  longing  after  the  virtues  now 
which  flourish  there.  There  will  be  an 
immediate  entrance  on  heaven's  upright- 
ness  and  heaven's  piety.    So  long  as  we 


LECTURE   LXXVII. CHAPTER   X,    1. 


are  in  this  world,  we  have  neither  reached 
the  hell  or  the  heaven  of  eternity.  We 
are  only  on  the  one  or  the  other  of  those 
paths  which  lead  to  them.  Now  to  turn 
from  the  wrong  to  the  right  path,  is  just 
to  turn  from  sin  unto  sacredness.  And,  in 
the  very  act  of  so  turning,  we  receive 
strength  for  all  the  fatigues  of  that  new 
journey  which  leadeth  unto  Zion.  Turn 
unto  me  says  God,  and  I  will  pour  out  my 
Spirit  upon  you.  This  influence  from  on 
high  will  be  given  to  your  efforts  and 
your  prayers.  Your  prayer  for  some  ab- 
stract and  indefinite  beatitude  in  another 
state  of  being,  is  not  a  prayer  which  ac- 
cords with  the  will  of  God ;  and  can  no 
more  be  listened  to  by  Him  or  meet  with 
acceptance,  than  any  sordid  or  selfish 
petition  for  some  luxury  or  splendour  of 
this  world  which  your  heart  is  set  upon. 
But  when,  instead  of  this,  the  prayer  is 
for  that  beatitude  which  lies  in  holiness  ; 
when  it  is  a  prayer  for  the  very  beatitude 
of  the  good  and  the  glorified  spirits  in 
heaven  ;  when  the  desire  for  a  joyful 
eternity  above  is  thus  consecrated  by  a 
desire  for  grace  and  godliness  below ;  in 
one  word,  when,  in  place  of  a  mere  ani- 
mal or  selfish  aspiration  for  the  comfort, 
it  becomes  a  moral  and  a  sacred  aspira- 
tion for  the  character  of  heaven,  the 
prayer  to  a  holy  Creator  from  a  creature 
desirous  to  be  holy — then,  in  the  answer 
of  such  a  prayer,  will  the  gospel  make  full 
vindication  of  that  gracious  economy 
which  it  announces  to  the  world.  The 
pardon  of  his  sins  through  the  blood  (5f 
Christ,  is  as  free  to  him  as  are  the  light 
and  air  of  heaven  to  the  commoners  of 
nature.  The  spirit  who  gives  him  vic- 
tory over  his  sins  and  upholds  him  on 
his  advancing  way  to  all  righteousness,  is 
alike  free  to  him — nor  does  there  exist 
one  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  salvation, 
who  is  honestly  intent  to  be  as  he  ought 
and  to  do  as  he  ought. 

This  argument  is  not  wholly  inappli- 
cable at  a  sacramental  season,  which  gen- 
erally more  than  usual  is  a  season  of  devo- 
tion. There  comes  now  upon  many  a  spirit  a 
greater  than  its  wonted  desirousness  about 
the  things  of  eternity  ;  and  there  is  withal 
the  imagination  that  what  you  are  to  do 
upon  the  morrow,*  is  somehow  connected 
with  the  furtherance  and  the  security  of 
your  everlasting  interests.  Now  the  im- 
pression which  I  want  to  leave  upon  you 
is,  that  your  good  in  a  future  world  can 
in  no  conceivable  way  be  promoted  by  it, 
but  in  so  far  as  it  subserves  your  good- 
ness in  this  world.  The  literalities  of  a 
sacramental  observation  will  of  them- 
selves avail  you  nothing;  and  there  is 
superstition,  at  once  the  most  deceitful 

*  Preached  on  the  day  before  a  Sacrament. 


and  degrading  superstition,  in  the  thought 
that  your  claim  for  heaven  can  at  all  be 
improved  by  an  act  of  sacredness  which 
leaves  not  one  habit  or  one  affection  of 
sacredness  behind  it.  This  we  particu- 
larly address  to  those  who  make  due  pre- 
sentation of  themselves  on  the  communion 
Sabbath,  and  discharge  themselves  of  all 
the  punctualities  of  the  communion  table, 
and  yet  the  whole  year  round  cleave  most 
tenaciously  and  with  hearts  full  of  secu- 
larity  to  the  dust  of  a  perishable  world — 
who  in  hand  and  in  person  intromit  with 
all  the  forms  of  the  ordinance,  but  catch 
not  so  much  as  one  breath  upon  their 
spirits  from  the  air  of  the  upper  sanctu- 
ary— or,  if  they  do  experience  among  the 
solemnities  of  a  rare  and  remarkable 
occasion  some  transient  inspiration,  all  is 
dissipated,  and  goes  to  nought,  when  they 
return  to  their  homes  and  thence  lapse 
again  into  all  the  earthliness  of  their  un- 
changed natures.  Be  assured  that  the 
part  you  thus  take  in  what  may  be  called 
the  mechanism  of  asacraraent,  without  any 
part  in  the  mind  which  should  animate  and 
pervade  it,  will  leave  no  other  bearing  on 
your  immortal  state  than  just  to  aggra- 
vate  5^our  condemnation  ;  and  therefore 
to  escape  the  guilt  which  lies  in  this 
mockery  of  Heaven,  and  to  turn  the  mor- 
row's service  into  the  real  purposes  of 
your  salvation,  let  me  entreat  you  to  open 
your  heart  to  the  affecting  realities  which 
are  couched  in  the  symbols  and  shadowed 
forth  as  it  were  in  the  acts  of  the  institu- 
tion. The  bread  and  the  wine  which  are 
the  memorials  of  your  atonement  should 
encourage  even  the  guiltiest  of  you  all  to 
draw  nigh  in  faith — for  there  is  no  guilt 
beyond  the  reach  of  that  atonement.  But 
remember  that  you  also  draw  nigh  with 
full  purpose  of  heart  after  the  new  obedi- 
ence of  the  gospel.  Coming  thus,  you 
are  warranted  to  sit  down  at  the  table  of 
the  sacrament ;  and  the  prayers  of  a  heart 
desirous  of  a  present  holiness  as  of  a 
future  heaven,  will  most  surely  meet  with 
acceptance,  and  as  surely  be  answered 
with  power.  Your  prayer  to  be  saved 
from  the  punishment  of  sin,  lifted  while 
the  emblems  of  the  Redeemer's  sacrifice 
are  before  you,  will  most  certainly  pre- 
vail. Your  prayer  to  be  saved  from  the 
power  of  sin,  lifted  in  the  presence  of 
Him  who  is  Master  of  the  assembly  and 
to  whom  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit 
has  been  committed,  will  as  certainly  pre- 
vail ;  and  your  joining  in  this  ordinance 
will  contribute  to  save,  just  as  far  as  it 
contributes  to  sanctify  you. 

But  I  have  all  along  spoken  as  if  this 
were  a  direct  prayer  for  the  object  of 
one's  own  personal  salvation.  Whereas 
it  is  an  intercessory  prayer,  and  suggests 
what  we  ought  to  do  for  the  salvation  of 


390 


LECTURE  LXXVII. CHAPTER  X,  1. 


those  who  are  dear  to  us.  Paul  had  made 
many  a  vain  effort  for  the  salvation  of  his 
countrymen.  In  every  city  where  he 
found  them,  he  began  with  the  Jews  ere 
he  addressed  the  overtures  of  the  gospel 
to  the  Gentiles.  Ilis  obligation  to  them 
was  the  first  obligation  of  which  he  ac- 
quitted himself,  in  the  discharge  of  it 
he  incurred  many  a  hazard  ;  and  brought 
upon  himself  the  hatred  of  those  who  had 
been  formerly  his  friends  ;  and  made  pro- 
digious exertion  in  the  way  of  travelling, 
and  preaching,  and  doing  all  the  labours 
of  the  apostolical  office,  in  behalf  of  these 
his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh  ;  and 
not  till  compelled  by  the  hostility  of  a 
whole  nation  either  to  flee  from  place  to 
place,  or  turn  him  to  the  Gentiles,  did  he 
desist  from  the  strenuousness  of  his  efforts 
to  secure  the  immortal  well-being  of  those 
in  his  own  family  or  in  his  own  land. 
And  even  after  every  effort  failed,  still  he 
had  recourse  to  prayer.  The  desire  of 
his  heart  was  not  extinguished  by  the  dis- 
appointment he  met  with  upon  earth ; 
but  when  baffled  and  thrown  back  upon 
him  there,  it  took  an  upward  direction  to 
heaven — when  obstructed  on  all  sides  by 
the  resistance  of  man,  it  ascended  without 
obstruction  to  the  throne  of  God.  Even 
in  the  busiest  period  of  his  work  and  his 
warfare  for  the  conversion  of  these  ob- 
stinate Isi'aelites,  he  mixed  with  his  ac- 
tivities his  prayers — but  after  that  the 
activities  were  repressed,  the  prayers 
continued  to  arise.  He  was  forced  to 
desist  from  the  labours  of  the  hand — but 
the  love  in  his  heart  still  abode  un- 
quenched  and  unquenchable :  and  when 
he  could  do  no  more,  he  prayed  for  them. 
This  survived  the  longest  and  the  last  of 
all  the  other  expedients ;  and  long  after 
he  had  found  it  was  vain  to  labour,  he  did 
not  think  it  was  vain  to  pray. 

This  might  serve  as  admonition  to 
those  whose  hearts  are  set  on  the  eternity 
of  relatives  or  friends — to  the  mother  who 
has  watched  and  laboured  for  years  that 
the  good  seed  might  have  fixture  in  flie 
hearts  of  her  children,  but  does  not  find 
that  this  precious  deposit  has  yet  settled 
or  had  occupation  there — to  the  sister 
whose  gentle  yet  earnest  remonstrances 
have  been  wholly  unable  to  control  a 
brother's  waywardness — to  that  one  mem- 
ber perhaps  of  a  family  whom  the  grace 
of  the  Spirit  hath  selected,  and  who  now 
strives  and  supplicates  in  the  midst  of  an 
alienated  household,  that  all  may  be  ar- 
rested in  their  way  and  turned  unto  God 
— to  that  holy  and  heaven-born  disciple, 
whom  the  pollutions  of  the  world  have 
touched  not ;  but  who  standing  alone  in 
a  companionship  of  scorners,  mourns 
over  the  profaneness  and  the  profligacy 
that  hitherto  have  marked  all  his  solemn 


warnings,  all  his  friendly  but  ineffectual 
protestations.  All  these  may,  like  other 
zealous  missionaries,  have  had  but  a  hard 
experience.  They  may  have  long  been 
in  contact  and  collision  with  the  power 
of  sin  and  unbelief  in  the  hearts  of  others, 
and  had  much  to  discourage  them.  Their 
fidelity  may  have  given  offence — their  af- 
fectionate counsels  may  have  been  spurn- 
ed— their  moral  earnestness  may  have 
been  laughed  at — all  their  expedients  to 
impress  or  to  convince  may  have  vanish- 
ed into  impotency — their  very  speech 
may  at  length  become  a  signal  for  the 
attitude  of  suspicion  and  of  prompt  resist- 
ance on  the  part  of  their  fellows — And  so 
their  every  argument  might  only  strength- 
en, might  only  confirm,  the  impenitency 
which  it  was  meant  to  soften  or  do  away. 
In  these,  and  in  many  other  ways,  might 
they  receive  most  palpable  intimation 
that  they  are  doing  no  good ;  and  even 
perhaps  but  fixing  more  inveterately  than 
before  the  distaste  of  children  or  of  friends 
for  God  and  godliness.  And  so  might 
they  be  tempted  to  desist,  even  as  the 
apostles  desisted,  from  their  countrymen. 
Yet  let  them  never  forget,  that  what  has 
heretofore  been  impracticable  to  perform- 
ance may  not  be  impracticable  to  prayer. 
With  man  it  may  be  impossible ;  but 
with  God  all  things  are  possible.  That 
cause  which  has  so  oft  been  defeated  and 
is  now  hopeless  on  the  field  of  exertion^ 
may  on  the  field  of  prayer  and  of  faith  be 
triumphant.  Never  cease  then  your  sup- 
plications to  the  sanctuary  above;  for 
that  power  to  turn  the  unregenerate  and 
subdue  them — which  all  your  experience 
has  told  you  does  not  reside  unless  it  be 
given,  in  the  earthen  vessels  that  are 
below.  Let  those  anxieiies  for  the  Chris-, 
tianity  either  of  your  household  or  of 
your  aquaintanceship,  which  have  hither- 
to been  so  unproductive  of  good — let 
them  still  continue  to  be  unbosomed  as 
before  in  the  ear  of  your  Father  in  heaven. 
He  willeth  intercessions  to  be  made  for 
all  men,  and  He  willeth  all  men  to  be 
saved.  These  declarations  place  you  on 
firm  and  high  vantage-ground  in  praying 
for  human  souls ;  and  never,  we  may  be 
well  assured,  never,  can  any  intercession 
be  lifted  with  greater  acceptance  than 
that  of  a  Christian  parent,  when  he  asks 
in  behalf  of  those  children  who  now  glad- 
den his  home  upon  earth — that  they  shall 
be  preserved  and  permitted  to  spend  with 
Him  their  eternity  in  heaven. 

It  must  not  be  disguised  however,  that 
this  is  a  matter  on  which  parents  may- 
delude  themselves — that  in  their  disincli- 
nation to  spiritual  things,  and  their  indo- 
lence together,  they  may  be  glad  to  stand 
exonerated  from  the  fatigues  of  perform- 
ance, and  take  refuge  in  the  formalities 


LECTURE   LXXVII. CHAPTER   X,    1. 


391 


of  prayer — that  under  the  semblance  of 
doing  homage  to  the  omnipotence  of 
grace,  they  may  omit  the  doing  of  those 
things  which  it  is  the  office  of  grace  to 
make  effectual  for  the  conversion  of  the 
human  spirit — that  in  contemplating  the 
part  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the  agent,  they 
may  forget  their  own  part  as  the  instru- 
ments of  this  mighty  operation  ;  And 
therefore  would  we  warn  them  lest  they 
turn  the  orthodoxy  of  their  creed,  into  a 
justification  for  the  laxity  and  remissness 
of  their  conduct.  That  prayer  never  can 
avail  which  is  not  the  prayer  of  honesty  ; 
and  it  is  not  the  prayer  of  honesty,  if, 
even  though  you  pray  to  the  uttermost 
for  the  religion  of  others,  you  do  not  also 
perform  to  the  uttermost.  Could  we  only 
purge  the  prayers  of  men  of  all  their  hy- 
pocrisy, then  should  we  behold  the  pro- 


mises of  the  Bible  nobly  accredited  by 
the  verifications  of  experience ;  and  the 
interchange  of  petitions  and  their  respon- 
ses between  heaven  and  earth  would  de- 
monstrate to  the  eye  of  observation,  that 
there  was  indeed  a  living  reality  in  the 
gospel.  Even  as  it  is,  though  we  cannot 
just  say  that  Christianity  always  runs  in 
families,  yet  frequent  enough  are  the  in« 
stances  of  a  transmitted  faith  and  a  trans- 
mitted holiness  from  parents  unto  chil- 
dren— to  assure  us  that  did  the  former  but 
acquit  themselves  in  all  strenuousness 
and  with  all  supplication,  of  their  duty, 
the  blessing  of  an  efficiency  from  above 
would  descend  upon  the  souls  of  the  lat- 
ter ;  and  manifold  more  than  at  present 
would  be  the  examples  of  those  who  were 
born  unto  Christian  parents  being  also 
born  unto  God. 


LECTURE  LXXVIII. 


Romans  x,  2. 
''  For  I  bear  them  record  that  they  have  a  zeal  of  God,  but  not  according  to  knowledge." 


Ver.  2.  It  is  evident  from  this  verse 
that  the  Israelites  had  one  good  quality 
while  they  wanted  another.  But  the  re- 
markable thing — I  had  almost  said  the 
strange  thing  of  this  verse — is,  that  the 
apostle  should  make  their  possession  of 
this  one  good  quality  the  reason  of  his 
prayer.  '  It  is  my  prayer  that  they  might 
be  saved— /or  I  bear  them  record  that 
they  have  a  zeal  of  God.'  They  had  zeal, 
but  they  wanted  knowledge.  One  would 
think,  that,  if  they  wanted  both,  they 
would  at  least  stand  in  greater  need  of  his 
prayers;  and  the  mystery  is,  how  it  comes 
about,  that  their  haying  something  of 
what  is  good  should  be  the  moving  cause 
why  Paul  should  be  led  to  pray  for  their 
supreme  good,  even  the  everlasting  salva- 
tion of  their  souls — a  pretty  plain  intima- 
tion, that  if  they  had  not  been  in  the  pos- 
session at  least  of  this  something,  if  they 
had  not  had  thus  much  of  good,  even  zeal 
for  God,  he  would  not  have  prayed  for 
them. 

The  only  explanation  I  can  give  of 
this  peculiarity,  and  it  appears  to  me  a 
very  probable  one,  is  this.  You  know 
that  it  is  only  the  prayer  of  faith  that 
availeth  ;•  and  that  in  proportion  as  this 
faith  is  staggered  or  weakened  in  any 
manner,  in  that  proportion  prayer  loses 
of  its  efficacy.  It  is  thus  that  you  have 
not  the  same  heart,  the  same  encourage- 
ment, the  same  confidence,  in  praying  for 


some  great  and  palpable  unlikelihood— 
as  in  praying  for  that  which  you  either 
know  to  be  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God, 
or  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  established 
processes  of  nature  and  of  providence.  It 
is  thus  that  you  could  not  pray  so  hope- 
fully for  the  salvation  of  a  thorough  and 
confirmed  reprobate,  as  for  that  of  a  man 
in  whom  you  could  perceive  some  lurking 
remainders  of  good — some  aspirations  to- 
wards a  state  of  betterness — some  symp- 
toms or  promises  of  a  coming  penitency 
or  coming  amendment.  When  all  these 
are  utterly  extinguished,  then  faith  is  ex- 
tinguished, and  the  tongue  of  prayer  is 
either  put  to  silence  or  paralysed.  There 
is  the  despair  of  any  reformation  ;  and 
whosoever  asks  for  that  which  he  despairs 
of,  let  not  that  man  think  that  he  shall 
obtain  it  of  the  Lord.  There  is  a  depen- 
dance  affirmed  constantly  in  the  New 
Testament  between  that  faith  wherewith 
a  prayer  ascends  upwardly  to  heaven, 
and  that  fulfilment  which  comes  in  an- 
swer thereto  downwardly  upon  earth ;  and 
whatever  therefore  shall  tell  adversely  or 
favourably  on  the  faith  of  supplicants 
below,  must  tell  adversel}''  or  favourably 
on  the  fulfilments  that  are  granted  in  the 
santtuary  above.  And  so  it  is  just  as  if 
all  chance  of  a  man's  salvation  were  done 
away,  when  all  hope  of  it  had  died  away 
from  the  hearts  of  those  who  should  pray 
for  it. 


392 


LECTURE  LXXVm. CHAPTER  X,  2. 


There  is  an  observable  harmony  here 
between  that  process  which  takes  place  in 
the  hearts  of  believers,  and  that  process 
which  takes  place  in  the  counsels  and 
acts  of  the  upper  sanctuary.  You  know 
that  according  to  the  usual  methods  of 
the  divine  administration,  the  Spirit  is 
given  in  larger  measure  and  larger  mani- 
festations to  those  who  have  duteously 
responded  to  His  earlier  intimations,  or 
made  right  and  faithful  use  of  His  first 
and  feebler  influences  upon  their  hearts — 
whereas  He  is  more  and  more  withdrawn 
from  those  who  quarrel  or  who  resist 
these  first  impressions  of  His  upon  the 
conscience — so  that  at  length  He  may 
take  a  final  and  irrecoverable  departure 
away  from  their  souls,  and  abandon  to 
their  own  infatuation  the  unhappy  men, 
who,  growing  every  year  in  moral  hardi- 
hood, live  in  the  recklessness  of  all  that 
is  sacred,  and  die  at  the  last  in  fatal  im- 
penitency.  With  this  view  of  it  you  will 
be  at  no  loss  to  understand  the  saying — 
that  to  him  who  hath,  more  shall  be  given  ; 
and  from  him  who  hath  not,  there  shall 
be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath. 
Paul  himself,  who  served  God  with  good 
conscience  from  his  youth,  though  then 
in  ignorance  and  in  unbelief,  had  at 
length  a  full  revelation  given  to  him — 
whereas  those  of  his  countrymen  who 
even  against  conscience  maligned  and  re- 
sisted the  Saviour,  and  so  put  away  from 
them  the  things  which  belonged  to  their 
peace,  were  delivered  up  to  that  state  of 
judicial  blindness  in  which  they  were  for 
ever  hid  from  their  eyes.  The  life  of  a 
Christian  is  made  up  of  perpetual  acces- 
sions of  grace  from  one  degree  of  it  to 
another,  till  he  arrives  at  perfection,  and 
is  ripe  for  glory.  The  life  of  an  impeni- 
tent is  made  up  of  perpetual  and  succes- 
sive extinctions  of  one  good  feeling,  of 
one  lingering  sensibility  after  another,  till 
he  pass  away  into  utter  darkness,  and  is 
ripe  for  the  awful  the  irremediable  de- 
struction which  follows  it.  There  is  a  point 
somewhere  in  this  dismal  this  descending 
pathway,  where  the  irrecoverable  step  is 
taken,  and  he  has  sinned  unto  death. 
You  will  here  be  reminded  of  the  apostle 
John,  who  bids  us  pray  for  those  who 
have  not  sinned  unto  death ;  but  who 
adds  that  there  is  a  "  sin  unto  death  and 
I  do  not  say  that  he  should  pray  for  it." 
Now,  as  the  last  symptoms  of  any  re- 
maining good  die  away  from  the  charac- 
ter of  these  reprobates,  so  the  last  sparks 
of  a  hope  for  their  recovery  die  away 
from  the  hearts  of  by-standers  who  are 
looking  on,  and  who  at  length  cease  to 
persuade  and  even  cease  to  pray  for  them. 
Paul  had  not  just  sunk  so  low  in  despon- 
dency with  regard  to  the  Jews,  He  was 
not  yet  discouraged  out  of  all  faith  and 


all  prayer  about  them.  He  still  observed 
one  good  point  or  property  in  the  charac- 
ter of  that  nation — a  zeal  of  God,  even 
that  very  zeal  which  actuated  himself 
when  he  breathed  forth  threatenings  and 
slaughter  against  Christians — And  so  he 
still  could  hope,  and  still  could  pray  for 
them. 

From  the  materials  of  such  an  argu- 
ment as  this  there  may  be  constructed  a 
powerful  appeal,  by  which,  if  possible,  to 
arrest  the  headlong  way  of  that  moral 
desperado,  who,  hastening  on  from  one 
enormity  to  another,  is  fast  losing  all  the 
delicacies  of  conscience,  the  truth  and  the 
tenderness  of  other  days — in  whose  breast 
that  light  of  the  inner  man  which  has 
been  termed  the  candle  of  the  Lord  is 
fading  away  to  its  ultimate  extinction ; 
and  whom  the  Spirit,  tired  and  provoked 
by  the  stubborn  resistance  of  all  His 
warning,  is  on  the  eve  perhaps  of  aban- 
doning, and  that  forever,  to  his  own  heart's 
wickedness  since  he  will  have  it  so.  Every 
year  finds  him  a  more  confirmed  alien 
from  God,  and  stouter  in  all  the  purposes 
of  rebellion  than  before.  The  disease  of 
his  soul  grows  and  gathers  in  inveteracy — 
till,  encrusted  all  over  with  that  judicial 
hardness  to  which  he  has  been  delivered, 
all  the  touching  demonstrations  of  Provi- 
dence and  all  the  loud  artillery  of  menac- 
ing sermons  play  upon  him  in  vain.  Even 
when  age  and  disease  overtake  him,  even 
the  alarum  bell  of  his  coming  mortality 
might  bring  no  terror  to  his  ear  ;  and  with 
all  his  sensibilities  lying  prostrate  under 
the  power  of  that  corruption  which  has 
withered  them,  he  may  be  alike  unap- 
palled  by  the  demonstrations  of  his  guilt, 
and  the  fell  denunciations  of  the  ven- 
geance which  is  due  to  it.  The  truth  is 
that  he  is  sunken,  he  is  profoundly  sunken 
in  spiritual  lethargy  ;  and  now  beyond 
the  possibility  of  recall,  he  affords  the 
dire  and  the  dreadful  spectacle  of  a  help- 
less a  hopeless  creature,  whom  the  Spirit 
of  God  hath  irrecoverably  forsaken.  Know 
then  all  ye  regardless  hearers  who  have 
entered  and  are  now  walking  on  a  path 
of  wilful  iniquity,  that  this  is  the  state  to 
which  you  are  descending.  Your  friends 
behold  the  progress  of  this  impenitency. 
They  sigh  and  they  even  supplicate  Hea- 
ven on  your  account ;  but  the  time  may 
speedily  arrive,  when  the  characteristics 
of  your  impiety  shall  look  so  indelible 
and  so  desperate,  that  to  supplicate  in 
faith  is  beyond  them.  And  O  is  it  not 
time  to  retrace  your  footsteps  on  this  way 
of  destruction,  unknowing  as  you  are  how 
near  or  how  soon  you  shall  be  on  the 
verge  of  that  condition  when  the  Spirit 
of  God  shall  cease  to  strive  ;  and  the  very 
parents  who  gave  you  birth  may  weep, 
but  cannot  pray  for  you  ! 


LECTURE   LXXVIII. — CHAPTER   X,    2. 


393 


The  Jewish  character  was  not  yet  so 
utterly  desolated  of  all  worth  and  good- 
ness, as  to  drive  the  apostle  from  hope's 
last  refuge — even  prayer.    They  wanted 
knowledge,  but  they  had  zeal ;  and  this 
so  far  propped  his  spirit  in  that  exercise, 
to  the  success  of  which  a  certain  faith 
and  a  certain  hopefulness  are  so  indis- 
pensable.    That  must  have  been  a  valua- 
ble  property,   in    virtue  of  which   they 
could  still  be  prayed  for.    But  that  on  the 
other  hand  must  have  been  a  most  impor- 
tant and  essential  property,  from  the  want 
of  which  they  eventually  perished.    Had 
they  added  knowledge  to  their  zeal,  they 
would  still  have  remained  the  favourites 
of  Heaven ;  and  from  the  actual  history 
of  the  Jewish  people,  we  may  learn  what 
a  serious  want  the  want  of  knowledge  is. 
That  day  of  their  tremendous  visitation, 
in  the  prospect  of  which  our  Saviour  shed 
tears  over  their  devoted  city,  came  upon 
them,  to  use  His  own  language,  just  be- 
cause  they   knew   not  the   things   which 
belonged  to  their  peace.    Their  ruin  as  a 
nation  was  the  effect  of  their  ignorance  ; 
and    in  that    fearful  that  overwhelming 
doom  which  our  Saviour  wept  over,  but 
would  not  recall,  we  have  experimental 
proof  of  that  alliance  which  obtains,  by 
the  ordinations  of  the  gospel,  between  the 
knowledge  of  man  and  his  salvation,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  between  the  want  of 
that  knowledge,  and  his  utter  and  irre- 
versible  wretchedness,    upon    the   other. 
The  judgment  which  went  forth  against 
them  because  of  their  ignorance,  had  in 
it  as  much  of  the  spirit  and  character  of  a 
vengeance,  as  if  it  had  been  inflicted  on 
the    worst    moral    perversities    whereof 
humanity  is  capable.    It  is  true  that  the 
awful   extermination   came    upon    them, 
because  they   had   killed  the  Prince  of 
life.    But  it  was  in  the  spirit  of  a  blind 
zeal,  and  as  Peter  and  John  testify,  through 
ignorance  that  they  did   it.    Their  con- 
demnation   still   resolves   itself   into   the 
want  of  knowledge — for  had  they  known, 
Paul  says,  they  would  not  have  crucified 
the  Lord  of  glory.    Let  us  not  then  under- 
rate the    importance    of   knowledge    in 
religion  ;  nor,  under  the  imagination  that 
ignorance  is  not  a  responsible  or  not  a 
punishable  offence,  hold  that  men  might 
be  in  safety  however  defective  in  point 
of  information,  however  wrong  in  point 
of  mere  understanding. 

But  in  addition  to  the  historical  proofs, 
for  what  may  be  called  the  religious  im- 
portance of  knowledge,  which  might  be 
drawn  from  the  narratives  of  Scripture, 
there  is  abundance  of  still  more  direct 
proof  in  its  merely  doctrinal  or  didactic 
passages.  On  the  one  hand  the  know- 
ledge of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ  is  said 
to  be  eternal  life.  And  on  the  other  hand 
50 


many  are  said  to  perish  for  lack  of  know- 
ledge.  When  Christ  shall  come  in  flaming 
fire  and  amid  the  elements  of  dissolving 
nature,  it  is  to  take  vengeance  on  those 
who  know  not  God.  Knowledge  and 
ignorance  in  fact  are  dealt  with,  even  as 
righteousness  and  sm  are  dealt  with. 
They  are  dealt  with  morally,  or  as  the 
proper  subjects  of  a  moral  reckoning; 
and  whereas  under  our  existing  economy 
the  pleasures  and  preferments  of  a  joyful 
eternity  in  heaven  come  in  train  of  the 
one,  hell  and  destruction  and  all  the  penal 
consequences  of  guilt  in  most  frightful 
aggravation  are  made  to  follow  in  train 
of  the  other. 

Now  the  question  is,  ought  this  in 
moral  fairness  to  be  ?  The  equity  of  such 
a  dispensation  has  been  stoutly  and  openly 
denied.  It  has  been  asked  if  man  be  re- 
sponsible for  knowledge  or  understanding 
or  belief,  just  as  he  is  responsible  for  the 
dispositions  of  his  heart  or  the  doings  of 
his  hand.  They  can  understand  bowman 
should  be  punished  for  his  wrong  beha- 
viour. But  they  understand  not  how  man 
should  be  punished  for  his  wrong  belief. 
The  difficulty  is  to  conceive  on  what 
ground  the  mere  views  of  the  understand- 
ing should  properly  be  made  the  subjects 
of  count  or  reckoning  at  all.  Are  the 
wrong  views  of  the  understanding  to  be 
resented  or  revenged  upon,  just  as  you 
would  resent  or  revenge  the  wrong  voli- 
tions of  the  will  1  You  at  once  perceive 
the  justice  of  retribution  for  the  conduct. 
But  you  do  not  perceive  the  justice  of 
retribution  for  the  creed.  You  would 
never  think  of  blame  or  of  vengeance 
either  for  the  height  of  a  man's  stature, 
or  for  the  hue  and  the  features  of  his 
countenance.  And  in  like  manner  the 
opinions  of  the  judgment  are  held  by 
some  to  be  equally  exempted,  as  things 
of  physical  and  organic  necessity,  from 
blame  or  from  vengeance.  Man  is  held 
by  them  to  be  responsible  for  his  doings, 
which  he  can  help  ;  but  not  for  his  doc- 
trines, which  they  say  he  cannot  help — 
And  so  the  God  of  Christianity  has  been 
charged  with  unrighteousness  ;  and  Chris- 
tianity itself  with  this  dread  inscription 
upon  its  forehead  that  "He  who  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned  " — has  been  indig- 
nantly exclaimed  against  as  a  hard  and 
a  most  revolting  dispensation. 

Now  we  shall  not  enter  on  the  conside- 
ration that  the  punishment  consequent  on 
the  unbelief  is  not  all  for  the  unbelief, 
but  for  the  guilt  of  a  broken  law,  the 
condemnation  of  which  takes  its  own 
proper  and  primary  effect  upon  you,  be- 
cause you  have  not  found  your  way  to  the 
place  of  refuge  or  of  protection  there- 
from. This  is  very  true — yet  it  is  further 
true,  that  the  guilt  of  a  broken  law  is 


394 


LECTURE   LXXVllI. CHAPTER   X,    2. 


every  where  spoken  of  as  enhanced  and 
deepened  to  tenfold  aggravation  by  the 
guilt  of  a  rejected  gospel.  There  is  a 
wrath  that  abideth  on  unbelievers — even 
that  wrath  which  their  sins  had  excited  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Deity,  and  which  they 
have  not  escaped  from  by  the  way  an- 
nounced and  intimated  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. But  there  is  also  a  wrath  added  to 
the  former,  and  augmented  on  the  head 
of  unbelievers,  just  because  they  have  not 
betaken  themselves  to  that  way.  In  other 
words,  there  is  a  displeasure  on  the  part 
of  God  towai'ds  unbelief,  just  as  there  is 
a  displeasure  towards  any  moral  viola- 
tion. The  creed  of  the  infidel  is  dealt 
with  as  his  crime  ;  and  the  question  still 
remains,  how  comes  it  that  the  mere 
errors  of  the  understanding  should  have 
the  same  sort  of  delinquency  affixed  to 
them,  as  the  wilful  errors  either  of  the 
heart  or  of  the  conduct] 

In  reply  to  this  interrogation,  we  fully 
admit  that  no  man  is  punished  for  what 
he  cannot  help,  but  then  we  affirm  that 
his  belief  in  certain  circumstances,  (and 
we  think  that  Christianity  is  in  these  cir- 
cumstances) is  that  which  he  can  help. 
We  admit  that  a  moral  delinquency 
should  be  charged  on  that  which  is  not 
wilful — but  we  affirm  that  many  are  the 
occasions  in  which  the  belief  or  the  un- 
belief is  wilful ;  and  that  therefore,  there 
might  be  no  contravention  of  obvious 
justice  in  pronouncing  the  one  to  be  a 
duty,  and  in  proceeding  against  the  other 
as  you  would  against  a  crime.  It  is  utterly 
a  mistake  to  imagine  that  knowledge  and 
opinion  and  belief,  and  in  a  word  the 
various  states  of  the  understanding,  are  in 
no  way  dependent  upon  the  will.  It  is  by 
an  act  of  the  will  that  you  set  yourself  to 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  It  is  by 
an  act  of  the  will  at  the  first,  and  by  a 
continued  act  of  the  will  afterwards,  that 
you  first  commence,  and  then  continue  a 
prolonged  examination  into  the  grounds 
of  an  opinion.  It  is  at  the  bidding  of  the 
will,  not  that  you  believe  without  evi- 
dence, but  that  you  investigate  the  evi- 
dence on  which  you  might  believe.  In 
all  these  cases  the  will  either  gives  its 
consent,  or  withholds  it.  It  cannot  create 
the  light  of  evidence  any  more  than  it 
can  create  the  light  of  nature.  But  it  lies 
with  it  whether  the  evidence  shall  be 
attended  to  or  regarded  with  the  eye  of 
the  mind,  even  as  it  lies  with  it  whether 
the  illuminated  landscape  shall  be  looked 
upon  or  regarded  with  the  eye  of  the 
body.  It  is  in  your  power  to  shut  or  to  avert 
the  mental  eye,  just  as  it  is  in  your  power 
to  shut  or  to  avert  the  corporeal  eye.  It  is 
in  no  way  your  fault,  that  you  do  not  see 
when  it  is  dark.  But  it  is  in  every  way 
your  fault  that  you  do  not  look  when 


either  the  light  of  the  natural  heavens,  oT 
the  light  of  Heaven's  revelation  is  around 
you.  It  is  thus  that  the  will  has  virtually 
to  do  with  the  ultimate  Belief,  just  because 
it  has  to  do  with  the  various  steps  of  that 
process  which  goes  before  it.  Where 
there  is  candour,  which  is  a  moral  pro- 
perty, the  due  attention  will  be  given  ;  and 
the  man  will  arrive  at  the  state  of  being 
right  intellectually,  but  just  because  he 
is  right  morally.  When  there  is  the  oppo- 
site of  candour — a  thing  pronounced  upon 
by  all  as  a  moral  unfairness — the  due 
attention  will  be  refused ;  and  the  man 
will  be  landed  in  the  state  of  being  wrong 
intellectually,  but  just  because  he  is 
wrong  morally. 

You  find  a  most  impressive  exemplifi- 
cation of  this  in  the  history  of  those  very 
Jews  whom  we  now  are  considering. 
During  the  whole  of  our  Saviour's  minis- 
try upon  earth,  they  were  plied  with  evi- 
dences, which,  if  they  had  but  attended 
to  would  have  carried  their  belief  in  the 
validity  of  His  claims  and  credentials  as 
a  Messenger  from  heaven.  But  the  be- 
lief was  painful  to  them  ;  and  at  all  ha:^- 
ards  they  resolved  to  bar  the  avenues  of 
their  minds  against  the  admittance  of  it. 
This  was  the  attitude,  the  wilful,  the  har- 
dy, the  resolved  attitude  in  which  they 
listened  to  all  His  addresses  and  looked 
upon  all  His  miracles.  That  unwelcome 
doctrine  which  so  humbled  the  pride,  and 
did  such  violence  to  the  bigotry  of  their 
nation,  was  not  to  be  borne  with — and, 
rather  than  harbour  a  thmg  so  intolerably 
offensive,  they  shut  their  minds  against 
all  that  truth  which  lay  both  in  the  words 
and  in  the  works  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and 
they  shut  their  hearts  against  all  that 
tenderness  as  well  as  truth  which  fell  in 
softest  accents  from  a  Saviour's  lips,  or 
beamed  in  mildness  and  mercy  upon  them 
from  a  Saviour's  countenance.  Who  does 
not  see  that  the  will  had  a  principal  con- 
cern in  all  this  opposition — that  the  pride 
and  the  passion  and  the  interest  and  the 
ease,  that  these  propensities  of  man's 
active  and  voluntary  nature,  had  un- 
doubted sway  and  operation  in  this  war- 
fare ;  that  their  love  of  darkness  and 
their  hatred  of  light  affixed  to  their  unbe- 
lief the  stigma  of  a  moral  condemnation 
— their  love  of  that  which  left  a  veil  over 
their  corruptions,  their  hatred  of  that 
which  laid  them  open  to  the  display  and 
the  disturbance  of  an  exposure  which 
they  feared  ]  It  was  on  the  strength  of 
these  moral  perversities  that  they  resisted 
and  withstood  the  Saviour,  and  at  length 
perished  in  the  delusion  which  themselves 
had  fostered.  Theirs  was  not  the  dark- 
ness of  men  whom  no  light  had  visited, 
but  it  was  the  darkness  of  men  who  ob- 
stinately shut  their  eyes — who  had  lulled 


LKCTURE  LXXVin. — CHAPTER  X,  2. 


395 


their  own  consciences  asleep  ;  and  whom 
neither  the  voice  of  pitying  friendship, 
nor  the  voice  of  loud  and  angry  menace 
could  again  awaken.  They  were  in  this 
state  when  Christ  wept  over  them,  as  He 
pronounced  the  doom  of  their  approach- 
ing overthrow — a  doom  that  fell  upon 
them,  not  because  of  their  mental  delu- 
sion, but  because  this  delusion  was  the  fruit 
and  the  forthcoming  of  their  moral  deprav- 
ity— not  because  they  had  minds  that  did 
not  receive  the  truth,  but  because  they  had 
hearts  that  did  not  love  and  would  not  lis- 
ten to  it. 

And  this  is  for  our  admonition  to  whom 
the  latter  ends  of  the  world  have  come. 
In  this  our  day,  the  want  of  faith  is  still 
due,  we  believe,  as  heretofore,  to  the  want 
of  a  thorough  moral  earnestness.  Did  we 
only  prevail  upon  you  to  seek  after ;  to 
enquire  as  you  ought,  we  have  no  doubt 
that  you  would  come  to  believe  as  you 
ought.  If  blind,  we  fear  that  you  are 
wilfully  blind  ;  and  if  short  of  that  faith 
which  is  unto  salvation,  it  is  because  you 
are  not  honestly  and  with  all  your  heart 
in  pursuit  of  salvation.  You  are  not 
giving  earnest  heed  to  the  witness  upon 
earth,  that  is  to  the  Bible,  which  is  a  light 
shining  in  a  dark  place ;  and  which  at 


last  would  manifest  its  own  truth  and  di- 
vinity to  the  conscience  of  him  who  at- 
tentively regarded  it.  And  you  are  not 
sending  forth  earnest  prayer  to  the  wit- 
ness in  heaven,  that  is  to  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  office  it  is  to  pour  the  light  of  a 
convincing  and  an  atfecting  demonstra- 
tion over  the  pages  of  the  written  record. 
You  are  not  doing  what  you  might  if  you 
so  willed— and  if  you  do  not  see  the  light 
of  that  evidence  which  belongs  to  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  it  is  positively  be- 
cause you  are  not  looking  for  it.  In 
other  words,  if  you  die  in  mental  dark- 
ness,  it  is  because  you  live  in  moral  un- 
concern ;  and  whatever  the  damnation  be 
which  rests  on  unbelief  it  is  altogether 
due  unto  yourselves.  Often  are  you  vis- 
ited with  the  misgivings  of  a  conscience 
which  tells  you  that  your  present  state  is 
far  from  satisfactory  ;  but  these  you  con- 
trive to  stifle  and  suppress.  The  whole 
business  of  your  souls  is  postponed  and 
wilfully  postponed  from  one  day  and 
from  one  year  to  another ;  and,  abiding 
in  darkness  because  you  choose  the  dark- 
ness, you  remain  to  the  end  of  your  lives 
in  a  voluntary  destitution  of  that  know- 
ledge for  the  lack  of  which  men  perish 
everlastingly. 


LECTURE  LXXIX. 


Romans  x,  3 — 5. 

"For  they  being  ignorant  of  God's  righteousness,  and  going  about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  have  not 
submitted  themselves  unto  the  righteousness  of  God.  For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every 
one  that  believeth.  For  Moses  describelh  the  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  That  the  man  which  doth  those 
things  shall  live  by  them." 


Theee  should  be  no  difficulty  in  fixing 
whether  the  term  righteousness  in  this 
passage  must  be  understood  according  to 
its  personal  or  its  legal  sense — whether 
that  righteousness  which  designates  a 
character  that  is  marked  by  its  virtues 
and  its  graces ;  or  that  which  is  pro- 
nounced by  a  judge,  or  him  who  is  en- 
titled thereby  to  its  honours  and  rewards. 
In  this  place,  as  in  others,  the  context 
clears  up  the  text.  For  example  in  Mat- 
thew, V,  20 — the  righteousness  which  is 
there  spoken  of  cannot  be  mistaken  for 
any  other  than  the  personal — that  being 
made  obvious  by  the  illustrations  which 
follow,  and  whence  it  appears  that  its 
superiority  over  the  righteousness  of  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  lies  in  the  higher 
style  of  certain  virtues  which  are  there 
specified.  And  again  in  tjalatians,  iii,  21, 
there  can  be  as  little  mistake,  when  we 
affix  the  legal  or  judicial  meaning  to  the 


righteousness  there  spoken  of— it  being 
such  a  righteousness  as  could  have  given 
life,  and  which  is  viewed  thei-efore  not  in 
the  moral  graces  of  which  it  is  made  up, 
but  in  the  rewards,  even  those  of  a  bliss- 
ful eternity,  which  are  judicially  conferred 
upon  it — ;just  as  the  ministration  of  death 
in  2  Cor.  iii,  7,  is  clearly  juridical,  it  being 
termed  in  ver.  9,  the  ministration  of  con- 
demnation, for  death  is  the  penalty  of  sin : 
And  so  the  ministration  of  righteousness 
contrasted  therewith  must  be  juridical 
also,  it  being  the  ministration  of  life,  even 
that  life  which  is  the  reward  of  righteous- 
ness. In  like  manner  when  one  looks  to 
the  verse  before  us  in  conjunction  with 
the  verses  which  immediately  succeed, 
there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  settling 
the  judicial  import  of  the  term  righteous- 
ness throughout  this  whole  passage  of  the 
apostle's  argument — as  being,  not  the 
righteousness  which  has  its  place  in  the 


396 


LECTURE  LXXVm. CHAPTER  X,  2. 


character  or  person  of  a  disciple,  but  the 
righteousness  which  can  be  plea'd  or 
stated  by  him  at  the  bar  of  jurisprudence 
when  he  stands  there  as  a  claimant  for  the 
rewards  and  honours  of  eternity.  In  short 
it  is  the  righteousness  which  gives  a  right 
to  eternal  life  or  which  challenges  eternal 
life  as  its  due — that  righteousness  which 
the  Jews  fell  short  of,  because  they  sought 
to  establish  it  by  the  merit  of  their  own 
doings,  while  they  refused  to  make  use  of 
the  plea  which  God  offered  to  put  into 
their  hands  as  a  righteousness  that  He 
would  accept — this  being  a  righteousness 
of  which  they  were  ignorant,  or  would 
not  acknowledge,  or  would  not  submit 
themselves  thereto.  "For  they  being  ig- 
norant of  God's  righteousness,"  or  of  that 
righteousness  on  the  ground  of  which  or 
consideration  of  which  He  would  take 
man  into  acceptance  ;  "and  going  about 
to  establish  a  righteousness  of  their  own," 
seeking  to  make  good  their  title  to  heaven, 
as  rightful  claimants  to  its  inheritance  on 
the  strength  or  merit  of  their  own  proper 
services — "  they  would  not  submit  them- 
selves unto  the  righteousness  of  God," 
but  sought  to  be  justified  in  their  own 
way  which  was  by  their  own  works,  rather 
than  by  His  method  of  justification. 

My  only  additional  remark  on  this 
verse  is,  that,  in  the  ignorance  there  spo- 
ken of,  there  is  something  more  than  the 
mere  passive  blindness  of  those  who  can- 
not help  themselves  because  of  the  total 
darkness  by  which  they  are  encompassed. 
It  was  very  much  the  ignorance  of  those 
who  would  not  open  their  eyes.  There 
was  an  activity,  a  will  in  it,  as  much  as 
there  was  in  the  other  things  ascribed  to 
them  in  these  words — in  the  'going  about' 
to  establish  a  different  righteousness  from 
that  which  they  would  not  acknowledge, 
or  would  not  submit  to — resisting  it,  in 
fact,  because  of  their  not  liking  it.  This 
forms  the  true  principle  on  which  the 
condemnation  of  unbelief  rests.  "They 
love  the  darkness  rather  than  the  light ;" 
and  so  the  ignorance  or  unbelief  is  crim- 
inal— just  as  far  as  there  were  affection 
and  choice  in  it.  Even  as  the  Gentiles 
"liked  not  to  retain  God  in  their  know- 
ledge"— even  so  the  Jews  liked  not  in  this 
instance  to  admit  God  into  their  know- 
ledge, or  give  entertainment  in  their  minds 
to  that  way  of  salvation  which  He  had 
devised  for  the  recover)'  of  a  guilty  world 
— even  the  transference  of  man's  sins  to 
the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  transference 
of  Christ's  righteousness  to  the  persons 
of  all  who  believe  in  Him.  It  is  the  part 
which  the  will  has  in  it  that  makes  igno- 
rance the  proper  object  of  a  vindictive 
retribution ;  and  so  when  Christ  cometh, 
He  will  take  vengeance  on  those  who 
know  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  gospel 


of  Jesus  Christ.  The  will  has  to  do  with 
the  want  of  obedience  ;  and  so  far  as  the 
want  of  knowledge  is  punishable,  the  will 
has  to  do  with  that  want  also.  There  is 
a  wilful  resistance  to  the  light — though  a 
resistance  this  it  must  be  admitted  which 
the  light  itself  may  overcome  by  the 
greater  force  of  its  evidence,  by  the  greater 
brightness  and  intensity  of  its  own  mani- 
festation— just  as  Paul's  ignorance  and 
unbelief  were  overpowered  by  the  light 
that  shone  upon  him  near  Damascus  ;  and 
as  ihe  faith  of  converts  in  the  present  day 
is  carried,  when  God  is  pleased  to  reveal 
Christ  in  them,  by  commanding  the  light 
to  shine  out  of  darkness,  or  by  calling 
them  out  of  darkness  into  the  marvellous 
light  of  the  gospel. 

Ver.  4.  'For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that 
believeth.'  There  is  one  obvious  sense  in 
which  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law ;  and 
that  is  when  the  law  viewed  as  a  school- 
master brings  us  to  the  conclusion,  as  to 
its  last  lesson,  that  Christ  is  our  only 
refuge  our  only  righteousness — thereby 
shutting  us  up  into  the  faith.  But  this  is 
not  the  §ort  of  end  which  is  meant  here. 
We  should  have  a  more  precise  under- 
standing of  the  verse  by  taking  the  word 
end  as  equivalent  to  purpose — and  that  a 
purpose  too  which  the  law  was  fitted  to 
serve  not  merely  after  it  was  broken  ;  but 
at  the  time  of  its  original  institution,  and 
when  it  was  first  set  up  for  the  moral 
government  of  men.  Now  that  the  law 
has  been  violated,  and  we  are  the  outcasts 
of  its  rightful  condemnation,  it  is  good  to 
be  schooled  by  it  into  the  lesson  that 
Christ  is  our  only  hiding-place,  in  whom 
thei'e  is  no  condemnation  ;  and  thus  to 
make  Christ  the  end  or  the  final  landing- 
place  of  that  educational  process  through 
which  we  are  conducted,  when  studying 
the  high  precepts  and  authority  of  the 
law,  and  our  own  immeasurable  distance 
and  deficiency  therefrom.  It  is  not  thus 
however  that  this  verse  is  to  be  under- 
stood ;  and  for  the  right  determination  of 
what  it  signifies,  we  should  go  back  to  one 
of  the  purposes  for  which  the  law  was 
given  at  the  time  of  its  first  ordination — 
a  purpose  to  be  gained,  not  after  the 
breaking  of  it,  but  which  would  have 
been  gained  by  the  keeping  of  it.  One 
of  these  purposes  was  to  secure  the  moral 
rightness  of  man's  character  and  conduct. 
But  another  of  these  purposes  was  to  se- 
cure for  him  a  legal  right  to  eternal  life. 
The  one  was  the  end  of  the  law  for  his 
personal  holiness.  The  other  was  the  end 
of  the  law  for  his  judicial  righteousness, 
and  this  is  what  we  hold  to  be  precisely 
the  'end  of  the  law  for  righteousness'  in 
our  text.  Its  direct  and  primary  object 
was  that  man  should  be  justified  Dy  his 


LECTURE  LXXVin. — CHAPTER  X,  2. 


397 


obedience  thereto  ;  but  man  falling  short 
of  this  object  or  end  by  falling  short  of 
perfect  obedience,  can  only  now  obtain 
it  in  Christ,  in  whom  alone  we  have 
righteousness,  even  a  part  and  an  interest 
in  that  everlasting  righteousness  which 
He  hath  brought  in,  by  His  obedience — 
which  righteousness,  with  all  its  associ- 
ated privileges  and  rewards,  is  unto  all 
and  upon  all  who  believe.  It  is  the  merit 
of  His  obedience  imputed  unto  us  and 
made  ours  by  faith,  which  forms  our  right 
or  title-deed  of  entry  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  He  is  the  Lord  our  righteous- 
ness ;  and  in  receiving  Him  we  receive 
that  righteousness  which  it  was  the  end 
of  the  law  to  have  secured  for  us  had  it 
been  by  us  fulfilled  ;  but  which  we  in  vain 
seek  by  the  law,  now  that  it  has  been 
broken.* 

Ver.  5.  '  For  Moses  describeth  the  righ- 
teousness which  is  of  the  law,  That  the 
man  which  doth  those  things  shall  live  by 
them.'  One  expedient  by  which  men  have 
attempted  to  dilute  or  do  away  the  sub- 
stance of  the  gospel,  is  to  represent  the 
insutficiency  of  the  law  for  salvation  as 
attaching  only  to  the  ceremonial  law  of 
Moses.  In  the  passage  now  before  us 
however,  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
the  law  is  said  to  be  superseded  by  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  faith  ;  and  the 
former  righteousness,  or  that  which  is  laid 
aside,  attaches  to  the  law  whereof  Moses 
said  that  the  man  which  doeth  those  things 
shall  live  by  them.  This  surely  must  in- 
clude the  moral  as  well  as  the  ceremonial. 
The  great  lawgiver  of  the  Jews  nowhere 
represents  the  doing  of  the  things  of  the 
ceremonial  law  as  enough  for  life.  "Cursed 
is  every  one,"  he  saith,  "who  continueth 
not  in  all  the  words  of  the  book  to  do 
them."  And  so  far  is  any  sufficiency  of 
this  sort  from  being  awarded  to  the  cere- 
monial alone — there  is  many  a  prophetic 
remonstrance  founded  on  the  insignifi- 
cance of  the  ceremonial,  when  compared 
with  the  worth  and  lasting  obligation  of 
the  moral.  "  To  what  purpose  is  the  mul- 
titude of  your  sacrifices  unto  me'!  Put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  and  learn  to 
do  vvell."  It  is  not,  if  a  man  do  the  things 
of  the  ceremonial — it  is  if  he  do  the  things 
of  the  whole  law,  that  he  shall  live.  It  is 
our  sufficiency  for  the  righteousness  of 
the  whole  law  which  is  here  brought  to 
the  trial ;  and  if  found  wanting,  which 
eventually  it  will  be  in  every  instance,  we 
must  infer  that  man  can  no  more  attain  to 
everlasting  life  by  his  most  strenuous  ob- 
servation of  moral  righteousness,  than  by 
,his  most  faithful  and  laborious  discharge 
of  the  Mosaic  ritual. 


'For  a  fuller  elucidation  of  this  verse,  see  our  Bermon 
on  Romans,  x,  4,  in  vol.  iii  of  our  Congregational  Ser- 
mons, being  vol.  x  of  the  Series. 


It  is  on  the  ground  of  the  moral  law 
and  of  it  alone,  that  this  trial  for  eternity 
now  rests.  We  of  the  present  day  stand 
delivered  from  the  obligations  of  the  Jew- 
ish ritual,  and  of  its  burdensome  services. 
Should  we  decline  the  gospel,  we  shall  be 
dealt  with  purely  and  exclusively  as  the 
subjects  of  the  moral  law  ;  and  still  it 
holds  true  that  the  man  who  doeth  these 
things  shall  reach  everlasting  life  without 
a  gospel  and  without  a  Saviour.  If  the 
law,  the  moral  law,  be  sufficient  to  any 
man  for  this  object — then  to  him  the  gos- 
pel is  uncalled  for.  It  is  thus  that  the 
economy  of  grace  may  be  brought  to  the^ 
trial  of  its  worth  and  its  importance  ;  and' 
to  this  very  law  the  man  who  yields  a 
perfect  moral  obedience  may  challenge 
for  himself  the  right  of  neglecting  its 
offers — the  claim  to  an  inheritance  in  hea- 
ven without  the  need  of  a  passport  from 
Him  who  is  represented  to  us  as  the  Au- 
thor of  a  great  salvation. 

The  two  ways  to  eternal  life  here 
brought  into  comparison  are  clearly  and 
distinctly  contrasted.  The  one  is  by  doing 
— the  other  is  by  believing — The  one  by 
doing  a  full  and  finished  righteousness  for 
ourselves — the  other  by  believing  that 
Christ  has  done  a  full  and  sufficient 
righteousness  for  us  ;  and  makes  each  and 
all  of  us  as  welcome  to  its  rewards  as  if 
they  had  been  earned  in  our  own  person, 
by  the  merit  of  our  own  services.  It  is 
either  in  the  one  or  the  other  of  these 
ways  that  heaven  is  at  all  accessible — so 
that  should  we  both  fall  short  of  the  first, 
and  I'efuse  to  enter  upon  the  second,  we 
are  hopelessly  and  helplessly  barred  from 
the  paradise  of  God. 

There  are  two  places,  as  it  were,  at 
which  these  respective  ways  may  be  com- 
pared with  each  other — either  at  the  en- 
trance of  them  before  we  set  out ;  or 
anywhere,  after  that  we  have  set  out, 
along  the  pathway  of  each — whether 
cheered  on  by  the  encouragements,  or 
struggling  with  the  difficulties  peculiar  to 
the  one  or  the  other  of  them. 

I.  Let  us  first  take  a  view  of  the  state 
of  matters  at  the  entrance  of  the  two  ways 
— when  man,  under  the  first  effectual 
visitation  of  earnestness,  resolves  to  go 
forth  in  busy  search  and  prosecution  after 
the  good  of  his  eternity.  And  here  a  con- 
sideration meets  us  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  way  of  doing  ;  and  that  is  whether  the 
condition  of  eternal  life  in  that  way  be  not 
already  fallen  from,  and  so  the  eternal  life 
itself  already  forfeited.  It  is  he  who  doeth 
all  things  that  shall  live.  Have  we  hith- 
erto done  all  things  7  Are  we  in  circum- 
stances now,  for  making  a  clear  outset  on 
this  enterprise  for  heaven  ?  It  is  not 
enough  that  there  be  the  purpose  of  uni- 
versal, of  unreserved,  obedience  in  all 


598 


LECTURE  LXXIX. CHAPTER  X,  d — 5. 


time  coming.  There  must  have  been  the 
performance  of  an  obedience  alike  uni- 
versal, alike  unreserved,  throughout  all 
the  stages  of  the  history  that  is  past. 
Can  the  memory  and  the  conscience  of 
any  man  living  depone  to  this?  Can  he 
lay  his  hand  upon  his  heart,  and  say 
without  misgiving — that  throughout  ail 
the  successive  days  of  his  past  existence 
in  the  world,  there  has  ascended  to  hea- 
ven the  continuous  incense  of  a  pure  and 
sinless  offering  1  Has  he  altogether  loved 
God  as  he  ought  1  Has  he  altogether 
lived  among  his  fellows  as  he  ought  1 
Has  his  hand  done  all  that  it  might  in  the 
services  of  benevolence  1  Has  his  heart 
been  filled  as  it  should  have  been — If  not 
with  the  sensibilities,  at  least  with  the 
purposes  and  the  aspirations  of  piety  1 
Has  the  will  of  the  Creator,  in  no  one  in- 
stance, made  place  for  his  own  wayward- 
ness 1  Has  that  law,  every  jot  and  tittle 
of  which  must  be  fulfilled,  had  this  unfail- 
ing this  unswerving  this  unexcepted  ful- 
filment rendered  to  it  by  him  1  Can  he 
appeal  to  every  hour  of  his  by-gone  his- 
tory ;  and  confidently  speak  of  each, 
having,  without  one  flaw  or  scruple  of 
deviation,  been  pervaded  by  that  loyalty 
of  principle,  by  that  grateful  recollection, 
by  those  duteous  conformities  of  a  heart 
ever  glowing  with  affection  and  of  a  hand 
ever  glowing  with  activity,  which  the 
creature  owes  to  the  Creator  who  gave 
him  birth  1  These  are  questions  which 
must  be  settled,  ere  he  can  advance  one 
hopeful  footstep  on  this  way  to  heaven  by 
the  deeds  of  the  law.  Should  there  be 
one  single  deed  either  of  sin  or  of  defi- 
ciency to  soil  the  retrospect  of  his  past 
experience,  it  nullifies  the  enterprise.  By 
a  single  act  of  disobedience  the  power  of 
making  good  our  eternity  in  this  way  is 
gone,  and  gone  irretrievably.  Heaven 
may  still  become  ours  by  a  deed  of  mer- 
cy. But  that  it  should  be  ours  by  a  judi- 
cial award  of  law,  and  of  law  sitting  in 
cognizance  over  our  deserts  and  our  do- 
ings, is  a  thing  impossible. 

If  the  conscience  be  at  all  enlightened, 
this  will  be  felt  as  a  difficulty  which 
overhangs  the  entrance  of  the  proposed 
journey  to  heaven  in  the  way  of  obedi- 
ence. The  sense  of  a  debt  which  no  ef- 
fort of  ours  can  possibly  lessen,  and  far 
less  extinguish — the  sense  of  a  guilt  that 
by  ourselves  is  wholly  inexpiable — the 
sense  of  an  impassable  gulf  between  us 
and  God,  seeing  that  when  viewed  as  our 
Lawgiver  and  ere  reparation  for  the  in- 
jury of  His  outraged  law  shall  have  been 
made.  His  attributes  of  truth  and  justice 
and  holiness  unite  to  lay  an  interdict  on 
any  terms  or  treaty  of  reconciliation — 
these  are  what  paralyse  the  movements 
of  a  conscious  sinner ;  and  just  because 


they  paralyse  his  hopes.  The  likest  thing 
to  it  in  human  experience  is,  when  a  de- 
creet of  bankruptcy  without  a  discharge 
has  come  forth  on  the  man  who  has  long 
struggled  with  his  difficulties,  and  is  now 
irrecoverably  sunk  under  the  weight  of 
them.  There  is  an  effectual  drug  laid 
upon  this  man's  activity.  The  hand  of 
diligence  is  forthwith  slackened  when  all 
the  fruits  of  diligence  are  thus  liable  to 
be  seized  upon — and  that  by  a  rightful 
claim  of  such  magnitude  as  no  possible 
strenuousness  can  meet  or  satisfy.  The 
processes  of  business  come  to  a  stand  or 
are  suspended — when  others  are  standing 
by  ready  to  devour  the  proceeds  of  busi- 
ness so  soon  as  they  are  realised,  or  at 
least  to  divert  them  from  the  use  of  the 
unhappy  man  and  the  good  of  his  family. 
The  spirit  of  industry  dies  within  him 
when  he  finds  that  he  can  neither  make 
aught  for  himself,  nor,  from  the  enormous 
mass  of  his  obligations,  make  any  sensi- 
ble advances  towards  his  liberation.  In 
these  circumstances  he  loses  all  heart  and 
all  hope  for  exertion  of  any  sort ;  and 
either  breaks  forth  into  recklessness  or  is 
chilled  into  inactivity  by  despair.  And  it 
is  precisely  so  in  the  case  of  a  sinner  to- 
wards God.  If  he  feel  as  he  ought,  he 
feels  as  if  the  mountain  of  his  iniquities 
had  separated  him  from  his  Maker.  There 
is  the  barrier  of  an  unsettled  controversy 
between  them,  which,  do  his  uttermost, 
he  cannot  move  away ;  and  ihe  strong 
though  secret  feeling  of  this  is  a  chief 
ingredient  in  the  lethargy  of  nature. 
There  is  a  haunting  jealousy  of  God 
which  keeps  us  at  a  distance  from  Him. 
There  is  the  same  willing  forgetfulness 
of  Him,  that  there  is  of  any  other  painful 
or  disquieting  object  of  contemplation. 
God,  when  viewed  singly  as  the  Lawgiver, 
is  also  viewed  as  the  Judge  who  must 
condemn — as  the  rightful  creditor  whose 
payments  or  whose  penalties  are  alike 
overwhelming.  We  are  glad  to  make  our 
escape  from  all  this  dread  and  discour- 
agement into  the  sweet  oblivion  of  Nature. 
The  world  becomes  our  hiding-place  from 
the  Deity — and  in  despair  of  making 
good  our  eternity  by  our  works,  we 
work  but  for  the  interests  of  time ;  and, 
because  denizens  of  earth,  we,  estranged 
from  the  hopes  of  heaven,  never  once 
set  forth  in  good  earnest  upon  its  prepa- 
rations. 

These  are  the  impossibilities,  which,  at 
the  very  commencement,  beset  this  way 
of  making  good  your  eternity  by  your 
doings ;  and  from  which  there  is  no  re- 
lease to  the  spiritual  bankrupt,  till  the. 
gospel  puts  its  discharge  into  his  hands. 
By  this  gospel  there  is  a  deed  of  amnesty 
made  known,  to  which  all  are  welcome. 
There  is  revealed  to  us  a  surety  who  hath 


LECTURE  LXXIX. CHAPTER  X,  3 — 5. 


399 


taken  the  whole  of  our  debt  upon  Him- 
self—having fulfilled  the  ample  acquit- 
tance of  all  our  obligations,  and  so  made 
us  clear  with  God.  Even  to  the  worst  and 
most  worthless  of  sinners  the  offer  of  this 
great  deliverance  is  made.  It  is  our  faith 
in  the  reality  of  this  offer  which  consti- 
tutes our  acceptance  of  it ;  and  whereas 
in  the  wfty  of  doing,  the  very  entrance 
was  impracticably  closed  against  us — this 
initial  obstruction  is  entirely  moved  aside 
from  the  way  of  believing.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Psalmist,  the  bond  is  loosed  ; 
and  restored  to  hope,  we  are  restored  to 
alacrity  in  the  bidden  services  and  pre- 
parations of  eternity.  With  the  conscience 
lightened,  through  the  peace-speaking 
blood  of  Jesus,  of  its  guilt  and  of  its 
fears — we  are  made  to  walk  with  the  feel- 
ing, with  the  hopeful  inspiration  of  men 
at  liberty.  The  debt  is  cancelled;  and, 
we  can  start  anew  in  that  enterprise  for 
heaven,  on  which  but  for  the  ransom  of 
the  New  Testament,  there  lies  a  burden 
of  utter  impotency  and  despair.  Like  the 
emancipated  debtor  to  whom  the  fruits  of 
all  his  future  toil  and  diligence  are  now 
fully  assured  to  him,  a  weight  is  taken  off 
from  the  activities  of  nature.  Our  la- 
bour is  no  longer  in  vain — because  now  it 
is  labour  in  the  Lord ;  and  every  effort 
becomes  a  step  in  advance  towards  hea- 
ven, when  thus  the  old  obedience  of  the 
law  is  exchanged  for  the  new  obedience 
of  the  gospel. 

II.  But  we  might  iragine  the  conscience 
of  man  not  to  be  enl  ;htened  at  the  outset 
of  his  religious  ea  lestness ;  and  that 
therefore,  instead  ol  the  stillness  of  his 
despair  under  a  sens  of  nature's  insufR- 
'ciency  for  the  righte  jusness  of  the  law, 
he  actually  sets  forth  in  the  pursuit  of  this 
righteousness,  and  makes  the  weary  strug- 
gle it  may  be  of  months  or  of  years  in 
order  to  attain  it.  It  is  oftenest  in  this 
way  that  the  first  movements  are  made 
under  the  first  powerful  visitation  of  seri- 
ousness. The  law  in  its  unsullied  purity — 
the  law  in  its  uncompromising  rigour — the 
law  in  its  unexcepted  right  of  sovereignty 
over  every  desire  of  the  heart  and  every 
deed  of  the  history — These  may  not  be 
adverted  to  at  the  time  of  the  soul's  inci- 
pient concern  about  these  things  ;  and  so 
the  attempt  might  fairly  be  made,  to  com- 
pass such  an  obedience  as  might  found  a 
claim  or  title  to  the  rewards  of  eternity. 
In  the  prosecution  of  this  object  there 
may  be  the  forth-putting  of  great  strenu- 
ousness — the  anxious  feeling  of  great 
scrupulosity — the  new  habit,  at  least  of 
toiling  at  the  servilities,  if  not  the  new 
heart  which  had  a  taste  for  the  sanctities 
of  religion.  At  all  events,  many  laborious 
drudgeries  might  be  gone  through.  The 
regularities  both  of  private  and  family 


prayer  might  be  instituted.  There  might 
be  allotted  hours  for  the  exercises  of  sa- 
credness  ;  and  these  in  full  tale  and  mea- 
sure may  be  observed  most  rigidly.  In 
short,  a  thousand  punctualities  may  be 
rendered — and  all  witu  the  view  to  estab». 
lish  a  merit  in  the  eye  of  heaven's  Law- 
giver, which  never  can  be  effectually  done 
without  a  full  and  faultless  adherence  to 
Heaven's  law.  Now,  we  say,  that  if  con- 
science feel  as  it  ought,  there  will  through- 
out this  whole  process  be  a  festering,  an 
inappeasable  disquietude — a  self-jealousy, 
and  a  self-dissatisfaction  which  no  doings 
or  deserts  of  our  own  can  terminate — a 
feeling  of  unworthiness  which  in  spite  of 
every  effort  will  adhere  to  our  best  ser- 
vices, and  turn  all  into  hopelessness  and 
vexation — For,  let  it  be  observed,  that, 
reach  what  elevation  of  virtue  we  may, 
there  will  in  proportion  as  we  advance 
and  we  ascend,  be  further  heights  and 
distances  in  moral  excellence  beyond  us 
and  above  us.  The  higher  we  proceed  in 
this  career,  we  shall  command  a  farther 
view  of  the  spaces  which  still  lie  before 
us ;  or,  in  other  words,  we  shall  be  more 
filled  with  a  sense  of  the  magnitude  of 
our  own  short-comings.  The  conscience, 
in  fact,  grows  in  sensibility,  just  as  the 
conduct  is  more  the  object  of  our  strict 
and  scrupulous  regulation  ;  and  so,  with 
every  advance  we  make  towards  the  per- 
fection of  the  law,  does  the  law  appear  to 
rise  upon  us  with  her  exactions — and  we 
feel  as  if  more  helplessly  behind  than  at 
the  outset  of  our  enterprise.  The  pre- 
sumptuous imagination  of  our  sufficiency 
comes  down  when  we  thus  bring  it  to  the 
trial ;  and  that  impotency  of  which  we 
were  not  aware  at  the  outset,  we  are  made 
to  know  and  to  feel  experimentally. 
Meanwhile  that  is  a  sore  drudgery  in 
which  we  are  implicated  ;  and  all  the 
more  fatiguing  that  it  is  so  utterly  fruit- 
less— that  the  peace  which  we  seek  to 
reafise  by  our  obedience  recedes  at  every 
step  to  a  greater  distance,  because  new 
heights  of  obedience  are  ever  rising  on 
the  view,  and  baffling  every  effort  to  sub- 
stantiate a  valid  plea  for  the  rewards  of 
immortality.  This  is  that  law-work,  of 
.whose  aspirations  and  toils  and  frantic 
unavailing  struggles,  like  those  of  a  cap- 
tive to  break  loose  from  his  prison-hold 
or  to  scale  the  precipice  which  hems  him, 
we  read  in  the  affecting  history  of  so 
many  a  convert — whose  awakened  con- 
science only  spoke  to  him  in  louder  terms 
of  reproach  the  more  he  did  to  appease 
its  endless  upbraidings,  and  whose  every 
attempt  to  flee  from  the  coming  wrath 
made  it  glow  the  more  fiercely  upon  his 
imagination.  Not  ten  thousand  punctu- 
alities of  the  outer  conduct  can  purify  a 
heart  that  is  every  day  obtaining  some 


400 


LECTURE  LXXIX. — CHAPTER  X,  3 — 5. 


fresh  revelation  of  its  own  worthlessness, 
and  which  when  brought  to  the  touch- 
stone of  a  spiritual  law  finds  itself  desti- 
tute of  all  right  affection  or  affinity  to- 
wards God.  This  is  the  grand  failure. 
His  hand  can  labour;  but  his  heart  can- 
not love — And  after  wasting  and  wearying 
himself  in  vain  with  the  operose  drudg- 
eries of  a  manifold  observation,  he  stnl 
finds  that  he  is  a  helpless  defaulter  from 
the  first  and  the  greatest  commandment. 

Now,  it  is  when  thus  harassed  and  beset 
among  the  impracticable  obstructions 
which  lie  in  the  way  of  doing,  that  he 
finds  the  very  outlet  he  stands  in  need  of 
when  the  way  of  believing  is  opened  to 
him.  The  righteousness,  which  he  has  so 
ineffectually  tried  to  make  out  in  his  own 
person,  has  been  already  made  out  for 
him  by  another  ;  and  now  lies  for  his  ac- 
ceptance, as  a  simple  and  unconditional 
offer  which  he  is  invited  to  lay  hold  of 
The  sin,  which  hitherto  has  so  hardened 
him  with  despondency  and  remorse,  is 
now  washed  away  by  the  blood  of  a  sat- 
isfying expiation  ;  and  God  in  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  calls  upon  him  to  draw 
nigh,  with  the  erect,  the  joyful  confidence 
of  one  who  never  had  offended.  The  Sa- 
viour has  completely  done  for  him,  what 
with  so  much  of  strenuousness  but  with  so 
little  success  he  has  been  trying  to  do  for 
himself  ;  and  he  is  warranted  to  step  im- 
mediately into  the  hopes  and  the  happi- 
ness of  one,  not  merely  reconciled  to  God, 
but  vested  with  the  same  right  to  His 
favour,  as  if  he  had  earned  it  by  the 
worth  of  his  own  services,  by  the  merit 
of  hi.s  own  full  and  faultless  obedience. 
What  a  mightyenlargement  when  the  title- 
deed  to  heaven,  for  which  he  had  been 
stretching  forward  with  many  long  and 
laborious  efforts,  till  he  at  last  suni<  down 
into  exhaustion  and  despair,  is  put  into 
his  hand;  and  the  gifted  creature,  now 
set  loose  from  bondage  and  terror,  ex- 
changes the  services  of  constraint  fol*the 
willing  services  of  a  grateful  and  affec- 
tionate loyalty ! 

It  is  thus  that  the  guiltiest  of  sinners, 
simply  on  believing  the  testimony  which 
God  hath  given  of  His  Son,  is  instated, 
and  that  immediately,  in  all  the  titles  and 
privileges  of  a  pure  and  perfect  righteous- 
ness before  the  Lawgiver  whom  he  has 


offended.  He  passes  from  death  unto  life. 
Individually  he  is  freed  from  the  penalties 
of  sin,  and  judicially  he  is  vested  with  an 
absolute  right  to  the  rewards  of  a  full  and 
finished  obedience.  The  righteousness  of 
Christ  is  reckoned  to  him,  and  he  is  dealt 
with  accordingly.  No  wonder  that  the 
tidings  of  a  salvation  so  marvellous  should 
be  so  generally  met  by  the  incredulity  of 
nature,  opposed  as  it  is  to  all  the  expecta- 
tions and  all  the  tendencies  of  nature, 
which,  when  awake  to  the  concerns  of 
another  world  at  all,  is  ever  prompting 
man  to  make  good  his  own  way  to  a  bliss- 
ful eternity,  and  that  by  a  righteousness 
of  his  own.  It  is  when  delivered  from  the 
burden  of  this  felt  impossibility,  that  man 
breaks  forth  on  a  scene  of  enlargement ; 
when  in  the  secure  possession  of  a  right 
to  heaven  in  the  righteousness  of  his  ac- 
cepted surety,  with  all  the  alacrity  of  an 
emancipated  creature  whose  bonds  have 
been  loosed,  he  proceeds  to  offer  the  sacri- 
fices of  thanksgiving,  and  to  call  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord. 

And  let  us  not  be  afraid  lest  this  judicial 
salvation,  if  it  may  be  thus  termed — so 
full,  so  free,  so  competent  to  every  sinner, 
however  vile,  if  he  but  place  his  confident 
and  unembarrassed  reliance  on  it,  so 
ready,  nay  so  importunate  for  the  accept- 
ance of  all,  and  that  without  the  least  dis- 
trust or  delay  on  their  part — let  us  not  be 
afraid,  lest  this  judicial  salvation  should 
not  bring  a  moral  salvation  in  its  train,  as 
if  exemption  from  the  penal  consequences 
of  sin  were  not  to  be  followed  up  by  ex- 
emption from  the  power  wherewith,  ante- 
rior to  our  reception  of  the  gospel,  it  lorded 
over  us.  The  great  author  of  that  econo- 
my under  which  we  live  will  not  leave 
any  of  its  parts  or  any  of  its  provisions 
unfulfilled  upon  us.  He  will  sanctify  as 
well  as  justify;  and  if  we  but  trust  in 
Christ,  we  shall  be  sealed  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  promise,  who  will  superadd  the 
personal  to  the  judicial  righteousness,  and 
make  us  meet  in  character  as  well  as  meet 
in  law  for  that  heaven,  the  door  whereof 
Christ  hath  opened  to  us — for  the  ser- 
vice of  that  glorious  inheritance  which 
He  hath  purchased  by  His  obedience,  and 
is  the  fruit  of  the  everlasting  righteousness 
which  Himself  hath  brought  in. 


LECTURE  LXXX. — CHAPTER  X,  6 9. 


401 


LECTURE  LXXX. 


Romans  x,  6 — 9. 


"  But  the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith  speaketh  on  this  wise,  Say  not  in  thine  heart,  Who  shall  ascend  into  heaven  1 
(that  is,  to  bring  Christ  down  froin  above ;)  or,  Who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  1  (that  is,  to  bring  up  Christ 
again  from  the  dead.)  But  what  saith  if!  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart :  that  is, 
the  word  of  faith,  which  we  preach  ;  that  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe 
in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved." 


This  passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans is  taken  from  a  similar  one  in  the 
book  of  Deuteronomy ;  and  it  has  been 
made  a  question,  whether  it  be  strictly  a 
quotation  in  the  sense  of  its  being  applied 
by  the  two  writers  to  one  and  the  same 
subject,  or  if  it  be  used  only  by  Paul  in 
the  way  of  accommodation,  and  applied 
differently  because  related  to  an  essen- 
tially different  covenant  from  that  which 
is  spoken  of  by  Moses.  For  the  covenants 
being  the  same,  it  is  argued  that  the  words 
of  the  text  as  they  occur  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  not  uttered  on  the  occasion  of 
that  covenant  which  was  made  with  the 
children  of  Israel  at  the  promulgation  of 
the  law  from  Mount  Sinai,  but  years  after- 
wards, and  on  the  eve  of  their  entrance 
into  the  land  of  Canaan — when  the  ad- 
dress containing  the  sentences  from  which 
our  text  is  taken  was  delivered  by  Moses, 
and  with  the  following  prefatory  an- 
nouncement— "These  are  the  words  of 
the  covenant,  which  the  Lord  commanded 
Mo.ses  to  make  with  the  children  of  Israel 
in  the  land  of  Moab,  beside  the  covenant 
which  he  made  with  them  in  Horeb."* 
And  certain  it  is,  that  in  this  latter  cove- 
nant there  are  evangelical  privileges  held 
forth,  and  evangelical  promises,  which 
enter  not  into  the  description  of  that 
righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  "  That 
the  man  which  doeth  these  things  shall 
live  by  them."  For  we  therein  read  of 
forgiveness  to  the  penitent,  "  When  thou 
shalt  return  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  he 
will  have  compassion  upon  thee"f — and 
of  regeneration,  "  The  Lord  thy  God  will 
circumcise  thy  heart,  to  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thine  heart  and  with  all  thy 
souT'f — and  not  only  of  forgiveness,  but 
of  positive  beneficence  and  favour,  "  For 
the  Lord  will  again  rejoice  over  thee  for 
good."5  These  perhaps  may  identify  this 
latter  of  the  Old  Testament  covenants  with 
the  covenant  of  peace  and  mercy  under 
which  we  now  live,  and  so  identify  the 
application  of  the  words  bfjth  as  uttered 
by  the  Jewish  legislator  and  by  the  Chris- 
tian apostle  to  one  and  the  same  subject, 
even  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ — leaving 
the  distinction  which  there  is  in  the  righte- 


*  Deut.  xxix.  1. 
t  Dent.  XXX,  6. 


51 


t  Deut.  XXX,  2,  3. 
$  Deut.  XXX,  9. 


ousness  of  the  law  from  the  righteousness 
of  faith  to  be  exemplified  and  upholden 
by  the  earlier  of  these  Hebrew  covenants, 
even  the  covenant  of  Horeb — under  which 
we  have  this  promise  of  hopeless  fulfil- 
ment, that  the  man  who  doeth  these  things 
shall  live  by  them  ;  and  this  denunciation 
of  terror  and  despair,  universal  because 
inclusive  of  the  whole  human  race — 
"  Cursed  is  every  one  who  continueth  not 
in  all  the  words  of  the  book  of  this  law  to 
do  them." 

But  we  must  not  spend  further  time  in 
the  settlement  of  this  question.  Whether 
the  words  of  our  text  were  employed  both 
by  Moses  and  Paul  to  characterise  the 
same  or  two  different  economies,  there  is 
a  common  property  ascribed  by  each  to 
that  one  economy  of  which  he  is  speaking. 
The  condition  upon  which  its  blessings  are 
suspended,  anu  by  the  fulfilment  of  which 
these  blessings  will  be  realised,  is  not  a 
distfifit  and  inaccessible  secret — either  im- 
bedded in  the  fathomless  depths  below,  or 
placed  far  out  of  sight  among  the  unseal- 
ed heights  of  the  firmament  above  us. 
"For  this  commandment,"  it  is  said  by  the 
founder  of  the  old  dispensation,  "  the  com- 
mandment which  I  command  thee  this 
day,  it  is  not  hidden  from  thee,  neither  is 
it  far  off."  "But  the  word  is  very  nigh 
unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart, 
that  thou  mayest  do  it."*  And,  in  coun- 
terpart to  this,  it  is  said  by  the  chief  among 
the^postles  of  the  new  dispensation,  "  The 
word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  ihy  mouth  and 
thy  heart :  that  is,  the  word  of  faith  which 
we  preach ;  That  if  thou  believe,  thou 
shalt  be  saved." 

But  the  great  peculiarity  in  the  verses 
of  my  text,  and  to  which  I  would  at  pres- 
ent direct  your  more  special  attention  is 
the  precise  and  particular  object  of  the 
ascent  and  the  descent  respectively  which 
are  there  spoken  of  by  the  apostle.  These 
objects  are  different  from  that  which  is 
spoken  of  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy — 
where  to  bring  the  commandment  or  the 
word  from  afar,  is  the  assigned  purpose 
both  of  the  imagined  ascent  into  heaven, 
and  of  the  imagined  descent  into  the  abyss 
or  bottom  of  the  sea.    In  the  New  Testa- 


*  Deut.  XXX,  11, 14. 


402 


LECTURE  LXXX. — CHAPTER  X,  6 — 9. 


ment  this  is  stated  dilTerently — the  assign- 
ed purpose  of  the  ascent  being  '  to  bring 
Christ  down  frotn  above,' and  of  the  de- 
scent being  '  to  bring  up  Christ  again  from 
the  dead.'  It  is  still  possible,  notwithstand- 
ing this  difference — that  Moses  and  Paul 
may  after  all  have  been  dealing  with  the 
same  truth,  and  looking  to  the  same  quar- 
ter of  contemplation — the  first,  as  is  cus- 
tomary in  the  Old  Testament,  giving 
utterance  to  a  doctrine,  but  couched  in 
enigma  or  shrouded  in  hazy  obscuration  ; 
the  second,  as  is  customary  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, giving  utterance  to  the  identically 
same  doctrine,  but  evolved  from  the  dim- 
ness in  which  it  lay  hidden,  and  witii  the 
light  of  a  clearer  and  broader  manifesta- 
tion thrown  over  it.  However  this  may 
be,  let  us  now  hasten  to  our  explanation 
of  the  verses  here  before  us ;  and  which 
we  think  fitted  to  throw  a  new  and  inter- 
esting light,  over  the  gracious  economy 
that  has  been  instituted  for  the  salvation 
of  our  world. 

In  the  parallel  verses  of  Deuteronomy 
there  seems  no  difficulty.  The  children 
of  Israel  are  there  simply  told — that,  in- 
stead of  having  to  seek  afiir  or  among 
remote  and  impracticable  places  for  the 
rule  of  life,  this  rule  brought  from  heaven 
to  their  door,  now  stood  within  reach  of 
one  and  all  of  them.  Thf-  same  could 
have  been  said  of  a  law  anterior  to  that 
of  Moses,  even  the  law  of  the  heart-^that 
voice  within  the  breast,  which  is  heard  in 
the  homestead  of  every  human  conscience  ; 
and  gives  forth  lessons  that  serve,  in  part 
as  least,  for  the  guidance  of  all  men.  And 
the  law  of  Moses,  though  brought  from 
the  heights  of  the  upper  sanctuary,  might 
be  said,  as  far  at  least  as  viewed  in  the 
generalities  of  its  ethical  system,  to  have 
placed  itself  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
heard  it — responded  to  in  all  its  great  un- 
changeable principles  by  the  light  and 
the  law  of  every  man's  conscience — thus 
finding  a  voucher,  as  it  were,  for  its  own 
truth  and  authority  in  every  bosom — and 
in  virtue  of  this  its  ready  introduction  to 
the  innermost  recesses  of  our  moral  na- 
ture, of  the  prompt  and  familiar  recogni- 
tion which  it  meets  with  there,  so  estab- 
lishing and  so  accrediting  itself  as  the 
rightful  inmate  of  humanity  all  the  world 
over,  as  both  to  warrant  and  explain  the 
saying,  that  this  word  framed  though  it 
was  in  the  highest  heavens,  and  thence 
brought  down  to  the  earth  we  live  in,  still 
this  word  is  in  thy  heart.  And  then  as  to 
the  ritual  and  the  positive  of  this  great  re- 
ligious directory,  though  it  could  awake 
no  consenting  testimony  from  within,  and 
could  therefore  meet  with  no  internal  evi- 
dence to  welcome  or  to  own  it — yet  inforc- 
ed  as  it  was  by  every  demonstration  of 
authority  from  without,  by  the  smoke  and 


the  thunder,  nay,  by  the  voice  and  all 
those  signals  of  a  present  Deity,  which 
convinced  and  overawed  the  thousands  of 
Israel — we  may  well  believe  that  the  book 
written  by  Moses,  and  which  recorded  all 
the  precepts  whether  ceremonial  or  judi- 
cial or  mural,  ttxit  were  delivered  to  this 
great  prophet  in  the  converse  which  he 
held  with  God,  and  which  also  described 
all  the  usages  and  forms  of  their  earthly 
service,  conformably  to  the  pattern  show- 
ed him  in  the  mount,  by  which  were  re- 
presented the  ministrations  of  the  upper 
sanctuary,  or  things  of  the  tabernacle  in 
the  heavens — that  this  book,  in  all  its  con- 
tents, would  be  deferred  to  by  the  Hebrews 
of  old,  as  the  rightful  and  authoritative 
directory  both  of  their  solemn  worship, 
and  of  their  every-day  conduct :  And  be- 
ing read  at  stated  seasons  by  the  priests 
to  the  people,  as  well  as  read  by  parents 
to  those  children  whom  they  were  strict- 
ly charged  to  teach  diligently  in  the  stat- 
utes  of  the  Lord,  it  might  well  be  said  of 
this  word  that  it  was  in  their  mouth  as  well 
as  in  their  heart.  They  had  not  to  go 
abroad,  as  sages  of  old,  are  said  to  have 
done,  when  they  travelled  in  quest  of  wis- 
dom.  They  had  neither  to  search  for  it 
as  for  hid  treasure  in  the  depths  of  the 
earth,  nor  to  pluck  the  secret  from  unseen 
or  mysterious  altitudes  beyond  the  sky. 
It  had  been  brought  down  from  thence  to 
Sinai  ;  and  imparted  to  Moses;  and  plac- 
ed by  him  in  a  volume  of  little  room  with- 
in the  reach  and  reading  of  every  man  ; 
and  so,  passing  into  the  hearts  and  homes 
of  all  the  people,  the  word  of  life  was  thus 
made  nigh  unto  them. 

But  the  law  has  not  given  life — neither 
that  law  of  the  heart  which  is  of  univer- 
sal obligation,  its  voice  having  been  heard 
all  the  world  over  ;  nor  that  law  of  a  writ- 
ten revelation  proclaimed  in  the  hearing 
of  a  special  nation,  to  whom  were  com- 
mitted the  c-acles  of  God.  Be  it  the  one 
or  the  other  law,  there  is  not  a  man  who 
liveth  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  has 
not  fallen  short  of  its  righteousness.  It  has 
proved  the  ministration  of  a  universal 
death — and  that  because  of  a  universal 
disobedience.  It  is  not  that  the  law  fell 
short ;  but  that  man,  the  subject  of  the 
law,  fell  short.  The  rule  of  righteousness 
as  given  to  him  at  the  first  was  perfect. 
It  is  because  of  defects  and  deviations 
from  that  rule,  that  ruin,  a  universal  ruin, 
has  come  upon  our  species  ;  and  another 
righteousness*  had  to  be  devised,  on  the 
basis  of  which  man  might  recover  the 
blessings  which  he  had  forfeited,  and  be 
reinstated  in  that  favour  with  God  from 
which  he  had  fallen.  Such  is  the  design 
of  the  gospel,  or  of  that  righteousness  of 
faith  which  the  gospel  has  made  known 
to  us ;  and  our  enquiry  now  is  into  the 


LECTURE  LXXX. — CHAPTER  X,  6 — 9. 


403 


nature  of  that  common  property  which 
has  been  claimed  for  this  last  as  well  as 
for  a  former  revelation — insomuch  that 
Paul  could  reiterate  what  Moses  had  sub- 
stantially said  before  him — "  But  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  faith  speaketh 
on  this  wise,  Say  not  in  thine  heart,  Who 
shall  ascend  into  heaven  1  (that  is,  to  bring 
Christ  down  from  above  ;)  or  who  shall 
descend  into  the  deep  ■?  (that  is,  to  bring 
up  Christ  again  from  the  dead.)  But  what 
saith  it  1  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in 
thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart ;  that  is,  the 
word  of  faith  which  we  preach  ;  That  if 
thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart 
that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead, 
thou  shalt  be  saved." 

For  our  better  understanding  of  these 
remarkable  verses,  and  more  especially 
of  the  two  parentheses  which  are  peculiar 
to  this  passage,  there  being  no  trace  of 
them  in  the  parallel  passage  of  the  older 
scriptures — let  me  state,  in  a  few  words, 
what  may  be  termed  the  two  great  steps 
or-  stages  of  that  redeeming  process,  bj'^ 
which  man  has  been  restored  to  that  place 
of  relationship  with  God  which  he  now 
occupies.  Man  by  transgression  had  done 
dishonour  to  the  law  of  God  ;  and  we  may 
learn  or  estimate  the  magnitude  of  the 
outrage,  from  the  magnitude  of  the  steps 
which  were  taken  for  repairing  it — even 
that  the  Son  of  God,  the  second  person  of 
the  Trinity,  had  to  descend  from  heaven  ; 
had  to  put  on  the  shroud  of  humanity  ; 
had,  during  the  whole  period  of  a  sinless 
yet  suffering  life,  to  sustain  a  mysterious 
conflict  with  the  temptations  and  infirmi- 
ties of  our  nature ;  and,  finally,  had  to 
take  upon  Himself  the  whole  burden  of 
the  penal  infliction  to  have  been  other- 
wise discharged  on  a  rebellious  world,  by 
bowing  down  His  head  unto  the  sacrifice  : 
And  thus,  as  the  fruit  or  final  object  of 
His  descending  movement,  was  He  de- 
livered for  our  offences.  But  this  is  not 
the  whole  amount  of  the  boon  He  has 
achieved  for  us.  There  is  something  a 
great  deal  more  than  the  cancelment  of 
our  debt,  or  blotting  out  of  the  sentence 
that  was  against  us  in  the  book  of  con- 
demnation. He  not  only  suffered,  but  He 
served.  He  not  only  absorbed  for  us  the 
penalty  of  a  wretched  and  undone,  but  He 
earned  for  us  the  reward  of  a  blissful  eter- 
nity. He  who,  to  use  the  language  of 
Daniel,  "  made  an  end  of  sins,"  also  did 
more,  "He  brought  in  an  everlasting 
righteousness."  In  other  words.  He  not 
only  worked  out  our  legal  release  from 
the  torments  of  a  hideous  and  everlasting 
hell.  He  made  good  our  rightful  inherit- 
ance among  the  triumphs  and  the  felici- 
ties of  heaven — not  only  annulling  but 
reversing  our  condition  from  that  of  the 


outcasts  of  a  hopeless  condemnation,  the 
children  of  a  wrath  that  was  to  come,  to 
that  of  the  expectants  and  the  heirs  of  a 
coming  glory.  We  are  not  able  to  dis- 
criminate among  the  various  passages  of 
His  history,  between  the  endurance  by 
which  He  bore  the  chastisement  of  our 
peace,  and  the  obedience  by  which  He 
won  for  us  the  prize  of  immortality.  But 
there  is  a  real  and  substantive  distinction 
between  these  two  services — a  distinction 
recognised  in  Scripture — between  the  par- 
don by  which  we  cease  to  be  reckoned 
with  as  sinners,  and  the  justification  by 
which  we  are  reckoned  and  dealt  with  as 
positively  righteous.  And  as  the  event  ot 
His  death  is  clearly  set  forth  as  related  to 
the  one,  that  death  being  an  atonement  for 
sin — so  the  event  of  His  resurrection,  or 
rather  of  His  re-admission  into  paradise, 
though  not  so  frequently  yet  is  clearly  set 
forth  as  related  to  the  other,  that  exalta- 
tion being  conferred  on  Him  as  the  re- 
ward of  His  obedience,  by  which  He 
opened  the  door  of  heaven  both  for  Him- 
self and  for  all  His  followers.  It  is  thus 
that  He  who  is  said  to  have  reconciled  us 
by  His  death,  is  also  said  by  His  life  to 
have  consummated  our  salvation.  And 
thus  if,  as  we  have  already  said,  the  fruit 
or  final  object  of  His  descending  move- 
ment was  His  being  delivered  for  our 
offences — so  the  fruit  or  final  object  of 
His.  ascending  movement  is  His  being 
raised  again  for  our  justification. 

There  are  other  passages  in  Scrip- 
ture which  intimate  the  same  relation  that 
we  have  now  stated — between,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  our 
Saviour  ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  two  dis- 
tinct points  of  that  salvation,  (removal  of 
the  penalty  and  a  right  by  service  to  the 
positive  reward)  which  He  hath  achieved 
for  us,  and  by  which  He  hath  completed 
our  title-deed  to  an  entry  and  a  purchased 
possession  in  the  paradise  of  God.  But 
that  I  may  come  at  once  to  the  lesson  of 
our  text,  I  would  only  now  bid  you  think 
of  these  two  great  movements,  from  hea- 
ven to  earth  and  from  earth  to  heaven, 
and  of  the  illustrious  Person  who  had  to 
make  them — ere  the  high  demands  of  the 
divine  jurisprudence  could  be  fulfilled,  or 
a  way  of  access  be  again  opened  for  guilty 
man  to  the  Lawgiver  whom  he  had  offend- 
ed. It  was  a  question  in  the  policy  of 
Heaven  which  angels  desired  to  look  into  ; 
and  the  highest  wisdom  as  well  as  highest 
strength  of  these  upper  regions  had  to  be 
put  forth  for  its  settlement.  For  this,  the 
Eternal  Son  had,  from  amid  the  wonder- 
ing hosts  of  the  celestial,  to  leave  the 
bosom  of  His  Father ;  and  He,  whose 
forthgoings  were  of  old,  even  from  ever- 
lasting, had  to  veil  all  His  primeval  glories 
in  an  earthly  tabernacle  ;  and,  when  God 


404 


LECTURE  LXXX. CHAPTER  X,  6 — 9, 


manifest  in  the  flesh,  did  He  partake  to 
the  full  in  the  infirmities  of  our  assumed 
and  associated  nature;  and  beyond  the 
ken  of  mortal  eye,  were  there  sufferings 
unknown  of  which  we  read  a  few  myste- 
rious outbreakings  in  the  agonies  of  the 
garden  ;  and  unknown  struggles  too  in 
still  deeper  passages  of  His  history,  as 
when  He  engaged  in  conflict  with  the 
forces  of  darkness,  and  spoiled  principal- 
ities and  powers  and  made  a  show  of  them 
openly.  And  after  a  death  of  deep  and 
dreadful  endurance,  an  equivalent  sacri- 
fice for  the  guilt  of  a  world ;  and  a  de- 
scent into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth,  the 
purpose  whereof,  from  the  imperfect 
glimpses  which  revelation  gives  of  it,  is 
to  us  an  unsolved  enigma — did  the  once 
crucified,  retrace  His  way  to  the  position 
and  pre-eminence  which  He  at  present 
occupies  of  the  now  exalted  Saviour — 
First  by  the  reanimation  of  His  body, 
then  by  His  resurrection  from  the  grave, 
then  by  His  sublime  ascension  above  the 
world,  where  He  slowly  withdrew  from 
the  gaze  of  chosen  witnesses ;  and  last 
of  all  by  His  entrance  into  heaven,  and 
the  assumption  of  His  Mediatorial  place 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father — and  that, 
we  may  well  believe,  amid  the  hosannas 
of  an  angelic  host,  who,  in  numbers  with- 
out number,  welcomed  and  did  Him  hom- 
age as  the  Author  and  the  Finisher  of  a 
mighty  enterprise — Even  the  enterprise 
by  which  He  brought  in  an  everlasting 
righteousness,  in  the  merit  and  investiture 
of  which,  the  guiltiest  sinners  of  our 
fallen,  our  dishonoured  species,  may, 
without  disparagement  either  to  the  law 
or  to  the  Lawgiver,  stand  with  acceptance 
before  the  throne  of  God.  We  ask  you 
to  ponder  on  these  things.  Slighted,  dis- 
regarded, scarcely  recognised  at  all  in 
the  hazy .  atmosphere  of  earth — we  ask 
you  to  think  of  the  movement  and  the 
stir,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  which 
they  made  in  heaven,  and  of  the  lofty  es- 
timation in  which  they  are  held  by  the 
intelligences  there.  Above  all,  keep  a 
fast  and  firm  hold  of  this  consideration. 
To  reinstate  our  fallen  world,  the  Son  of 
God  had  first  to  descend  and  die  for  sin  ; 
and  then  to  ascend  even  to  the  place 
which  He  now  occupies — where,  as  the 
fruit  of  the  travail  of  His  soul.  He  com- 
pletes and  efliectuates  our  salvation. 

With  this  fully  in  your  mind,  we  are  in 
a  fit  condition  both  for  your  understand- 
ing and  for  our  enforcement  of  the  lesson's 
in  the  text.  And  first,  as  a  lesson  of  re- 
buke to  those  of  whom  we  read  in  the 
preceding  context,  who,  refusing  to  take 
up  with  tins  righteousness  of  God,  vainly 
and  presumptuously  sought  to  establish  a 
righteousness  of  their  own.  Other  foun- 
dation, the  Bible  tells  us,  than  that  which 


is  laid  alread)',  can  no  man  lay ;  but 
they,  unchecked  and  unhumbled  by  anj 
sen^e  of  their  own  utter  impotency,  labour 
with  all  their  might  to  construct  and  lay 
over  again  a  foundation  of  merit  and  of 
dependence  for  themselves.  In  other 
words,  they  would  usurp  the  office  of  the 
Saviour ;  or,  as  if  that  office  had  been 
imperfectly  fulfilled,  and  left  unfinished, 
they  would  lay  aside  His  work  and  sub- 
stitute their  own  work  in  its  place — in  the 
proud  imagination  that  their  own  strength 
was  commensurate  to  the  mighty  enter- 
prise, that  enterprise  of  toil  and  conflict 
and  suffering  and  at  length  of  triumph 
which  brought  Christ  down  from  heaven, 
and  brought  Him  up  again  from  the  deep 
and  secret  places  of  the  earth.  In  despite 
of  this  great  achievement,  their  constant 
inclination  is  for  another  basis  of  accept 
tance  on  which  to  lean  than  that  which 
Christ  hath  so  laboriously  reared  ;  or,  as 
if  to  supersede  and  set  at  nought  the  plea 
of  His  righteousness — which  alone  is  ad- 
equate to  the  dignity  of  Heaven's  juris- 
prudence— would  they  thrust  forward  their 
own  puny  and  polluted  righteousness  as 
being  good  enough  for  God.  You  may 
now  understand  the  principle  on  which 
this  self-dependence  of  man  becomes  so 
high  an  ofi'ence  in  the  sight  of  Heaven. 
It  implies  the  disparagement  and  the 
mockery  of  all  that  has  been  already 
done  for  the  world's  salvation.  We  read 
of  Christ  as  the  Captain  of  this  salva- 
tion— and  that  He  trode  the  wine-press 
alone — and  that  of  the  people  there  were 
none  with  Him.  Say  not  then  in  thy 
heart,  that  thou  canst  make  atonement  or 
amends  for  thine  own  disobedience — a 
work  so  arduous,  as  to  have  bitought  down 
Christ  from  heaven  for  the  achievement 
of  it.  And  say  not  in  thine  heart  thai 
thou  canst  substantiate  a  right  by  thine 
own  services  to  the  rewards  of  immortal- 
ity— a  work  of  Christ's  also,  and  for  the 
victorious  fulfilment  of  which  He  was 
brought  up  from  the  dead,  and  highly 
exalted  to  a  place  of  advocacy  and  inter- 
cession at  God's  right  hand,  where  even 
within  the  precincts  of  that  august  sanc- 
tuary of  which  justice  and  judgment  are 
the  habitation,  He,  on  the  single  strength 
of  His  own  righteousness,  can  make  good 
the  claims  of  all  who  believe  on  Him.  To 
turn  from  such  a  salvation  as  this,  and 
labour  for  the  achievement  of  it  with  one's 
own  arm,  is  indeed  to  stumble  at  a  stum- 
bling-block. It  is  affronting  to  God.  It  is 
ruinous  to  man. 

Eut  this  is  not  all.  There  is  in  this  pas- 
sage not  only  a  lesson  of  rebuke  to  the 
oroud — but  the  far  kindlier  and  more  con- 
genial lesson,  and  the  one  we  are  most 
anxious  to  impress,  a  lesson  of  highest  en- 
couragement to  the  humble.    For  it  is  not 


LECTURE  LXXX. — CHAPTER,  X,  6 — 9.. 


.405 


alwa5''s  pride  that  actuates  a  man,  when 
seeking  to  establish  a  right  to  heaven  by 
his  own  righteousness.  Apart  from  this, 
there  is  the  natural  legality  of  the  human 
heart — a  most  natural  imagination,  and 
upheld  by  a  thousand  analogies  in  the 
transactions  of  man  with  man,  that  obedi- 
ence is  the  work  and  heaven  is  the  wages 
— the  one  the  purchase-money,  the  other 
the  purchase — related  to  each  other  like 
the  counterpart  terms  of  any  contract  or 
bargain  in  the  numerous  exchanges  of 
human  society.  It  is  not  always  in  the 
spirit  of  pride  that  the  aspirant  after  sal- 
vation falls  in  with  this  conception  and 
acts  upon  it.  He  simply  thinks  it  the  di- 
rect way  of  going  to  work,  that  he  should 
try  to  earn  God's  favour  b)'-  deserving  it ; 
and  accordingly  he  labours  to  be  right, 
and  to  be  even  with  the  law,  and  to  bring 
up  his  conduct  to  the  level,  or  rather  to 
the  high  standard  of  its  acquirements. 
But  in  very  proportion  to  his  sincerity, 
and  if  his  conscience  be  at  all  enlightened, 
the  more  he  labours  the  more  is  he  op- 
pressed and  borne  down  by  a  helpless 
sense  of  deficiency — heavy-laden  under 
the  weight  of  his  past  delinquencies,  and 
wearied  by  efforts  alike  fruitless  and 
fatiguing  to  recover  his  unmeasurable  dis- 
tance from  God's  lofty  commandment.  It 
is  when  thus  toiling  in  pursuit  of  impossi- 
bilities, that  the  true  understanding  of 
these  verses,  as  if  by  the  letting  in  of  light 
into  his  mind,  dissipates  every  cloud,  and 
at  once  releases  him  from  his  anxieties 
and  fears.  Let  him  only  learn  that  the 
identical  enterprise  at  which  he  now  la- 
bours as  in  the  very  fire,  the  Onl3"-begot- 
ten,  the  Son  of  the  everlasting  Father, 
Himself  the  Mighty  God  and  Prince  of 
Peace,  hath  already  put  His  hand  to  ;  and 
left  not  off  till,  in  the  triumph  of  its  full 
consummation.  He  called  out  that  it  was 
finished.  He  first  had  to  descend  from 
heaven,  that  He  might  become  sin  for  us, 
and  in  our  nature  bear  the  punishment 
that  we  should  have  borne  ;  and  then  did 
ascend  into  heaven,  having  by  His  obedi- 
ence unto  death,  completed  the  titles  of 
entry  and  inheritance  there  both  for  Him- 
self and  for  all  His  followers — and  so  that, 
in  the  merit  and  acceptance  of  His  high  ser- 
vice, we  might  become  the  righteousness 
of  God.  Let  the  weary  and  the  heavy- 
laden  sinner  but  submit  to  this  righteous- 
ness and  be  at  rest — nor  seek  to  establish 
for  himself,  that  which  cost  the  incarna- 
tion of  our  crucified,  and  has  been  re- 
warded by  the  exaltation  of  our  risen 
Saviour.  And  thus  would  we  explain 
these  parenthetic  clauses.  Strength  to 
do  the  thing  implies  a  strength  to  wield 
the  alone  instrument  that  was  adequate 
for  the  doing  of  it.  I  can  no  more  make 
atonement  for  my  own  guilt,  than  I  could 


have  ascended  into  heaven,  and  there 
brought  down  Christ  from  above  who  has 
poured  out  His  soul  unto  the  death  for  me. 
I  can  no  more  earn  or  establish  my  own 
right  to  the  high  rewards  of  eternity,  than 
I  could  have  descended  into  the  deep,  and 
there  brought  up  Christ  again  from  the 
dead,  who,  in  virtue  of  that  everlasting 
righteousness  which  Himself  alone  hath 
fulfilled,  was  raised  to  the  Mediatorial 
throne  which  He  now  occupies,  and  from 
which  He  welcomes  the  approaches  of  all 
and  casts  out  none  who  come  unto  Him. 
Let  me  say  not  in  my  heart  then,  that 
there  is  a  strength  in  me  commensurate 
to  the  work  which  called  for  either  the 
one  or  the  other  of  these  movements  ;  but 
dismissing  the  vain  imagination,  let  me 
forthwith  rejoice  that  it  is  a  work  no 
longer  to  do,  because  already  done — that 
it  is  a  work  which  has  already  passed 
through  such  able  hands,  even  of  Him 
who  travailed  in  the  greatness  of  His 
strength  for  the  full  and  finished  perform- 
ance of  it — that  a  ready-made  righteous- 
ness is  now  looking  down  upon  me  from 
heaven,  made  to  my  hand,  and  which  I 
am  simply  invited  to  lay  hold  of — that 
personally  and  practically,  my  concern 
now  is  not  with  the  doing,  but  with  the  re- 
port of  the  doing — not  with  a  work  which 
is  far  above  my  reach,  but  with  a  word 
which  is  nigh  unto  me,  and  in  which  with 
the  felt  helplessness  and  docility  of  a  little 
child,  my  only  part  is  to  acquiesce — a 
word  now  standing  at  the  door,  and  soli- 
citing admittance  from  every  one  of  us  ; 
and  which,  when  once  it  finds  entrance 
into  the  home  of  a  believer's  heart,  makes 
good  his  interest  in  the  whole  of  this  won- 
drous salvation. 

The  question  and  the  remonstrance  now 
held  with  the  men  of  our  fallen  race  is 
not.  Who  of  you  hath  made  good  the 
righteousness  of  the  law  ;  but  "  Who  hath 
believed  our  report,  and  to  whom  hath  the 
arm  of  the  Lord  been  revealed  V 

We  can  at  present  expatiate  no  further 
on  this  high  topic  ;  but  will  conclude  with 
a  brief  reply  to  one  question  which  may 
have  been  suggested  in  the  course  of  these 
explanations.  If  salvation,  it  may  be 
asked,  is  brought  so  nigh  and  made  so 
free  to  us,  might  not  all  exertion  on  our 
part  cease  1  or  if  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  be  thus  made  to  supersede  the 
righteousness  of  man,  then  under  such  an 
economy  as  this,  what  place  for  human 
virtue  is  to  be  found'!  We  answer,  that 
all  exertion  for  the  object  of  establishing 
a  valid  and  challengeable  right,  or  of 
making  good  a  judicial  claim,  or  claim  in 
law  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  ought  to 
cease  ;  and  that  because  human  virtue 
has  no  place  in  the  title-deed,  or  forms  no 
part  of  the  price  and  purchase-money  by 


406 


1.ECTXJRE   LXXX. CHAPTER   X,    6 9. 


which  that  glorious  inheritance  has  been 
earned  for  us.  But  if  to  be  meet  in  law 
is  indispensable  for  our  entry  into  para- 
dise, to  be  meet  in  character  is  alike  in- 
dispensable ;  and  though  for  the  former, 
or  the  legal  meetness,  human  virtue  is  of 
no  possible  avail,  for  the  latter,  or  the 
personal  meetness,  human  virtue  is  all 
in  all.  The  truth  is,  that  the  doctrine  of 
our  justification,  our  forensic  justification 
by  faith,  so  far  from  acting  as  a  drag  or 
discouragement  on  the  virtue  of  man,  sets 
him  at  large,  as  if  by  the  removal  of  an 
incubus,  for  the  busy  cultivation  of  all  its 
graces,  for  the  diligent  performance  and 
discharge  of  all  its  services.  So  long  as 
the  endeavour  or  the  task,  was  to  bring 
up  his  obedience  to  the  standard  of  the 
jurisprudence  of  heaven,  and  so  as  at 
once  to  meet  all  the  demands,  and  clear 
all  the  penalties  of  God's  high  and  incom- 
mutable law,  the  burden  of  a  felt  impossi- 
bility weighed  him  down  to  inactivity  and 
despair.  J3ut  when  told  that  the  work  on 
which  in  vain  he  might  have  wreaked  and 
wasted  all  his  energies  is  already  done — 
in  other  words,  when  told  of  the  complete 
atonement  and  perfect  righteousness  of 
Christ — human  virtue  is  not  overborne  or 
extinguished  thereby  ;  it  is  only  turned 
away  from  the  fullilment  of  an  object  by 
itself  impracticable,  but  now  achieved  in 
another  way,  and  set  forth  on  that  more 
hopeful  career  along  which  it  presses  for- 
ward by  successive  footsteps  from  grace 
to  grace,  till  it  appears  perfect  before  God 
in  Zion.  Man  could  not,  in  the  strength 
of  his  own  energies,  either  implement  the 
obligations  of  God's  perfect,  or  far  less 
sustain  so  as  to  liquidate  the  penalties  of 
God's  violated  law.    But  man  can,  with 


the  aids  of  the  all-powerful  and  regene- 
rating Spirit,  advance,  and  that  indefinitely 
his  own  holiness.  The  righteousness  of 
faith,  so  far  from  operating  as  an  extin- 
guisher on  llie  righteousness  of  works, 
affords  the  only  opening  by  which,  under 
the  impulse  of  gratitude,  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  a  heaven-born  hope,  to  enter  with 
alacrity  and  comfort  on  the  labours  of  a 
new  obedience.  "  I  am  thy  servant,  I  am 
thy  servant,  thou  hast  loosed  my  bonds,  I 
will  offer  the  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving, 
and  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord.  1  will 
pay  my  vows  now  unto  the  Lord  in  the 
presence  of  all  his  people."  Juslificatioa 
is  not  the  landing-place  of  Christianity. 
It  is  but  the  commencement,  or  the  start- 
ing-post— where  the  emancipated  children 
of  love  and  liberty  break  forth  on  all  the 
activities  of  a  willing  service.  And  so  in 
our  text,  confession  with  the  mouth  is 
joined  as  the  inseparable  accompaniment 
to  faith  in  the  heart — such  a  confession  as 
many  of  you  witnessed  yesterday* — Only, 
however,  a  good  confession,  if  your  walk, 
and  conversation  afterwards  be  such  as 
becometh  the  gospel  of  Christ.  "  Why 
call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the 
things  which'I  say  ]"  If  the  main  lessoQ 
I  have  tried  to  expound  be  understood  and 
acted  on,  you  will  "hold  fast  your  con- 
fidence and  the  rejoicing  of  your  hope 
firm  unto  the  end."  In  one  word,  let  me 
follow  it  up  by  the  lesson  of  another  scrip- 
ture. "Be  stedfast  and  immovable,  always 
abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord — for- 
asmuch as  ye  know  that  your  labour  is 
not  in  vain  in  the  Lord." 


Delivered  on  the  day  after  a  Communion  Sabbatii. 


LECTURE  LXXXI. 


Romans  x,  10 — 13. 


"For  with  the  heart  man  helieveth  unto  righteousness;  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation. 
For  the  Scripture  saith,  Wliosoever  believelii  on  him  shall  not  be  ashamed.  For  there  is  no  difference  between 
the  Jew  and  the  Greek  ;  for  the  same  Lord  over  all  is  rich  unto  all  that  call  upon  him.  For  whosoever  shall  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved." 


Before  entering  on  the  consideration 
of  these  verses,  we  would  briefly  advert 
to  one  lesson,  which,  if  not  contained  in  the 
passage  that  we  have  just  left,  has  at  least 
l3een  suggested  by  it.  To  bring  Christ  down 
from  above,  or  to  bring  Him  up  from  the 
dead,  would  be  to  present  Him  to  the  view 
of  the  senses,  and  make  Him  an  object  of 
sight — after  which  there  could  be  no  doubt 
of  His  resurrection.  One  of  the  common 
and  current  aphorisms  which  we  hear 
most  frequently  is,  that  seeing  is  believ- 


ing ;  yet  though  thus  identified,  there  is  a 
distinction  made  in  Scripture  between 
them.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
faith  is  defined  the  assurance  of  things 
not  seen.  A  belief  through  the  medium 
of  the  senses  is  differently  regarded,  and 
we  may  add  far  less  valued  than  a  belief 
in  a  testimony — belief  in  the  word — belief 
in  what  prophets  "have  spoken."*  It  is 
thus  that  after  His  resurrection  He  up- 


Luke,  xsiv,  25. 


LECTURE  LXXXI. CHAPTER  X,  10 13. 


407 


braids  those  disciples,  not  who  believed 
Him  not  after  they  had  seen,  but  who  be- 
lieved not  the  report  of  those  who  had 
seen  Him.*  It  was  on  this  principle  too 
that  He  valued  less  the  faith  of  Thomas, 
after  he  had  at  length  given  way  under 
the  power  of  an  ocular  demonstration. 
♦'  Thomas,  because  thou  hast  seen  me, 
thou  hast  believed :  blessed  are  they  that 
have  not  seen  me,  and  yet  have  believed." 
When  faith  supports  itself  under  the  want 
of  sensible  helps  and  accompaniments — 
then  it  is  that  the  "trial  of  it  is  precious" 
— when,  though  not  seeing  Christ,  yet  we 
love  Him;  and  in  whom,  "though  now 
we  see  Him  not,  yet  believing,  we  rejoice 
with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."t 
We  meet  with  the  same  high  estimate  of 
faith  in  many  other  places — that  is,  when 
it  is  faith  in  the  naked  word,  faith  without 
the  aid  of  vision,  the  faith  which  main- 
tains its  strength  and  constancy  against 
even  the  likelihoods  of  nature  and  expe- 
rience, which  simply  reckons  that  what 
God  hath  said  is  true,  and  is  "  fully  per- 
suaded that  what  He  hath  promised  He  is 
able  also  to  perform."+ 

Now  there  is  another,  a  third  way,  in 
which  an  absent  thing  might  be  viewed 
by  us — not  as  an  object  of  sight,  for  we 
are  supposing  it  so  separate  or  removed  as 
to  be  unseen  by  us — neither  as  an  object 
of  faith  ;  but  as  an  object  of  conception, 
an  act  often  conjoined  with  faith,  yet  per- 
fectly distinct  from  it — so  distinct  as  to  be 
referred  by  certain  mental  philosophers 
to  a  special  power  or  faculty  of  its  own. 
One  might  conceive  a  thing  without  any 
belief  in  its  reality ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  though  one  can  scarcely  believe 
without  some  conception  of  the  object  of 
faith — yet  may  that  conception  be  so  dull 
and  languid  and  hazy,  as  almost  to  justify 
the  expression  of  our  believing  in  the  dark. 
We  should  like  you  to  discriminate  be- 
tween belief  in  a  thing  and  the  conception 
of  that  thing.  You  might  believe  not  only 
in  the  existence  of  an  absent  friend,  but 
in  the  reality  and  warmth  of  his  intense 
affection  for  yourself;  and  this  belief 
might  be  as  strong  to-morrow  as  it  is  to- 
day— and  yet  it  is  possible,  that  your  con- 
ception of  all  this  might  not  be  so  lively 
or  strong  to-morrow  as  it  is  to-day.  His 
benignant  smile,  his  looks  of  graciousness, 
his  whole  countenance  and  manner  and 
tones  of  voice,  bespeaking  the  utmost  cor- 
diality and  kind  affection — these  may  all 
tell  more  vividly  on  the  imagination  at  one 
time  than  another ;  and  in  proportion  to 
the  vivacity  and  force,  wherewith  they 
are  thus  presented  and  pictured  forth  as 
it  were  to  the  eye  of  the  mind,  will  the 
spirits  be  exhilirated,  and  the  whole  man 


•  Mark,  xvi,  14.      t  1  Feter,  i,  7,  8.      t  Romans,  iv,  21. 


experience  an  animation  and  a  comfort, 
as  he  dwells  on  a  contemplation  which 
the  conceiving  faculty  has  made  for  the 
time  so  bright  and  joyful  to  him.  Now  it 
must  be  obvious  to  the  experience  of  all 
that  this  conception  flits  and  fluctuates,  as 
if  dependent  on  the  ever  varying  mood  of 
the  spirit— at  one  time  gleaming  forth  to- 
wards the  vivacity  of  sense,  and  at  another 
fading  almost  onward  in  deeper  and  deep- 
er shades  of  obscuration  to  extinction  and 
utter  vacancy.  But  the  remarkable  thing 
to  be  observed  is,  that,  under  all  these  va- 
rieties of  conception,  the  faith  might  re- 
main invariable,  a  constant  quantity  as  it 
were,  an  element  which  abideth  stedfastly 
and  substantially  the  same  amid  all  those 
changing  hues  which  affect  the  colour  or 
representation  of  the  object,  but  do  not  in 
the  least  affect  our  belief  in  its  reality. 
There  may  be  a  dimness  in  the  contem- 
plation, without  the  slightest  mixture  of  a 
doubt  in  the  object  contemplated.  The 
man  never  lets  go  his  confidence  in  his 
friend — though,  just  as  this  power  of  con- 
ception is  in  languid  or  vigorous  exercise, 
he  may  sometimes  have  greater  and  some- 
times less  degrees  of  sensible  comfort  in 
the  contemplation  of  his  friendship. 

What  is  true  of  an  earthly  friend,  is  true 
of  our  Friend  in  heaven.  He  is  far  re- 
moved out  of  sight,  but  may  become  the 
object  of  faith  through  the  word  that  is 
nigh  unto  us.  And  he  might  also  become 
the  object  of  conception,  which  is  a  sort 
of  substitute  for  sight,  brightening  and 
clearing  as  it  sometimes  does  towards  the 
vivacity  of  a  sensible  demonstration.  But 
let  us  never  forget,  that  as  faith  without 
sight  is  all  the  more  pleasing  to  God  in  that 
it  subsists  on  its  own  unborrowed  strength 
without  the  aid  of  the  senses — so  might 
faith  be  in  the  absence  of  any  lucid  or  en- 
livening conception,  having  nothing  to 
sustain  it  but  the  simple  credit  which  it 
gives  to  the  word  of  the  testimony.  Yet 
we  hold  these  bright  and  exhilirating  views 
of  the  Saviour  to  be  unspeakably  pre- 
cious— the  manifestation  of  which  He 
Himself  tells  us* — a  most  i-efreshing  cor- 
dial to  the  spirit  of  a  believer ;  and  of 
which  we  have  no  doubt  that,  if  analysed 
into  its  ingredients,  it  will  be  found,  that 
it  consists  not  merely  in  the  greater  force 
of  evidence  wherewith  we  are  made  to  be- 
hold the  Saviour,  but  in  the  quickened 
facility  and  power  of  conception  where- 
with we  are  enabled  to  set  Him  more 
vividly  or  impressively  before  us.  Never- 
theless we  should  distinguish  between  the 
conception  and  the  faith — because  while 
the  one  may  be  a  minister  of  sensible  com- 
fort, it  is  the  other  which  is  the  guarantee 
of  our  salvation.     The  man  who,  to  repair 

«  •  John,  .\iv,  21. 


408 


LECTURE  LXXXI. CHAPTER  X,  10 — 13. 


the  insufliciency  of  tho  word,  would  bring 
down  Christ  from  heaven,  but  exemplifies 
the  man,  who,  as  if  to  make  up  fur  the 
same  insuflicieney,  strains  butinert'ectally 
to  frame  some  graphical  or  picturesque 
idea  of  Ilim  there.  Tlie  danger  is,  that 
he  may  compass  himself  about  with  sparks 
of  his  own  kindling,  or  walk  in  the  light 
of  his  own  fancy  or  his  own  fire.  Let 
him  keep  then  determinedly  by  the  word 
which  is  nigh,  rather  than  by  the  imagery 
wherewith  he  peoples  the  distant  and  lof- 
ty places  whicn  are  away  from  him.  He 
who  has  conception  but  not  faith,  will  at 
length  lie  down  in  sorrow.  lie  who  has 
faith,  but  from  the  want  of  conception 
walketh  in  darkness  and  has  no  light,  is 
still  bidden  trust  in  the  7iame  of  God  and 
stay  upon  His  word.  He  who  conceiveth 
may  have  sensible  comfort ;  but,  with  or 
without  this,  he  who  belie  vet  h  is  safe.* 

Faith  and  conception  may  be  so  dis- 
joined, that  the  one  may  be  strong  and 
never  give  forth  a  stronger  exhibition  of 
itself,  than  when  the  other,  faint  and  fee- 
ble, is  utterly  unable  to  figure  aught  of 
the  unseen  and  eternal  things  which  are 
above.  It  may  trust  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  even  when  the  Lord  Himself  is 
shrouded  in  darkness  from  its  view.  It 
may  stay  upon  God,  even  when  the  light 
of  God's  endearing  and  paternal  counte- 
nance is  not  shining  in  its  wonted  force 
of  manifestation  upon  tlie  soul.  The  light 
of  God's  glory  in  tne  face  of  Jesus  Christ 
may  be  hid  fur  a  season  in  deepest  obscu- 
ration— yet  during  the  whole  of  that 
season  may  the  spiritual  mourner,  even  in 
the  midst  of  heaviness  and  discomlort,  be 
fixed  and  settled  on  the  certainties  of  the 
word  ;  and  this  he  may  prove,  if  not  by 
the  raptures  of  a  seraph,  at  least  by  the 
obedience  of  a  servant — evincing  by  the 
toils  and  the  sutterings  -and  the  sacrifices 
of  his  daily  and  devoted  walk,  that  he  can 
stake  the  world  and  every  interest  he  has  in 
it  on  the  truth  of  Christ,  that  he  could  give 
up  all  for  Him,  that  He  could  die  for  Him. 
Yet  while  the  primary  and  most  essen- 
tial requisite  is  our  belief  in  the  objects  of 
faith,  let  us  not  undervalue  the  enjoy- 
ment and  the  spiritual  good  which  lie  in 
the  luminous  conception  of  them.  Con- 
ception may  lead  astray,  bringing  us  into 
converse  with  mere  things  of  Jancy.  But 
conception  deals  with  the  true  as  well  as 
the  fictitious,  brightening  and  enhancing 
our  view  of  unseen  realities,  and  thus 
bringing  us  into  clearer  and  more  intimate 
converse  with  the  things  of  faith.  To  be 
gifted  with  such  a  faculty,  even  to  be 
visited  though  only  at  times  and  intervals 
with  such  illumination,  is  an  inestimable 
privilege  to  the  Christian   wayfixrer— as 

•  Isaiah,!,  10,  U.  * 


conveying  to  his  soul  the  glimpses  and 
foretastes  of  his  coming  glory  in  heaven, 
and  so  yielding  him  a  refreshment  and 
strength  for  the  fatigues  of  his  journey 
through  this  lower  world.  There  is  a  felt 
ecstacy  in  this  transcendental  light,  like 
that  which  the  apostles  experienced  when 
they  beheld  the  transfiguration  of  our 
Saviour,  and  exclaimed  it  is  good  to  be 
here.  How  to  attain  or  find  our  way  to 
this  light  is  a  question  therefore  of  deep- 
est practical  interest  to  all  who  make  a 
real  business  of  their  eternity  ;  nor  are 
we  aware  of  aught  more  interesting  in  the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  than  that  connec- 
tion which  it  reveals  between  the  plain 
duties  of  the  Christian  life,  and  the  high- 
est attainments,  be  it  in  grace  or  in  know- 
ledge, of  the  Christian  experience.  The 
way  to  get  at  the  light  after  which  we 
aspire,  is  to  work  fur  it.  It  is  to  deal 
aright  with  the  word  which  is  nigh  unto 
us,  and  to  do  aright  with  the  things  which 
are  nigh  unto  us.  Whatever  the  sublime 
mysteriousness  may  be  of  those  higher 
manifestations  which  shine  on  the  soul  of 
the  advanced  Christian,  there  is  no  mys- 
tery in  the  initial  footsteps  of  the  path 
which  leads  to  them.  It  is  not  by  the 
transcendental  flights  of  an  imagination 
labouring  to  realize  Christ  in  heaven,  and 
filling  as  signally  in  the  enterprise  as  if 
the  attempt  had  been  to  bring  Christ  down 
from  heaven.  It  is  by  a  humbler  but 
more  solid  pathway — an  e very-day  walk 
with  God  in  the  bidden  obedience  of  the 
gospel — that  path  of  the  upright  which  as 
the  shining  light,  shineth  mure  and  more 
unto  the  perfect  day.* 

Ver.  10.  'Fur  with  the  heart  man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness;  and  with  the 
mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation.* 
Because  in  the  Old  Testament  passage 
whence  the  quotation  is  taken,  Moses 
makes  mention  both  of  the  heart  and 
mouth,  Paul  does  the  same,  attributing  to 
each  such  functions  as  are  severally 
proper  to  them — as  belief  to  the  heart  and 
confession  to  the  mouth.  It  is  true,  that 
by  our  modern  idea,  the  heart  is  the  seat 
of  the  affections  ;  and  we  should  ascribe 
belief  rather  to  the  mind,  which  with  us 
is  the  seat  of  the  intellect :  And  hence  the 
inference  of  many  commentators  is,  that 
the  belief  of  the  New  Testament — unlike 
to  what  it  is  in  the  common  sense  of  the 
term, — is  a  thing  of  feeling  as  well  as 
mere  faith  ;  and  that  the  consent  of  the 
will  as  well  as  of  the  judgment,  formed 
a  constituent  part  of  it.  We,  however, 
are  more  inclined  to  think  that  the  an- 
cients, whether  Hebrew  or  Greek,  did  not 


*  For  Scriptural  intimations  of  this  connection  between 
dnty  and  disfernment,  see  John,  xiv.  21;  Acts,  v,  32; 
Matt,  vi,  22;  Matt,  xxv,  29  :  Isa.  Iviji,  5— 9  :  Psalm  cxix 
100 ;  XXV,  14 ;  1, 23. 


LECTURE  LXXXI. CHAPTER  X,  10 13. 


409 


proceed  on  the  discriminations  of  our 
recent  philosophy ;  and  that  the  heart 
with  them  being  equivalent  to  the  whole 
of  the  inner  man,  might  be  the  seat  of  all 
that  proceeded  therefrom,  and  so  both  of 
the  emotions  and  the  intellect — and  this 
without  merging  the  two  into  one,  although 
they  should  emanate  from  the  same  foun- 
tain ;  and  so  we  read  of  men  understand- 
ing with  their  heart,  nay  of  laying  up  in 
their  hearts* — making  the  heart  the  seat 
of  memory,  even  as  is  done  by  ourselves 
in  the  vulgar  phrase  of  learning  by  heart. 
Still  in  point  of  just  and  sound  metaphy- 
sics, we  hold  faith  to  be  an  act  of  the  un- 
derstanding alone  ;  and  that  though  affec- 
tion may  be  both  an  immediate  cause,  and 
as  immediate  a  consequent  of  the  same,  it 
is  never  properly  an  ingredient  thereof. 
We  confess  ourselves  not  partial  to  this 
confounding  of  the  various  functions  and 
faculties  of  the  mind  which  are  really 
distinct  from  each  other  ;  and  we  confess 
our  preference  for  the  views  of  those, 
who  conceive  of  faith  that,  however  it 
may  have  sprung  beforehand  from  the 
desirousness  of  a  heart  visited  with  moral 
earnestness  and  prompting  both  to  prayer 
and  to  enquiry  ;  or,  however  it  may  issue 
afterwards  in  the  feelings  and  desires  of 
holiness — yet  that  faith  in  itself  is  an  act 
of  the  mind  purely  intellectual,  the  judg- 
ing of  certain  testimonies  or  certain  pro- 
positions that  they  are  true,  the  simple 
credence  of  such  statements  as  are  laid 
before  us.  We  fear  of  any  view  different 
from  this,  that  it  tends  to  embarrass  or  to 
darken  the  freeness  of  the  gospel  salva- 
tion— while  the  view  that  we  contend  for 
is  the  only  one  which  does  full  honour  to 
the  grace  of  God  as  all  in  all,  and  is  at 
the  same  time  eminently  subservient  to 
the  practical  righteousness  as  well  as 
comfort  of  the  believer.  Though  faith 
should  be  regarded  as  belief  and  nothing 
else,  this  is  not  to  hinder  but  that  it  may 
have  originated  in  a  virtuous  or  good 
affection,  or  that  the  affections  and  deeds 
of  virtue  might  follow  abundantly  in  its 
train. 

'For  with  the  heart  man  belie veth  unto 
righteousness.'  Yet  neither  is  it  the  per- 
sonal but  the  judicial  righteousness  that 
is  here  spoken  of — the  righteousness  of 
faith — that  righteousness  which  is  unto  all 
and  upon  all  who  believe — not  the  right- 
eousness here  which  is  wrought  in  us  by 
the  Spirit ;  but  that  righteousness  of 
Christ  which  is  reckoned  to  us,  and  in 
virtue  of  which  we  are  invested  with  that 
right  to  heaven  which  He  by  His  obedi- 
ence hath  won  for  us,  or  are  presented 
with  a  part  and  a  lot  in  that  inheritance 
which  He  purchased  in  behalf  of  a  guilty 

*  Luke,  i,  65. 

52 


world.  It  becomes  ours  on  believing.  We 
believe  unto  righteousness — this  right- 
eousness being  the  object  in  which  our 
faith  terminates,  the  landing-place  to 
which  it  carries  us. 

'And  with  the  mouth,  confession  la 
made  unto  salvation.'  The  apostle  pro- 
ceeds from  an  inward  sentiment  to  the 
expression  or  manifestation  thereof  in  an 
outward  act ;  and  such  an  act,  as,  in  these 
days,  was,  very  generally  speaking,  the 
sufficient  token  or  pledge  of  a  universal 
obedience.  For  then  it  held  pre-eminently 
true,  that  he  who  confessed  Christ  forsook 
all,  gave  up  all,  made  surrenderor  (which, 
as  a  manifestation  of  principle,  was  equi- 
valent thereto)  exposed  themselves  to  the 
surrender  and  loss  of  all,  by  following 
after  Christ.  We  read,*  "  that  if  any  man 
did  confess  that  he  was  Christ,  he  should 
be  put  out  of  the  synagogue  ;"  and  this 
was  but  a  specimen  or  sample  of  that 
larger  excommunication  which  every  man 
underwent,  or  at  least  hazarded,  in  the 
act  of  becoming  an  ostensible  and  de- 
clared Christian — an  excommunication 
from  all  that  was  dear  to  nature — becom- 
ing liable  thereby  not  merely  to  be  put 
out  of  the  synagogue,  but  to  be  put  out 
of  society  ;  to  incur  the  loss  of  all  which 
they  had  ;  to  renounce  or  be  renounced, 
to  forsake  or  be  forsaken  of,  house  and 
brethren  and  sisters  and  father  and  mother 
and  wife  and  children  and  lands,  yea  of 
their  own  lives  also,  for  the  sake  of  Christ 
and  of  His  gospel.  No  wonder  then  thai 
confession  was  so  honoured  in  these  days, 
it  being  the  exponent  in  fact  and  symbol 
of  a  universal  discipleship.  It  gave  evi- 
dence, that  even  as  Christ  suffered  in  the 
flesh,  so  these  ready  and  resolved  follow- 
ers of  His  had  armed  themselves  likewise 
with  the  same  mind — and  prepared  not 
only  to  suffer  in  the  flesh  but  to  cease 
from  sin,f  that  they  should  no  longer  live 
the  rest  of  their  time  in  the  flesh  to  the 
lusts  of  men  but  to  the  will  of  God.  Well 
may  it  be  said  of  every  spirit  who  thus 
confesses  Jesus  Christ,  that  he  is  of  God  ; 
and  we  may  now  understand,  whenever 
such  a  confession  is  meant,  how  no  man 
could  say  that  Jesus  was  the  Lord  but  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  All  who  were  so  actu- 
ated were  in  full  readiness  to  drink  of  the 
cup  which  Christ  drank  of,  and  to  be 
baptized  with  the  baptism,  that  baptism 
of  deep  aflliction  which  He  was  baptized 
with  ;  and  we  may  well  conceive  of  this 
fixity  of  principle  and  purpose,  that,  im- 
possible to  mere  nature,  it  could  not  be 
attained  unto  but  through  the  washing  of 
regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  confession  of  these  days  in 
fact,  as  being  the  best  evidence  and  pledge 


'  John,  ix,  22. 


t  1  Peter,  iv,  1, 2. 


410 


LECTURE   LXXXI.^-CHAPTER   X,    10 13. 


of  a  man's  sincerity,  was  an  effectual 
guarantee  for  his  good  works  as  well  as 
his  good  words  ;  and  was  therefore  held 
in  as  great  honour  and  demand,  as  obe- 
dience itself  was.  And  as  we  read  of 
those  unworthy  disciples  who  in  works 
denied  God — so  may  we  learn  from  this 
expression  that  by  works  too  we  may 
confess  Him ;  and  though  it  be  only  the 
confession  of  the  mouth  that  is  spoken  of 
in  our  text,  yet  when  we  consider  the 
actuating  spirit  in  which  it  originates,  we 
are  not  to  wonder  though  the  same  high 
ascriptions  should  be  given  to  it,  as  we 
find  given  to  the  conformity  of  the  whole 
man  with  the  will  of  God  and  the  pre- 
scriptions of  the  gospel.  ''  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess 
before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
It  was  because  of  their  confessing  Christ, 
that  they  had  to  endure  a  great  fight  of 
afflictions  ;  but  he  that  maintained  his 
steadfastness  notwithstanding,  had  the 
truth  of  our  text  literally  fulfilled  upon 
him.  The  confession  he  made  was  unto 
salvation — for  "he  that  endureth  to  the 
end  shall  be  saved."* 

Understanding  then,  that,  for  reasons 
now  given,  confession  was  placed  in  the 
same  rank,  and  had  the  same  powers  and 
consequences  ascribed  to  it,  with  general 
obedience — it  follows,  that  the  apostle 
who  tells  us  so  often  throughout  his  wri- 
tings that  we  are  saved  by  faith,  in  effect 
tells  us  at  this  place  that  we  are  saved  by 
works.  You  must  all  have  heard  of  the 
alleged  contrariety  between  Paul  and 
James  upon  this  subject ;  but  here  there 
appears  to  be  almost  as  strange  a  seeming 
contrariety  between  Paul  and  himself — 
not  a  real  opposition  of  course  in  either 
instance,  but  the  mere  semblance  of  one, 
and  which  has  been  so  often  and  so  suc- 
cessfully disposed  of  by  the  explanations 
of  those  who  undertake  to  effect  a  recon- 
ciliation, as  they  term  it,  between  the  two 
apostles,  that  we  shall  not  at  present  re- 
peat any  of  them.  We  shall  only  call 
attention  to  a  distinction  in  the  language 
of  the  apostle,  when  he  expresses  the 
several  effects  of  faith  upon  the  one  hand, 
and  of  confession  upon  the  other.  When 
man  believeth  it  is  unto  righteousness — 
whereas  when  he  confesseth,  or  confession 
is  made  by  him,  it  is  unto  salvation  ;  and 
understanding  righteousness,  as  it  unques- 
tionably ought  to  be  in  this  place,  in  its 
forensic  or  legal  meaning,  we  learn  from 
the  first  clause  of  the  verse  before  us, 
that  by  faith  we  are  justified — while  un- 
derstanding confession  as  the  equivalent 
of  a  universal  obedience,  we  are  told  in 
the  second  clause  that  by  works  we  are 
saved.     The  truth  is,  that  justification  and 

*  Matt.  X,  22. 


salvation  are  not  perfectly  synonymous. 
The  former  is  part  of  the  latter,  but  not 
the  whole  of  it.  To  complete  one's  sal- 
vation, there  must  be  deliverance  from  the 
power  of  sin  as  well  as  from  its  punish- 
ment; and  accordingly,  while  reconciled 
by  the  death  of  Christ,  we  are  saved  by 
His  life* — that  is,  because  He  lives,  we 
shall  live  also  ;  or  because  He  hath  over- 
come, we  shall  overcome  also  ;  or  because 
of  the  grace  dispensed  upon  us  from  the 
hands  of  a  risen  Saviour,  He,  through  the 
work  of  His  Spirit  in  us  effectuates  our 
sanctification — even  as  by  His  work  in 
the  flesh  for  us,  He  hath  effectuated  our 
acceptance  with  God.  In  like  manner,  if 
no  man  in  these  days  could  say  that  Jesus 
is  the  Lord  but  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  then  to  be  saved  by  the  confession 
of  the  text,  which  is  really  tantamount  to 
our  thus  saying,  is  to  be  saved  by  the 
operation  of  this  heavenly  agent — in  per- 
fect keeping  with  another  declaration  of 
the  apostle,  when  he  tells  us  that  we  are 
saved  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Ver.  11.  '  For  the  Scripture  saith,  Who- 
soever believeth  on  him  shall  not  be 
a.shamed.'  That  is  either — First,  Shall  not 
be  ashamed  by  the  nonfulfilment  of  that 
which  is  the  object  of  their  confident  ex- 
pectation. It  is  a  confidence  which  they 
might  well  cherish  and  avow — secure  as 
they  are  from  the  mockery  of  any  failure 
or  di.sappointment  in  their  hopes.  All  the 
promises  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  are  yea 
and  amen  ;  and  it  is  because  of  their  cer- 
tain and  punctual  accomplishment,  that 
the  hope  which  they  inspire  is  a  hope 
which  maketh  not  ashamed.f  When  the 
verse  is  regarded  in  this  view,  its  refer- 
ence is  to  the  distant  future — not  to  the 
time  past  when  the  promises  were  made, 
not  even  to  the  present  time  when  the 
promises  are  believed,  but  to  that  future 
time  when  in  act  and  by  performance  the 
promi.ses  will  all  be  made  good.  When 
found  in  very  truth  that  the  glory,  now  on- 
ly revealed,  and  looked  forward  to,  but 
in  perspective  or  by  anticipation,  is  fully 
realised — then  will  the  believer  lift  up  his 
head  and  rejoice.  Otherwise,  ashamed 
of  the  vain  and  illusory  imagination  on 
which  he  had  before  rested,  he  would 
sink  into  despair. 

Or,  secondly,  the  text  may  be  under- 
stood in  reference  to  the  present  time,  when 
the  promises  are  only  as  yet  believed,  and 
the  fulfilment  of  them  is  still  in  reserve. 
Even  at  this  earlier  stage,  might  faith  have 
a  present  and  powerful  effect  in  repress- 
ing shame,  and  more  especially  the  shame 
of  making  the  avowal  of  itself,  and  so  of 
testifying  for  Christ.    Like  every  other 


'  Romans,  v,  10. 


t  Romaas,  v,  5. 


LECTUUE  LXXXI. CHAPTER  X,  10 — 13. 


411 


principle  of  strong  and  felt  urgency  with- 
in, it  may  delight  in  the  vent  and  forthgo- 
ing  of  its  own  utterance,  and  in  bearing 
down  the  restraints  whether  of  shame  or 
of  fear,  which  might  have  otherwise  inter- 
cepted the  expression  of  it.  "  I  believed, 
therefore  have  I  spoken."*  "  My  heart 
was  hot  within  me,  and  the  fire  burned — 
then  spake  I  with  my  tongue."!  "  Out  of 
the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth 
speaketh."t  These  verses  point  not  to  the 
future  vindication  and  triumph  of  our 
faith  by  the  verification  of  its  object ;  but 
to  the  present  antagonism  and  victory,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  principle  of  faith  over  the 
principle  of  shame — as  exemplified  by 
our  Saviour,  wlio,  for  the  joy  that  was  set 
before  Him,  but  was  only  yet  in  prospect, 
endured  the  cross  and  also  despised  the 
shame.  Thus  too  the  apostle  was  not 
ashamed,  and  that  because  of  the  certain- 
ty he  felt  in  Him  whom  he  believed,  and 
the  firm  persuasion  he  had  of  His  ability 
to  save  him.  And  so  he  bids  Timothy  not 
be  ashamed  of  the  testimony  of  our  Lord, 
who  Himself  tells  us — that  whosoever 
shall  be  ashamed  of  Him  and  of  His  words, 
of  him  also  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  asham- 
ed, when  he  cometh  in  the  glory  of  His 
Father.  It  is  therefore  a  present  feeling, 
a  present  sensibility,  that  is  spoken  of  in 
all  these  passages  ;  and  of  which  it  is  re- 
quired that  in  the  strength  of  our  faith  it 
should  be  over-ruled,  and  not  given  way 
to.  We  like  this  view  of  the  text.  It 
binds  so  together  the  belief  of  its  first 
clause  with  the  confession  of  its  second 
— making  them,  if  not  so  identical,  at 
least  so  inseparable,  as  fully  to  explain 
the  common  virtues  or  common  effects 
which  are  ascribed  to  each  of  them  ;  and 
fully  to  harmonise  the  saying,  that  'con- 
fession is  unto  salvation,'  with  the  say- 
ing, that  "  the  end  of  our  faith  is  the  salva- 
tion of  our  souls."|| 

From  the  proposition  of  this  verse,  a 
certain  converse  proposition  might  be 
drawn,  that  might  well  be  used  as  a  crite- 
rion by  which  to  test  and  to  ascertain  the 
reality  of  our  faith.  If  it  be  true  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  Him  is  not  ashamed, 
then  it  should  be  true  that  whosoever  is 
ashamed  of  Him  doth  not  believe.  Or  in 
the  terms  of  the  preceding  verse.  Whosoev- 
er maketh  not  confession  of  Him  with  the 
mouth,  believeth  Him  not  with  the  heart. 
How  comes  it  then,  that  Christ  and  all 
which  is  expressly  Christian,  are  so  habit- 
\  ually  and  systematically  excluded  from 
\  society  as  topics  of  conversation  1  What 
^ shall  we  say,  even  of  those  who  are  de- 
inominated  the  professing  people,  what 
shall  we  say  of  their  silence  on  the  sa- 


'  Psalm  cxvi,  10. 
t  Matthew,  xii,  34. 


t  Psa'.m  xxxix,  3. 
II  1  Peter,  i,  9. 


cred  themes  of  the  soul  and  the  Saviour 
and  eternity,  amid  the  companionship  of 
this  world  "J  When  do  we  ever  meet  with 
the  free  and  copious  utterance  that  would 
flow  from  the  mouth  on  these  subjects,  if 
only  the  heart  was  full  of  them  ]  The 
general  emigration  of  a  whole  neighbor- 
hood from  one  country  to  another  in  this 
world,  would  be  the  constant  talk  of  all  its 
parties  and  throughout  all  its  families,  for 
months  before  the  embarkation,  and  while 
the  busy  work  of  preparations  and  outfits 
was  going  on.  How  is  it  that  we  meet 
with  nothing  like  this,  on  the  subject  of 
that  universal  emigration  from  one  world 
to  another,  which,  by  successive  transpor- 
tations across  the  dark  valley  and  shadow 
of  death,  will  so  surely  and  in  so  short  a 
time  overtake  the  whole  of  our  living  pop- 
ulation ]  Is  it  because  there  are  no  out- 
fits, no  preparations,  and  therefore  no 
prospects  to  talk  about  1 — these  having 
no  place  in  the  converse,  just  because 
they  have  no  place  in  the  business  or  in 
the  hearts  of  men  1  They  are  seldom  or 
never  the  subjects  of  speech,  just  because 
they  are  seldom  or  never  the  subjects  of 
thought.  Or  if  there  be  any  who  think  of 
them,  but  are  ashamed  to  speak  of  them — 
such  we  say  is  the  overbearing  magnitude 
of  the  interest  at  stake,  that  it  needs  but  a 
realising  sense  of  them  to  put  to  flight 
both  the  fear  and  the  shame  of  this  world. 
The  engrossing  affection  of  the  great  and 
the  one  thing  needful  would  displace  and 
subordinate  every  inferior  affection  of  our 
nature  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  total 
want  of  a  practical  earnestness  or  con- 
cern therein,  as  evinced  by  the  tenor  and 
talk  of  almost  every  company,  might  well 
justify  the  question — Verily,  is  there  such 
a  thing  as  faith  upon  the  earth  1 

Ver.  12,  13.  '  For  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  Jew  and  the  Greek  ;  for  the 
same  Lord  over  all  is  rich  unto  all  that 
call  upon  him.  For  whosover  shall  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved.' 
But  even  a  universal  apostacy  or  unbe- 
lief would  not  make  the  faith  of  God  to 
be  of  no  effect.  He  is  true,  though  every 
man  should  be  a  liar ;  and  the  precious 
truth  announced  in  these  verses  invests 
with  an  ample  warrant  the  messengers 
of  salvation,  who  might  go  forth  the  bear- 
ers of  a  full  and  unexcepted  commission, 
to  assail  even  a  whole  world  lying  in 
wickedness  and  unconcern,  by  plying 
with  the  overtures  of  a  free  salvation, 
each  and  every  individual  of  the  great 
human  family.  God,  it  is  said  here, 
makes  no  difference  between  the  Jew  and 
the  Greek ;  and  there  are  some,  who,  in 
defending  the  articles  of  their  own  scien- 
tific theology,  would  make  the  universal- 
ity of  the  gospel  offer  lie  in  this — that, 
now  when  the  middle  wall  of  partition  is 


412 


LECTURE  LXXXI. CHAPTER  X,  10 — 13. 


broken  down,  it  might  be  offered  to  men 
of  every  nation.  But  the  Scriptural  the- 
ology carries  the  universality  farther 
down  than  this — and  so  as  that  the  gospel 
might  be  offered,  not  merely  to  men  of 
every  nation,  but  to  each  man  of  every 
nation.  God  is  not  only  no  respecter  of 
nations,  He  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 
It  is  not  only  whatsoever  nation  shall  call 
on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved  ; 
but  whatsoever  man  of  that  nation  shall 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  he  shall 
be  saved.  We  are  not  now  probing  into 
the  depths  of  the  Almighty's  government ; 
or  speculating  on  the  counsels  of  a  pre- 
destinating God.  But  on  the  authority  of 
these  verses,  we  are  attempting  to  give 
forth  the  plain  and  palpable  duties  of 


every  minister  and  every  hearer — which 
is  for  the  former  to  knock  at  every  single 
door,  and  crave  admittance  for  the  gospel 
into  every  single  heart,  making  an  honest, 
and  in  the  most  obvious  sense  of  the  term, 
a  real  tender  of  salvation  to  every  man  ; 
and  for  the  latter  to  respond  with  the 
same  honesty  and  in  full  confidence,  to 
the  call  that  has  been  thus  sounded  in  his 
hearing — So  that  his  call  back  again 
shall  not  be  of  words  merely.  For  as  the 
confession  which  availeth  is  not  with  ihe 
mouth  only,  but  proceedeth  from  faith  in 
the  heart,  so  the  call  which  availeth  is 
not  one  of  utterance  onl)S  but  proceedeth 
from  desirousness  in  the  heart ;  and  who- 
soever so  calleth  on  the  name  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  saved. 


LECTURE  LXXXII. 


Romans  x,  14 — 21. 

"  How  then  shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed  1  and  how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom 
they  have  not  heard  .'  and  how  sliall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?  And  how  shall  they  preach  except  they  be 
sent 7  as  it  is  written,  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  bring  glad  tidings 
of  good  things  !  Hut  tliey  have  not  all  obeyed  the  gospel.  For  Esaias  saith,  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  i-eport'! 
So  then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God.  But  1  say,  Have  they  not  heard!  Yes,  verily, 
their  sound  Went  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world.  But  I  say,  Did  not  Israel  knowt 
First,  Moses  saith,  I  will  provoke  you  "to  jealousy  by  them  that  are  no  people,  and  by  a  foolish  nation  I  will  anger 
you.  But  Esaias  is  very  bold,  and  saith,  I  was  found  of  them  that  sought  me  not;  I  was  made  manifest  unto 
them  that  asked  not  after  nie.  But  to  Israel  he  saith,  All  day  long  I  have  stretched  forth  my  hands  unto  a  dis- 
obedient and  gainsaying  people." 


The  gospel  should  be  preached  to  every 
creature — it  being  a  universal  message 
from  heaven  to  earth,  co-extensive  with 
the  species  ;  and  not  only  to  be  carried 
forth  over  all,  but  to  be  pressed  on  the 
specific  acceptance  of  each.  A  commis- 
sion thus  universal  should  have  had  at  our 
hands  a  universal  fulfilment ;  but  we  have 
only  to  open  our  eyes,  and  see  how  pal- 
pably short  it  has  come  of  thi.s — both  in- 
ternally or  within  the  limits  of  Christen- 
dom, and  externally  or  abroad  and  over 
the  face  of  the  world.  And  yet  we  affect 
to  wonder,  as  if  it  wore  something  myste- 
rious and  inscrutable,  at  the  partiality  of 
the  Divine  government,  in  having  limited 
the  blessings  of  the  Christian  religion  to 
so  small  a  portion  of  the  human  family. 
Before  carrying  the  reproach  so  far  up- 
ward, we  had  better  first  take  account  of 
our  own  immediate  share  in  it ;  and  deal 
with  the  proximate  cause  of  this  pheno- 
menon, ere  we  take  cognisance  of  any  of 
its  remote  and  anterior  causes.  We  com- 
plain of  a  limited  Christi;inity,  but  there 
was  no  limit  in  the  terms  of  that  commis- 
sion which  was  put  into  our  hands. at  the 
outset  of  this  dispensation — and  that  in 
the  form  of  a  precept,  Go  and  promulgate 
this  gospel  every  where ;  accompanied 


with  a  promise,  Lo  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  It  is  not 
time  to  charge  the  Almighty,  or  to  arraign 
the  methods  of  His  administration — till 
we  have  enquired  in  how  far  this  precept 
has  been  carried  into  operation  ;  and  then 
what  the  instances  are  in  which,  when 
the  precept  was  fully  acted  up  to,  this 
promise  has  ever  been  withheld.  Man's 
prone  and  precipitate  inclination  is  to 
reckon  with  his  God,  and  to  leave  unset- 
tled all  the  while  that  reckoning  which 
we  ought  first  to  hold  with  ourselves, — a 
transgression  this  both  of  piet)'  and  of 
sound  philosophy — it  being  the  dictate  of 
each,  instead  of  speculating  on  His  part 
in  the  matter  which  is  secret  and  belongs 
unto  Him,  fully  to  examine  how  we  stand 
acquitted  of  our  own  part  which  is  re- 
vealed and  belongs  to  us  and  to  our 
children. 

Ver.  14,  15.  '  How  then  shall  they  call 
on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed  t 
and  how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom 
they  have  not  heard  1  and  how  shall  they 
hear  without  a  preacher?  And  how  shall 
they  preach  except  they  be  sent  ?  as  it  is 
written,  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of 
them  that  preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  and 
bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things  !'    These 


LECTURE  LXXXII. — CHAPTER  X,    14 — 21. 


413 


verses  give  the  first  answer,  the  answer 
which  is  readiest  and  most  within  reach, 
to  the  question — How  is  it  that  the  whole 
earth  is  not  Christianised  ]  God  could, 
by  an  exercise  of  power  and  unlimited 
sovereignty,  achieve  this  result  at  the  in- 
stant bidding  of  His  voice — even  as  on  the 
first  day  of  creation.  He  said  let  there  be 
light,  and  there  was  light.  But  God  hath, 
in  the  exercise  of  wisdom,  to  us  perhaps 
inscrutable,  yet  in  perfect  analogy  with 
the  many  thousand  processes  of  nature 
and  providence.  He  hath  chosen  to  ordain 
an  instrumentality  for  the  diffusion  of  the 
Christian  religion  over  the  world.  Now 
it  so  happens  that  men  are  component, 
nay  thechief  parts  of  this  instrumentality  ; 
and  we  should  first  enquire  how  they  have 
done  their  part — so  as  to  ascertain  whe- 
ther it  be  not  we  the  men  who  are  in  fault, 
before  daring  to  lay  the  fault  upon  God. 
It  is  a  sound  doctrinal  theology  which 
acknowledges,  amid  the  countless  diver- 
sity of  operations  around  us,  that  it  is 
God  who  worketh  all  in  all.  But  God 
worketh  by  means  ;  and  when  a  certain 
prescribed  human  agency  enters  into  that 
system  of  means  which  He  hath  instituted, 
it  is  a  sound  practical  theology  to  labour 
as  assiduously  in  the  bidden  way,  as  if 
man  worked  all.  It  is  one  of  the  highest 
points  of  Christian  wisdom,  to  combine 
'.he  utmost  dependence  on  God-  with  the 
utmost  diligence  in  the  prosecution  of  all 
those  activities  which  He  Himself  hath 
appointed — insomuch  that  though  the 
Holy  Spirit  be  the  undoubted  agent  of 
every  conversion,  Paul  held  it  no  infringe- 
ment on  orthodoxy,  to  say  as  much  as 
that,  under  our  present  economy,  the  con- 
version of  the  world,  without  the  instru- 
mentality of  men,  is  impossible.  'How 
shall  they  believe,  unless  they  hear  1  How 
shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  1  How 
shall  they  preach  except  they  be  sent?' 
He  himself  was  converted,  by  a  direct 
communication  from  heaven,  apart  from 
all  converse  with  flesh  and  blood,  receiv- 
ing the  gospel  not  of  man  nor  taught  it  by 
man,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ 
— yet  none  more  strenuous  than  he,  in 
atifirming  the  necessity  of  human  co-opera- 
tion, in  the  great  work  of  evangelising  the 
world.  Not  but  that  he  imagined,  in  every 
instance  as  well  as  in  his  own,  that  faith 
is  not  of  ourselves  but  is  the  gift  of  God  ; 
and  that  even  when  conveyed  by  the 
preaching  of  one  man  into  the  mind  of 
another,  it  is  but  the  pouring  from  one 
earthen  vessel  to  another  of  a  treasure 
which  had  come  down  from  heaven — so 
that  whenever,  in  any  age  or  country  of 
the  world  that  precious  faith  which  is  unto 
salvation  is  deposited  in  any  heart,  it  is 
established  by  a  supernatural  agency, 
and  standeth  there  not  in  the  wisdom  of 


men  but  in  the  power  of  God.  It  is  for 
Him  however,  and  not  for  us,  to  make 
choice  of  His  own  pathway  for  the  con- 
veyance of  His  own  blessings,  and  the 
propagation  of  His  own  spiritual  in- 
fluences into  the  souls  of  men  ;  and  if  He 
choose  to  make  one  man  His  vehicle  for 
the  transference  of  light  and  grace  into 
the  heart  of  another,  it  is  the  part  of  him 
whom  He  has  thus  selected  as  His  instru- 
ment, to  labour  with  all  his  might  and  as- 
siduity in  the  sacred  duties  of  that  voca- 
tion whereto  he  has  been  called.  This 
preference  for  the  agency  of  men  in  the 
work  of  Christianisation  is  conspicu- 
ous in  every  age  of  the  church ;  and 
at  no  time  more  than  in  the  first  age, 
even  though  it  was  the  period  of  mira- 
cles and  supernatural  visitations.  We 
have  often  looked  on  the  history  of  the 
conversion  of  Cornelius  as  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  this.  God  could  have  work- 
ed a  saving  faith  in  the  heart  of  Cornelius, 
by  an  immediate  suggestion  from  His  own 
Spirit,  or  through  the  mouth  of  an  angel. 
And  He  did  send  an  angel  to  Cornelius, 
not  however  that  he  might  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  him,  but  that  he  might  bid  him  send 
for  Peter,  and  receive  that  gospel  at  the 
lips  of  a  fellow-mortal.  And  God  also 
sent  to  Peter  a  communication  from  hea- 
ven to  prepare  him  for  the  message — thus 
doubling  as  it  were  the  amount  of  mirac- 
ulous agency,  in  order  that  the  gospel 
might  be  heard  by  a  yet  unconverted 
child  of  Adam,  not  through  the  medi- 
um of  a  supernatural  and  angelic,  but 
through  the  medium  of  a  natural  and  a  hu- 
man utterance.  Yet  not  so  as  that  the 
natural  should  supersede  or  displace  the 
supernatural — for  while  Peter  spake,  the 
Holy  Ghost  fell  on  all  them  who  heard. 
The  function  of  Peter  was  the  same  with 
that  of  a  minister  or  missionary  in  the 
present  day — it  was  to  tell  Cornelius  the 
words  by  which  he  and  all  his  house 
should  be  saved.  And  the  function  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  for  the  purpose  of  giving  de- 
monstration and  efficiency  to  the  word,  is 
the  same  now  as  ever — He  falls  on  us  still 
even  as  He  did  on  them  at  the  beginning. 
Let  no  man  put  asunder  the  things  which 
God  hath  joined;  but  let  all  in  deed  and 
in  performance  strive  mightily  for  the 
spread  and  prevalence  of  the  gospel  on 
the  earth,  and  give  no  rest  to  God  in  pray- 
er, that  by  His  grace  He  might-  work  in 
them  mightily. 

The  application  of  all  this  to  the  ques- 
tion of  missions,  whether  home  or  foreign, 
is  quite  obvious.  Let  these  be  multiplied 
to  the  uttermost,  so  as  to  fill  up  all  the  va- 
cancies which  are  within,  or  to  spread 
abroad  over  all  the  mighty  spaces  which 
are  beyond  the  limits  of  Christendom.  Yet 
all  will  be  useless  and  effete,  if  unblest  or 


414 


LECTURE  LXXXIL— CHAPTER  X,  14 — 21. 


unaccompanied    by    the    Spirit  of  God. 
Some  there  are,  men  of  devotion,  like  ma- 
ny perhaps  of  the  Puritanic  age,  who  have 
a  contempt  for  machinery,  and  who  think 
to  succeed  by  prayer  alone  for  the  exten- 
sion of  our  Redeemer's  Kingdom.     Others 
there   are,  men  of  bustle  and  enterprise, 
like   many   perhaps  of  our  present  age, 
who  live,  if  not  in  the  contempt,  at  least 
in  the  neglect  of  supplication  ;  and  think 
to  succeed  in  the  Avork  of  Christian  phi- 
lanthropy,  by   the  busy    prosecution   of 
those  schemes  and  societies  which  have 
recently  sprung  up  in  the  religious  world. 
Neither  will  do   singly — neither  the  hu- 
man  instrumentality   alone  without   the 
agency  from  above  ;  not  yet  the  celestial 
agency,  which  refuses  to  come  forth  but 
through  an  earthly  apparatus  which  itself 
prescribes,  and  to  the  working  of  which 
it  gives  all  its  vitality  and  all  its  vigour. 
Without  the   conjunction   of  these,    both 
the  men  of  prayer  and   the  men  of  per- 
formance  will   fall    short  of  the   object 
which  their  hearts  are  set  upon.     He  who 
knows  rightly  to  divide,  or  rather  rightly  to 
compound  the  word  of  truth,  knows  how  to 
conjoin  these,  and  so  gives  himself  wholly, 
not  to  prayer  alone  or  to  the  ministry  of  the 
word  alone — but  like  the  apostles  of  old  to 
prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word.    The 
one  sets  up  and  works  a  machinery  upon 
earth.     The  other  brings  down  from  hea- 
ven that  inner  element  which  actuates  the 
movements,  and  imparts  to  them  all  their 
living  energy.    It  is  to  this  prolific  union 
of  devout  and  desirous  hearts  with  busy 
hands,  that  the  church  of  Christ  stands 
indebted  for  all   its  prosperity,  in   those 
seasons  of  gracious  revival,  when  the  fre- 
quent and  earnest  preaching  of  the  word 
has  been  preceded  or  accompanied  by  a 
spirit  of  frequent  and  importunate  prayer. 
Thus  alone  can  the  word  of  God  be  caus- 
ed mightily  to  grow  and  to  prevail — be  it 
in  a  household,  or  a  parish,  or  an  empire, 
or  through  the  world  at  large. 

'  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that 
preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  bring  glad 
tidings  of  good  things.'  Nothing  can  ex- 
ceed the  admirable  tact  and  sagacity, 
wherewith  Paul  adapts  his  argument  to 
the  tastes  and  partialities  of  those  with 
whom  he  at  the  time  is  holding  converse. 
In  an  upright  and  honorable  sense  he  was 
all  things  to  all  men.  To  the  Greeks  he 
was  a  Greek — as  in  his  address  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Athens,  when  he  quoted  from  their 
own  poets,  and  reasoned  with  them  from 
the  mythology  of  their  nation.  And  to 
the  Jews  he  was  a  Jew — as  in  the  pas- 
sage before  us,  in  which  we  can  discern 
the  same  principle  of  accommodation — as 
indeed  in  all  his  recorded  addresses  to  the 
men  of  that  nation,  when  he  never  fails  to 
quote  abundantly  from  their  own  prophets, 


and  to  reason  with  them  out  of  their  own 
scriptures.  And  the  quotation  before  ua 
seems  eminently  fitted  to  subs^jrve,  what 
was  evidently  a  great  object  with  Paul, 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  epistle — that 
of  reconciling  his  countrymen  to  the  ad- 
mission of  the  Gentiles  into  a  religious 
equality  with  themselves.  It  is  taken 
from  one  of  their  own  most  illustrious  wri- 
ters, to  whom  they  could  not  turn  back, 
without  reading  in  almost  immediate  con- 
tiguity with  the  passage  to  which  he  re- 
fers them,  of  the  salvation  of  the  Gentiles 
along  with  the  comfort  of  their  own  peo- 
ple and  the  redemption  of  Jerusalem. 
"  The  Lord  hath  made  bare  His  holy  arm 
in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  (Gentiles)  ; 
and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  see  the 
salvation  of  our  God."*  But  how  could 
they  behold  that  salvation — or,  to  under- 
stand their  seeing  in  the  mental  sense  of 
the  term,  how  could  they  believe  in  it,  un- 
less they  were  told  of  it,  unless  it  was 
preached  to  them,  unless  messengers  were 
sent  to  them  as  well  as  to  God's  peculiar 
and  favored  people]  In  other  words,  as 
the  Gentiles  were  under  the  gospel  econo- 
my to  be  made  partakers  of  the  same 
faith,  and  so  of  the  same  high  privileges 
with  themselves,  and  as  they  could  not 
believe  without  hearing,  nor  hear  without 
a  preacher — it  was  necessary  that  the 
message* of  life  should  be  propounded  to 
them  also ;  And  thus  he  vindicates  his 
own  peculiar  apostleship,  in  that  he  was 
commissioned  as  a  chosen  vessel  to  bear 
the  tidings  of  salvation  before  the  Gentiles 
as  well  as  the  children  of  Israel. 

Ver.  16,  18-21.  '  But  they  have  not  all 
obeyed  the  Gospel.  For  Isaias  saith.  Lord, 
who  hath  believed  our  report  1 — But  I  say. 
Have  they  not  heard  ]  Yes  verily,  their 
sound  went  into  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world.  But  I 
say.  Did  not  Israel  know  f  First,  Moses 
saith,  1  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by 
them  that  are  no  people,  and  by  a  foolish 
nation  I  will  anger  you.  But  Isaias  is  ve- 
ry bold,  and  saith,  I  was  found  of  them 
that  sought  me  not ;  I  was  made  manifest 
unto  them  that  asked  not  after  me.  But 
to  Israel  he  saith,  All  day  long  I  have 
stretched  forth  my  hands  unto  a  disobe- 
dient and  gainsaying  people.'  We  have 
already  said  that  ere  we  charge  God  with 
partiality  in  that  the  blessings  of  the 
Christian  religion  are  so  limited,  we  should 
first  acquit  ourselves  of  the  universal 
commission  to  go  and  make  a  tender  of 
these  blessings  to  every  creature  under 
heaven  ;  and  so  make  trial  of  the  promise 
which  accompanies  this  injunction — "Lo 
I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world."    But  ere  we  bring  this  ex- 

•  Isaiah,  lii,  7,  9, 10, 15. 


LECTURE  LXXXn. CHAPTER  X,  14 21, 


415 


periment  to  any  thing  like  a  full  and  fin- 
ished completion,  we  are  anticipated  by 
a  decisive  fact,  and  from  which  we  know, 
beforehand,  that  though  the  gospel  were 
preached  to  all,  and  by  competent  mes- 
sengers too,  sent  forth  by  God  Himself— 
yet  that  all  would  not  receive  it.  It  had 
been  so  preached  in  many  distinct  neigh- 
borhoods even  by  prophets  and  inspired 
apostles — yet  without  eifect  upon  many, 
who  heard  but  did  not  believe.  It  was 
prophesied  by  Esaias,  that  all  should  not 
obey  the  gospel,  even  though  brought  to 
their  doors,  or  though  reported  to  them,  and 
so  placed  within  the  reach  of  their  hear- 
ing it.  'Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  re- 
port V  Or  who  hath  believed  the  hearing 
which  they  have  heard  of  us  1  The  word 
translated  report  in  this  verse  is  the  same 
with  that  translated  hearing  in  the  next. 

There  could  be  no  mistake  then  as  to 
their  hearing.  «But  I  say.  Have  they  not 
heard  ]  Yes,  verily.'  He  might  have 
given  historical  proof  of  this,  by  quoting 
his  own  experience  and  that  of  his  col- 
leagues in  the  apostleship — who  had  so 
often  in  the  past  course  of  their  ministry 
lifted  their  testimony  in  the  hearing  both 
of  countrymen  and  others  who  rejected 
it — to  whom  they  preached  the  gospel, 
which,  though  to  some  it  was  the  savour 
of  life  unto  life,  was  to  many  the  savour 
of  death  unto  death. 

But  in  order  to  trace  the  line  of  con- 
tinuity in  this  whole  passage,  we  must 
look  to  the  verses  more  in  connection 
with  each  other. 

Ver.  16-21.  'But  they  have  not  all 
obeyed  the  gospel.  For  Esaias  saith, 
Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  So 
then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing 
by  the  word  of  God.  But  I  say,  Have 
they  not  heard?  Yes  verily,  their  sound 
went  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words 
unto  the  ends  of  the  world.  But  I  say, 
Did  not  Israel  know  f  First  Moses  saith, 
I  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by  them 
that  are  no  people,  and  by  a  foolish  na- 
tion I  will  anger  you.  But  Esaias  is  very 
bold,  and  saith,  I  was  found  of  them  that 
sought  me  not ;  I  was  made  manifest  unto 
them  that  asked  not  after  me.  But  to 
Israel  he  saith,  All  day  long  1  have 
stretched  forth  my  hands  unto  a  disobe- 
dient and  gainsaying  people.'  It  is  obvious 
that  one  main  design  of  this  epistle  is  to 
establish  the  common  ground,  on  which 
Jews  and  Gentiles  now  stand  under  the 
Christian  dispensation — in  regard  first,  to 
the  like  disease  or  condemnation  that 
were  upon  them  both;  then  to  the  like 
remedy  which  they  equally  stand  in  need 
of;  and,  most  offensive  of  all,  or  what 
required  the  most  strenuous  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  apostle  in  reconciling  it  to  the 
minds  of  his  own  countrymenj  the  same 


free  appliance  of  that  remedy  to  all  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth, — which   involved 
the  admission  of  those,  who  were  before 
aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel, 
to  the  same  faith  and  the  same  high  priv- 
ileges with  themselves.     This  aim,  which 
from  first  to  last  he  never  lets  go  or  loses 
sight  of,  appears  so  early  as  in  the  first 
chapter,  where  he  speaks  of  the  gospel 
(i,  16)  as  being  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to  the 
Greek.    After  which,  he  enters  more  dis- 
tinctly and  at  greater  length  on  the  theme 
in  the  second  chapter  (ii,  17-29)  where 
he  argues  for  the  common  religious  foot- 
ing on  which  these  two  now  stand — evi- 
dently not  without  the  apprehension,  or 
rather  the  actual  experience  of  a  strong 
repugnance  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish 
mind  to  the  conclusion  which  he  was  la- 
bouring to  establish.    He  then — as  if  a 
truth  revolting  to  the  prejudices  of  those 
whom  he  was  addressing  should  be  un- 
folded gradually — he  ventures,  if  I  may 
say  so,  in  the  third  chapter,  on  terms  of 
greater  expressness  and  particularity — 
charging  the  Jews  with  the  same  sinful- 
ness as  the  Gentiles  (iii,  9) ;  and  holding 
forth  to  both  the  same  salvation,   even 
that  righteousness  by  faith  which  is  unto 
all  and  upon  all  who  believe  (iii,  22)  'for 
there  is  no  difference' — no  difference  he 
certainly  means  between  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, though  he  does  not  here  make  use 
of  these  designations,  as  if  he  shrunk  at 
first  from  naming  the  two,  when  for  the 
first  time  he  places  them  on  the  same  even 
platform  of  acceptance  with  God.  Yet  ere 
the  chapter  closes,  and  as  if  waxing  bolder 
in  the  progress  of  his  argument,  he  does 
make  distinct  utterance,  though  under  an 
aspect  of  greater  generality,  of  the  one 
Father  in  heaven  being  the  God  not  of 
the  Jews  only  but  also  of  the  Gentiles — 
nay  of  His  justifying  the  one  whom  he 
there   calls  the    uncircumcision,   in    the 
same   way  that   He   justifies  the    other 
whom  he  distinguishes  as  the  circumcis- 
ion, which  titles  he  keeps  by  throughout 
the  whole  of  his  remaining  argument  in 
the  chapter  which  follows.    He  had  ex- 
perienced the  sensitiveness  of  the  Jewish 
prejudices,  when  the  name  of  the  Gentiles 
was  introduced  in  connection  with  any 
such  preferment  as  brought  them  up  to  a 
level  with  the  men  of  their  own  nation — 
more  especially  on  the  occasion  of  that 
public  address  he  made  in  person  to  a 
great  multitude  at  Jerusalem,  who  heard 
him  patiently  till  this  word  escaped  from 
him  ;  "  and  they  gave  him  audience  unto 
this  word  "* — after  which  there  were  no 
bounds   to  their  indignation.      We    can 
fancy  as  if  it  were  due  to  that  admirable 


*  Acts,  :uiii,  22. 


416 


LECTURE   LXXXII. CHAPTER   X,    14 — 21. 


delicacy  which  is  so  palpably  one  of  our 
apostle's  great  characteristics — that  if, 
Avhen  holding  converse  with  Jews,  he  has 
occasion  to  mention  the  Gentiles  as  of 
equal  rank  and  consideration  with  them- 
selves, he  does  it  so  frequently  under  the 
cover  of  a  quotation  from  their  own 
Scriptures. 

It  is  obvious  from  the  whole  substance 
and  texture  of  his  argument  in  this  epistle 
to  the  Romans,  that  he  feels  himself 
dealing  throughout  with  Jewish  under- 
standings, and  with  men  of  .Jewish  edu- 
cation. He  never  loses  sight  of  the  Old 
Testament;  but  seems  at  all  times  glad 
of  an  opportunity,  whenever  he  can  for- 
tify his  reasonings  by  passages  and  illus- 
trations taken  out  of  these  Scriptures. 
There  is  great  richness  of  such  allusion 
in  the  fourth  chapter;  nor  is  ii  wholly 
absent  from  the  fifth  and  seventh  ;  and 
makes  a  full  reappearance  in  the  ninth, 
onward  to  those  verses  wherewith  we  are 
now  occupied.  In  an  earlier  part  of  the 
epistle  which  we  have  quoted,  where  the 
apostle  speaks  of  the  righteousness  by 
faith  being  unto  all,  he  adds — "for  there 
is  no  difference."  And  again  in  the  part 
to  which  we  have  now  come  (x,  12) — in 
conjunction  with  those  terms  of  glorious 
universality,  "all"  and  "whosoever,"  he 
adds  the  very  same  words — "  for  there  is 
no  difference" — only  telling  us  further- 
more between  whom — "  no  difference  be- 
tween the  Jew  and  the  Greek."  He  had 
before  affirmed  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that 
they  laboured  under  the  same  disease, 
and  that  the  same  remedy  was  provided 
for  them  in  heaven  ;  and  he  is  now  em- 
ployed in  demonstrating,  that,  in  order  to 
the  remedy  having  effect,  the  hearers  of 
it  on  earth  must  carry  it  equally  home  to 
both — or  that  both  must  be  alike  preached 
unto,  and  plied  with  the  same  calls  and 
overtures,  by  the  messengers  of  a  common 
salvation.  And  so  he  evidently  feels  him- 
self again  to  be  in  contact  with  certain 
points  of  repulsion  in  the  Jewish  mind  ; 
and,  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  access 
thereunto,  recurs  to  his  usual  expedients — 
speaking  to  their  own  familiar  recogni- 
tions, and  reasoning  with  them  out  of 
their  own  Scriptures. 

He  begins  this  work  of  quotation  at  the 
5th  verse,  and  continues  it  downward — till 
he  had  established  the  necessity  of  send- 
ing men  over  the  world,  to  bring  men  to 
the  faith  of  the  gospel — Whence  it  follows, 
as  the  Gentiles  by  the  new  economy  were 
to  have  a  part  in  the  same  salvation 
through  the  medium  of  the  same  faith 
with  the  Jews,  that,  in  order  to  their  be- 
lieving alike,  they  must  be  preached  unto 
alike,  for  how  can  they  believe  without 
hearing,  or  hear  without  a  preacher  1 — 
which  preacher  or  preachers  must  be  sent 


to  them  ;  and  this  he  confirms  in  the  15th 
verse  by  a  passage  taken  from  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  their  prophets.  But 
here  he  interposes  inverse  16th,  a  needful 
and  qualifying  remark  which  migiit  have 
been  suggested  indeed  by  another  passage 
from  the  same  prophet  very  near  to  the 
former  one,  and  to  which  at  all  events  the 
apostle  expressly  appeals.  It  follows  not, 
that  though  preachuig  should  be  the  ordi- 
nary or  even  the  indispensable  prerequi- 
site to  faith,  it  follows  not  that  faith  should 
always  be  the  result  of  preaching.  A 
given  cause  might  be  indispensable  to  a 
certain  effect,  and  yet  not  always  produce 
that  effect.  Though  the  hearing  of  the 
gospel  were  necessary  to  the  believing  of 
it,  it  follows  not  that  all  who  hear  should 
necessarily  believe  ;  and  accordingly  the 
apostle  tells  us,  '  They  have  not  all  obeyed 
the  gospel'— by  which  he  undoubtedly 
means,  that,  of  the  all  who  have  heard  it 
so  many  have  not  obeyed  it.  And  he  for- 
tifies this  assertion  by  the  quotation  from 
Isaiah,  ♦  Who  hath  believed  our  report!' 
The  question  implies  that  few  had  be- 
lieved ;  but  it  also  implies,  that  though 
belief  does  not  alway  follow  in  the  train 
of  a  previously  heard  report,  yet  that  when 
it  does  take  place,  it  is  always  or  generally 
in  the  order  of  this  succession — Or,  in 
other  words — Though  hearing  is  not 
always  followed  up  by  a  subsequent  faith 
as  its  efiect — yet  that  seldom  or  never 
does  faith  arise  in  the  mind,  but  from  an 
anterior  hearing  as  its  cause.  And  this 
explains  the  dependc^nce  of  the  17th  verse 
on  the  last  clause  of  the  16lh — a  depend- 
ence more  obvious  to  the  reader  of  the 
original  than  it  is  in  the  translation  ;  for 
the  word  «  report'  in  the  one,  and  the  word 
'  hearing'  in  the  other,  are  both  rendered 
from  the  same  term  ("«:("?)  in  the  Greek. 
It  helps  also  to  impress  the  connection 
more  strongly — that  whereas  in  our  Eng- 
lish bibles  the  belief  in  the  one  verse  and 
faith  in  the  other,  though  they  signify  the 
same  thing  yet  sound  so  differently,  in  the 
original  the  same  radical  is  employed  in 

both    (miarevee  and  Tricrris)  ;      and    tllCSe     tWO 

verses  would  therefore  have  been  trans- 
lated more  synonymously  at  least,  if  in 
the  16th  it  had  been  translated,  Who  hath 
believed  in  the  hearing  that  we  have 
sounded  in  his  ears,  (which  though  a  com- 
plaint and  implying  therefore  that  few 
had  believed,  implies  also  that  belief,  if 
not  the  actual,  was  at  least  the  proper 
consequent  of  hearing,)  which  would  have 
brought  out  the  inference  in  the  17th  more 
palpably,  Therefore  belief  cometh  by 
hearing,  and  hearing  by  tlie  word  of  God. 
The  question.  What  plants  have  arisen 
from  the  seed  v/hich  has  been  cast  into 
the  ground! — clearly  implies,  that,  while 
all  seeds  do  not  germinate  into  plants,  yet 


LECTURE   LXXXII. — CHAPTER   X,    14 21. 


417 


a  plant  never  arises  but  frona  a  seed,  and 
that  the  one  is  the  proper  and  causal  an- 
tecedent of  the  other. 

The  question  then  is  naturally  started 
at  this  place,  Whether  the  hearing  indis- 
pensable to  faith,  has  been  carried  abroad  ! 
■ — and  a  reply  is  given  in  the  aflfirmative, 
couched  in  language  all  the  more  con- 
genial to  the  Jewish  ear,  that  it  was  taken 
from  Scripture,  and  which  conveys  thus 
much  at  least,  that  the  gospel  ought  to  go 
forth  as  freely  and  universally  through- 
out the  world,  as  the  light  of  the  sun  is 
spread  abroad  over  the  surface  of  it.  And, 
in  point  of  fact  it  had,  even  when  the 
apostle  was  writing,  been  proclaimed  far 
and  wide  beyond  the  limits  of  Judaism ; 
and  now  there  was  no  let  or  hindrance,  in 
the  nature  and  design  of  the  economy 
itself,  to  restrain  the  diffusion  of  it  through 
every  place  and  territory  where  men  were 
to  be  found.  And  accordingly  it  had 
sounded  forth  to  the  outskirts  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  which  was  then  spoken  of 
in  terms  that  properly  signified  the  whole 
of  the  habitable  earth — insomuch  that 
Paul  says  of  the  word  of  the  gospel, 
"  which  is  come  unto  you  as  it  is  in  all 
the  world,"  and  "  which  was  preached  to 
every  creature  which  is  under  heaven."* 
So  that  to  the  question.  Have  men  heard 
the  gospel  1 — there  could  be  no  difficulty 
in  giving  the  prompt  and  decisive  reply, 
'Yes  verily.' 

Ver.  19.  After  having  replied  in  the 
preceding  verse  generally  and  for  all 
mankind,  the  question  is  reiterated  with  a 
special  reference  to  the  children  of  Israel. 
Did  not  they  in  particular  know  1 — 
had  they  also  the  advantage  of  being 
made  to  hear  and  be  acquainted  with  the 
subject-matter  of  preaching  f  This  Paul 
might  have  replied  to  in  a  clear  and  de- 
cided affirmative — grounding  it  on  the 
events  of  his  own  age.  They  had  a  pre- 
ference over  the  Gentiles  in  every  re- 
spect. They  saw  Christ  in  the  flesh — 
they  witnessed  His  miracles — they  heard 
his  discourses — even  after  His  ascension, 
and  a  commission  was  left  with  the  apos- 
tles to  go  and  preach  the  gospel  unto  all 
nations,  still  the  priority  was  given  to 
them :  For  though  the  apostles  went 
forth  with  the  message  of  salvation  over 
all  the  earth,  it  was  after  beginning  at 
Jerusalem  ;  and  in  every  place  or  nation 
they  came  to,  it  was  their  practice  to  seek 
after  the  Jews  and  preach  to  them  first — 
till  wearied  out  by  the  obstinate  rejection 
of  their  doctrine,  they  made  this  protest 
against  it — Since  you  hold  yourselves 
unworthy  of  eternal  life,  lo  we  turn  to 
the  Gentiles.  Paul  could  have  thus  an- 
swered in  his  own  person  :  but,  as  his 


Col  i.6,23. 

53 


general  manner  was,  he  goes  back  upon 
earlier  times — for  even  then  it  may  be 
said  that  the  gospel  was  preached  to  those 
of  that  remoter  period  as  well  as  unto  us 
of  the  present  day  ;  and  from  the  mouths 
of  two  of  their  own  most  honoured  writers, 
he  gives  the  same  answer,  and  pronounces 
upon  them  the  same  condemnation.  First 
Moses,  who,  on  a  former  occasion,  had 
said  of  them,  "  What  nation  is  so  great, 
that  hath  statutes  and  judgments  so  right- 
eous as  all  this  law  which  1  set  before 
you  this  day  V — this  same  Moses  who 
thus  affirmed  the  knowledge  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Israel  to  be  above  that  of  all  the 
other  people  upon  earth,  says  afterwards, 
and  in  the  words  here  quoted,  that,  as 
they  had  abused  these  privileges,  God 
would  transfer  them  to  others  who  had 
not  been  so  distinguished,  and  so  provoke 
them  to  jealousy  by  a  people  who  hith- 
erto had  been  no  peculiar  people  to  Him  ; 
and  anger  them  by  a  foolish  nation,  a 
nation  destitute  of  the  knowledge  which 
had  been  so  plentifully  communicated  to 
themselves.  And  in  verses  2Uth  and  21st, 
Isaiah  expresses  himself  in  still  bolder 
and  clearer  terms.  By  the  boldness 
which  he  ascribes  to  Isaiah,  the  apostle 
very  distinctly  intimates,  that  he  felt  him- 
self treading  on  delicate  ground — engaged 
as  he  was  in  telling  the  Jews  of  their  na- 
tional misconduct,  and  of  the  forfeiture 
which  they  had  thereby  incurred  of  the 
national  honours,  which  at  one  time 
singled  them  out  and  signalised  them 
above  all  the  rest  of  the  human  family, 
"  1  was  found  of  them  that  sought  me  not, 
I  was  made  manifest  to  them  that  asked 
not  after  me."  All  day  long  had  God 
stretched  forth  His  hands  unto  Israel — 
addressing  them,  and  bringing  Himself 
near  unto  them,  and  giving  them  the 
knowledge  of  His  will  and  of  His  ways. 
Verily  they  have  not  all  obeyed  the  gos- 
pel, even  though  pressed  upon  their  ac- 
ceptance— for  these  Israelites  in  particu- 
lar, to  whom  the  closest  approaches  had 
been  made,  and  the  fullest  revelation  had 
been  given,  turned  out  after  all  a  disobe- 
dient  and  gainsaying  people. 

This  somewhat  unmanageable  passage 
may  be  thus  paraphrased.  "There  is  no 
difference  between  Jew  and  Greek,  for 
the  same  Lord  and  Maker  of  all,  is  rich  to 
all  who  call  on  Him.  For  whosoever 
shall  call  on  His  name  shall  be  saved. 
But  how  can  they  call  on  Him  till  they  be- 
lieve in  Him,  and  how  can  they  believe 
unless  they  hear  of  Him,  and  how  can 
they  hear  but  by  a  preacher  1  And  in 
order  to  this,  preachers  must  be  sent,  even 
as  those  were  of  whom  Isaiah  speaks, 
when,  hailing  them  t»s  the  messengers  of 
good,  he  exclaims,  "  How  beautiful  are  the 
feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of 


418 


LECTURE   LXXXII. — CHAPTER   X,    14 — 21. 


peace,  and  bring  glad  tidings  of  good 
things  !"  Yet  it  follows  not  that  all  who 
are  thus  preached  unto  shall  believe.  In 
point  of  fact,  all  did  not  put  faith  in  the 
good  tidings;  and  accordingly  t'o  same 
Isaiah  complains  of  the  smallnr  s  of  their 
number — saying.  Who  hath  'relieved  our 
testimony  1  Yet  though  belief  docs  not 
always  come  after  a  testimony,  a  testi- 
mony always,  or  at  least  ordinarily  comes 
before  the  belief — for  faith  cometh  by 
hearing,  though  not  by  all  or  any  sort  of 
hearing,  but  the  hearing  only  of  the  word 
of  God.  Has  not  this  word  then  been  pro- 
claimed to  all  ?  Yes  truly — the  barrier 
between  Jew  and  Gentile  is  now  moved 
away ;  and  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
should  be  made  as  free  and  patent  to  all 
as  is  the  sun  of  nature.  But  did  Israel 
share  in  this  light  ?  Yes,  and  that  in  a 
more  signal  and  preeminent  way  :  But, 
unworthy  as  they  proved  themselves  of 
the  privilege,  even  their  own  legislator 
threatened  the  removal  of  their  candle- 


stick to  the  other  and  darker  places  of 
the  earth  ;  and  the  highest  of  their  pro- 
phets told  them  in  still  more  decisive 
terms,  that  those  high  preferments  of 
which  they  boasted,  should  be  taken  away 
from  them,  and  given  to  others — and  that 
because  of  their  continued  resistance  to  a 
beseeching  God,  who  had  so  long  but  in 
vain,  pressed  on  their  acceptance  the 
overtures  of  His  great  salvation.' 

There  are  various  and  important  topics 
for  reflection  presented  throughout  the 
passage  which  forms  the  ground-work  of 
this  Lecture.  But  we  forbear  the  further 
consideration  of  them  at  present ;  and  all 
the  more  readily,  that  the  opportunity  for 
a  future  treatment  of  them  will  not  be 
wanting  in  what  remains  of  the  epistle. 
For  the  views  which  have  been  already 
given  by  us  of  the  17th  verse  we  refer  to 
a  Sermon  published  many  years  ago.* 


'  First  printed  in  1812,  and  now  to  be  found  in  our  vol- 
ume of  'Public  and  Occasional  Sermons,'  being  vol.  xi 
of  the  Series. 


LECTURE  LXXXIII. 


Romans  xi,  1 — 5. 

"I  say  then,  Hath  God  cast  away  his  people  1  God  forbid.  For  I  also  am  an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin.  God  hath  not  cast  away  his  people  which  he  foreknew.  Wot  ye  not  what  the  Scripture 
eaith  of  Elias?  how  he  makelh  intercession  to  God  against  Israel,  saying.  Lord,  they  have  killed  thy  prophets, 
and  digged  down  thine  altars  ;  and  I  am  left  alone,  and  they  seek  my  life.  But  what  saith  the  answer  of  God 
unto  himl  I  have  reserved  to  myself  seven  thousand  men,  who  have  not  bowed  the  knee  to  the  image  of  BaaL 
Even  so  then  at  this  present  time  also  there  is  a  remnant  according  to  the  election  of  gr-.>.tc." 


In  the  preceding  chapter  we  are  told 
of  the  perfect  and  unqualified  freeness  of 
the  gospel — insomuch  that  it  may  be  held 
forth,  nay  urged,  with  all  simplicity  and 
earnestness  on  the  acceptance  of  every 
man  ;  and  in  virtue  of  this,  whosoever 
calleth  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
saved.  It  follows  therefore,  that  there  is 
not  a  human  creature  under  heaven,  from 
whom  the  offers  of  this  said  gospel  ought 
to  be  withheld  ;  and  it  is  on  the  undoubted 
truth  of  this  position  that  we  have  founded 
at  least  one  reply  to  a  question  put,  and 
sometimes  in  the  form  of  a  charge  or 
complaint  against  the  equity  of  the  Divine 
administration,  Why  the  blessings  of 
Christianity  should  be  so  limited  in  point 
of  extent,  or.  Why  a  religion,  expressly 
designed  for  all  mankind,  should  have 
appropriated  or  taken  full  possession  of 
so  small  a  part  of  the  human  family  l 
Our  answer  then  was,  that,  ere  we  ar- 
raigned the  policy  or  procedure  of  the 
Almighty  in  this  maiter,  we  should  first 
hold  a  reckoning  with  ourselves,  and  de- 
termine whether  we  stand  exempted  from 


all  censure  and  crimination  on  account 
of  it.  Certain  it  is,  that  a  full  and  unre- 
stricted commission  has  been  put  into  our 
hands — Go  unto  all  nations.  Go  and  preach 
the  Gospel  unto  every  creature.  Have 
we  fulfilled  this  task  1  Before  speculating 
on  the  part  which  God  may  have  had  in 
this  result,  would  it  not  be  well  to  inquire 
how  far  we  stand  acquitted  of  our  own 
part  in  it  1  Ere  we  put  the  question,  Why 
is  it  that  all  men  do  not  believe — is  there 
not  another  question  which  seems  to  have 
the  natural  precedency,  Have  all  men 
been  preached  unto?  Have  missionaries 
yet  gone  abroad  over  all  the  dark  places 
of  the  earth ;  or,  even  at  our  own  doors, 
has  the  message  of  salvation  been  enough 
sounded  forth,  or  pressed  with  sufficient 
importunity  on  the  attention  of  all  the 
families  within  the  limits  of  Christendom  1 
If  in  this  we  have  failed  or  fallen  short, 
which  we  have  most  glaringly,  it  is 
scarcely  for  us  at  least  to  charge  God 
with  partiality — the  God  who  has  put  into 
our  hands  so  liberal  and  large  a  warrant, 
and  accompanied  it  with  the  promise  too^ 


LECTURE   LXXXIll. CHAPTER.    XI,    1 — 5. 


419 


that,  in  the  discharge  of  it  He  would  be 
with  us  always  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
•world.  Have  we  worked  enough  under 
the  precept  1 — or  prayed  enough  over  the 
promise  ?  It  is  scarcely  for  us  at  least  to 
cast  reproaches  on  the  high  government 
of  Heaven,  ere  we  first  addressed  our- 
selves and  that  with  diligent  hands  and 
dependent  hearts,  to  our  assigned  task 
upon  earth  ;  and  then,  after  having  over- 
tured  the  gospel  to  all  men,  seen  whether, 
as  the  etfect  of  a  universal  proclamation, 
a  universal  Christianity  did  not  follow  in 
its  train. 

But  this,  however  justly  or  pertinently 
it  may  be  said,  is  yet  far  from  a  complete 
or  adequate  solution  of  the  phenomenon 
in  question.  It  is  not  enough  to  tell  us 
that  the  gospel  might  be  declared  unto 
all  men,  and  that  all  who  believe  shall  be 
saved — when  in  point  of  fact  all  do  not 
and  will  not  believe  it.  As  to  the  objec- 
tive presentation  thereof,  there  might  be 
the  utmost  possible  latitude  and  freeness 
in  the  gospel ;  but,  in  order  to  its  taking 
effect,  there  must  also  be  a  subjective 
consent  thereto  on  the  part  of  those  to 
whom  it  is  addressed.  Now  it  appears 
from  thousands  and  thousands  more  of 
successive  specimens,  in  the  as  many  dif- 
ferent localities  where  the  experiment  has 
been  tried,  that  all  who  hear  the  gospel, 
even  however  rightly  and  authoritatively 
preached  to  them,  do  not  obey  the  gospel ; 
and  this  difference,  this  subjective  dif- 
ference between  one  man  and  another,  is 
a  fact  or  phenomenon  which  remains  to 
be  accounted  for.  We  shall  not  here  saj^ 
over  again  what  we  have  already  said, 
when,  expounding  former  chapters  in  this 
epistle,  we  were  led  to  discuss  the  high 
topic  of  predestination.  We  then  admit- 
ted, and  still  with  all  confidence  repeat, 
that  while  there  is  diversity  of  operations, 
it  is  God  who  worketh  all  in  all — that  He 
is  throned  in  universal  sovereignty — as 
supreme  in  the  inner  and  unseen  world 
of  spirits,  as  He  is  absolute  and  uncon- 
trolled in  fixing  all  the  events  which  be- 
long to  the  visible  history  of  nature  and 
providence.  On  this  principle,  we  cannot 
look  to  the  fact  of  one  man  believing  the 
gospel,  without  connecting  it  with  the 
fact  that  God  has  ordained  it  so — and 
neither  can  we  look  to  the  fact  of  another 
man  disobeying  the  gospel,  without  con- 
necting it  with  the  fact  that  God  has  left 
it  so.  If  asked  to  assign  the  reason  of^ 
God  having  so  done,  or  the  cause  of  this 
difference  between  one  man  and  another, 
and  that  with  the  view  of  explaining  or 
vindicating  the  counsels  of  the  upper 
sanctuary — we  have  no  other  answer  to 
make,  but  make  it  frankly  and  immedi- 
ately, that  we  cannot  tell.  At  an  earlier 
stage  of  this  exposition,  we  have  attempted 


to  draw  what  we  conceive  to  be  the  limit 
between  the  knovvable  and  the  unknow- 
able in  this  question  ;  and  have  also  there 
stated  the  principles  on  which  I  hold, 
that,  whatever  dilhculty  there  may  be  in 
explaining  the  procedure  of  God,  this 
carries  in  it  no  excuse  for  the  wickedness 
of  man.  The  moral  certainties  in  the 
one  field,  are  not  in  the  least  bedimmed 
or  overshaded,  by  the  metaphysical  obscu- 
rities which  rest  on  the  other  and  the  more 
arduous  field  of  speculation.  Man's  un- 
belief, if  resolvable  into  man's  wilfulness, 
and  our  Saviour  does  resolve  it  into  the 
evil  of  his  own  doings,*  stands  as  clearljj 
out  a  rightful  object  of  condemnation, 
whether  the  policy  and  jurisprudence  of 
Heaven  are  thrown  open  to  our  view,  or 
shrouded  in  deepest  secrecy.  If  the  ques- 
tion be  put.  Why  are  some  only  preached 
unto,  and  not  all  1  we  reply,  that  as  far 
as  this  proceeds  from  the  indifference  of 
those  called  Christians  to  the  souls  of  the 
perishing  millions  around  them,  the  fault 
lies  clearly  with  man.  If  the  question  be 
put.  Why  do  some  only  of  those  preached 
unto  believe  and  not  all  ?  we  reply,  that 
as  far  as  this  proceeds  from  the  love  of 
darkness  and  the  power  of  depravity,  the 
perversity  and  the  fault  stil  lie  clearly 
with  man.  But  if  the  question  be  put, 
Why  is  it  that  the  Spirit  from  on  high 
selects  some  only,  whom  he  disposes  to 
receive  and  obey  the  gospel,  and  not  all  T 
we  confess  ourselves  overawed  by  the 
difficulties  of  a  theme  so  transcendentally 
and  so  hopelessly  above  us  ;  and  would 
join  the  apostle  in  saying.  Who  art  thou, 
O  man,  that  repliest  against  God  ? 

Ver.  1.  'I  say  then.  Hath  God  cast 
away  his  people?  God  forbid.  For  I  al- 
so am  an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham, 
of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin.'  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  last  chapter  we  find  the  apostle 
saying,  that,  all  day  long,  or  during  the 
whole  period  of  their  political  subsistenxje 
as  a  nation,  God  had  held  converse,  wheth- 
er in  the  way  of  remonstrance  or  entreaty, 
with  the  children  of  Israel — Sending  them, 
fi'om  one  age  to  another,  prophets  and 
righteous  men,  whom  they  slew  and  per- 
secuted— till  at  length  they  crucified  the 
Lord  of  glory,  after  which,  by  an  act  of 
terrible  retribution,  the  whole  Jewish  econ- 
omy, both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  was  ut- 
terly exterminated,  or  swept  off  by  the 
"  besom  of  destruction"  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  The  question  of  our  present 
verse  follows  quite  naturally  in  the  train 
of  such  a  contemplation.  Hath  God  then 
entirely  rejected  His  ancient  people  1  Hath 
He  wholly  and  conclusively  cast  them 
away  1  to  which  question  Paul's  answer 
is  a  prompt  and  emphatic  negative  ;  and. 


*  John,  iii,  19. 


420 


LECTURE  LXXXin. — CHAPTER  XI,  1 5. 


in  confii-mation  of  which,  he  quotes  him- 
self as  a  specimen.  He  himself  was  an 
Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  and 
tribe  of  Benjamin,  or  as  he  elsewliere 
says,  an  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews— yet,  so 
far  from  being  an  outcast,  was  a  convert 
to  the  new  faith,  and  in  full  possession 
both  of  its  hopes  and  privileges.  It  is 
perhaps  somev.  hat  gratuitous  in  some  to 
imagine  tliat  he  particularises  his  tribe,  be- 
bause  it  was  the  last  and  least  of  the 
twelve,  and  at  one  time  indeed  on  the  eve 
of  its  extermination — as  all  the  more  strik- 
ing illustration  or  proof,  that,  great  and 
signal  though  the  days  of  their  calamitous 
visitation  had  been,  yet  "the  Lord  will  not 
cast  off  his  people,  neither  will  he  forsake 
His  inheritance."*  But,  instead  of  strain- 
ing at  ingenuities  of  this  sort,  let  us  be 
satisfied  with  the  idea,  that  Paul  meant 
nothing  more  by  the  specification  of  his 
tribe  than  simply  to  authenticate  his  ge- 
nealogy as  a  Jew,  and  so  make  it  all  the 
more  palpaple  that  he  incurred  no  forfeit- 
ure thereby — seeing  that  he  was  not  only 
himself  gifted  with  the  unsearchable  rich- 
es of  Christ,  but  commissioned  to  preach, 
and  thus  make  a  full  tender  of  them  to 
others  also. 

Ver.  2,  3.  '  God  hath  not  cast  away  his 
people  which  he  foreknew.  Wot  ye  not 
what  the  Scripture  saith  of  Elias  1  how 
he  maketh  intercession  to  God  against 
Israel,  saying,  Lord,  they  have  killed  thy 
prophets,  and  digged  down  thine  altars ; 
and  I  am  left  alone,  and  they  seek  my 
life.'  God  did  not  reject  all  Israel.  He 
did  not  cast  off  those  of  whom  He  fore- 
knew, and  who  were  the  objects  not  of  his 
prescience  only,  but  of  His  predestination 
to  eternal  blessedness.  "Whom  he  did 
foreknow  them  he  did  predestinate."  We 
are  here  reminded  of  the  expression,  that 
"  they  are  not  all  Israel  which  are  of  Is- 
rael." God  knoweth  His  own.  He  hath 
known  them  from  the  beginning,  and  all 
His  purposes  regarding  them  shall  stand. 

And  these  gracious  purposes  of  the  Al- 
mighty often  extend  to  a  greater  number 
than  we  think;  and  of  this  the  apostle 
gives  a  most  memorable  historic  illustra- 
tion in  the  case  of  the  prophet  Elijah — who 
cast  a  despairing  eye  over  the  land  of 
Israel,  and  could  not  recognise  over  the 
whole  length  and  breadth  of  it,  even  so 
much  as  one  true  worshipper.  He  made 
complaint  to  God  of  a  universal  apostacy 
^grounding  as  is  often  done  in  all  sci- 
ences and  all  subjects,  a  hasty  generalisa- 
tion on  his  own  limited  and  personal 
experience.  But,  God  seeth  not  as  n)an 
seeth.  He  knew  the  children  of  His  own 
election,  His  own  "  hidden  ones,"  as  they 
have  been  termed ;  and  could  discern  no 

*  Psalm  xcir,  14. 


less  than  seven  thousand,  when  the  proph- 
et, gifted  and  endowed  as  he  was,  could 
not  fix  on  a  single  individual.  God  knew 
them  now  as  well  as  foreknew  them  (ver. 
2)  from  all  eternity  5  but  it  is  altogether 
worthy  of  observation,  that  it  is  not  by 
their  tdection  that  He  marks  them  out  to 
Elijah.  He  does  not  read  their  names  to 
him  out  of  the  book  of  life  in  heaven,  or 
make  any  revelation  of  the  secret  purposes 
respecting  them  which  He  had  from  ev- 
erlasting. He  singles  them  out  to  the 
prophet  by  a  sensible  and  a  present  mark, 
by  a  great  and  palpable  act  of  obedience 
to  His  will  upon  earth.  'But  what  saith 
the  answer  of  God  unto  him  ]  I  have  re- 
served to  myself  seven  thousand  men, 
who  have  not  bowed  the  knee  to  the 
image  of  Baal.' — Ver.  4. 

Now  we  hold  it  of  great  theological  im- 
portance to  notice  this  peculiarity  God 
might  have  told  Elijah  of  His  primative 
decree  respecting  these  men.  But  no — He 
prefers  telling  him  of  their  present  do- 
ings. Known  to  Himself  are  all  His  works, 
and  among  the  rest,  the  state  of  these  sev- 
en thousand  men  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  ;  and  on  this  high  and  trancen- 
dental  ground,  He  could  have  told  the 
prophet  of  their  safety.  But,  instead  of 
this.  He  choses  what  may  be  called  a  low- 
er and  experimental  ground,  on  which  to 
indicate  or  make  known  to  him  the  condi- 
tion of  these  men  as  children  of  God's 
own  family.  They  had  not  bowed  the 
knee  to  Baal  ;  and  this  He  thought  to  be 
ground  enough  on  which  to  satisfy  the 
mind  of  Elijah — thereby  maintaining  and 
exemplifying  the  distinction  between  the 
secret  things  which  belong  unto  God,  and 
the  revealed  things  which  belong  to  us 
and  to  our  children. 

And  surely  if  God,  even  at  the  time  of  a 
special  and  extraordinary  communication 
to  one  of  His  highest  prophets — when  tell- 
ing him  of  these  seven  thousand  men — 
reserved  the  secret  of  their  predestination, 
and  laid  all  the  stress  upon  their  practice 
— Surely  it  is  not  for  us,  unvisited  by  any 
such  illumination,  to  explore  the  dark  re- 
cesses of  a  past  eternity,  or  seek  to  open 
the  book  of  God's  decrees,  that  we  may 
find  the  names  of  the  persons  who  are  re- 
corded there.  There  is  a  better  method, 
and  one  nearer  at  hand,  by  which  to  as- 
sure ourselves  that  we  are  the  subjects  of 
a  blessed  ordination,  even  by  doing  as 
these  Hebrew  saints  in  the  days  of  Elijah, 
fty  keeping  ourselves  unspotted  from  the 
world.  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are 
His,  and  so  knew  them  from  all  eternity. 
But  man  knoweth  them  that  are  the  Lord's 
in  another  way  ;  and  this  in  virtue  of  the 
perfect,  the  never-failing  harmony,  which 
obtains  between  the  election  and  the  sane- 
tification.    It  is  true  that  God  predesti- 


LECTURE   LXXXIII. — CHAPTER   XI,    1 5. 


421 


nates  to  eternal  life,  but  never  without 
predestinating  those  whom  He  designs  for 
this  glorious  inheritance  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  His  Son.*  Election  is  an- 
terior to  character — Yet  so  unbroken  is 
the  connection  between  them,  that  charac- 
ter becomes  a  criterion  by  which  to  as- 
certain the  election.  For  this  we  need  not 
aspire  to  the  inaccessible  steeps  which  are 
above,  but  have  only  to  persevere  in  the 
toils  of  our  appointed  task  below.  "The 
Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his,"  and 
some  there  are  who  love  to  carry  upward 
their  speculation  there,  even  to  the  highest 
point  of  a  high  and  supralapsarian  Cal- 
vinism. Let  not  this  supersede  the  care- 
fulness wherewith  every  Christian  should 
observe,  nor  yet  the  earnestness  where- 
with every  Christian  minister  should  urge 
the  saying — "  Let  every  one  that  nameth 
the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity. "f 
But  there  is  something  more  in  "this 
verse  which  v^^e  have  not  yet  adverted  to 
— fitted  to  animate  and  cheer  the  heart  of 
him  who  eyes  with  despondency  the  pre- 
sent moral  and  religious  state,  whether  of 
the  country  or  of  the  world.  We  mean 
the  superiority  by  which  God's  estimate, 
or  the  true  estimate,  of  what  was  still  good 
in  Israel,  exceeded  in  amount  that  of  the 
prophet.  The  '  even  so'  of  the  next  verse 
warrants  our  making  this  application. 
Elijah's  imagination  was,  that  he  stood 
alone;  but  God  knew  better,  and  told  him 
of  seven  thousand  Vv'ho  were  like-minded 
with  himself  And  so  are  there  many  in 
this  our  day,  and  sometimes  the  more 
saintly  and  spiritual  are  the  most  liable 
to  this  miscalculation,  who,  as  they  con- 
template the  prevalence  of  infidelity  and 
wickedness  around  them,  underrate  the 
Christianity  both  of  their  own  neighbour- 
hood and  of  the  nation  at  large.  The 
number  of  God's  hidden  ones  may  be 
greater  than  we  think  of — known  only  to 
Him,  and  in  places  where  we  have  no 
suspicion  of  their  existence.  It  is  thus 
that  the  pleasing  discovery  is  sometimes 
made  within  the  bosom  of  vicinities  and 
households  where  we  least  expected  it ; 
and  many,  we  trust,  even  at  short  dis- 
tances from  our  own  habitation,  are  the 
unseen  heirs  of  grace  and  immortality, 
whom  we  shall  never  recognise  as  such 
till  we  meet  them  in  heaven.  It  were  bet- 
ter cert;\inly  for  the  interests  both  of  per- 
sonal and  public  Christianity,  that  all  real 
disciples  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
should  know  each  other  better,  and  com- 
pany with  each  other  more.  And  this 
makes  our  obligation  all  the  more  imper- 
ative of  "confessing  with  the  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,"!  or  of  coming  forth  with 
those  frank  and  intrepid  avowals  which 

•  Rom.  viii,  29.         t  2  Tim.  ii,  19.         }  Rom.  x,  9. 


might  "  declare  plainly  that  they  seek  a 
country"* — and  thus,  by  leading  to  a 
greater  mutual  acquaintanceship,'  might 
bring  these  fellow-travellers  to  Zion  more 
closely  and  constantly  beside  each  other. 
It  were  well  in  these  expectants  of  a 
higher  citizenship,  these  voyagers  for 
heaven,  to  seek  out  each  other  by  the 
way — and  that  not  merely  for  a  benefit  to 
themselves,  from  the  fellowship  or  com- 
munion of  saints  here  ;  but  for  the  greater 
command  which  it  would  enable  them  to 
wield  over  the  moral  destinies  of  the 
world.f  Union,  it  has  often  been  said,  is 
strength  ;  but  it  is  not  in  the  secret,  but 
in  the  ostensible  union  of  the  friends  and 
followers  of  Christianity,  that  the  great 
strength  of  their  cause  lies ;  and  what 
with  the  greater  force  of  that  cementing 
principle  which  binds  them  together,  as 
well  as  the  mighty  hold  which  their  pe. 
culiar  objects  have  over  conscience,  the 
highest  faculty  of  our  nature,  we  should 
look  for  the  greatest  pcssible  results  from 
their  visible  combination — in  speeding 
onward  the  triumphs  of  the  faith,  or  the 
full  and  final  establishment  in  the  world 
of  the  empire  of  Truth  and  Highteousness. 
And  it  is  not  enough  that  we  look  to 
the  state  of  Christianity  as  it  now  stands. 
VVe  should  look  to  Christianity  in  pro- 
gress. For  by  however  small  a  fraction 
we  may  compute  its  hold  of  our  species 
now,  a  time  is  coming  when  we  shall 
cease  to  courst  it  by  minorities  and  rem- 
nants. The  eye  of  God  not  only  explores 
the  present  ;  but,  with  a  thorough  cogni- 
zance of  time  as  well  as  space,  it  reaches 
onward  to  the  most  distant  futurity.  He 
not  only  knows,  but  He  foreknows.  By 
the  voice  of  an  immediate  revelation,  He 
gave  comfort  to  the  despairing  heart  of 
Elijah,  when  He  told  him  of  the  numbers, 
who,  even  at  the  time  of  what  seemed  an 
all  but  universal  defection  and  idolatry, 
still  held  by  the  true  religion.  And  by  the 
voice  of  prophecy  in  Scripture,  He  gives 
the  like  comfort  to  us,  as  we  cast  perhaps 
a  desponding  eye  over  the  moral  state  and 
prospects  of  the  world — in  the  bright  per- 
spective which  He  there  has  opened  up  to 
us,  of  the  enlargement  and  the  triumphs 
that  still  await  the  gospel  of  His  Son. 
For  amid  all  that  is  fitted  to  darken  and 
discourage,  we  should  recollect  of  the 
present  that  it  is  but  the  infancy  of  the 
Christian  religion,  and  that  we  are  yet 
among  the  struggles  and  the  uncertainties 
of  its  embryo  state.  To  have  some  idea 
of  the  glorious  and  magnificent  expansion 
before  us,  wc  have  only  to  look  at  the 
millennium  of  our  regenerated  world  in 
the  dimensions  of  prophecy,  where  every 
day  is  a  year  and  every  year  is  made  up 

'  Heb.  X!,  14.  t  John,  xvii,  21. 


422 


LECTURE  LXXXni. CHAPTER  XI,  1 5. 


of  centuries — insomuch  that  what  may  be 
termed  the  middle  age  of  Christianity,  is 
reckoned  by  only  three  years  and  a  half, 
comprehensive  though  it  be  of  many 
generations.  And  beyond  this  spectacle 
of  blessedness  and  glory,  we  have  the 
glimpse  of  further  and  larger  develop- 
ments, which,  in  the  closing  chapters  of 
the  book  of  Revelation,  retire  onward 
from  the  view  till  lost  in  the  distances  of 
eternity.  Could  we  see  the  whole  in  the 
light  of  the  Infinite  Mind,  the  perfect 
wisdom  and  perfect  goodness  of  all  His 
purposes  would  be  seen  most  gloriously  ; 
and  as  even  in  one  of  Israel's  darkest 
days,  w  hen  He  told  of  the  seven  thousand 
whom  He  reserved  to  Himself,  He  allevi- 
ated the  brooding  imagination  of  the 
prophet,  and  taught  him  not  to  think  so 
despairingly  of  the  state  of  his  nation — so 
could  we  be  made  to  behold  across  our 
present  day  of  small  things,  the  evolutions 
of  a  greatness  and  prosperity  still  in  re- 
serve even  for  a  world  now  lying  in  wick- 
edness ;  or  did  the  mighty  and  successive 
eras  of  the  Divine  administration  rise  in 
vision  before  us,  then,  instead  of  looking 
forward  with  dejection  or  dismay,  we 
should  lift  up  our  heads  and  rejoice  in  the 
destinies  of  our  species. 

But  though  the  apostle,  in  the  course  of 
this  chapter  extends  his  regards  to  futu- 
rity ;  and  lays  before  us,  though  in  dim 
transparency,  the  varying  fortunes  both 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  distant  ages — he 
has  not  yet  quitted  the  consideration  of 
matters  as  they  stood  at  the  time  when  he 
was  writing,  and  accordingly  tells  us  in 
the  5th  verse,  that  even  of  his  own  country- 
men there  was  at  that  moment  a  remnant 
who  should  be  saved.  We  may  indeed 
gather  directly  from  the  Scriptural  narra- 
tive, the  evidences  of  a  goodly  number  of 
converts  to  the  gospel,  or  at  least  of  pro- 
fessing disciples,  from  among  the  children 
of  Israel.  We  have  first  the  apostles  ; 
and  doubtless  so  many  of  Hebrew  extrac- 
tion, in  the  hundred  and  twenty  who  were 
with  them  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ;  and 
also  of  the  thousands  who  believed  ante- 
rior to  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles;  and 
further,  all  of  that  great  company  of  the 
priests  who  were  obedient  to  the  faith* 
— all  in  harmony  with  the  assertion  of 
Paul,  that,  'Even  so  then  at  this  present 
time  also  there  is  a  remnant  according  to 
the  election  of  grace.' 

Ver.  5.  Grace  in  the  New  Testament 
signifies  either  a  gift,  or  the  kindness 
which  prompted  the  gift.  There 'can  be 
no  misunderstanding  of  it,  for  example,  in 
the  former  sense,  when  in  1  Cor.  xvi,  3, 
the  apostle  speaks  of  bringing  their  libe- 
rality to  Jerusalem— that  is  the  fruit   of 


'  Acts,  vi,  7. 


their  liberality,  so  rendered  from  the  ori- 
ginal word,  commonly  translated  into 
grace  throughout  Scripture.  And  there 
can  be  as  little  misundersanding  of  it  in 
the  latter  sense,  when  the  same  Greek, 
word  is  translated  into  favour  in  Luke,  ii, 
5'J,  where  we  read,  that  Jesus  increased  in 
favour  with  God  and  man.  In  those 
instances  where  the  gift  is  specified  in 
connection  with  the  grace  which  origi- 
nated or  conveyed  it,  this  leaves  no  other 
meaning  for  the  grace  than  the  kindness, 
which  is  a  very  common  and  perhaps 
its  primary  signification.  For  example, 
"The  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salva- 
tion,"* where  salvation  is  the  gift,  and 
grace  the  kindness  of  the  giver. — "Grace 
reigneth  unto  eternal  lift',"  where  eternal 
life  is  the  gift,  and  grace  the  goodness 
which  prompted  it  of  Him  whose  gift  it  is 
— "Being  justified  freely  by  his  grace," 
where  the  being  justified  or  justification 
is  the  gift,  and  grace  is  the  kind  or  gene- 
rous disposition  of  Him  who  hath  confer- 
red it.  And  to  close  our  list  of  instances 
with  the  verse  which  is  before  us — 'The 
election  of  grace' — where  grace  is  the 
cause,  election  the  effect  ;  or  where  elec- 
tion is  the  gift,  and  grace  is  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Giver  to  him  on  whom  He 
hath  bestowed  it.  It  is  thus  that  the  elec- 
tion of  grace  has  been  defined  gratui- 
tous election — the  election  of  pure  kind- 
ness or  good-will — the  fruit  of  a  generos- 
ity altogether  spontaneous — a  present  in 
short,  and  not  a  payment  in  return  for 
any  service  or  in  consideration  of  any 
merit  on  the  part  of  him  who  is  the  object 
of  it. 

Now  this  distinction  betv/een  the  kind- 
ness which  prompts  a  gift  and  the  gift 
itself;  or  between  the  generority  as  it  ex- 
ists in  the  bosom  of  the  dispenser  and  the 
fruit  of  that  generosit)',  as  imparted  in  the 
shape  of  a  service  done  or  a  benefit  ren- 
dered to  him  who  is  the  object  of  it — in  a 
word,  between  the  beneficence  and  the 
benefaction,  enables  us  to  discriminate 
between  the  different  kinds  of  grace, 
which,  though  all  emanating  from  the 
same  fountain,  even  the  good-will  of  Him 
who  is  in  heaven,  yet  are  each  character- 
ised or  specified,  and  so  as  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  rest,  by  the  distinct  and  par- 
ticular good  done  to  him  in  behalf  of  whom 
the  grace  and  goodness  of  the  Father  of 
all  spirits  has  been  exercised.  Thus  there 
might  be  a  justifying  grace,  as  when  God 
justifies  the  ungodly;  or  a  sanctifying 
grace,  as  when  God  bestows  His  Spirit  to 
help  our  infirmities ;  or  comprehensive 
of  l)oth,  a  saving  grace,  asf  when  it  is 
said  "  by  grace  are  ye  saved  and  that  not 
of  yourselves — it  is  the  gift  of  God  :'   Or, 


Tifus,  ii,  II. 


t  Ephesians,  ii,  5, 8. 


LECTURE   LXXXIII. CHAPTER    XI,    1 5. 


423 


finally,  the  grace  of  our  present  text,  the 
lelecting  grace,  here  termed  the  grace  of 
election — that  in  the  exercise  of  which 
He  set  His  special  love  on  certain  of  His 
creatures  from  all  eternity,  as  on  the  sev- 
en thousand  of  Israel  whom  He  reserved 
unto  Himself,   and  who,  in  virtue  of  this 


His  distinguishing  favour,  were  borne  on  • 
ward  in  safety  through  all  the  dangers 
and  temptations  of  their  earthly  pilgrim- 
age, till  admitted  into  secure  and  everlast- 
ing enjoyment  to  the  blessedness  of 
heaven. 


LECTURE  LXXXIV. 


Romans  xi,  6 — 10. 

•  And  if  by  grace,  then  it  is  no  more  of  works  ;  otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace.  But  if  .t  be  of  works,  then  it  is 
no  more  grace;  otherwise  work  is  no  more  work.  What  then  7  Israel  hath  not  obtained  that  which  he  seeketh 
for;  but  tlie  election  hath  obtained  it,  and  the  rest  were  blinded  (according  as  it  is  written,  God  hath  given  thenx 
the  spirit  of  slumber,  eyes  that  they  should  not  see,  and  ears  that  they  should  not  hear  ;)  unto  this  day.  And 
David  saith.  Let  their  table  be  made  a  snare,  and  a  trap,  and  a  stumbling-block,  and  a  recompence  unto  them  :  let 
their  eyes  be  darkened,  that  they  may  not  see,  and  bow  down  their  back  alway." 


There  is  one  very  obvious  distinction 
between  the  electing  grace  of  God,  and 
the  other  sorts  of  it  which  have  now 
been  specified.  In  the  election  of  any 
man  thus  favored  and  thus  signalised, 
God  stood  alone.  The  act  took  place  be- 
fore that  the  man  was  born,  nay  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world.*  It  is  not 
only  prior  to  all  the  other  forthput- 
tings  of  Divine  grace,  but  it  gives  birth  to 
them  all.  If  it  be  true  that  none  but  the 
elect  shall  obtain  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ; 
and  it  be  also  true  that  unless  we  are 
justified,  and  unless  we  are  made  holy, 
we  shall  not  enter  therein — then  must 
every  elect  sinner  have  both  the  justify- 
ing and  the  .sanctifying  grace  put  forth 
upon  him,  ere  that  he  reaches  his  final 
destination ;  and  the  connection  is  not 
more  inseparable  between  any  conse- 
quents in  nature  or  history,  and  the  ante- 
cedents from  which  they  have  sprung, 
than  that  which  binds  together  the  justi- 
fication and  the  sanctification  which  take 
place  on  earth  with  the  election  which 
took  place  in  heaven — the  one,  in  fact, 
being  the  source  or  the  fountain-head 
■whence  the  others  flow.  They  follow 
each  other  like  the  links  of  a  chain 
stretching  backward  to  the  eternity  that  is 
past,  and  forward  to  the  eternity  which  is 
to  come.  Paul  enumerates  a  few  of  these 
links,  not  all  of  them  contiguous, — for 
other  links  than  these  he  mentions,  and 
intermediate  between  them,  could  be  sup- 
plied both  from  other  Scripture  and  from 
experience.  "  Moreover  whom  he  did  pre- 
destinate, them  he  also  called  ;  and  whom 
he  called,  them  he  also  justified;  and 
whom  he  justified,  (them  he  also  sanctifi- 
ed ;  and  whom  he  sanctified,)  them  he 
also  glorified." 

'  Ephesians,  i,  4. 


We  have  already  said  of  the  great  and 
primary  act  of  grace,  the  grace  of  election, 
that  at  the  time  of  passing  it,  God  tvas  the 
alone  party  ;  and  in  this  respect  it  stands 
distinguished  from  the  other  or  subordi- 
nate acts  of  grace.  For  in  these  last  man 
iears  a  part — nay  we  should  hold  it  the 
evidence  of  a  sensitive  and  extreme,  and 
in  fact  ill-understood  orthodoxy,  to  shrink 
from  the  assertion,  that  in  these  last  man 
acts  a  part.  By  saying  so,  we  infringe 
not  in  the  least  on  the  supremacy  of  God  ; 
nor  abridge  by  ever  so  little  the  agency  of 
His  grace,  as  being  all  in  all  in  the  business 
of  man's  salvation.  It  is  most  true  that  He 
worketh  all  in  all ;  but  he  worketh  on 
every  distinct  subject  of  His  power  agree- 
ably to  its  distinct  and  characteristic  na- 
ture. When  working  in  the  world  of  in- 
organic matter,  He  does  not  change  the 
elements  or  bereave  them  of  their  respec- 
tive properties  and  forces  ;  but  uphold- 
ing them  in  these,  and  preserving  the 
distinction  between  them — he  maketh  the 
winds  and  the  waters  and  the  lightnings, 
and  even  the  inert  and  solid  earth  we 
tread  upon,  the  instruments  of  His  plea- 
sure. When  he  worketh  in  the  animal  or 
vegetable  kingdoms.  He  reverses  not  one 
law  or  process  of  physiology  ;  but  ope- 
rating on  every  thing  according  to  its 
kind,  and  without  violence  done  either  to 
the  generical  or  specifical  varieties  of 
each — still  it  is  He  who  "causeth  the  grass 
to  grow  for  the  cattle,  and  herbs  for  the 
service  of  man,  that  he  may  bring  forth 
food  out  of  the  earth  ;"*  and  it  is  He  also, 
who  maintains  the  powers  and  the  in- 
stincts of  every  living  creature,  as  when 
in  the  sublime  language  of  Job,  He  giveth 
to  the  horse  his  strength  and  clotheth  his 
neck  with  thunder. 

'  Psalm  civ,  14. 


424 


LECTURE  LXXXrV. CHAPTER  XI,  6 — 10. 


And  it  is  even  so  in  the  moral  world. 
Every  where  He  is  all  in  all — supreme  in 
the  higher  as  in  the  lower  departments  of 
nature  ;  and  yet  neither  obliterating  the 
characteristics,  nor  overbearing  the  func- 
tions of  any  individual  thing  in  which  or 
by  which  He  is  pleased  to  operate — whe- 
ther it  be  a  plant,  or  an  animal,  or  finally 
a  man — over  whom  He  has  the  entire  and 
resistless  sovereignty,  yet  exercises  it  with 
perfect  conformity  to  all  the  feelings  and 
faculties  of  his  moral  nature — his  con- 
science— his    intelligence — his    choice — 
and  the  whole  busy  play  of  his  emotions 
and     purposes    and    endeavours.      God 
worketh  all  in  all,  and  as  completely  in 
man  as  in   any  other  of  His  creatures. 
But  what  is  it  that  He  worketh  in  him? 
He  worketh  in  him  to  will  and  to  do.    So 
that  there  is  room  both  for  the  sovereign 
grace  of  God  the  Creator,  and  the  spon- 
taneous acting  of  man  the  creature.     In 
all  that  is  good,  and  therefore  agreeable 
to  God's  good  pleasure,  the  creature  acts 
just  in  the  degree,  be  it  great  or  small, 
in  which  the  Creator  actuates.  And  there- 
fore it  is   that   in  those   acts   of  grace, 
which,   as   contradistinguished    from    its 
great  and  primary  act,  or  the  grace  of 
election,  we  termed  its  subordinate  acts — 
we  say  not  merely  that  man  bears  a  part, 
but  even   acts  a   part — As   in  believing, 
though  faith  be  indeed  the  gift  of  God  ',* 
or   in   understanding,   though    it   be    the 
Spirit  who  opens  the    understanding  to 
understand  the  Scriptures  ;  or  in  attend- 
ing, though  it  be  the  Lord  that  openeth 
the  heart  to  attend,  as   He  did  that  of 
Lydia  ;f  or  in  praying,  though  it  be  from 
above  that  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  suppli- 
cation is  poured  upon  us  ;t  or  in  willing, 
though   it  be  God  alone  who  makes  us 
willing  for  good  in  the  day  of  His  power  ;i 
or   in    striving,    though   we    can    strive 
mightily  only  according  to  His  working 
who  worketh  in  us  mightily  ;||  and  finally, 
in  the  business  of  purifying  ourselves  and 
perfecting  our  own  holiness,  though  this 
can  only  be  as  fellow-workers  with  God, 
who  have  not  received  His  grace  or  His 
promises  in  vain,  when  God  will  dwell  in 
us  and  walk  in  us.lT  In  all  these  instances 
there  is  a  grace  put  forth  from  on  high, 
and  this  responded  to  by  being  acted  on 
from  below.     This  may  serve  to  establish 
our  discrimination  between  the  primary 
act  of   grace,  even  that   of  election,   in 
which  man  has  no  part,  and  the  subordi- 
nate acts,  in  which  man  has  a  part — and 
termed  by  us  subordinate,  not  only  be- 
cause posterior  in  time,  but  because  de- 
pendent in  the  order  of  cause  and  effect 
on  the  preordination  from  which  they  all 


•Eph.  ii,  8.  t  Acts,  xvi,  14.  t  Zech.  xii,  10. 

§  Psa.  ex,  3.        11  Col.  i,  29.        V  2  Cor.  vii,  1  ;  vi,  1.  16. 


have  germinated.  It  is  obvious  that  man 
had  no  part  in  the  primary  act,  any  more 
than  he  has  had  a  part  in  his  own  crea- 
tion. But  it  is  alike  obvious  that  he  has  a 
part  in  the  subordinate  acts,  though  a 
part  of  as  entire  subjection  as  is  that  of 
the  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  It  is  a 
part  however  ;  and  such  a  part  as  properly 
and  characteristically  belongs  to  a  willing, 
understanding,  purposing,  and  acting  crea- 
ture. And  so  he  believes,  perhaps  after  in- 
quiry and  prayer,  in  order  to  his  justifica- 
tion  ;  and  he  obeys,  with  prayer  and  pains- 
taking both,  in  order  to  his  sanctification  ; 
and  while  nothing  is  more  true  than  that 
by  grace  alone  he  is  saved,  yet  in  perfect 
harmony  with  this,  and  as  being  a  grace 
which  both  teaches  and  enables  him  to 
live  soberly  righteously  and  godly — it  is 
equally  true  that  it  is  for  him  to  work 
out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling. 

Now  we  hold  it  of  capital  importance, 
both  for  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth 
and  for  the  guidance  of  our  practical 
Christianity,  clearly  to  understand- -that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  consideratii  n  of 
the  primary  grace  passed  in  heaver;  long 
ago,  which  should  in  the  very  least  affect 
or  embarrass  the  part  we  ought  to  take 
on  earth  in  that  subordinate  grace  where- 
with we  have  presently  to  do.  We  are 
the  more  anxious  to  press  this  home, 
because  of  the  imagination — that  the  one 
is  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  our  dealing 
freely  and  confidently  with  the  other,  just 
as  is  prescribed  and  plainly  laid  down  for 
us  in  Scripture.  Whatever  your  capacity 
may  be  for  the  doctrine  of  election — 
whether  it  be  a  strong  meat  that  you  are 
able  for  ;  or,  if  fit  only  for  the  milk  which 
serves  to  the  nourishment  of  babes,  you 
ought  not  to  meddle  with  it — this  cannot 
change,  nor  should  it  in  the  slightest 
darken,  those  stable  categories  of  Scrip- 
ture, that  concern  either  the  duties  to  be 
done  by  all,  or  the  calls  and  the  promises 
which  are  there  held  out  to  all.  This 
doctrine  must  be  profitable  to  some  at 
least,  else  it  would  have  formed  no  part 
or  parcel  of  Scripture,*  though  perhaps 
it  may  not  yet  have  been  profitable  to 
you — nay  in  danger,  it  may  be,  of  being 
so  perverted  and  misunderstood,  as  to  be 
wrested  b)^  you  to  your  own  hurt.  God 
may  at  length,  or  He  may  not,  reveal 
even  this  unto  you,  as  He  does  to  others 
who  arc  perfect.f  But  be  this  as  it  may — 
let  that  great  and  primary  deed  of  grace 
which  took  place  amid  the  counsels  of 
the  past  eternity,  and  was  transacted 
when  God  stood  alone — let  that  be  to  you 
a  lofty  and  transcendental  theme  which 
you  cannot  lay  hold  of,  but  which  must 


•2  Tim.  iii,  16. 


t  Phil,  iii,  15. 


LECTURE   LXXXIV. CHAPTER   XI,    6 10. 


42& 


remain  an  inaccessible  mystery  till  the 
time  Cometh  when  you  shall  know  even 
as  you  are  known — There  is,  posterior  to 
this  and  subordinate  to  this,  a  grace,  in 
the  operation  of  which  God  slandeth  not 
alone,  but  which  He  brings  to  bear  on 
earth's  lowly  platform — that  here  it  may 
circulate  at  large  and  come  into  busy 
converse  with  the  hearts  and  among  the 
habitations  of  men.  Of  this  grace  as 
placed  within  the  reach  of  all,  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  to  avail  tliemsclves.  "Ask, 
and  ye  shall  receive  ;  Seek,  and  ye  shall 
find" — Pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  He 
shall  be  given  to  you — Believe,  and  ye 
shall  be  saved ;  and,  in  order  to  this  be- 
lief, give  earnest  heed  to  the  things  which 
are  spoken — These  are  all  so  many  parts 
and  manifestations  of  that  subordinate,  or 
as  it  may  be  termed,  of  that  accessible  or 
available  grace  whereof  I  am  now  speak- 
ing, and  of  which  each  man  is  called  on 
to  avail  himself;  and  that  without  once 
bestowing  a  thought  or  a  conjecture  on 
the  question,  whether  he  has  or  has  not  a 
part  in  the  grace  of  election.  These  are 
the  revealed  and  the  patent  and  the  pal- 
pable things  we  have  to  do  with  here  ; 
and  they  ought  not  to  be  complicated 
with  the  hidden  things,  which  lie  far  out 
of  sight  among  the  viewless  eminences 
of  the  region  that  is  above  us.  We  cannot 
in  any  possible  way  change  our  election, 
or  make  it  surer  than  it  is  in  itself  Nei- 
ther can  we  make  it  surer  than  it  already 
is  unto  God.  Yet  there  is  a  way,  and  that 
too  a  way  of  diligence  in  certain  things,* 
by  which  we  may  make  it  sure  unto  our- 
selves— "for  if  ye  do  these  things  ye 
shall  never  fall."  No  doubt  it  is  by  the 
election  of  grace,  that  a  remnant  of  .Tews 
was  preserved  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rest 
of  the  nation  ;  but  there  is  no  such  elec- 
tion as  should  foreclose  the  application 
lo  that  outcast  people  of  all  that  available 
grace,  the  means  and  instruments  of 
which  have  been  so  amply  put  into  our 
hands.  It  was  upon  their  seeking  wrong- 
ly, and  not  on  election  (ix,  32)  that  their 
rejection  immediately  or  proximately 
turned ;  and  again  upon  their  seeking 
rightly  will  their  restoration  as  immedi- 
ately turn.  "If  they  bide  not  still  in  un- 
belief," they  will  certainly  be  recalled  ; 
and  there  is  nothing  respecting  them  in 
the  book  of  secret  destiny  which  will 
hinder  this  result.  Let  the  things  which 
are  written  there  be  as  impenetrably 
shrouded  as  they  may,  our  way  is  clear — 
which  is,  to  ply  the  children  of  Israel 
with  the  offers  of  salvation,  and  give  no 
rest  to  God  in  prayer  till  He  make  Jeru- 
salem a  praise  upon  the  earth.  And  for 
speeding  onward  the  work  of  home  Chris- 


•  2  Peter,  i,  10. 

54 


tianity  our  way  is  equally  clear — which 
is,  for  ministers,  on  the  ,ojne  hand,  to 
preach  it  urgently  and  freely  in  the  hear- 
ing of  every  man  ;  and  for  aspiring  dis- 
ciples, on  the  other,  to  read  and  to  sup- 
plicate and  to  reform  the  evil  of  their 
doings,  and  not  only  to  seek  but  to  strive, 
nay  even  to  press  with  all  vigour  and 
violence  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  till 
they  take  it  by  force. 

Ver.  6.  '  And  if  by  grace,  then  is  it  no 
more  of  works  ;  otherwise  grace  is  no 
more  grace.  But  if  it  be  of  works,  then 
it  is  no  more  grace  ;  otherwise  work  is  no 
more  work.'  For  the  full  and  clear  ex- 
position of  this  remarkable  verse,  it  must 
be  taken  to  pieces,  that  several  distinct 
things  may  be  adverted  to. 

'  And  if  by  grace.'  If  what  by  grace  ? 
Look  to  the  preceding  verse.  '  There  is  a 
remnant  according  to  the  election  of 
grace,  and  if  by  grace.'  If  it  be  by  grace 
that  there  is  a  remnant — or  if  it  be  of 
grace  that  God  has  elected  ;  or,  looking 
to  the  anterior  verse,  if  God  have  reserved 
them-to  Himself  by  grace.*  The  apostle 
is  here  making  statement  of  the  cause  or 
origin  to  which  the  selection  of  a  certain 
number  as  God's  own  peculiar  people,  is 
to  be  referred.  Their  selection  is  by  grace 
— a  matter  of  mere  favour — of  ^-ee  gene- 
rosity and  good-will,  and  so  altogether  a 
gift  on  the  part  of  God. 

'  Then  is  it  no  more  of  works.'  Grace 
is  not  only  the  cause  of  God  having  re- 
served a  certain  number  to  Himself;  but 
it  is  the  sole  cause.  He  makes  mention 
of  another  and  a  rival  cause  which  has 
often  been  assigned  for  this  preference  of 
the  elect  by  God  ;  but  he  does  so  for  the 
purpose  of  rejecting  it — and  thereby  for- 
tifies the  simple  assertion  which  he  had 
made,  or  makes  a  more  strenuous  asseve- 
ration of  it.  He  utterly  repudiates  the 
idea  of  its  being  a  reward  or  recompence 
for  works  done,  or  we  may  add,  for  works 
foreseen.  It  is  not  of  works  in  any  way  ; 
but  altogether  a  thing  of  sovereign  and 
spontaneous  bounty.  It  is  a  present,  not 
a  payment — a  thing  freely  conferred  by 
God,  not  rightfully  claimed  or  challenged 
by  man.  Yet  though  not  of  or  by  works, 
it  may  be  to  works.  That  is  a  different 
matter.  Though  it  is  not  because  we  have 
lived  righteously  that  we  are  made  the 
objects  of  this  grace,  yet  because  the  ob- 
jects of  this  grace  are  we  both  taught  and 
enabled  to  live  righteously .f  ''  Not  of 
works,  lest  any  man  should  boast."  Yet, 
after  all,  created  unto  good  works — for 
the  same  God  who  ordains  to  everlasting 
life,  ordains  also  the  heirs  of  a  blissful 
eternity  to  walk  in  them.t    It  is  interest. 


*  Ver.  4,  rrare'XiTOv — Vcr.  5,  ^zififia. 
t  Titus,  ii,  11,  12.  ;  Eph.  ii,  9,  10. 


42G 


LECTURE  LXXXIV. CHAPTER  XI,  6 — 10. 


ing  to  observe  that  the  same  high  and  ab- 
solute terms*  which  guarantee  the  final 
salvation  of  the  elect,  guarantee  also  the 
virtuousness  of  their  cliaractcr  and  con- 
duct. They  are  ordained,  it  is  true,  to 
eternal  life* — yet  are  they  ordained  also 
to  walk  in  good  works.f  And  they  are 
predestinated  to  be  His  children! — yet 
predestinated  to  be  conformed  unto  the 
image  of  His  Son.j  And  they  are  chosen 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world — yet 
chosen  to  be  holy,  and  without  blame  in 
love.y  And  they  are  elect  according  to 
foreknowledge — yet  is  it  an  election  sealed 
and  confirmed  by  the  sanctification  of 
the  Spirit,  as  well  as  belief  of  the  truth. IT 

'  Otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace.' 
By  this  clause  there  is  an  advance  made 
in  the  apostle's  argument ;  and  we  are 
made  to  know  of  grace  and  works,  that, 
not  only  are  they  distinct,  but  in  the  mat- 
ter at  issue  they  are  opposites,  or  incom- 
patible, nay  mutually  destructive  the  one 
of  the  other.  What  is  earned  by  service 
is  not  received  as  a  gift.  As  far  as  you 
make  it  a  thing  of  favour,  you  annihilate 
it  as  a  thing  of  merit ;  or  as  far  as  you 
make  it  a  thing  of  merit,  you  annihilate  it 
as  a  thing  of  favour.  Neither  must  we 
understand  it  to  be  so  far  of  works  and  so 
far  of  grace,  or  compounded  and  made  up 
as  it  were  of  these  two  categories.  The 
doctrine  of  the  apostle  here,  as  of  the  New 
Testament  everywhere,  is,  that  God's 
friendship  is  either  of  works  wholly  or  of 
grace  wholly.  There  is  no  intermediate 
ground  between  the  first  and  second  cove- 
nants^the  one  being  altogether  of  works, 
and  the  other  altogether  of  bounty.  It  is 
not  of  works  in  part  and  of  grace  in  part, 
but  either  of  grace  entirely  and  works 
not  at  all,  or  of  works  entirely  and  grace 
not  at  all.  It  is  by  grace  and  not  of  works 
by  ever  so  little,  lest  to  the  extent  of  that 
little  any  man  should  boast,**  or  lest  to  the 
extent  of  that  litile  it  should  be  of  debt.ff 
These  two  elements  are  not  only  separa- 
ted, but  placed  in  opposition  to  each 
other,  and  so  in  fact  as  to  make  it  a  war 
of  extermination  between  them.  The  at- 
tempt of  piecing  the  one  to  the  other,  or 
of  mixing  together  the  two  covenants,  is 
utterly  repudiated  in  Scripture,  as  fatal  to 
the  peace  of  the  believer,  and  subversive 
of  the  whole  economy  of  the  gdspel. 

'  But  if  it  be  of  works,  then  it  is  no  more 
grace  ;  otherwise  work  is  no  more  work.' 
This  whole  clause  is  by  critics  of  greatest 
authority  rejected  as  an  interpolation.  It 
is  but  an  expression,  or  more  properly  a 
reiteration  of  the  same  truth  ;  and  signi- 
fies that,  of  the  two  elements  in  question,  as 
grace  would  utterly  dispossess  works  from 


*  Acts,  xiii,  43. 
§  Rom.  viii,  29. 
"Eph.  ii,  9. 


tEph.  ii,  10. 
t  Eph.  i,  4. 
tt  Rom.  ir,  4. 


t  Eph.  i,  5. 
H  1  Pet.  i  2. 


having  ought  to  do  in  the  matter  of  our 
acceptance  with  God,  so  works  would  as 
wholly  and  effectually  dispossess  grace. 

That  this  holds  true  of  God's  electing 
grace  is  quite  obvious,  both  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  grace  itself  and  from  other 
parts  of  Scripture.  The  chil  Jren  of  elec- 
tion are  made  so  before  that  they  are 
born,  or  had  yet  done  either  good  or  evil 
— and  this  that  the  purpose  of  God  might 
stand  according  ^to  election,  and  not  of 
works,  but  of  Him  that  calleth.*  In  the 
act  of  choosing  or  predestinating  at  the 
first,  works  could  have  no  place  ;  and 
grace  was  all  in  all.  Then  God  was  alone. 
Out  and  out  the  destiny  of  the  blest  to 
their  everlasting  happiness  is  a  thing  of 
His  determination — a  determination  in- 
cluding, no  doubt,  the  previous  or  pre- 
paratory works  of  each,  as  well  as  his 
final  salvation,  but  still  a  determination 
which  was  at  once  the  primary  cause  and 
fountain-head  of  both. 

And,  what  to  us  at  least  is  of  practically 
greater  importance,  the  same  holds  true 
not  of  electing  grace  merely,  but  of  justi- 
fying grace  also.  We  hold  it  as  being  of 
prime  and  vital  magnitude,  for  else  the 
gospel  were  nullified,  that  we  should  un- 
derstand our  justification  to  be  altogether 
of  grace,  and  not  in  the  least,  not  at  all  of 
works.  Our  meritorious  acceptance  with 
God,  or  as  it  may  be  termed  our  judicial 
right  of  entry  into  heaven,  rests  upon  a 
basis  that  is  one  and  homogeneous,  con- 
sisting of  but  a  single  ingredient,  even 
that  of  grace — grace  through  the'  right- 
eousness of  Christf — at  least  to  the  utter 
exclusion  of  our  own  works  as  the  other 
ingredient,  the  admixture  whereof,  though 
in  but  the  smallest  item  or  iota,  would 
operate  as  a  vitiating  flaw  to  deteriorate, 
nay  utterly  pervert  the  pure  quality  or 
essence  of  that  which  constitutes  the 
available  righteousness  of  a  sinner  before 
that  Lawgiver,  of  who.se  throne  justice  and 
judgment  are  the  habitation.  Let  a  man's 
own  deservings  be  admitted,  by  ever  so 
little,  as  forming  part  of  his  plea  in  law 
for  the  rewards  of  eternity  ;  and  the  ques- 
tion would  instantly  be  stirred — has  that 
little  been  made  out? — on  which  we 
should  have  aspirants  for  heaven  of  two 
sorts — First,  they  of  more  delicate  and 
enlightened  conscience,  who  always  and 
with  good  reason  dissatisfied  with  them- 
selves, would  be  incessantly  seeking  rest 
and  never  finding  it.  Secondly,  they  of 
blunter  moral  sensibility,  who,  under  their 
system  of  at  least  a  little  human  virtue  to 
eke  out  the  price  of  purchase-money  for 
a  place  in  heaven,  can  sit  at  ease,  and 
just  because  they  can  make  so  little  serve. 
The  two  elements  of  our  text,  the  graco 


*  Rom.  ix,  11. 


t  Rom.  V,  21. 


LECTURE  LXXXIV. CHAPTER  XI,  6 10. 


427 


and  the  works,  in  the  matter  of  justifica- 
tion, will  not  amalgamate — for  let  works 
but  enter  in  proportion  and  degree  how- 
ever small  :  And  it  either,  on  the  one 
hand,  wakens  up  again  all  the  jealousies 
and  disquietudes  of  the  old  covenant ;  or 
infuses  that  mercantile  and  mercenary 
spirit  which,  labouring  to  drive  a  hard 
bargain  for  heaven,  both  limits  the  amount 
and  secularises  the  character  of  our  obe- 
dience— making  it  as  unlike  as  possible, 
whether  in  respect  of  indefinite  progress 
or  willing  alacrity  and  delight,  to  the  ser- 
vices of  heaven- born  love  and  liberty. 
We  may  hence  see  the  moral  purpose  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  as  part  of  the 
Bible.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  the 
doctrine  of  justification  without  works  is 
presented  with  great  force  and  fulness  as 
a  general  proposition.  In  that  to  the  Ga- 
latians, we  have  the  apostolic  treatment 
and  disposal  m  a  specific  case  of  a  claim 
put  in,  for  one  virtue  at  least,  to  a  share 
in  the  office  of  building  up  a  meritorious 
righteousness  before  God — so  as  that  con- 
sideration and  a  place  might  be  given  to 
it,  however  small  or  subordinate  it  may 
be,  in  the  title-deed  of  Christians  to  the 
Jerusalem  above.  This  was  the  solitary 
rite  of  circumcision — the  main  observance, 
if  not  the  ail,  which  the  Jews  contended 
for.  To  whom  Paul  would  not  give  way, 
no  not  for  an  instant ;  but  withstood  to 
the  face,  in  the  spirit  and  with  the  deter- 
mination of  a  mortal  warfare — as  if  a 
question  of  life  or  death  to  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  And  so  he  fought  with  all  his 
might  against  it,  giving  no  quarter — for 
he  saw  the  evil  of  it  in  its  full  extent — 
That  it  would  make  the  cross  of  none 
effect ;  and  revive  the  bondage  of  other 
days  ;  and  reinstate  the  whole  law,  with 
its  unsatisfied  demands  and  unappeased 
terrors,  over  the  consciences  of  men — so 
as  to  substitute  the  obedience,  either  of 
slavish  dread  or  of  a  lifeless  form,  for  the 
free  and  grateful  and  confiding  services  of 
the  gospel.'  We  cannot  but  admire  the 
exquisite  wisdom  of  thus  keeping  the 
ground  of  a  sinner's  acceptance  with  God 
intact  and  inviolable  ;  nor  let  us  wonder 
at  the  intense  earnestness  of  Paul,  when, 
in  every  form  of  strenuous  asseveration, 
he  maintains  the  doctrine  of  justification, 
not  by  faith,  but  by  faith  alone — as  being 
the  only  solid  foundation  of  peace,  the 
only  outlet  and  incentive  to  virtue  ^long 
the  career  of  a  progressive  holiness. 

Ver.  7.  '  What  then  ?  Israel  hath  not 
obtained  that  which  he  seeketh  for,  T)ut 
the  election  hath  obtained  it,  and  the  rest 
were  blinded.'  The  same  apostle  who 
tells  the  primary  cause  of  the  difference 
between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  by  tracing  it 
upward  to  the  predestination  of  God,  also 
tells  us  the  proximate  cause  of  this  differ- 


ence in  the  practice  of  men.  Israel  did 
not  obtain  that  which  he  sought  for,  be- 
cause he  sought  it  wrongly,  that  is  by  the 
works  of  the  law  instead  of  faith.  Only 
they  of  the  election  obtained  it,  and  why  ? 
— for  the  primary  does  not  supersede  the 
proximate — because  they  sought  it  right- 
ly. Yet  he  recurs  again  from  the  part 
which  men  had  in  it  to  the  part  which 
God  had  in  it,  when  in  the  last  clause  of 
this  verse,  taken  along  with  a  few  suc- 
ceeding verses,  he  tells  us  that  *  the  rest 
were  blinded.' 

Ver.  8-10.  '  (According  as  it  is  written, 
God  hath  given  them  the  spirit  of  slumber, 
eyes  that  they  should  not  see,  and  ears 
that  they  should  not  hear  ;)  unto  this  day. 
And  David  saith.  Let  their  table  be  made 
a  snare,  and  a  trap,  and  a  stumbling- 
block,  and  a  recompence  unto  them  :  let 
their  eyes  be  darkened,  that  they  may  not 
see,  and  bow  down  their  back  alway.' 
One  might  imagine  that  on  the  back  of 
the  assertion  in  the  last  clause,  even  that 
the  rest  were  blinded — the  question  might 
be  put.  Who  blinded  them?  and  the  an- 
swer be  given  in  the  verses  now  placed 
before  you.  We  are  sensible  that  this 
would  be  felt  by  many  as  a  harsh  and  in- 
jurious representation  af  the  Deity  ;  and 
we  are  also  aware  of  the  softening  expe- 
dients which  have  been  resorted  to,  in 
order  to  mitigate  or  do  it  away.  For  this 
purpose  ingenious  men  have  drawn  upon 
the  hypothesis,  that  like  as  all  matter  is 
essentially  at  rest*  till  put  in  motion  by 
an  external  cause — so  every  created  being, 
though  endowed  with  both  moral  and  in- 
tellectual capacities,  is  essentially  de- 
voidf  of  all  spiritual  light  or  spiritual 
goodness,  till  these  are  communicated  by 
Him  who  is  the  author  of  every  good  and 
perfect  gift.  It  is  thus  that  they  would 
repel  the  charge  of  God  being  the  author 
of  sin,  by  denying  that  God  makes  men 
sin — for  that  He  only  withholds  the  grace 
which  would  make  them  righteous.  And 
in  like  manner  would  they  deny  that  God 
blinds  the  eyes  of  any,  but  that  He  only 
withholds  the  light  which  would  make 
them  see — insomuch  that  He  is  no  more 
the  author  of  spiritual,  than  the  sun  is  the 
author  or  fountain-head  of  material  dark- 
ness. And  so  they  view  the  matter  thus 
—That  all  which  is  evil  springs  from  the 
creature  or  from  beneath,  but  all  which 
is  positively  good  from  the  Creator — He 
often  leaving  men  to  themselves,  but 
never  putting  Himself  forth  or  operating 
efficiently  upon  them,  save  for  the  pur- 
pose of  illuminating  or  making  them 
holy. 

Now  for  ourselves  we  feel  it  not  neces- 


*  By  its  vis  inertict. 
t  By  the  essential  defectibility  of  the  creature. 


428 


LECTURE  LXXXIV. CHAPTER  XI,  6 — 10. 


sary,  cither  to  adopt  this  hypothesis  or 
decisively  to  reject  it.  For  aught  we 
know,  there  may  be — grounded  on  some 
deep-hid  physical  necessity,  which  we  are 
not  in  circumstances  either  to  affirm  or 
deny — be  that  essential  defectibility  in 
every  created  thing  which  the  schoolmen 
tell  us  of;  and  if  so,  it  looks  a  plausible 
conclusion  that  all  the  direct  moral  influ- 
ences put  forth  by  God  upon  His  crea- 
tures are  on  the  side  of  what  is  good, — 
while  all  the  evil  which  they  exhibit  is 
not  worked  in  them  by  the  Divinity,  but 
only  left  to  its  own  working,  as  it  comes 
inherently  and  properly  from  themselves. 
We  have  no  quarrel  with  this  argument — 
for  though  not  convinced  by  it,  neither  do 
we  feel  ourselves  able  to  overturn  it ;  and 
so  long  as  it  remains  a  plausibility  which 
infidels  cannot  dispose  of,  then  it  rests  on 
at  least  as  good  a  footing  as  their  own  ob- 
jection ;  and  both  therefore— both  the 
hostile  considei-ation  of  religion's  enemy, 
and  the  defensive  consideration  of  its 
friend — may  be  kept  alike  at  abeyance. 
It  is  thus  that  we  are  sometimes  led  to 
look  with  indulgence  on  this  one  and  that 
other  scholastic  ingenuity,  conjured  up 
for  the  protection  of  the  faith — for  though 
not  in  itself  absolutely  proved,  yet,  if  in- 
capable of  being  disproved,  it  may  at 
least  neutralise  many  an  objection,  in- 
tended by  their  authors  as  so  many  dead- 
ly trusts  at  the  Christian  revelation — a 
revelation  which  stands  secure  on  the  ba- 
sis of  its  own  evidences,  amid  the  conflict- 
ing and  sometimes  alike  shadowy  specu- 
lations both  of  its  friends  and  its  adver- 
saries. But  as  we  said  before,  for  our 
own  satisfaction  these  conjectural  theories 
are  in  no  demand  with  us  ;  and  though 
with  some  minds  they  should  serve  for 
the  removal  of  stumbling-blocks  at  which 
they  might  otherwise  have  fallen,  yet  for 
ourselves  we  can  take  these  verses  as 
they  stand,  and  in  their  obvious  meaning 
too — a  meaning  all  too  plain  to  require 
the  exposition  of  them.  We  expect  enig- 
mas in  theology  as  well  as  in  nature ;  and 
as  in  the  one  department,  we  do  not  per- 
mit them  to  overbear  the  manifestation  of 
the  senses — so  in  the  other,  they  ouglit  not 
to  overbear  either  the  lights  of  history  in 
favour  of  the  Bible,  or  the  manifestation 
of  its  truth  unto  our  consciences. 

And  yet  in  these  verses,  hopelessly  re- 
condite and  intractable  as  they  might  ap- 
pear, we  can  read  a  lesson  of  signal  value 
in   practical  religion.    Even   in  philosn- 

fihy,  with  the  objects  which  we  most  fami- 
iarly  handle,  and  the  processes  which 
pass  most  currently  before  our  eyes,  we 
are  soon  baffled  and  get  beyond  our  sound- 
ings, when  we  attempt  to  trace  present 
appearances  into  the  past,  though  but  a 
few  steps  back  among  the  depths  of  causa- 


tion. Let  us  not  wonder  then,  if  we  should 
find  it  to  be  the  same  in  the  spiritual  pro- 
cesses of  Christianity  ;  or  if  there  should 
be  a  distinction  here  too  between  things 
present,  which  we  know  how  to  deal  with, 
and  things  remote,  which  elude  our  every 
effort  to  grasp  or  comprehend  them.  This 
is  remarkably  exemplified  in  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  passage  now  before  us.  We 
can  say  little  or  nothing  of  anterior,  and 
especially  of  first  movements — just  as  little 
in  fact  as  we  can  clear  our  way  upward  to 
the  electing  grace  of  God.  And  yet  we  can 
see  thoroughly  to  the  movements  in  hand, 
and  wherewith  we  have  most  emphatically 
and  most  urgently  to  do.  If  we  indulge  in 
listless  and  spiritual  sloth  about  the  high 
matters  of  our  salvation,  God  will  give  us 
the  spirit  of  slumber.  If  we  refuse  to  look 
with  our  eyes,  God  will  take  away  that 
which  we  have,  and  so  darken  our  eyes 
that  we  cannot  see.  If  we  hearken  not 
diligently  now  at  the  call  of  principle,  the 
conscience  within  will  afterwards  emit  a 
feebler  voice ;  and  even  the  loudest  re- 
monstrances from  without  of  the  word  and 
the  preacher,  may,  in  the  growing  obtuse- 
ness  of  faculties  that  we  will  not  exercise,. 
be  altogether  unheeded  by  the  moral  ear. 
If  the  store  of  comforts  wherewith  provi- 
dence has  blessed  us,  prove  but  a  snare 
and  a  provocative  to  our  unbridled  appe- 
tites— these  too  will  be  made  to  war  against 
our  souls.  In  short,  by  that  economy  of 
grace  under  which  we  sit,  there  may  be 
an  ever-growing  blindness  and  evergrow- 
ing hardness,  which  follow  judicially  in 
the  train  of  guilty  indulgences ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  let  the  most  be  made  of 
the  light  and  the  strength  we  at  present 
have — and  then,  in  the  order  of  God's  ad- 
ministration, or  on  the  principle  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  being  given  to  those  who  obey 
Him,  this  will  be  followed  up  by  a  supply 
of  larger  powers  and  larger  manifesta- 
tions. Here  then  is  a  view  of  these  par- 
ticular Scriptures  now  before  us,  eminent- 
ly subservient  to  the  business  of  our 
discipleship  as  Christians  ;  and,  whatever 
obscurity  may  rest  on  the  initial  steps  of 
this  process — it  is  surely  our  part  among 
the  actual  steps  of  it  in  which  we  are  now 
implicated,  if  we  cannot  solve  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  past,  at  least  to  busy  ourselves 
with  all  diligence  in  the  duties  of  the  pres- 
ent— That  is  to  awaken  from  our  lethar- 
gies,tind  Christ  will  give  us  light ;  to  order 
our  conversation  aright,  and  God  will  show 
us  His  salvation.*  These  are  the  mat- 
ters' on  hand  wherewith  we  plainly  have 
to  do  ;  and  even  the  history  of  the  Jews 
may  be  turned  to  the  practical  account 
whieh  we  are  now  making  of  them.  For 
though  the  primary  cause  of  their  being 

*  Ephesians,  v,  14 ;  and  rsalm  1,  23. 


LECTURE  LXXXIV. CHAPTER  XI,  6 10, 


429 


cast  off  may  be  traced  upward  to  a  degree 
of  election  (ver.  5),  its  proximate  cause 
was  their  own  misconduct.  Their  per- 
sonal rejection  by  God  came  on  the  back 
of  their  own  rejection  of  the  Saviour. 
They  had  withstood  His  miracles.  They 
had  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  His  invita- 
tions. They  had  shut  their  eyes  and  steeled 
their  consciences  against  such  eviden- 
ces of  His  mission  as  ought  to  have  over- 
powered them ;  and  the  effect  was,  that 
it  just  hardened   and   blinded  them  the 


more — Insomuch  that  in  the  view  of  their 
approaching  desolation,  when  the  pitying 
Saviour  wept  over  them,  He  pronounced 
as  the  final  result  of  their  impenitency  in 
not  minding  the  things  which  belong  to 
their  peace — that  now  they  were  hid  from 
their  eyes.  Well  then  did  the  apostle 
supplement  the  quotations  from  writers  of 
an  ancient  period,  by  a  clause  which  ap- 
plied their  description  to  the  Jews  of  his 
own  time — '  Unto  this  day.' 


LECTURE  LXXXV. 


Romans  ii,  11 — 22. 


"I  say  then,  Have  they  stumbled  that  they  should  fall?  God  forbid  :  but  rather  through  their  fall  salvation  is  come 
unto  the  Gentiles,  for  to  provoke  them  to  jealousy.  Now  if  the  fall  of  them  be  ihe  riches  of  the  world,  and  the 
diminishing  of  them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles;  how  much  more  their  fulness  7  For  I  speak  to  you  Gentiles, 
inasmuch  as  I  am  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  I  magnify  mine  office  ;  if  by  any  means  I  may  provoke  to  emula- 
tion them  which  are  my  llesh,  and  might  save  some  of  them.  For  if  the  castmg  away  of  them  be  the  reconci- 
ling of  the  world,  what  shall  the  receiving  of  them  be  but  life  from  the  deadi  For  if  the  first-fruit  be  holy,  the 
lump  is  also  holy  ;  and  if  the  root  be  holy,  so  are  the  branches.  And  if  some  of  the  branches  be  broken  off,  and 
thou,  being  a  wild  olive  tree,  wert  gralied  in  among  them,  and  with  them  partakest  of  the  root  and  fatness  of  the 
olive  tree  ;  boast  not  against  the  branches  :  but  if  thou  boast,  thou  bearest  not  the  root,  but  the  root  thee.  Thou 
■wilt  say  then,  The  branches  were  broken  off,  that  1  might  be  graffed  in.  Well ;  because  of  unbelef  they  were 
broken  oft',  and  thou  standeth  by  faith.  Be  not  high-minded,  but  fear  :  for  if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches, 
take  heed  lest  he  also  spare  noi  thee.  Behold  therefore  the  goodness  and  severity  of  God :  on  them  which  fell, 
severity ;  but  toward  thee,  goodness,  if  thou  continue  in  his  goodness  ;  otherwise  thou  also  shalt  be  cut  off." 


One  of  Paul's  maxims  was,  that,  for  the 
sake  of  the  gospel,  he  should  be  all  things 
to  all  men  ;  and,  more  especially,  that  to 
the  Jews  he  should  be  as  a  Jew.  No  one 
could  practise  with  greater  skill  or  delica- 
cy than  he  did,  the  art  of  conciliating  those 
whom  he  addressed — though,  of  course,  he 
only  carried  this  so  far  as  truth  and  princi- 
ple would  let  him.  Nothing  could  be 
more  sturdy  and  determined  than  his  re- 
sistance, as  we  may  see  in  his  whole  Epis- 
tle to  the  Galatians,  when  any  great  or 
cardinal  doctrine  of  the  gospel  was  trench- 
ed upon,  though  by  ever  so  little.  Yet 
when  it  possibly  could  be  avoided,  none 
more  sensitively  fearful  of  giving  offence 
than  he  was ;  and  when  unavoidable, 
which  it  very  generally  was,  he  was  al- 
ways at  the  greatest  pains  to  soften  it  to 
the  uttermost.  Even  in  the  verses  we 
have  just  quitted,  and  in  which  he  had  to 
pronounce  an  awful  sentence  of  abandon- 
ment and  utter  degradation  upon  his  coun- 
trymen the  Jews,  still  he  does  it  as  a  Jew 
— interposing  their  own  writers  as  a  sort 
of  screen  between  him  and  them  ;  and,  as 
if  more  efiectually  to  secure  their  convic- 
tion though  not  their  acquiescence  and 
consent,  speaking  to  them  not  in  his  own 
person,  but  in  the  persons  of  their  most 
revered  prophets  and  holy  men  of  old. 
And  in  the  succeeding  verses  we  can  very 
obviously  see,  with  what  congeniality,  as 
if  to  redeem  and  compensate  the  severities 
which  he  had  just  uttered,  he  breaks  forth 


on  the  coming  enlargement  of  the  child- 
ren of  Israel ;  and  with  that  exquisite 
wisdom  he  manages,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
between  them  and  the  Gentiles,  with  both 
of  whom  he  at  the  time  is  jointly  holding 
converse — claiming  kindred  with  the  one 
because  of  his  office,  and  with  the  other  be- 
cause of  his  relationship.  In  short,  unlike 
to  the  polemics  of  our  modern  day,  and 
yet  as  uncompromising  and  bold  as  any 
of  them — whenever  an  agreeable  thing 
can  be  said,  he  says  it — So  that  while,  in 
truth  and  substance,  he  had  the  stern  in- 
tegrity of  an  old  prophet  when  dealing 
with  principles — he,  in  manner,  had  the 
pliancy  and  nice  perception  of  an  accom- 
plished courtier  when  dealing  with  per- 
sons— and  all  this  for  the  sake  of  the 
gospel,  all  for  the  purpose  of  gaining 
some. 

Ver.  11.  'I  say  then.  Have  they  stum- 
bled that  they  should  falU  God  forbid  : 
but  rather  through  their  fall  salvation  is 
come  unto  the  Gentiles,  for  to  provoke 
them  to  jealousy.'  And  so  in  this  verse 
he  hastens  to  inform  them,  and  that  with 
all  promptitude  and  decision,  that  theirs 
was  but  a  temporary  stumble — what  the 
stumbling-block  was  he  had  before  told 
them* — not  an  irrecoverable  fall.  After 
laying  his  rebuke  on  the  perversities  of 
men,  he  looks  onward  with  the  eye  of  a 
prophet  to  the  yet  unfulfilled  purposes  of 

*  Romans,  ix  32 ;  x,  3. 


430 


LECTURE  LXXXV. CnAPTER  XI,  11 22. 


God,  in  whose  hand  men  are  but  the  in- 
struments of  Ilis  policy  ;  and  who  causes 
even  their  very  sins  redound  to  His  own 
glory,  and  subserve  the  accomplishment 
of  ail  His  pleasure.  When  as  a  preacher 
he  views  them  morally,  he  connects  tiiese 
sins  with  the  wickedness  of  man — When 
as  a  prophet  he  views  them  historically, 
(for  prophecy  is  but  history  in  anticipa- 
tion, or  the  history  of  the  future,)  he 
looks  to  them  in  connection  with  the 
sovereign  power  of  God — first  put  forth 
at  election  by  Him  who  ordains  all,  after- 
wards carried  into  effect  by  Him  who 
worketh  all  in  all  throughout  the  succes- 
sions of  nature  and  providence.  One  of 
these  successions  he  distinctly  announces 
in  the  verse  now  before  us,  when  he  af- 
firms the  fall  of  the  Jews  to  have  been  the 
salvation  of  the  Gentiles — as  if  these  two 
events  stood  related  to  each  other  in  the 
way  of  cause  and  effect,  or  of  anteced- 
ent and  consequent.  The  same  connec- 
tion he  reasserts  several  times  in  certain 
clauses  of  the  verses  which  follow,  and 
which  we  may  now  single  out,  and  thus  save 
the  necessity  of  our  again  adverting  to 
them — as  in  the  12th  verse,  where  we  are 
told  that  the  fall  of  the  Jews  was  the 
riches  of  the  world,  and  the  diminution  of 
them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles ;  and  in 
the  15th  verse,  where  we  read  that  the 
casting  away  of  them  was  the  reconciling 
of  the  world  ;  and  in  the  the  28th  verse, 
where  we  learn,  that  by  their  treatment 
of  the  gospel  they  became  the  enemies  of 
God  for  the  sake  of  the  Gentiles,  to  whose 
benefit  therefore  this  rejection  of  the  Jews 
was  in  some  way  subserviciit ;  and  final- 
ly, in  the  30th  verse,  which  gives  us  ex- 
pressly to  understand,  that  through  the 
unbelief  of  the  Jews  mercy  was  obtained 
by  the  Gentiles — All  suggesting  the  idea 
of  a  metaphysical  sequence,  or  of  a  con- 
nection between  these  two  events  in  the 
order  of  cause  and  consequence ;  and 
this  again  has  set  curiosity  on  edge  to 
discover  what  the  ligament  could  be  which 
so  bound  together  the  infidelity  of  the 
Jews  with  the  faith  of  the  Gentiles,  or 
what  the  operating  influences  were  in  the 
first  which  could  bring  the  second  in  its 
train. 

Now  if  God  affirm  that  the  two  are  thus 
linked  together,  it  is  our  part  so  to  believe 
it,  whether  all  the  cementing  links  and 
influences  have  or  have  not  been  submit- 
ted to  our  observation.  We  hold  it  the 
more  necessary  to  premise  this,  because 
we  think  that  with  all  men's  powers  of  ex- 
ploration, they  have  not  been  able  tho- 
roughly to  unravel  the  process  which  in- 
tervenes between  the  rejection  of  the  gos- 
pel by  the  Jews,  and  either  the  diffusion 
or  acceptance  of  the  same  gospel  among 
the  other  nations  of  the  earth.    It  may 


have  been  partially  but  not  fully  ex- 
plained,  either  in  regard  to  the  efficient 
or  the  final  causes  which  are  concerned 
in  it — so  that  it  remains  in  great  part  still 
a  mystery  in  the  counsels  of  God,  of 
which  the  most  we  have  to  say  is,  that 
such  is  the  will  and  the  appointment  of 
Him  our  Almighty  Sovereign.  We  must 
not  expect,  that,  at  least  in  our  present 
state,  we  shall  ever  so  master  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  question,  as  to  leave  no  room 
for  the  exclamation  of  the  apostle,  O  the 
depth  and  unsearchableness  of  God's 
judgments,  and  how  past  finding  out! 
Yet  let  us  not  forget  that,  in  the  language 
of  Job,  there  are  parts  of  His  ways  which 
do  lie  open  to  our  observation,  though  it 
be  indeed  a  little  portion  that  we  know  of 
Him.  And  of  His  ways  as  of  His  works, 
it  is  well  that  they  should  be  sought  out 
of  all  them  who  have  pleasure  therein* — 
as  far  as  they  are  shone  upon  by  the 
lights,  whether  of  Scripture  or  of  experi- 
ence. Let  us  attend  then  a  little  to  what 
these  enquirers  have  got  to  say  about 
this  question,  and  what  the  fruit  of  the 
consideration  which  they  have  bestowed 
on  it.  There  are  certain  palpable  things 
which  lie  on  the  surface,  as  it  were,  of  this 
hidden  mystery  ;  and  which  it  were  quite 
legitimate  to  notice. 

Had  Christianity  been  received  by  the 
great  bulk  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  had 
they  in  consequence  been  animated  by 
that  spirit  of  proselytism  which  essen- 
tially characterised  it — a  spirit  heretofore 
new  to  them,  though  under  its  influence 
now  they  might  have  laboured  for  the 
diffusion  of  their  new  faith  over  the  whole 
earth — still  it  might  well  be  imagined, 
that  coming  as  it  would  with  one  mind 
and  by  one  effort,  from  the  whole  people, 
it  was  but  a  development  of  their  old 
Judaism,  still  unchanged,  o-r  changed 
only  in  this,  that,  whereas  it  used  to  be 
tolerant  though  unsocial,  it  had  now  be- 
come restless  and  aggressive, — making 
inroads  on  all  other  countries  which  they 
had  hitherto  let  alone.  It  might  have 
been  most  plausibly  conceived,  that  such 
a  national  enterprise,  sanctioned  by  all 
the  authorities  of  their  state,  as  well  as  by 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  unanimous  popula- 
tion, would  have  provoked  a  national 
resistance  every  where ;  and  far  more 
readily  awakened  the  suspicion  of  those 
ambitious  designs,  which  would  array 
every  community  whom  they  invaded,  in 
an  attitude  of  all  the  more  resolute  and 
prepared  hostility  against  them.  Nothing, 
it  might  with  all  seeming  fairness  be  rea- 
soned, nothing  could  more  effectually 
disarm  this  adverse  imagination,  than 
that  the  new  religion  should  be  carried 


*  Fsalm  cxi,  2. 


LECTURE  LXXXV. CHAPTER  XI,  11 22. 


481 


abroad  by  a  few  persecuted  outcasts, 
whom  the  Jews  as  a  nation  had  disowned 
— a  better  vehicle  surely  for  a  religion 
which  was  to  owe  all  its  triumphs  to  the 
unaided  force  of  principle  and  truth  over 
the  consciences  of  men.  It  was  thus  in 
fact  that  it  first  made  way  upon  the  earth — 
protected  for  a  time,  rather  than  withstood 
by  the  Roman  authorities;  and  certainly 
not  calling  forth  the  whole  power  of  the 
empire  against  it,  till  it  had  acquired  a 
magnitude  which  alarmed  the  civil  ma- 
gistrate for  the  safet}'^  of  existing  institu- 
tions, but  not  at  the  same  time  till  it  had 
acquired  a  strength  which  weathered  and 
survived  all  his  etforts  for  its  extermina- 
tion. And  as  this  great  national  resistance 
of  the  Jews,  with  the  consequent  disper- 
sion over  all  countries  both  of  Jews  and 
Christians,  acted  most  powerfully  as  sec- 
ond causes  for  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity at  its  outset  in  the  world — So  it 
has  further  been  contended,  that  to  us 
who  look  retrospectively  on  past  ages,  the 
evidence  for  the  truth  of  our  religion  is 
thereby  presented  in  a  far  more  impres- 
sive form  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
been — the  testimony  of  its  first  disciples 
being  thus  far  more  decisively  tried  and 
found  to  be  of  purest  stamp  and  quality, 
when  thus  delivered  and  thus  persevered 
in  before  the  presence  of  these  resolute 
and  implacable  adversaries,  who  yet 
could  not  overthrow  it ;  but  who  rather 
have  contributed  and  that  mightily  to  its 
strength,  both  as  the  depositaries,  and  the 
unexceptionable,  because  hostile  witnesses 
for  the  elder  Scriptures  of  our  faith,  and 
so  for  all  the  corroborative  argument, 
whether  of  doctrine  or  of  prophecy,  that 
is  contained  in  them.  And  certain  it  is, 
that  we  have  an  evidence  before  our  eyes 
in  the  present  state  of  the  Jews,  which, 
but  for  their  unbelief  persisted  in  for  so 
many  centuries,  we  could  not  have  ap- 
pealed to — the  evidence  of  their  singular 
j)reservation,  unprecedented  in  all  other 
history  ;  and  bespeaking  the  special  pro- 
vidence of  God,  both  in  upholding  this 
wonderful  people  as  a  remnant  of  former 
revelations,  and  in  reserving  them  for 
fulfilments  and  further  evolutions  in  the 
scheme  of  the  Divine  administration  which 
are  yet  to  come.  Altogether  it  is  a  phe- 
nomenon charged  with  argument  on  the 
side  of  Christianity  ;  and  having  in  it  all 
the  power  of  a  living  voice,  to  rebuke, 
if  not  the  infidelity,  at  least  the  neglect 
and  heedlessness  of  those  who  look  on 
the  Bible  and  all  its  revelations,  as  a 
thing  of  nought. 

Such  are  some  of  the  explanations 
•which  might  be  given  for  the  actual  foot- 
steps of  the  Divine  procedure,  in  thus 
regulating  the  advances  of  Christianity 
throughout  the  world.   Nor  does  it  hinder 


but  that  they  might  be  sound  and  good 
explanations,  although  they  very  much 
proceed  on  the  natural  influence  of  cir- 
cumstances, as  they  were  brought  to  bear 
upon  human  nature,  such  as  it  is.  For 
though  it  lies  within  the  power  of  God  to 
overrule  all  the  ordinary  influences  for 
the  furtherance  of  His  designs — yet  we 
know  it  to  be  the  general  policy  of  His 
administration  that  He  should  be  exceed- 
ingly sparing  of  any  conflict  with,  or 
that  there  should  be  an  exceeding  rarity 
of  deviations  from,  the  laws  and  the 
regular  processes  which  He  Himself  has 
established  ;  and  so  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  select  miracles  to  accredit  His 
various  revelations,  it  seems  the  rule  of 
the  Almighty's  government,  that  its  pur- 
poses shall  be  carried  into  effect  in  the 
uniform  course  of  things,  and  not  by  a 
series  of  violations  upon  that  uniformity. 
And  thus  it  is  that  it  comes  within  the 
philosophy  of  history  to  assign  what  the 
connections  and  methods  were,  by  which 
the  unbelief  of  the  Jews  opened  a  way 
for  the  gospel,  and  so  as  to  speed  its 
progress  and  acceptance  among  all  other 
nations.  But  yet  though  in  this  way  we 
may  have  a  deal  of  valid  and  satisfactory 
reasoning  on  the  relation  or  the  subser- 
viency of  one  event  to  another,  under  our 
existing  economy  of  moral  and  physical 
causes — there  remains  unresolved,  and 
we  think  in  our  present  state  unresolva- 
ble,  the  transcendental  question,  Why 
such  an  economy  was  instituted,  so  as  to 
necessitate  evil  that  good  might  follow, 
and  so  as  to  postpone  for  many  centuries 
and  generations  the  reign  of  universal 
virtue  and  happiness  in  the  world.  It  is 
well  for  man  to  be  made  sensible  of  the 
limit  within  which  his  faculties  are  beset 
and  encompassed  ;  and  so  as  to  acknow- 
ledge, with  all  his  certainty  of  a  thing 
that  so  it  is,  his  own  profound  ignorance 
of  how  it  is.  Let  our  attempts  then  be 
successful  as  they  may,  to  explain  the 
actings  and  reactings  of  .Jewish  infidelity 
and  Gentile  faith  upon  each  other,  they 
must  carry  us  at  last  to  the  inscrutable 
will  of  God  ;  nor  do  they  supersede  that 
apostolic  reflection  which  follows,  and 
which  we  again  anticipate,  of  "  O  how 
unsearchable  his  judgments,  and  his  ways 
past  finding  out !"  Yet  with  all  this  sense 
of  a  present  darkness  and  a  present  diffi- 
culty, it  is  our  unbroken  confidence,  that 
what  we  know  not  now  we  shall  know 
afterwards ;  when  we  join  in  the  trium- 
phant song  of  eternity,  "Great  and  mar- 
vellous are  thy  works.  Lord  God  Almighty ; 
just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of 
saints  !" 

'  For  to  provoke  them  to  jealousy.'  But 
however  unable  to  make  out  the  whole 
meaning   and    mystery    of  this   proce- 


432 


LECTURE    LXXXV. CHAPTER   XI,    11 22. 


dure  by  reasons  of  our  own,  yet  when 
Scripture  condescends  to  give  a  reason, 
we  may  adopt  it  with  all  safety,  as  part 
at  least,  if  not  the  wliole  of  the  explana- 
tion. The  eflfect  stated  in  this  verse  was 
predicted  by  Moses  many  centuries  before 
(x,  19).  The  calling  of  the  Gentiles  tend- 
ed to  provoke  the  Jews  to  jealousy  or  em- 
ulation ;  and  the  use  of  this,  we  are  told 
by  the  apostle  in  the  14th  verse,  was,  that 
it  'might  save  some  of  them.'  And  in  fu- 
ture verses  of  this  chapter  the  same 
thing  is  hinted  at,  as  in  verse  26th,  where, 
after  mention  has  been  made  of  the  full- 
ness of  the  Gentiles  to  come  in,  it  is  re- 
presented that  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved  ; 
and  in  verses  30th  and  yist,  where  it  is 
intimated,  that  in  like  manner  as  the  un- 
belief of  the  Jews  was  the  medium  through 
which  mercy  comes  to  the  Gentiles,  .so  the 
mercy  shown  to  the  Gentiles  was  after- 
wards the  medium  through  which  mercy 
should  come  to  the  Jews — And  the  impel- 
lent cause  for  this  result  we  gather  from 
the  clause  now  before  us,  even  that  the 
sight  of  Gentile  Christianity  had  in  it 
something  which  moved  a  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews  after,  and  so  as  to  turn 
them  to  the  faith — when  no  longer  biding 
in  unbelief,  they  shall  be  again  graffed 
into  their  own  olive  tree.     (Ver.  23.) 

We  cannot  say  that  we  have  seen  much 
yet  of  the  distinct  operation  of  this  mo- 
tive among  the  children  of  Israel.  Indeed 
there  has  been  little  hitherto  of  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  from  among  the  Jews, 
when  compared  with  the  whole  bulk  and 
body  of  the  people  ;  but  even  in  the  indi- 
vidual cases  of  such  conversion,  we  are 
not  aware  that  the  principle  adverted  to 
in  the  text  has  had  much  of  an  efficient  or 
actuating  influence,  for  bringing  about 
this  change  from  one  religion  to  another. 
Before  we  could  affirm  this,  we  should  re- 
quire to  know  more  the  history  of  par- 
ticular conversions,  and  have  greater  ac- 
cess to  the  minds  of  those  who  have  un- 
dergone the  transition,  than  we  have  had 
the  privilege  of  enjoying.  We  cannot 
therefore  say  in  how  far  the  observation 
of  Gentile  Christianity,  and  of  its  good 
effects  on  those  who  had  embraced  it,  has 
acted  as  a  provocative  on  the  Jewish  mind, 
and  impelled  to  such  efforts  and  enquiries 
as  may  have  led  in  more  or  fewer  instan- 
ces to  the  faith  of  the  gospel.  But  as  the 
great  national  conversion  is  yet  to  come 
— so  we  can  anticipate  how  the  motive 
speeified  in  our  text  might  gather  strength 
with  the  lapse  of  time  and  in  the  course  of 
successive  generations.  In  the  first  place, 
their  own  hopes  of  the  Messiah  on  whom 
they  still  calculate  as  a  Prince  and  De- 
liverer yet  to  come,  other  than  Jesus  Christ 
the  only  Son  of  God,  must  every  year 
become   more  languid ;  and    at  length, 


we  should  imagine,  when  all  the  periods 
of  their  computation  have  run  out,  must 
finally  expire.  And  in  the  second  place, 
it  lies  with  us  to  fulfil  the  part  which  is 
here  assigned  to  the  Gentiles.  We  should 
make  Christianity  the  object  of  emulation 
and  desire  to  the  Jews  and  to  all  others, 
by  our  exemplification  of  it.  Let  us  not 
wonder  that  this  influence  has  hitherto 
come  so  little  into  play.  This  is  not  alto- 
gether owing  to  Jewish  insensibility.  The 
failure  is  ours — at  least  as  much,  if  not 
more,  than  theirs.  If  their  minds  have 
not  been  excited  to  an  attention  or  a  re- 
spect or  a  longing  after  Christianity,  it  is 
because  we  have  done  so  little,  or  done 
nothing  at  all,  to  e.^citc  them.  The  light 
of  our  religion  has  not  so  shone  upon 
them,  as  to  make  it  glorious  in  their  eyes. 
It  may  have  told  in  the  first  ages,  when 
the  very  heathen  could  exclaim,  "  Behold 
these  Christians  how  they  love  each 
other."  But  it  ought  to  be  no  surprise  to 
us,  that,  when  Christianity  declined,  this 
moral  force,  which  the  apostle  ascribes  to 
it,  should  decline  also — so  that  men  would 
cease  either  to  imitate  or  admire  it.  This 
its  constraining  and  attracting  power  is 
obviously  discernible  in  apostolic  times, 
as  may  be  gathered  from  distinct  and  re- 
peated traces  in  the  book  of  Acts  ;*  and 
perhaps  for  a  century  or  two  it  may  not 
have  altogether  expired.  But  we  are  not 
to  marvel  that  we  so  entirely  lose  sight 
of  it  in  the  miserable  degeneracies  which 
followed — as  in  the  middle  ages,  when, 
instead  of  their  examples  or  their  guides, 
Christians  became  their  fierce  and  con- 
temptuous persecutors ;  or  even  in  the 
present  times,  when  such  a  wretchedly 
inadequate  exhibition  is  still  made,  either 
of  the  virtues  of  the  gospel  or  of  its  conse- 
quent effect  on  the  peace  and  prosperity  of 
men.  We  have  indeed  a  mighty  distance 
and  declension  to  recover,  ere  we  can 
make  the  Jews  emulous  to  be  what  Chris- 
tians are — whether  by  an  exhibition  of 
the  grace  and  beauty  which  our  faith  im- 
parts to  the  character  of  its  individual 
professors,  or  of  its  beneficial  influences 
on  the  well-doing  of  society.  Were  they 
made  distinctly  to  see  what  Christianity 
does  for  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  men, 
we  can  understand  how  the  principle  of 
the  text  might,  even  at  this  day,  come  into 
powerful  operation.  But  as  it  is,  the  sad 
imperfection  of  Gentile  Christianity  oper- 
ates as  a  barrier  in  the  way  of  Jewish 
conversion. 

It  is  this  which  makes  the  task  of  a 
Christian  missionary  among  the  Jews  all 
the  more  arduous  ;  and  lays  an  awful  re- 
sponsibility on  us,  if,  instead  of  being  in- 
struments for  the  furtherance  of  the  great 


'  Acts,  ii,  47;  iv,  21 ;  v,  13,  14, 26;  vi,  7. 


LECTDRE  LXXXV. CHAPTER  XI,  11 22. 


433 


design  unfolded  in  this  passage,  by  adorn- 
ing the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in 
all  things,  we  shall,  by  an  opposite  con- 
duct, indict  a  discredit  and  injury  on  the 
religion  which  we  profess,  and  so  as  to 
hinder  its  progress  in  the  world. 

We  are  here  distinctly  told  by  what 
sort  of  efficacy  it  is,  that  the  disciples  of 
our  faith,  in  the  very  act  of  being  its 
patterns,  might  become  its  propagators 
among  God's  ancient  people — even  by 
the  exhibition  of  its  virtues,  and  so  of 
the  health  and  melody  which  dwell  in 
the  habitations  of  the  righteous.  Some 
devoted  men  there  have  been,  the  apostles 
of  our  modern  day,  who,  single-handed, 
and  with  the  force  of  the  Christian  argu- 
ment seconded  by  the  demonstration  of 
their  own  example,  have,  through  the 
grace  of  God,  ettected  genuine  conver- 
sions here  and  there  among  the  children 
of  Israel.  They  have  been  the  instru- 
ments of 'saving  some,' (ver.  14).  But  ere 
a  general  effect  can  be  anticipated  from 
this  cause,  there  must  be  a  far  more 
general  representation  of  the  worth  of 
Christianity — and  that  both  in  its  family 
and  social  pictures,  as  well  as  in  those  oc- 
casional specimens  which  one  person  has 
given  after  another  of  its  ennobling  and 
beautifying  influences  on  the  characters 
of  men.  If  we  would  be  fellow- workers 
with  God  in  His  great  and  gracious 
designs  for  the  recovery  of  the  whole 
earth  ;  and  if  we  would  not,  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  incur  the  guilt  of  frustrating  the 
objects  of  His  Divine  administration — it 
mightily  concerns  us  how  we  should 
comport  ourselves  bfefore  the  eyes  of  this 
select  and  peculiar  nation,  whom  the 
Father  of  the  human  family  at  one  time 
separated  from  all  the  people  of  the 
world,  and  for  whom  the  highest  moral 
destinies  are  yet  in  reserve.  If  it  be 
through  our  mercy  that  they  are  to  obtain 
mercy  let  us  remember  that  it  is  a  mercy 
which  saves  us  by  the  washing  of  rege- 
neration ;*  and  that  the  graces  of  this 
regeneration  must  appear  palpably  and 
convincingly  before  their  view,  ere  we 
can  expect  that  we  shall  win  them  either 
to  the  love  or  admiration  of  the  gospel. 
Did  they  but  see  the  evidence  of  God 
being  in  the  midst  of  us,  whether  in  our 
preparation  for  the  life  that  is  to  come,  or 
in  the  promise  which  never  fails  to  go 
along  with  these  of  the  life  that  now  is — 
did  they  but  witness  in  bright  exemplifi- 
cation on  our  persons  the  virtues  of  our 
holy  religion,  its  exalted  faith,  its  heaven- 
born  charity,  its  unwearied  patience  under 
calumnies,  its  ethereal  sanctity,  and  with- 
al its  gentleness  of  spirit  and  tenderness 
for  every  thing  which  breathes — did  they 


*  Titus,  iii,  ^ 

55 


but  observe  the  effect  of  these,  not  merely 
in  gracing  the  individual  possessor,  but  in 
upholding  the  spectacle  of  peaceful  and 
well-ordered  homes,  of  happy  and  harmo- 
nious neighbourhoods  in  every  territory 
which  Christianity  blest  and  enlightened 
by  its  presence — Did  all  this  stand  forth, 
in  manifest  and  undeniable  contrast  with 
the  selfishness  and  impiety  and  moral 
degradation  of  their  own  accquaintances, 
the  men  of  their  own  kindred — then 
should  we  be  at  no  loss  to  understand, 
how  it  is  that  Gentiles  might  provoke 
Jews  to  jealousy  and  emulation  ;  and 
what  the  process  was  by  which,  through 
the  mercy  bestowed  on  the  former,  mercy 
at  length  accrued  to  the  latter  also. 

Such  then  is  our  part  in  this  scheme  of 
moral  government,  and  such  the  mighty 
importance  of  our  right  bearing  toward 
the  Jews.  We  have  a  task  and  a  duty  laid 
upon  us  for  the  fulfilment  of  their  resto- 
ration  ;  and,  accordingly,  the  rest  of  the 
passage  now  on  hand  is  mainly  taken  up 
with  the  manner  in  which  we  Gentiles 
ought  to  comport  ourselves  towards  them. 
We  shall  therefore  close  our  observations 
on  the  verses  or  clauses  of  verses  which 
remain,  by  briefly  noticing  the  points  and 
proprieties  of  our  incumbent  conduct  to 
the  now  scattered  tribes  of  Israel. 

No  wonder  then  that  the  conversion  of 
the  Jews  should  all  this  while  have  been 
at  a  stand,  when  our  treatment  of  them 
has   for   so  many  a   long  century  been 
utterly  and  diametrically  the  reverse  of 
that  which  the  apostle  here  prescribes  to 
us.     Verily  if  the  times  once  were,  when 
the  Jews  looked  with  intolerance  and  dis- 
dain on   all  the  world  besides,  this  has 
been  amply  repaid  by  the  wholesale  con- 
tempt and  contumely  which  these  outcast 
people  have  since  received  at  the  hands 
of  all  the  nations.     Truly  we  are  in  fault 
in  having  thus  made  them  a  reproach  and 
a  by-word   over   the  whole   earth ;   and 
though  the  part  we  have  acted  be  the  ful- 
filment of  a  prophecy,  this  for  us  is  no 
extenuation — any  more  than  for  the  mur- 
derers of  our  Saviour,  in  that  with  wicked 
hands  they  did  that  which  God  had  pre- 
determined should   be  done.      It   would 
have   been   more  godlike,   had   we   held 
them   beloved    for  their    fathers'    sakes, 
(ver.  28).     The  sacredness  of  their  origin 
might  well  have  given  them  some  place 
of  sacredness  in  our  consideration.     The 
descendants    of   such    ancestors    should 
have  been  honoured  because  of  them — 
for  '  if   the    root    be   holy,    so  are    the 
branches,'  (ver.  16).    So  ought  this  latter 
clause  of  the  verse  to  be  understood — 
while  as  to  the  former  clause,  '  If  the  first- 
fruit  be  holy,  the  lump  is  also  holy' — we 
incline  to  the  view  of  those  who  regard 
the  first-fruits  as  the  first  Jewish  converts 


434 


LECTURE  LXXXV. CHAPTER  XI,  11 — 22. 


to  the  faith— to  whom  the  apostle  appeals 
as  proof,  because  samples  of  the  capa- 
bilities of  the  whole  nation  for  readmis- 
sion  to  the  great  spiritual  family.  Nay 
he  argues  for  their  greater  capability, 
(ver.  24) — Seeing  that  tiiey  were  the  natu- 
ral, and  \v;.'  only  the  exotic  branches  of 
the  olive  tree  which  now  bears  us,  (ver. 
17) — they  being  by  descent,  and  wo  by 
faith  the  children  of  Abraham,  who  is  the 
father  of  the  faithful,  and  from  whom  our 
Saviour,  the  Son  of  David  according  to 
the  flesh,  came.  We  are  therefore  tohl 
to  boast  not  against  the  branches,  (ver. 
18) — more  kindred  than  we  are  to  the  root 
which  bears  us ;  and  which,  though  for  a 
time  broken  oif,  will  at  length  be  graffed 
in  again.  Our  part  meanwhile  is  to  be 
more  lowly  and  diffident  of  ourselves, 
and  more  reverential  of  the  Jews — '  Thou 
bearest  not  the  root,  but  the  root  thee.' 

Ver.  19-22.  '  Thou  wilt  say  then.  The 
branches  were  broken  off,  that  I  might  be 
graffed  in.     Well ;    because  of  unbelief 
they  were  broken  off,  and  thou  standest 
by  faith.    Be  not  high-minded,  but  fear  ; 
for  if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches, 
take  heed   lest   he   also   spare  not  thee. 
Behold  therefore  the  goodness  and  severity 
of  God :   on  them  which   fell,  severity  ; 
but  toward  thee,  goodness,  if  thou  continue 
in  his  goodness  :  otherwise  thou  also  shah 
be   cut  off.'     These  verses  are   instinct 
with  principle,  the   full   exposition    and 
enforcement  of  which  would  I'equire  a 
succession  of  sermons.  We  shall  but  state 
the  leading  ideas  which  they  are  fitted  to 
suggest.     This   passage  altogether  is  an 
argument    by  which  the   apostle   would 
repress  the    arrogance    of  the  Gentiles, 
because  they   now   occupied    the    place 
which  the  Jews  before  monopolized  ;  and 
what,  with  this  view,  he  presses  on  their 
attention,  is  the  tenure  of  that  occupancy 
which  they  now  gloried  in — a  tenure,  the 
due  consideration  of  which  would  anni- 
hilate all  boasting,  and  lead  them  to  carry 
with  all  humility  and  meekness  the  privi- 
leges   wherewith    they    were     invested. 
They  held  them  altogether  on  the  footing, 
not  of  their  own  merits,  but  of  another's 
goodness — and  which  goodness  they  can 
only  continue  in  by  the  respect  and  refer- 
ence of  their  minds  towards  it — for  with- 
out such  respect  or  reference  there  can 
be  no  faith,  and  it  is  by  faith  we  stand. 
The   whole   distinction,  whether   of  su- 
perior   happiness    or    superior    honour, 
coi\ferred  on  us  by  the  gospel,  is  exclu- 
sively  and   altogether  of   grace — not   a 
thing  worked  for,  but  a  thing  given  ;  And 
the  precise  office  of  faith  is  to  receive  it 
on  this  footing,  to  see  and  acknowledge 
it  as  a  gift,  and  to  depend  for  it  on  the 
truth  and  liberality  and  withal  power  of 
the  Giver ;   trusting  that  what  He  had 


promised,  He  was  able  and  also  willing 
to  perform  (iv,  21).  It  is  thus  that  faith 
essentially  carries  one  out  of  himself,  and 
by  its  very  nature  must,  at  every  moment 
of  its  exercise,  accredit  another  with  the 
blessings  which  itself  cannot  earn,  but 
only  can  appropriate  as  the  fruit  of  a 
generosity  from  without.  It  is  thus  that 
faith  necessarily  excludes  boasting,  as 
much  so  as  one  antagonist  principle  must 
displace  and  exterminate  the  other  which 
is  opposed  to  it.*  And  thus  also  nothing 
could  be  more  pertinently  adduced  to 
restrain  the  boasting  of  the  Gentiles 
against  the  Jews — '  against  the  branches* 
— than  the  consideration  that  themselves 
were  standing  only  by  faith,  and  that 
therefore  they  should  not  be  high-minded, 
but  fear. 

But  how,  it  may  be  asked,  can  faith  and 
fear  exist  contemporaneously  in  the  same 
bosom  ■?  Is  not  the  one  fitted  to  supplant  the 
other]  Is  not  faith  or  confidence  allied 
with  courage,  rather  than  with  timidity 
or  terror  ]  Does  not  faith  work  by  love, 
and  is  it  not  said  of  perfect  love  that  it 
casteth  out  fear  1  What  then  can  be  the 
object  of  the  fear  in  my  text  ? — a  fear,  it 
seems,  which  might  co-exist  with  faith — 
for  while  the  apostle  tells  these  Gentiles 
that  they  can  only  stand  by  faith,  he  bids 
Ihem  at  the  same  time  not  to  be  high- 
minded,  but  fear. 

To  these  questions  a  reply  might  be 
given  from  two  contiguous  verses  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — the  last  verse  of 
the  third,  and  the  first  verse  of  the  fourth 
chapter.  The  Israelites  were  kept  out 
of  th.cir  promised  land  because  of  unbe- 
lief ;  and  let  us  therefore  fear  that  we, 
for  the  same  reason,  shall  fall  short  of 
our  promised  land.  Tlie  fear  is  lest  we 
fall  away  from  the  faith,  lest  we  lose 
sight  of  its  unseen  objects,  and  so  by  an 
evil  heart  of  unbelief  depart  from  the 
living  God.  Nature  is  prone  to  forget 
the  things  of  faith,  and  to  lose  all  sight 
or  sense  of  these  in  the  objects  of  vision  ; 
and  therefore  is  required  to  give  earnest 
heed  to  these  things,  for  fear  she  at  any 
time  should  let  them  slip.f  The  man 
who,  unable  to  swim,  has  fallen  among 
the  waves  and  had  a  rope  thrown  out  to 
him,  would  know  what  it  is  to  have  faith 
and  fear  in  contemporaneous  operation 
within  his  heart ;  and  in  very  proportion 
to  his  fearful  distrust  of  himself,  would 
he  cling  to  the  support  that  had  been  ex- 
tended to  him  from  above.  The  child 
who  is  beginning  to  walk,  alike  distrust- 
ful of  his  own  strength,  keeps  firm  hold 
on  the  nurse  who  leads  him ;  and  his 
faith  and  fear,  so  far  from  conflicting 
forces,  work  most  harmoniously  into  each 


•  Romans,  iii,  27 ;  Eph.  ii,  8,  9. 


t  Heb.  ii,  1. 


LECTURE  LXXXV. — CHAPTER  XI,  11 — 22. 


435 


other's  hands.  And  so  the  Christian, 
aware  of  there  being  no  sufficiency  in 
himself  to  withstand  ihe  temptations  of 
an  evil  world,  keeps  fast  and  firm  hold 
of  that  grace  and  sufficiency  which  he 
knows  to  be  in  God  ;  and  so  the  moral 
dynamics  of  the  gospel  will  be  found  in 
perfect  keeping  with  the  machinery  of 
the  human  constitution,  with  the  laws 
and  the  working  of  man's  moral  nature. 


The  goodness  and  the  severity  of  God, 
as  brought  into  juxtaposition  in  the  22nd 
verse,  would  require  a  treatment  which  we 
forego  for  the  present,  and  more  especi- 
ally as  we  have  made  it  the  subject  of  a 
distinct  sermon.*  We  recur  to  the  apos- 
tle's argument  respecting  the  Jews. 


"  See  Sermon  XVI,  in  vol.  i  of  my  '  Congregalional 
Sermons,'  being  vol.  viii  of  the  Series. 


LECTURE  LXXXVI. 


Romans  xi,  23 — 32. 

"  AnJ  they  also,  if  they  abide  not  still  in  tmbelief,  shall  be  graffed  in  :  for  God  is  able  to  graff  tUeni  in  again.  For 
if  thou  Mrert  cut  out  of  the  olive  tree,  which  is  wild  by  nature,  and  wert  grafted  coitrary  to  nature  into  a  good 
olive  tree;  how  much  more  shall  these,  which  be  the  natural  branches,  be  grafl'ed  into  their  own  olive  tree • 
For  I  would  not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  be  ignorant  of  this  mystery,  lest  ye  should  be  wise  in  your  own  conceits, 
■that  blindness  in  part  is  happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in.  And  so  all  Israel  shall  bo 
saved:  as  it  is  written,  There  shall  come  out  of  Siou  the  Deliverer,  and  shall  turn  away  ungodliness  from  Jacob  : 
for  this  is  my  covenant  unto  them,  when  I  shall  take  away  their  sins.  As  concerning  the  gospel,  they  are  enemies 
for  your  sakes :  but  as  touching  the  election,  they  are  beloved  for  the  fathers'  sakes.  For  the  gifts  and  calling  of 
God  are  without  repentance.  For  as  ye  in  limes  past  have  not  believed  God,  yet  have  now  obtained  mercy  through 
their  unbelief;  even  so  have  these  also  now  not  believed,  thai  through  your  mercy  they  also  may  obtain  mercy. 
For  God  iiath  concluded  them  all  iii  unbeliei,  thai  he  might  have  mercy  upon  all." 


The  general  objection  to  missionary 
work  is  comprehensive  of  Jews  as  well  as 
Gentiles — "  Go  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.''''  But  the  duty  of  labouring  l^r 
the  conversion  of  God's  ancient  people  is 
furthermore  laid  on  a  distinct  and  special 
ground  of  its  own.  All  that  is  said  of  them 
in  Scripture  serves  to  enhance  the  obliga- 
tion of  attempting,  in  every  possible  way, 
to  find  access  among  them  for  the  doc- 
trines and  dispensation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. This  is  an  employment  whereof 
we  are  told  that  the  good  of  it  will  come 
back  with  double  interest  upon  ourselves. 
Or  rather,  and  without  putting  it  into  this 
selfish  form,  we  learn  from  the  Bible  that 
the  Christianity  of  Jews  will  be  followed 
up  by  a  mighty  enlargement  in  the  cha- 
racter and  state  of  Christianity  through- 
out the  world — so  that  in  labouring  for 
this,  we  become  in  a  peculiar  manner  the 
fellow-workers  of  God,  and  instruments 
in  His  hand,  for  prosecuting  and  carrying 
forward  to  its  fulfilment  one  of  the  high- 
est objects  of  His  administration.  It  were 
the  most  germinant  of  all  our  missionary 
enterprises — or  the  one  most  prolific  of  a 
rich  moral  blessing  to  the  great  family  of 
mankind.  The  full  return  of  the  Jews 
will  be  the  riches,  we  are  told,  of  all  other 
nations  (ver.  12  ;)  and  by  entering  there- 
fore on  this  peculiar  walk,  we  may  well 
be  said  to  enter  on  the  highest  department 
of  missionary  labour,  and  in  which  we 
most  harmonise  both  with  the  designs  of 
Providence  and  the  schemes  of  prophecy. 
The  procedure  of  the  first  apostles  in  this 
respect  might  serve  perhaps  as  a  model 


for  the  apostolical  work  of  our  present 
day.  They  carried  forth  the  gospel  to  all 
nations — yet  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  And 
into  whatever  city  they  entered,  it  was 
their  general  practice  first  to  seek  out  the 
Jews — entering  into  their  synagogues,  and 
reasoning  first  with  them  out  of  their 
Scriptures.*  And  when  Paul  arrived  a 
prisoner  at  Rome,  the  first  thing  he  did 
was  to  send  for  the  Jews.  They  seem  still 
to  have  acted  in  the  spirit  of  that  charge 
which  our  Saviour  while  on  earth  gave  to 
His  disciples,  when  He  bade  them  go  first 
to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
Nay  the  apostles  expressly  alleged  a  ne- 
cessity for  this  order — even  that  the  word 
of  God  should  first  be  spoken  to  the  Jews 
before  they  turned  to  the  Gentiles.f  At 
that  time  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews  was  a 
stepping-stone  to  the  faith  of  the  Gentiles  j 
and  by  their  being  first  preached  to,  this 
unbelief  came  into  open  manifestation — 
which  both  served  as  an  intimation  for  the 
apostles  to  desist,  and  seems  not  to  have 
been  without  its  influence  on  the  new 
hearers  to  whom  they  then  turned  them- 
selves.J  But  this  period  of  Jewish  unbe- 
lief is  now  drawing  to  a  close;  and  by  a 
sort  of  reverse  law,  it  is  the  faith  of  that 
people  which  will  now  be  the  stepping- 
stone  to  a  great  and  general  expansion  of 
Christianity  among  men.  Surely  then 
when  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  is  so 
much  more  hopeful,  the  duty  of  preaching 
to  them  is  not  less  imperative  and  at  least 


•  Acts,  xiii,  14 ;  xJv,  1  ;  xvii,  1,  2 ;  xviii,  4,  6. 
t  Acts,  xiii,  46 ;  xviii,  6.  %  Acts,  xiii,  48. 


436 


LECTURE  LXXXVn. CHAPTEP^  XI,  23 32. 


greatly  more  attractive  than  before — and 
especially  now  that  the  ulterior  good  is 
arrived  at  by  a  medium  so  much  more 
bright  and  beautiful,  than  that  through 
which  the  first  teachers  of  Christianity 
had  to  find  their  way  ere  they  came  into 
contact  with  the  Gentiles.  Theirs  was  a 
rugged  path,  from  the  rejection  of  the  gos- 
pel by  their  own  countrymen,  to  the  pro- 
clamation of  it  over  a  world  where  it  was 
yet  unknown — And  ours,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  should  feel  an  inviting  path, 
from  the  reception  of  this  same  gospel  by 
the  children  of  Israel,  to  the  spread  and 
the  revival  of  it  among  all  nations.  It  is 
such  a  receiving  as  will  be  life  from  the 
dead  (ver.  15.).  Under  all  the  views  of  it, 
the  evangelisation  of  the  Jews  should  rank 
as  a  first  and  foremost  object  of  Christian 
policy. 

And  here  it  occurs  to  us,  that  the  ex- 
ceeding rarity  as  yet  of  Jewish  conver- 
sion, so  far  from  a  reason  for  despairing 
of  future  success,  should,  if  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  whole  history  of  the  case, 
lead  rather  to  an  opposite  conclusion.  It 
is  through  our  mercy  that  they  at  length 
are  to  obtain  mercy — or  through  the  me- 
dium of  Gentile  Christianity,  that  the  light 
of  the  gospel  is  to  find  entry  into  the 
hearts  and  understandings  of  this  ancient 
people  of  God.  We,  whether  by, our  ex- 
ample or  our  exertions  or  both,  are,  some- 
how or  other,  to  be  the  instruments  of 
effecting  this  mighty  change  in  the  Jew. 
ish  mind  ;  and  the  question  is,  how  have 
we  acquitted  ourselves  in  this  capacity — 
or  what  has  hitherto  been  our  treatment 
of  those,  who  have  been  thus  devolved  on 
our  custody  and  care,  and  of  whom  we 
may  be  said  especially  to  have  been  put 
in  charge  1  Looking  then  to  this  matter 
generally  and  historically  through  a  suc- 
cession of  ages,  we  find  this  treatment  to 
have  been  the  very  opposite  of  that  which 
is  here  prescribed  to  us  ;  and  that,  speak- 
ing in  the  gross,  we  have  not  only  neg- 
lected the  apostolic  rule,  but  have  actu- 
ally reversed  it — So  that,  instead  of  warm- 
ing these  outcasts  of  the  Almighty's  dis- 
pleasure by  our  kindness,  or  conciliating 
them  by  our  respect,  or  inspiring  them 
with  confidence  by  our  justice,  or  awaken- 
ing their  admiration  of  the  gospel  by  our 
exemplification  of  its  virtues  and  graces — 
we,  in  the  great  bulk  and  majority  of  our 
proceedings,  have  brought  all  the  oppo- 
site influences  to  bear  upon  them,  and 
done  every  thing  we  could  to  alienate  and 
repel  and  put  them  to  an  impracticable 
distance  away  from  us — Acting  the  tyrants 
and  persecutors  of  a  forlorn  race,  who 
have  become  the  veriest  abjects  or  off- 
scourings of  humanity  in  our  hands.  We 
know  that  at  length  their  heart  is  to  turn* 


*  2  Corinthians,  iii,  16. 


to  the  Lord,  when  they  shall  look  upon 
Him  whom  they  have  pierced,  and  mourn 
for  Him  as  for  a  first-born.  But  to  hasten 
onward  this  consummation,  we  should 
turn  from  the  evil  of  our  way  towards 
them,  and  mourn  over  all  the  insults  and 
the  wrongs  which  for  two  thousand  years 
have  been  heaped  on  this  people  of  noble 
ancestry  and  of  still  nobler  destination. 
It  might  be  looked  on  as  a  strange  infe- 
rence to  draw  from  our  almost  total  want 
of  success  hitherto — that  on  this  retrospect 
of  Jewish  obstinacy  and  hatred  of  the 
gospel  for  so  many  ages,  we  should  ground 
the  bright  and  hopeful  anticipation,  not 
of  a  few  individual  conversions  as  hereto- 
fore, but  of  their  national  return  to  Him 
who  is  the  Hope  and  Saviour  of  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  But  the  inference  is 
more  sound  and  legitimate  than  it  may  be 
at  first  taken  for.  We  count  on  this  change 
of  result  in  the  Jewish  mind,  because  we 
perceive  a  change  in  the  causality  which 
is  being  brought  to  bear  upon  it.  On 
looking  back  to  the  sullen  inveteracy 
of  Jewish  prejudice  for  so  many  ages, 
we  cannot  but  observe  that  the  instru- 
mentality wherewith  it  has  been  plied  is 
not  only  not  the  same,  but  the  very  oppo- 
site  to  that  which  the  apostle  would  have 
put  into  our  hands — whereas  on  looking 
forward,  we  can  perceive  that  a  reverse 
influence  is  to  be  put  in  operation  ;  nor 
can  we  deem  the  conclusion  to  be  illogi- 
cal, when  we  reckon  on  the  effect  being 
different  just  from  the  cause  being  differ- 
ent. It  is  like  the  promise  of  a  first  and 
hopeful  experiment,  and  to  which  we  ad- 
dress ourselves  with  all  the  greater  confi- 
dence, that,  instead  of  some  gratuitous  or 
hap-hazard  trial  in  the  hands  of  a  pro- 
jector, the  very  means  are  to  be  now  set 
agoing,  which  are  not  only  most  fitted  by 
nature  to  soften  and  disarm  the  antipa- 
thies of  the  human  spirit,  but  which  have 
been  expressly  sanctioned  and  enjoined  in 
the  oracles  of  a  wisdom  that  is  infallible. 
We  speak  not  of  the  modern  liberalism 
which  but  ministers  to  the  secular  pride 
and  interest  of  this  nation  of  aliens  ;  and 
seeks  for  nothing  further  than  their  ad- 
mission into  courts  and  parliaments.  We 
speak  of  the  unutterable  missionary  long- 
ings now  felt  on  their  behalf;  and  of  the 
efforts  now  making,  not  by  single  adven- 
turers only,  but  by  societies  and  whole 
churches,  to  recall  these  hapless  wander- 
ers, and  entreat  them  by  every  moving 
argument  to  come  within  the  limits,  and 
be  honoured  as  at  once  the  highest  orna- 
ments and  best-loved  inmates  of  the  spirit- 
ual family  of  God.  There  is  doubtless  a 
wide  contrast,  between  our  hopes  of  the 
future  and  our  recollections  of  the  pa.st — 
but  not  wider  than  the  contrast  between  our 
haughty,  injurious,  and  oppressive  treat- 


LECTURE  LXXXVII. CHAPTER  XI,  23 32. 


437 


ment  of  the  Jews  then  ;  and  the  meek- 
ness, the  gentleness,  the  perfect  frank- 
ness and  sincerity,  the  heart-breathing 
desires  after  their  salvation,  the  earnest 
and  affectionate  persuasion,  the  unwea- 
ried, we  hope  the  unconquerable  kindness 
wherewith  they  will  now  continue  to  be 
assailed,  in  the  face,  it  may  be,  of  dis- 
couragements and  insults — All  to  tell  at 
length,  we  trust,  with  the  omnipotence  of 
Christian  charity,  giving  forth  the  authen- 
tic exhibition  of  herself  in  the  whole 
bearing  and  demeanour  of  the  men  who 
thus  long  and  thus  labour,  not  perhaps 
for  their  civil  immunities  and  privileges, 
but  for  the  glories  of  a  higher  citizenship, 
for  their  readmittance  to  the  household 
of  God,  as  the  great  and  one  thing  need- 
ful— mightily  to  be  striven,  and  mightily 
to  be  prayed  for. 

Thus  as  the  apostacy  of  the  Jews  led  to 
the  calling  of  the  Gentiles ;  so  will  the 
Christianity  of  the  Gentiles,  when  fully 
and  consistently  proceeded  on,  lead  on- 
ward to  the  effectual  recalling  of  the  Jews. 
But  the  succession  of  benefits  and  bless- 
ings will  not  stop  here — for,  by  a  further 
step  in  the  progress  will  this  conversion 
of  God's  ancient  people  to  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus  operate  by  a  mighty  reaction,  in 
the  further  extension  and  establishment 
of  the  gospel  throughout  the  world.  We 
have  the  traces,  nay  the  distinct  intima- 
tions of  this,  in  more  than  one  clause  of 
the  passage  now  before  us — as  in  verse 
12th,  where  we  are  told  that  the  fulness  of 
the  Jews  will  augment  the  riches  of  the 
Gentiles  ;  and  in  verse  15,  that,  the  re- 
ceiving of  them  will  be  life  from  the  dead. 
We  gather  the  same  information  from 
other  Scriptures  both  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament — as  when  Isaiah  tells  us 
(Ix,  iii),  that  "  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to 
thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of 
thy  rising  ;"  and  that  the  abundance  of 
the  sea,  and  the  forces  of  the  Gentiles  shall 
be  converted  and  come  unto  Israel  (Ix,  5) 
whose  seed  shall  be  known  among  the 
Gentiles  ;  and  all  who  see  them  shall  ac- 
knowledge them,  that  they  are  the  seed 
which  God  hath  blessed  (Ixi,  9)  ;  for  then 
will  the  Gentiles  see  their  righteousness, 
and  all  kings  their  glory  (Ixii,  2).  This 
reflex  influence,  if  it  may  be  so  termed, 
of  Jewish  upon  Gentile  Christianity,  is 
still  further  intimated  by  the  Psalmist  as 
follows — "Thou  shalt  arise  and  have 
mercy  upon  Zion,"  and  '^  so  the  heathen 
shall  fear  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  all 
the  kings  of  the  earth  thy  glory."*  Hear 
also  the  prophet  Jeremiah — "I  will  cause 
the  captivity  of  Judah,  and  the  captivity 
of  Israel  to  return,  and  will  build  them  as 
at  the   first,   and   cleanse  them  from  all 


'  Psalm  cii,  13,  15. 


their  iniquity :  And  it  shall  be  to  me  a 
name  of  joy,  a  praise  and  an  honour  be- 
fore all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  xvhich 
shall  hear  all  the  good  that  I  do  unto  them."* 
That  the  fulfilment  of  these  prophecies  is 
still  to  come,  we  may  well  conjecture 
from  such  passages  as  Isaiah,  xliii,  18,  19; 
Jeremiah,  xvi,  14,  15  ;  xxiii,  7,  8.  But  the 
conjecture  advances  to  a  certainty,  by  the 
quotation  of  the  apostle  in  Romans,  xi, 
26 — where  he  looks  onward  to  the  accom- 
plishment as  yet  future  of  the  glorious 
prediction  of  Isaiah  in  lix,  20 — "And  the 
Redeemer  shall  come  to  Zion,  and  unto 
them  that  turn  from  transgression  in  Ja- 
cob"— the  undoubted  reference  of  Paul, 
when  he  alludes  to  it  as  a  thing  loritten, 
that  "There  shall  come  out  of  Zion  the 
Deliverer,  and  shall  turn  away  ungodli- 
ness from  Jacob." 

We  have  already  tried  in  some  slight 
degree,  to  explain  how  it  was,  or  what  the 
connecting  influences  were,  by  which 
Gentile  Christianity  followed  in  the  train 
of  Jewish  unbelief ;  and  again,  we  have 
also  said  a  little  on  the  operation  which 
this  Gentile  Christianity,  when  rightly 
exercised  and  fully  manifested,  should 
have,  in  opening  the  eyes  of  the  Jews, 
and  so  turning  them  to  the  faith.  But 
there  is  still  a  third  sequence  in  this  pro- 
gression of  moral  changes,  whereof  pro- 
phecy tells  us  that  so  it  will  be  ;  and  the 
curiosity  of  man  prompts  him,  as  in  the 
other  cases,  to  enquire,  how  it  will  bef 
And  here  too,  we  can  to  a  certain  extent 
meet  the  enquiry — for  it  appears  pretty 
obvious,  that  a  great  national  movement 
towards  Christianity  on  the  part  of  the 
Jews,  and  their  actual  adoption  of  a  faith 
which  they  have  so  long  held  in  detesta- 
tion, must  tell  with  mighty  and  decisive 
effect  on  the  rest  of  the  world.  If  the  very 
existence  of  the  Jews  as  a  separate  peo- 
ple be  in  itself  the  indication  of  a  provi- 
dence— a  singular  event  in  history,  which 
demonstrates  the  part  taken  by  Him  who 
overrules  all  history  in  the  affairs  of  men 
— how  much  vnore  impressive  will  the 
evidence  become,  when  this  same  people 
shall  describe  the  actual  evolution,  which 
it  was  predicted  they  should  do,  more 
than  tv/o  thousand  years  ago  ;  shall,  after 
the  dispersions  and  the  desolations  of 
many  generations,  reach  at  last  the  very 
landing-place,  to  which  the  finger  of 
prophecy  has  been  pointing  from  an 
antiquity  so  high  as  that  of  the  patriar- 
chal ages.  We  know  not  if  this  splendid 
era  is  to  be  ushered  in  by  palpable  and 
direct  miracle.  We  would  not  affirm  this, 
but  far  less  can  we  deny  it.  But  should 
there  be  no  such  manifestation  of  the 
divine  power  conjoined  with  this  marvel- 


'  Jeremiah,  xxxiii,  7,  9. 


436 


LECTURE  LXXXVl. CHArXEB.  XI,  23 32. 


lous  fulfilment,  there  will  at  least  be  such 
a  manifestation  of  the  divine  knowledge, 
as  will  incontcslably  prove  that  Cod  has 
had  to  do  with  it ;  and  so  as  that  history 
shall  of  itself  perform  the  oflice  of  reve- 
lation, or  men  will  trace  the  finger  of  the 
Almighty  in  the  events  which  are  sensi- 
bly passing  before  their  eyes.  And  be- 
sides, we  have  reason  to  believe  of  these 
converted  Jews,  that  they  will  become 
the  most  zealous  and  successful  of  all 
missionaries ;  or,  like  Paul  before  them, 
the  preachers  of  that  faith  which  they 
persecuted  in  times  past,  and  once  la- 
boured to  destroy.*  It  is  said  of  a  single 
Christian  that  he  may  be  the  light  of  the 
world.f  How  much  more  will  be  a  whole 
nation  of  Christians — glowing  in  the  full 
ardour  of  their  new-born  convictions 
■with  apostolic  fervour ;  and  the  very 
fruit  of  whose  conversion  will  tell  with 
a  hundred-fold  greater  effect  than  even 
that  of  St.  Paul,  as  a  testimony  or  evi- 
dence for  the  faith.  Verily  like  him, 
their  great  prototype,  they  will  pre-emi- 
nently and  emphatically  be  the  apostles 
of  the  Gentiles ;  and  there  will  be  a  light 
to  lighten  these  Gentiles,  in  the  very  glory 
of  the  people  of  Israel.l  We  must  look 
to  futurity  for  this  great  accomplishment — 
for,  most  obviously,  it  has  not  yet  been 
realised.  It  will  be  "  in  the  last  days,  that 
the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall 
be  established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains, 
and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills  ;  and 
all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it.    And  many 

I)eople  shall  go  and  say.  Come  ye,  and 
at  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord, 
to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and 
he  will  teach  us  of  his  ways,  and  we  will 
walk  in  his  paths :  for  out  of  Zion  shall 
go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the 
Lord  from  Jerusalem."  This  is  all  yet  to 
come — else  how  could  it  be  spoken,  as  an 
immediate  sequence  of  its  fulfilment — 
that  "He  shall  judge  among  the  nation.s, 
and  shall  rebuke  many  people  ;  and  they 
shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares, 
and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks : 
nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more."5 

But,  after  all,  we  are  but  attempting  an 
explanation  of  the  efficient  causes  in  this 
process — which,  though  fully  and  satis- 
factorily made  out,  would  still  leave  the 
final  cause  of  the  whole  an  unresolved 
mystery.  We  may  be  able  to  follow  and 
understand  every  step  of  a  mechanism 
which  has  been  set  up  for  the  production 
of  a  given  result— yet  not  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  result  itself,  and  still  less 


"  Galatians,  i,  23. 
t  Matt .  V,  14.— Sec   much   that  is   interesting  on  this 
whole  subject  in  Bickersteth  s  '  Restoration  of  the  Jews.' 
}  Luke,  ii,  32.  §  Isaiah,  ii,  2—4  :  Micah,  iv,  2. 


the  reason  why  such  a  process  should 
have  been  instituted,  rather  than  any 
other,  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  good ; 
especially  if  it  be  a  process  which  in- 
volves in  it  the  perdition,  endless  and  irre- 
mediable, of  the  millions  and  millions 
more  of  many  generations.  The  difficulty 
is  aggravated  a  thousand-fold,  when  the 
Author  and  Originator  of  the  whole  is  a 
Being  of  infinite  power,  but  a  power  un- 
der the  direction  of  infinite  goodness  and 
wisdom — prone  as  we  are  to  wish,  and 
therefore  to  imagine,  that  He  may  have 
will, — and  by  the  energies  which  belong 
to  Him,  have  also  brought  forth  an  instant 
creation  of  perfect  light  and  perfect  vir- 
tue ;  and  secured  it  against  all  the  inroads, 
by  which  either  wickedness  or  woe  could 
have  ever  entered.  This  is  the  mystery 
of  God — not  the  glorious  consummation 
of  a  regenerated  world,  but  the  deep-laid 
necessity  for  the  evil  which  preceded  it ; 
and  why  it  had  to  be  reached  by  so  long 
and  dark  and  laborious  a  pathway,  strewn 
as  it  were  with  the  ruins  of  many  succes- 
sive ages.  The  origin  of  evil  comes  into 
view  while  we  meditate  on  these  things  ; 
and  the  difficulties  of  this  transcendental 
question  serve  still  more  to  beset  and 
baffle  our  ambitious  speculations. 

It  might  be  felt  by  some  to  alleviate, 
though  most  certainly  it  does  not  resolve 
the  mystery,  if  we  can  state  some  ana- 
logy between  the  process  laid  down  in  this 
chapter  and  other  parts  or  passages  in  the 
history  of  the  Divine  administration.  For 
example,  the  apostle  elsewhere  tells  us  of 
the  law  having  entered,  that  the  offence 
might  abound.*  It  looks  inexplicably 
hard,  that  the  law,  or  aught  whatever, 
should  have  come  directly  from  God  for 
such  a  purpose — or  that  sin  might  be  mul- 
tiplied :  But  the  difficulty  seems  to  be  at 
least  mitigated,  if  not  wholly  done  away, 
when  the  apostle  furtlier  tells  us,  that 
"  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much 
more  abound" — a  grace  all  the  more  il- 
lustrious, it  is  certain,  from  the  magnitude 
and  enormity  of  that  guilt  over  which  it 
triumphed.  Nay  we  are  told  of  another 
great  moral  design  which  was  accom- 
plished by  sin  being  thus  placed  in  con- 
nection with  the  law — "that  sin  by  the 
commandment  might  become  exceeding 
sinful"! — as  if  the  worth  and  excellence 
of  that  which  is  good,  and  the  exceeding 
deformity  of  that  which  is  evil,  were,  by 
juxtaposition,  brought  into  more  bright 
and  vivid  manifestation.  •  And  the  case 
before  us  looks  like  another  specimen  of 
the  same  thing — characteristic  of  the  Di- 
vine administration  ;  and  in  keeping  with, 
or  in  the  style,  of  its  general  policy.  He 
had  first  illustrated  the  mercy  of  the  gos- 


'  Romans,  v,  30. 


t  Romans,  vii,  13. 


LECTURE  LXXXVI. — CHAPTER.  XI,  23 32. 


439 


pel,  and  all  the  more  palpably,  by  its  tak- 
ing effect,  at  least  chiefly  and  primarily, 
on  the  Gentiles,  wholly  given  over  to  idol- 
atry, and  disfigured  by  all  the  atrocities 
of  human  wickedness — rather  than  on  tlie 
decent,  formal,  well-seeming  Jews,  the 
professing  worshippers  of  one  God ;  whose 
vices,  of  more  deep  and  subtle  and  spiri- 
tual a  character,  did  not  glare  so  on  the 
eye  of  general  observation.  But  these,  in 
their  turn,  and  after  ages  of  seemingly 
hopeless  alienation,  during  which  they 
acquit  themselves  with  all  the  despite  and 
defiance  and  resolved  hardihood  of  out- 
laws— on  these,  obviously  reared  by  Pro- 
vidence for  some  of  its  high  designs,  shall 
we  yet  behold  the  second  great  illustra- 
tion of  gospel  mercy  ;  all  the  more  en- 
hanced, it  is  certain,  by  its  breaking  forth 
in  the  train  of  Jewish  perversity  and  Jew- 
ish unbelief,  at  length  giving  way,  after 
they  had  stood  their  ground  and  been  dis- 
tinctly persisted  in  for  many  generations. 
This  is  one  undoubted  effect  of  His  hav- 
ing concluded  all  in  unbelief,  that  He 
might  have  mercy  upon  all  (ver.  32).  The 
one,  so  to  speak,  is  set  off  by  the  other — 
like  the  effect  of  light  and  shade  in  paint- 
ing ;  or  when  any  object  in  nature  is  seen 
all  the  more  strikingly  and  conspicuously 
because  of  the  dark  ground  on  which  it  is 
projected.  In  a  school  of  virtue,  one  chief 
end  were  the  enforcement  of  great  moral 
lessons ;  and  this  perhaps  were  best  ef- 
fected by  bringing  out  in  boldest  possible 
relief  the  evil  of  sin  ;  and  in  all  their 
beauty  and  brightness  the  characteristics 
of  highest  moral  perfection,  or,  which  is 
tantamount  to  this,  the  high  and  holy  at- 
tributes of  Him,  in  whom  all  perfection  as 
well  as  all  power  have  had  their  everlast- 
ing dwelling-place.  Now  providence  is 
pre-eminently  a  school  of  virtue  ;  and  we 
may  therefore  expect  that  history,  and  in 
a  more  especial  manner  sacred  history, 
where  the  manifestations  of  providence 
are  seen  in  nearest  connection  with  the 
designs  of  grace,  will  abound  in  such  les- 
sons. And  accordingly,  such  is  the  mani- 
fest purpose  of  many  revealed  evolutions 
or  passages  in  the  history  of  the  Divine 
administration — of  God's  dealings  with  the 
world.  We  have  already  noticed  that  a 
law  was  brought  in,  and  for  the  purpose 
that  sin  might  become  (or  might  appear) 
exceeding  sinful — like  a  foul  blot  on  a 
tablet  of  resplendent  purity.  And  though 
in  the  form  of  a  question,  yet  it  is  no  ob- 
scure hint  which  is  conveyed,  when  Paul 
asks.  Whether  it  might  not  be  God's  will 
to  show  His  wrath,  His  righteous  indigna- 
tion at  moral  evil,  and  to  make  His  power 
hnoivn — when  He  destroys  those  vessels 
of  wrath  which  He  had  before  endured 
with  much  long-suflfering.*     And  in   like 


Romans,  ix,  22. 


manner  would  we  infer,  that  it  is  to  exhi- 
bit the  Divine  character  in  another  of  its 
phases — even  the  riches  of  His  glory,  spe- 
cified in  Ephesians,  i,  6,  as  the  glory  of 
His  grace — when  we  read,  that,  also  after 
much  long-suffering  it  may  be,  the  long- 
suffering  which  is  termed  salvation  by  the 
apostle  Peter,*  He  heaps  His  choicest 
preferments  and  blessings  on  the  vessels 
of  mercy,  and  thus  makes  knoion  the  riches 
of  His  glory.f  One  main  end  of  the  Di- 
vine policy  in  the  government  and  final 
destiny  of  men  seems  to  be  manifestation 
— that  both  heaven  and  earth  might  learn 
thereby  the  more  to  hate  all  evil,  to  love 
and  admire  all  worth  and  goodness  and 
true  greatness,  whether  in  themselves  or 
as  exemplified  by  Him  in  whom  all  great- 
ness and  goodness  are  personified.  In 
harmony  with  this  view,  we  read  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  being  revealed  with  His  mighty 
angels,  on  that  dread  occasion  when  the 
glory  of  His  power  and  sacredness  shall 
be  displayed  in  the  destruction  of  sinners ; 
and  the  glory  of  His  infinite  love  for  the 
holy  in  the  triumph  and  happiness  of  the 
saints.J  And  so  His  disposal  of  the  church 
does  not  terminate  in,  but  has  an  ulterior 
object  to  itself— even  "  to  the  intent  that 
now  .unto  the  principalities  and  powers  in 
heavenly  places  might  be  knoion,  by  the 
church,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 
There  is  evidently  here  a  something  point- 
ed at  beyond  the  immediate  concern  which 
men  have  in  the  Divine  procedure — a  re- 
ference to  the  distant  as  well  as  to  the  fu- 
ture ;  and  our  felt  ignorance  of  this  larger 
and  more  comprehensive  policy  should 
serve  to  humble  and  chasten  and  repress 
our  ambitious  speculations.  Yet  though 
we  see  but  in  glimpse.s,  we  cannot  fail  to 
discern  in  Scripture  the  traces  of  a  con- 
stant respect  to  manifestation  as  one  great 
drift  or  design  of  God's  universal  govern- 
ment— and  that  too  the  manifestation  of 
contrasts,  or  of  things  made  more  striking 
and  conspicuous  in  themselves,  by  being 
presented  along  with  their  opposites.  So 
essentially  and  characteristically  indeed 
is  holiness  a  repugnance  to  moral  evil, 
that  some  have  been  satisfied  with  this  as 
a  sufficient  explanation  for  the  enigma  of 
its  existence — that  but  for  the  reality,  or 
at  least  the  conception  of  evil,  there  could 
have  been  no  exhibition  of  that  jealous 
and  invincible  recoil  from  sin,  wherewith 
perfect  virtue  must  ever  regard  the  oppo- 
site of  itself.  For  our  own  parts,  we  can 
profess  no  absolute  satisfaction  with  any 
of  the  solutions  which  have  been  proposed 
of  these  high  mysteries.  We  look  upon 
them  all  as  hypothetical,  and  yet  of  use, 
because  fully  adequate  to  the  work  of  si- 
lencing, and  so  placing  in  abeyance  the 
infidelity   alike   hypothetical   which  has 

•  2  Peter,  iii,  15.     t  Rom.  ix,  23.     X  2  Thess.  i,  7—10.   ^ 


440 


LECTURE  LXXXVI. CHAPTER  XI,  23 — 32. 


been  grounded  on  the  questions  where- 
with they  deal.  The  real  and  effective 
evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  Christian  re- 
velation is  thus  left  uninjured  ;  and  while 
we  gladly  accept  of  these  friendly  expla- 
nations tor  all  that  they  are  worth,  we 
cannot  view  them  to  be  so  complete,  as  to 
leave  no  sense  of  a  difficulty  yet  unfa- 
thomable, and  no  room  for  the  apostolic 
reflection — '•  O  the  depth  of  the  riches 
both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of 
God !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  ways  past  finding  out  !" 

But  we  ought  now  to  enter  on  a  separate 
treatment  of  those  few  verses  in  the  pas- 
sage which  might  require  any  explana- 
tion. We  must  forbear  the  consideration 
of  such  prophetic  views  as  are  here  sug- 
gested, and  to  which  full  justice  could 
only  be  rendered  in  a  distinct  work. 

Ver.  25.  '  In  part.'  So  great  a  part  as 
to  impress  a  cursory  observer  with  its 
totality.  It  was  not  just  this  however — 
for  a  certain  though  very  small  propor- 
tion of  the  whole  nation  had  been  con- 
verted. Paul  gladly  avails  himself  of 
this,  that  he  might  be  enabled  to  charac- 
terise the  blindness  only  as  partial ;  and 
so  be  allowed  to  soften,  as  his  manner  is, 
the  representation  which  he  here  gives  to 
those  Jews  whom  he  is  addressing  in  this 
epistle  of  the  unbelief  of  their  country- 
men.— 'Until,'  or  'during,'  or  'while.' 
The  season  of  Jewish  unbelief  will  be 
that  of  Gentile  conversion.  We  could  not 
from  this  single  verse  infer,  that,  contem- 
poraneous with  the  restoration  of  Israel, 
there  was  to  ensue  a  remarkable  enlarge- 
ment of  general  Christianity  in  the  world. 
This  idea,  however,  might  well  be  sug- 
gested by  the  expression — especially 
when  taken  in  connection  with  other 
parts  of  the  chapter  and  other  prophecies 
of  the  Bible.  Apart  from  these,  the  ful- 
ness might  be  understood  to  mean,  not 
the  great  number  who  were  to  come  in, 
but  the  whole  number  who  should  be 
converted,  whether  that  number  was 
great  or  small.    The   blindness   was   to 


continue  while  the  elect  among:  the  Gen- 
tiles were  gathering,*  be  they  few  or 
many :  or  till  all  such  of  them  as  were 
ordained  to  eternal  life  should  believe  ; 
or,  more  generally  still,  "until  the  times 
of  the  Gentiles  should  be  fulfilled."  This 
leaves  the  extent  of  conversion  among 
the  Gentiles  undetermined ;  and  also 
leaves  us  at  liberty  to  judge,  whether, 
while  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  about 
the  time  when  the  Jews  are  brought  in 
there  will  be  a  great  enlargement  in  the 
generalChristianityof  the  world — whether 
that  enlargement  is  to  precede  the  Jewish 
conversion,  or  the  Jewish  conversion  is 
to  precede  the  enlargement.  We  are  in- 
clined to  believe  that,  looking  to  these 
two  events  in  the  order  of  cause  and 
effect,  they  will  have  a  great  reciprocal 
influence  on  each  other — or  that  there 
will  both  be  an  action  and  a  reaction. 
If  it  be  a  likelihood,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  Gentile  Christianity,  when  purified 
in  its  quality  and  made  larger  in  its 
amount,  shall,  both  by  the  exhibition  of 
its  graces  and  the  efforts  of  its  missionary 
zeal,  tell  with  great  and  sensible  effect 
on  the  obstinacy  of  Jewish  unbelief — the 
likelihood  is  not  less,  that  when  a  move- 
ment is  once  made  on  the  part  of  these 
heretofore  resolved  aliens  to  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,  it  will  tend  mightily  to  open 
the  eyes  of  all  nations,  so  as  to  impress 
millions  and  millions  more  in  favour  of 
that  gospel,  whose  predictions  shall  then 
be  so  illustriously  verified  ;  and  to  which 
so  impressive  a  testimony  will  be  given, 
when  its  most  inveterate,  and  long  itS' 
most  hopeless  enemies,  shall,  after  the 
lapse  of  many  generations,  look  in 
mourning  and  bitterness  to  Him  whom 
their  forefathers  had  pierced,  and,  casting' 
away  their  weapons  of  rebellion,  shall 
fall  down  to  worship  Him. 

But  our  further  remarks  on  particular 
verses,  we  must  postpone  to  the  next 
lecture. 


*  Mark,  xiii,  27. 


LECTURE  LXXXVn. CHAPTEU  XI,  26 36. 


441 


LECTURE  LXXXVII. 


Romans  xi,  26—36. 


And  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved :  as  it  is  written,  There  shall  come  out  of  Sion  the  Deliverer,  and  shall  turn  away 
ungodliness  from  Jacob  :  for  this  is  my  covenant  unto  them,  when  I  shall  take  away  their  sins.  As  concerning 
the  gospel,  they  are  enemies  for  your  sakes  :  but  as  touching  the  election,  they  are  beloved  for  the  fathers'  sakes. 
For  the  gifts  and  calling  of  God  are  without  repentance.  For  as  ye  in  times  past  have  not  believed  God,  yet  have 
now  obtained  mercy  through  their  unbelief;  even  so  have  these  also  now  not  believed,  that  through  your  mercy 
ihey  also  may  obtain  mercy.  For  God  hath  concluded  them  all  in  unbelief,  that  he  might  have  mercy  upon  all. 
O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judgments,  and 
his  ways  past  finding  out !  For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord  1  or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor'?  or  who 
hath  first  given  to  him,  and  it  shall  be  recompensed  unto  him  again  1  For  of  him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him 
are  all  things  :  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever.     Amen."     • 


Ver.  26.  '  All  Israel.'  Some  would  in- 
terpret the  clause  thus — All  of  Israel  who 
are  to  be  saved.  All  of  them  who  are 
ordained  to  eternal  life.  There  is  as  much 
of  force  in  these  interpretations  as  to  make 
it  possible,  nay  we  think  even  likely,  that 
the  meaning  here  of  the  word  all,  is  not 
such  an  absolute  and  entire  totality,  as  to 
include  each  and  every  one  of  the  nation 
at  the  time  of  their  predicted  conversion. 
Yet  something  more  must  be  conveyed  by 
the  term,  than  that  merely  all  the  elect 
were  to  be  saved — for,  whether  many  or 
few,  this  holds  true  of  them  in  every  age. 
The  '  air  must  be  held  to  denote  so  gene- 
ral, as  should  amount  to  a  national  con- 
version ;  and  as  the  '  part'  in  the  verse 
foregoing,  signifies  some,  though  so  very 
few  as  to  make  an  insensible  fraction  of 
believers  among  the  Jewish  people — so 
the  'all'  of  the  verse  before  us,  signifies 
at  least  so  many  as  should  form  a  great 
corporate  change  from  Judaism  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  so  as  to  leave  the  unbelievers, 
if  any,  but  an  insensible  fraction  of  the 
whole. 

'  Out  of  Zion.'  The  passage  referred  to 
is  Isa.  lix,  20 — where  the  prophet  repre- 
sents the  Deliverer  as  coming  tQ  Zion, 
while  the  apostle  represents  Him  as 
coming  from  Zion.  These  two  inspired 
men  reveal  to  us  a  glimpse  of  one  and  the 
same  process,  though  at  different  but  per- 
haps nearly,  if  not  altogether  contiguous 
parts  of  it — the  one  stating  a  previous  in- 
gress of  the  Saviour  to  Jerusalem,  the 
other  a  consequent  egress  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  His  great  undertaking.  The  light 
of  prophecy  here,  as  in  many  other  in- 
stances, but  permits  us  to  contemplate  the 
event  as  a  general  reality,  without  ena- 
bling us  to  enter  on  very  full  or  explicit 
details  of  it.  Its  still  undoubted  futurity, 
however,  is  manifest  from  this — its  being 
spoken  of  in  the  language  of  prediction 
both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New ; 
and  a  prediction  which  has  not  had  the 
semblance  of  a  fulfilment  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles. 

Ver.  27.  '  For  this  is  my  covenant  unto 
them,  when  I  shall  take  away  their  sins.' 
56 


The  conversion  intimated  here  is  described 
in  substantially  the  same  terms  in  Jere- 
miah, xxxi,  33,  34,  and  in  Hebrews,  viii, 
8-12;  X,  16,  17.  It  consists  of  the  same 
steps,  and  is  attended  with  the  same 
blessed  results  all  the  world  over ;  and  in 
every  instance,  whether  of  Jew  or  Gentile, 
who  is  turned  to  Christianity.  The  taking 
away  of  their  sins  in  this  passage  seems  a 
blotting  out  of  the  guilt  incurred  by  their 
transgression  of  God's  laws — as  equiva- 
lent to  what  in  the  other  passages  is  said 
to  be  a  remembrance  (in  judgment)  of 
their  sins  and  iniquities  no  more.  The 
turning  away  of  their  ungodliness  is  their 
sanclification,  even  as  the  other  was  their 
justification  ;  and  is  equivalent  to  what  is 
spoken  of  elsewhere,  as  a  putting  of  those 
laws — from  the  condemnation  of  having 
broken  which  they  were  delivered — of 
putting  these  laws  into  their  hearts,  and 
writing  them  in  their  minds.  The  cove- 
nant with  each  individual  believer  is  one 
and  the  same,  in  all  ages  and  among  all 
nations. 

Ver.  28.  '  As  concerning  the  gospel, 
they  are  enemies  for  your  sakes :  but  as 
touching  the  election,  they  are  beloved  for 
the  fathers'  sakes.'  Their  being  enemies 
for  the  gospel's  sake — points  to  the  sub- 
servience of  Jewish  infidelity,  as  the  in- 
strument of  dilTusing  Christianity  through 
the  world.  We  know  that  historically  the 
rejection  of  the  gospel  by  the  Jews  was 
followed  up  by  its  large  and  rapid  fur- 
therance among  the  Gentiles  ;  nor  can  we 
doubt  that  this  passage  in  the  administra- 
tion of  God's  providence  had  its  deep-laid 
reasons,  whether  we  fully  comprehend 
them  or  not,  in  the  counsels  of  the  Divine 
policy. — Again  their  being  beloved  for  the 
fathers'  sake,  points  to  the  regard  which 
God  had  for  Abraham,  and  to  the  promise 
which  He  made  this  patriarch,  even  in  the 
form  of  a  reward  for  his  faithfulness — 
that  He  would  signalize  his  posterity,  and 
make  them  a  blessing  to  the  nations  of 
the  earth.*  This  is  analogous  to  other 
instances  in   the  procedure    of   the  Al- 


*  Gen.  xxii,  10;  Lev.  xxvi,  42;  Dent,  iv,  37. 


44-2 


LECTURE  LXXXVII. CHAPTER  XI,  26 — 36. 


mighty's  government — as  when  for  the 
sake  of  David  and  other  good  kings,  He 
continued  His  favour  to  Jerusalem  and 
the  kingdom  of  Judah.* 

And  yet  this  final  salvation  of  the  Jews, 
though  thus  holding  on  the  worthiness  of 
their  fathers,  holds  also  on  election,  and 
so  on  the  sovereignty  of  God.  It  is  as 
touching  the  election,  that  they  are  be- 
loved for  the  fathers'  sake.  To  those  who 
have  made  a  profound  study  of  this  ardu- 
ous topic,  there  will  appear  no  discre- 
pancy between  these  two  things;  and  in- 
deed their  perfect  harmony  is  often  as 
obvious  to  the  wisdom  of  a  plain  Christian, 
as  it  is  to  the  man  of  philosophic  discrim- 
ination. There  is  no  incompatibility 
whatever  between  the  order  of  an  admin- 
istration being  fixed,  and  fixed  from  all 
eternity,  and  yet  its  being  a  moral  admin- 
istration. Whether  a  process  be  absolute 
and  irreversible  is  one  question.  What 
the  special  terms  of  that  process  are,  or 
■what  the  footsteps  i';  it  which  follow  each 
other,  is  another  It  is  the  latter  question 
which  determines  the  character  of  the 
process ;  and  should  the  former  question 
be  resolved  in  the  affirmative,  this,  so  far 
from  changing  or  giving  uncertainty  to 
the  character  of  the  process,  just  rivets 
and  makes  it  all  the  more  sure.  Give  me 
a  process,  all  the  parts  and  connections 
of  which  are  bound  together  by  an  ada- 
mantine necessity  ;  and  this  hinders  not 
but  that  in  the  laws  and  tendencies  and 
particular  sequences  of  such  a  process, 
we  may  read  both  its  own  character  and 
the  character  of  Him  who  has  ordained  it 
— and  all  the  more  distinctly  and  surely, 
if  the  process  be  indeed  unalterable.  If 
in  any  human  government,  the  deed  of 
virtuous  patriotism  were  generally  fol- 
lowed up  by  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
public  reward — this  might  serve  to  charac- 
terise it  as  being  on  the  whole  a  virtuous 
government ;  and  surely  it  would  not 
dilute,  but  rather  stamp  and  confirm  this 
character  the  more,  if,  instead  of  being 
thus  followed  up  generally,  it  were  so  fol- 
lowed up  always.  In  like  manner,  if,  un- 
der the  divine  government,  goodness  were 
always  followed  up  in  the  long  run  by 
enjoyment ;  and  righteousness,  though 
even  after  a  series  of  discouragements  in 
the  way  of  trial,  by  happiness  and  honour; 
and  holiness  by  heaven  ;  and,  in  a  word, 
the  regeneration  of  every  creature  into  a 
state  of  perfect  excellence,  by  his  secure 
and  immortal  well-being — no  one  could 
question  the  title  of  such  a  government  to 
the  highest  moral  reverence,  and  a  title 
all  the  more  firmly  established,  if  these 
several  effects  followed  in  the  train  of 
their  respective  causes  with  the  unex- 

t  IKings.  xi,  13,  36. 


cepted  constancy  of  an  order  that  never 
changed.  We  are  aware  of  certain  tran- 
scendental difficulties,  which  we  forbear 
to  grapple  with  ;  but  assuredly  the  task 
of  harmonising  the  character  of  an  ad- 
ministration as  being  of  perfect  moral 
goodness,  with  the  *;haracteristic  of  its 
strict  and  rigorous  and  irrevocable  neces- 
sity, is  not  one  of  them — even  though  a 
necessity  settled  and  ordained  in  the  coun- 
sels of  the  Almighty  from  everlasting. 
And  thus  particularly  might  the  future 
and  final  salvation  of  the  children  of 
Israel  be  viewed  both  as  the  fruit  of  a 
primeval  decree  of  election,  and  as  at 
once  the  fruit  and  the  reward  of  the  obe- 
dience of  Abraham.  The  first  does  not 
supersede  the  second  ;  nay  the  second  is 
one  of  the  stepping-stones  along  which 
the  first  is  carried,  and  will  at  length  be 
made  good.  Nay  it  will  require  another 
great  stepping-stone,  ere  the  decree  is 
consummated — a  work  of  grace  in  the 
hearts  of  Abraham's  children  ;  their  turn- 
ing to  the  Lord,  that  the  veil  which  now 
blinds  them  might  be  taken  away  ;*  their 
deep  and  mournful  penitence,  and  that 
worked  in  them  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;t 
and  lastly,  their  biding  not  in  unbelief, 
and  their  ungodliness  being  turned  away. 

Ver.  29.  'For  the  gifts  and  calling  of 
God  are  without  repentance.'  That  is, 
repentance  on  the  part  of  God.  What 
He  hath  resolved,  he  shall  certainly  fulfil. 
"God  is  not  a  man,  that  he  should  lie; 
neither  the  son  of  man,  that  he  should 
repent:  hath  he  said,  and  shall  he  not  do 
it?  or  hath  he  spoken,  and  shall  he  not 
make  it  good  1"  His  original  purpose, 
and  promise  too,  respecting  the  children 
of  Israel,  in  His  own  good  time,  will  be 
accomplished ;  and  the  necessary  gifts 
will  then  be  imparted,  as  well  as  the  ne- 
cessary calling  brought  to  bear  upon 
them  for  carrying  it  into  effiict.  This 
calling,  as  being  in  execution  of  the  de- 
cree of  election,  must,  of  course,  be 
internal  and  efficacious — as  distinguished 
from  the  ordinary  and  outward  calling, 
such  as  that  wherewith  they  wore  plied 
at  the  time  of  the  Saviour,  and  which 
then  proved  ineffectual,  the  things  belong- 
ing to  their  peace  being  hidden  from 
their  eyes.  At  the  calling  of  our  text, 
their  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  they  shall 
behold  Him  whom  they  have  pierced,  and 
say  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.t 

Ver.  30,  31.  '  For  as  ye  in  times  past 
have  not  believed  God,  yet  have  now 
obtained  mercy  through  their  unbelief; 
even  so  have  these  also  now  not  believed, 
that  through  your  mercy  they  also  may 
obtain  mercy.'     It  is  obvious,  as  we  have 


•  2  Cor.  iii,  10.      t  Zech.  xii,  10,  U.      t  Matt,  xxiii,  39. 


LECTURE   LXXXVII. CHAPTER.   XI,    26 — 36. 


Uc 


already  said,  that  there  was  a  connection, 
and  that  too  in  the  way  of  promotion  and 
subserviency,  between  the  unbelief  of  the 
Jews  and  the  Christianity  of  the  Gentiles. 
This  is  again  affirntied  in  the  verse  before 
us  ;  and  a  sort  of  parallelism  founded  on 
it,  between  the  respective  changes  already 
experienced  in  part,  and  to  be  completed 
afterwards,  on  these  two  great  divisions 
of  the  human  family.  What  the  Gentiles 
had  been  in  times  past  when  they  be- 
lieved not,  the  Jews  were  now.  The  Gen- 
tiles passed  out  of  their  former  unbelief, 
and  obtained  mercy  through  the  unbelief 
of  the  Jews.  The  Jews  will  pass  out  of 
their  present  unbelief  and  obtain  mercyi 
not  through  the  unbelief,  but  through  the 
mercy  besto-ived  upon  the  Gentiles.  We 
can  see  how  the  grace  of  God  is  magnified 
by  a  mercy  bestowed  on  men  in  a  pre- 
vious state  of  rebellion  and  apostacy. 
Its  display  is  all  the  more  illustrious,  in 
that  it  is  shed  forth  on  men  in  a  state  of 
resolute  hostility  or  of  deep  and  settled 
alienation,  rather  than  on  men  in  a  state 
of  expectancy  and  desirousness  of  the 
blessings  from  heaven  which  they  need  ; 
and  so  it  serves  to  brighten  and  enhance 
the  character  of  Him,  whose  thoughts 
are  not  as  our  thoughts,  nor  ways  as  our 
ways — that  His  mercy  should  thus  de- 
scend on  places  the  darkest  and  most 
repulsive,  whether  on  the  depravity  of 
the  heathen  world  or  on  the  obstinacy 
and  perverseness  of  the  children  of 
Israel.* 

The  analogy  between  the  two  cases  of 
the  Jews  and  Gentiles,  is,  that  each  shall 
at  length  have  obtained  mercy — making 
transition  thereunto  from  their  own  pre- 
vious state  of  unbelief.  The  distinction 
is,  that  the  Gentiles  arrived  at  their  bles- 
sing through  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews: 
The  Jews  will  arrive  at  theirs  through 
the  mercy  before  shown  to  the  Gentiles. 
One  can  perceive  how  the  Jews  might 
have  been  confirmed  in  their  arrogant, 
exclusive,  and  unsocial  spirit,  had  Chris- 
tianity sprung  up  amongst  them,  and 
taken  possession  of  their  nation  under 
the  direct  and  immediate  influence  of  our 
Saviour's  teaching,  the  Author  and  Fin- 
isher of  our  faith.  It  might  then  have 
come  forth  upon  the  world  as  Judaism 
perfected,  and  in  such  a  way,  as,  instead 
of  humbling  the  Jews,  might  have  in- 
flamed still  further  their  extravagant 
sense  of  superiority  over  all  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth.  But  coming  as  it 
will  through  the  medium  of  a  previous 
Gentile  Christianity,  this  strong  national 
partiality,  this  fond  and  rooted  prejudice 
of  many  ages,  may  at  length  give  way — 
when,  so  far  humbled  as  to  take  from  us 

'  Romans,  v,  8,  10. 


that  true  religion  in  the  attitude  of  recipi- 
ents, which,  otherwise,  they  might  have 
conferred  on  us  in  the  attitude  of  dis- 
pensers. It  is  thus,  perhaps,  that  by  a 
lengthened  course  of  preparation,  the 
training  of  a  spiritual  husbandry  carried 
onward  through  a  series  of  centuries,  the 
world  may  come  to  be  matured  for  the 
establishment  within  its  limits  of  one 
great  spiritual  family — "  where  there  is 
neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor 
uncircumcision,  Barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  nor  free ;  but  Christ  is  all,  and  in 
all." 

Ver.32.  There  may  be  reason  to  believe 
from  other  passages  and  other  prophecies 
in  Scripture,  that  there  remains  to  be  yet 
revealed  an  infidel  antichrist,  and  so  a 
general  falling  away  from  the  gospel 
among  the  nations  of  Christendom  ;  but 
this  is  not  one  of  these  passages.  The 
unbelief  in  which  God  hath  concluded 
all,  is  first  the  unbelief  of  the  Gentile 
world  before  the  promulgation  of  the 
gospel,  out  of  which  they  then  emerged 
into  Christianity  ;  and  second,  the  present 
unbelief  of  the  Jews,  out  of  which  they 
also  will  emerge  into  Christianity  when 
the  time  of  their  restoration  comes.  It  is 
the  present  unbelief  of  the  Jews  which  is 
spoken  of  in  this  verse  ;  but  it  is  the  past, 
and  not  a  future  unbelief,  of  the  Gentiles 
which  is  there  spoken  of.  It  is  thus  that 
the  apostle  adjusts  and  balances,  and  if  I 
may  so  say,  equalises  the  account  be- 
tween the  Jews  and  Gentiles — a  main 
topic  with  him,  from  the  commencement 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  his  epistle. 
He  had  before  spoken  of  their  common 
vices.  He  now  speaks  of  their  common 
infidelity — that,  after  representing  both 
as  having  fallen  into  one  and  the  same 
abyss,  he  might  reconcile  both  to  one  and 
the  same  method  of  recovery  ;  and,  along 
with  this,  establish  the  great  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith,  as  the  common  and 
equal  footing  on  which  both  are  taken 
into  acceptance  with  God.  The  whole  of 
his  argument,  whilst  intended  to  harmon- 
ise the  two  parties  into  one,  is  fitted  also 
to  humble  each  of  them,  and  especially 
the  Jews.  Yet  one  cannot  fail  to  perceive 
how  studious  he  is  of  mitigating  to  the 
uttermost  the  painfulness  of  his  demon- 
stration— that  he  might  "give  none  of- 
fence, neither  to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the 
Gentiles,  nor  to  the  church  of  God,  but 
please  all  men  in  all  things,  not  seeking 
his  own  profit  but  the  profit  of  many,  that 
they  may  be  saved."  In  the  execution  of 
this  task,  he  acquits  himself  with  a  tact 
and  a  delicacy  and  an  address  altogether 
worthy  of  the  most  accomplished  cour- 
tier— yet  only  Avith  the  skill  of  this  pro- 
fession, and  not  with  its  duplicity  ;  for  on 
the  ground  of  principle,  and  when  aught 


444 


LECTURE  LXXXVII. CHAPTER  XI,  26 — 36. 


of  truth  had  to  be  defended  or  of  error 
to  be  rebuked  and  put  down,  none  more 
resolute  in  assertion  or  more  fearless  in 
remonstrance  than  Paul.  This  union  of 
an  uncompromising  firmness  with  a  del- 
icacy the  most  sensitive,  we  had  almost 
said  the  most  tremulous,  lest  unnecessary 
violence  should  be  done  to  the  feelings 
of  other  men — we  have  always  held  to  be 
a  leading  character  in  the  mind  and  man- 
ner of  this  great  apostle. 

Ver.  33,  34.  '  O  the  depth  of  the  riches 
both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of 
God  !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  waj's  past  finding  out ! 
For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the 
'  Lord  !  or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor  V 
It  were  well  to  discriminate  the  precise 
sentiment  of  that  sublime  effusion,  where- 
with the  apostle  here  concludes  and  sums 
^  up  the  whole  of  this  contemplation.  We 
should  say  in  the  general,  that  they  are 
the  natural  rather  than  any  of  the  moral 
attributes  of  the  Divinity,  which  have 
evoked  it.  It  is  not  of  His  mercy  that  the 
apostle  now  makes  mention  ;  nor  yet  of 
His  justice ;  nor  yet  of  His  unswerving 
truth  or  fidelity;  nor  yet  of  His  holiness 
or  dread  antipathy  to  sin.  They  are  His 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  the  depth  of 
the  riches  of  these,  which  he  celebrates  in 
this  place  ;  and  the  unfathomable  mys- 
tery, both  of  His  counsels  and  processes  ; 
and  lastly,  the  absolute  and  entire  own- 
ership, and  therefore  disposal  or  sove- 
reignty which  God  has  of  creation — see- 
ing that  He  is  at  once  the  origin  and  the 
end  of  all  things.  It  is  true  that  His  judg- 
ments, if  not  His  ways,  stand  related  to 
the  principles  of  His  righteous  adminis- 
tration— Yet  here  they  are  not  spoken  of 
as  righteous,  but  simply  and  generally  as 
inscrutable.  The  jurisprudence  of  a  law- 
giver cannot  be  appreciated  rightly,  but 
by  a  reference  to  its  moral  character — 
which,  indeed,  is  the  most  important  ele- 
ment of  all  in  the  reckoning.  But  the 
very  thing  affirmed  here  respecting  the 
jurisprudence  of  Him  who  is  the  great 
Lawgiver  of  heaven  and  earth,  is,  that  in 
our  present  state  at  least  it  is  not  appre- 
ciable by  us,  that  it  is  beyond  our  reck- 
oning; and  though  a  time  be  coming 
when  the  mystery  of  God  shall  be  fin- 
ished,* and  we  shall  be  enabled  to  say, 
not  only  "  Great  and  marvellous  arc  thy 
works.  Lord  God  Almighty,"  but  "Just 
and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of 
saints,"  and  "  thy  judgments  are  made 
manifest" — Yet  now  must  we  join  the 
apostle  in  the  utterance  of  our  text — 'How 
unsearchable  are  these  judgments,  and 
these  ways  how  past  finding  out  !' 

In  attending  to  what  that  specifically 

*  Revelation,  x,  7. 


was  which  called  forth  this  high  exclama- 
tion from  the  apostle,  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  we  are  not  altogether  in  a  fit  state 
fully  to  sympathise  with  him.  The  events 
which  thus  excited  him  to  reflection  have 
been  too  long  familiar  to  us.  And  this 
rejection  of  the  Jews,  or  admission  of  the 
Gentiles,  or  even  reunion  of  both  into  one 
faith  and  one  family — so  long  as  but  read 
of  in  prophecy,  and  not  yet  seen  in  living 
fulfilment — these  as  little  move  us,  as  do 
any  of  those  great  historical  changes 
which  have  long  passed  over  the  world, 
and  are  now  as  current  as  household 
words  in  the  pages  of  well  known  author- 
«hip.  But  we  must  not  estimate  from  our 
indifference  now,  the  effect  which  such  a 
revolution  then  must  have  had,  and  espe- 
cially in  all  the  force  and  freshness  of 
its  novelty  on  a  Jewish  understanding — 
before  the  wonder  and  recency  of  the 
great  passing  changes  had  subsided  ;  or 
men,  with  the  education  and  prejudices 
of  an  Israelite,  had  recovered  from  the 
sensation  of  that  violence  inflicted  on  all 
their  previous  habitudes  of  thought  and 
feeling,  when,  God  abandoned  His  an- 
cient people,  and  made  profier  to  all  men 
of  those  blessings  and  distinctions  which 
till  now  had  been  exclusively  theirs.  And 
there  was  something  more  in  it  than  a 
reversal  to  excite  surprise.  There  was 
an  enlargement  which  must  have  served 
mightily  to  expand  the  mental  perspec- 
tive, particularly  of  those  Christian  Jews, 
who  had  just  cast  off  the  limitations  that 
so  fettered  and  confined  the  general  un- 
derstandings of  their  countrymen.  It 
was  a  transition  from  the  local  to  the  uni- 
versal. This  enlargement  of  view  from  a 
country  to  a  world  in  the  economy  of  the 
Divine  word,  was  fitted  to  awaken  and 
amplify  the  mind  of  its  admiring  ob- 
servers— just  as  a  few  centuries  ago,  when 
in  the  economy  of  the  Divine  workman- 
ship, the  mystery  of  these  sensible  hea- 
vens was  laid  open,  and  the  human  mind 
made  its  large  and  lofty  transition  from 
the  view  of  a  world  to  the  view  of  a  uni- 
verse. Relatively  to  the  state  of  previous 
conception  at  each  of  these  periods,  there 
is  a  striking  similarity  between  them ; 
and  the  respective  discoveries,  the  one 
moral  or  spiritual  the  other  natural,  are 
fitted' to  beget  a  like  sense  of  gi'eatness — 
whether  in  the  objects  contemplated,  or 
in  the  magnificent  designs  of  Him  whose 
government  reaches  to  all  ages  and  em- 
braces all  worlds.  It  was  a  mighty  stretch 
at  the  earlier  of  these  periods,  when  the 
view  was  carried  forward  from  a  single 
nation  to  the  whole  human  family  ;  and 
mightier  still  at  the  later  of  them,  when 
carried  forward  from  the  earth  we  live 
upon  to  the  vast,  and  for  aught  we  know, 
the  boundless  assemblage  of  those  suns 


LECTURE  LXXXVII. CHAPTER  XI,  26 — 36. 


445 


and  systems  which  Astronomy  hath  un- 
folded. The  mind  of  the  apostle  seems, 
in  the  passage  now  before  us,  to  have 
fully  shared  in  the  first  of  these  expan- 
sions, and  even  elsewhere  to  have  bor- 
dered, nay  actually  to  have  entered  on 
the  second  of  them — when  on  this  very 
theme  of  a  one  Christianity  for  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  he  tells  us  of  Him  from  whom 
the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named,  and  by  whom  all  things  were 
created,  visible  and  invisible,  whether 
they  be  thrones  or  dominions  or  princi- 
palities or  powers ;  and  then  gives  us  to 
know,  of  this  evolution  in  the  government 
and  history  of  the  chui-ch,  that  it  was 
meant  as  an  illustration  to  the  whole 
universe  of  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God.* 
But  these  are  reflections  on  the  great- 
ness rather  than  on  the  incomprehensibil- 
ity of  the  King  eternal  and  immortal — 
on  the  riches  and  extent  of  His  creation, 
rather  than  on  the  mysteriousness  of  His 
government ;  and  bespeak  more  the  ad- 
miration of  a  magnificence  beyond  all 
our  previous  conceptions,  than  our  won- 
der in  the  contemplation  of  depths  and 
difficulties  utterly  beyond  our  present  un- 
derstanding. Now  it  is  not  mere  expan- 
sion in  the  field  of  view  which  calls  forth 
or  exhausts  the  whole  sentiment  of  this 
passage — as  the  adoption,  f  )r  example,  of 
a  whole  species,  instead  of  but  the  people 
of  a  single  nation,  into  one  and  the  same 
spiritual  family.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
magnitude  of  the  result,  as  the  rationale 
of  the  process,  which  engages  and  baffles 
Ihe  mind  of  the  apostle  ;  and  which  there- 
fore he  pronounces  to  be  unsearchable, 
and  past  finding  out.  It  is  the  selection 
of  one  household  from  a  world  left  in 
darkness  and  alienation  from  God — it  is 
the  commillal  to  them  of  the  divine  ora- 
cles, and  the  preservation  amongst  their 
descendants  of  the  true  knowledge  and 
worship  of  the  Deity — it  is  the  history  of 
this  singular  people,  through  whom  was 
kept  up  the  only  remaining  intercourse 
between  heaven  and  earth ;  and  which 
was  finally  broken  off,  after  the  dealing 
of  many  centuries,  in  the  various  forms 
of  chastisement  at  one  time  and  of  mercy 
or  endurance  at  another,  till  the  perver- 
sities of  stiff-necked  and  rebellious  Israel 
could  be  no  longer  tolerated,  and  the 
things  of  peace  and  salvation  were  hence- 
forth hidden  from  their  eyes — it  is  con- 
temporaneously with  the  rejection  of  the 
Jews,  the  call  of  the  Gentiles  just  awoke 
from  the  profound  lethargy  of  ages,  dur- 
ing which  the  millions  of  unvisited  and 
unblest  heathenism  were  suffered  to  perish 
in  their  iniquities — and  then,  to  close  the 
enumeration,  it  was  the  prospect  still  at 


*  Colossiaas,  i,  16 ;  Ephesians,  iii,  10, 13. 


the  time  of  Paul,  of  another  dreary  nay 
a  double  millennium  of  exile  and  moral 
wretchedness  for  his  own  outcast  country-- 
men,  ere  the  goodly  consummation  should 
arrive,  or  the  latter-day  glory  was  to  shine 
forth  on  a  then  happy  and  regenerated 
earth — These  are  the  eventful  changes  in 
the  contemplation  of  which  the  mind  of 
our  apostle  seems  to  be  labouring,  as  if 
the  footsteps  of  a  series  which  he  felt 
himself  unable  to  trace,  or  at  least  unable 
to  account  for.  And  certainly  to  us  it 
does  look  inexplicable,  that  the  same  God 
who  could  will  as  we  imagine  into  present 
effect,  an  instant  and  universal  blessed- 
ness— that  He  should  rather  choose  to 
compass  the  fulfilments  of  His  wisdom 
and  goodness  by  so  lengthened,  so  labo- 
rious a  pathway.  The  difficulty  is  a  thou- 
sand-fold aggravated — when  we  think  of 
the  failures,,  the  abortions,  the  woful  and 
wide-spread  degeneracies,  lighted  up  by 
intervals  few  and  far  between  of  the  good 
or  the  beautiful  in  the  moral  history  of 
the  world.  We  cannot  but  wonder  at  such 
a  preparation  being  right  or  necessary, 
ere  the  secure,  the  everlasting  empire  of 
truth  and  righteousness  shall  be  ushered 
in.  And  yet  these  are  parts  of  a  scheme, 
and  of  a  scheme  in  progress,  reaching 
forward  to  a  great  and  glorious  accom- 
plishment, though  by  initial  stages  of 
darkness,  depravity  and  disorder,  the  full 
meaning  or  effect  of  which  we  cannot 
comprehend.  They  are  the  deep-laid 
movements  of  a  policy  to  us  inscrutable; 
and  as  we  have  just  borrowed  an  apalogy 
from  one  of  the  sciences,  we  may  here 
avail  ourselves  of  another,  and  point  to 
the  yet  hidden  enigmaof  those  successive 
creations  which  geology  has  unfolded, 
and  which  prove  the  developments  both 
of  animal  and  spiritual  existence  to  be 
alike  inexplicable.  There  is  the  pro- 
foundest  mystery  in  both  ;  and  whether 
we  try  to  explore  the  moral  or  the  physi- 
cal departments  of  His  administraion,  it  is 
good  to  feel  the  infinity  of  our  distance 
from  Him,  whose  way  is  in  the  sea,  and 
whose  path  is  in  the  great  waters,  and 
whose  footsteps  are  not  known.*  "For 
who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  or 
who  hath  been  his  counsellor'!" 

Ver.  35,  36.  '  Or  who  hath  first  given 
to  him,  and  it  shall  be  recompensed  unto 
him  again  ?  For  of  him,  and  through  him, 
and  to  him,  are  all  things  :  to  whom  be 
glory  for  ever.  Amen.'  These  verses 
strike  at  the  root  of  that  lofty  pretension 
which  it  is  the  great  aim  of  the  apostle  to 
overthrow — that  of  man  having  any  right- 
ful claim  upon  God,  who  is  at  once  the 
origin  and  the  end  of  all  things.  To  Him 
we  owe  not  all  the  objects  of  enjoyment 

*  Psalm  Ixxvii,  19. 


446 


LECTURE   LXXXVn. CHAPTER   XI,    26 — 36. 


merely,  but  all  our  capacities  of  enjoy- 
ment. This  is  a  theme  too  big  for  utter- 
ance, and  more  to  be  dwelt  upon  in 
thought  than  dilated  on  in  language — the 
entire  subordination  of  the  creature  to  the 
Creator,  of  the  thing  formed  to  Him  who 
hath  formed  it,  by  whose  care  it  is  that 


we  consist  or  keep  together,  and  whose 
right  hand  upholds  us  continually.  It  is 
our  part  evt-n  here,  and  in  the  dimness  of 
our  present  embryo  being,  to  award  Him 
all  the  glory.  This  will  be  the  song  of 
our  eternity,  when  we  shall  see  Him  as  He 
is,  and  know  even  as  we  are  known. 


LECTURE  LXXXVIII. 


Romans  xii,  1,  2. 

"  I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  accep- 
table unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service.  And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world  ;  but  be  ye  transformed  by 
the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  accept;ible,  and  perfect  will  of  God." 


Ver.  1.  '  By  the  mercies  of  God' — Those 
mercies  of  which  he  had  juist  spoken  as 
alike  applicable  both  to  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, whom  he  now  addresses  as  the  sub- 
jects of  a  common  discipleship,  and  under 
the  common  title  of  brethren.  The  style 
of  his  address  is  eminently  fitted  to  con- 
ciliate the  men,  with  whom  he  had  just 
been  holding  what  at  least  one  class  of 
them  might  have  felt  to  be  a  somewhat 
stern  and  repulsive  argument.  And  his 
manner  is,  he  omits  no  lawful  expedient, 
by  which  to  disarm  the  repugnance  of  his 
pupils  to  aught  which  might  prove  hard 
or  distasteful  in  the  reasonings  which  he 
employs  ;  and  so  he  stands  before  them, 
not  in  the  attitude  of  a  master  to  school 
them  into  submission,  but  of  a  friend  and 
fellow-disciple,  to  supplicate  their  gifts 
.'ind  services  at  the  altar  of  their  common 
Christianity.  At  this  part  he  makes  the 
transition  from  doctrine  to  practice  ;  and 
on  the  groundwork  of  those  mercies  which 
he  had  just  demonstrated,  tells  them  what 
the  returns  are  which  are  expected  at 
their  hands.  That  gospel  mercy  which 
proclaims  so  full  an  indemnity  for  the 
past,  is  flagrantly  misunderstood  by  those, 
who  conceive  of  it  as  holding  out  a  like 
full  exemption  from  the  toils  of  a  future 
obedience — instead  of  which  there  can- 
not be  imagined  a  more  entire  renuncia- 
tion of  an  old  habit  and  an  old  will,  than 
what  takes  place,  and  takes  place  invari- 
ably, in  the  economy  under  which  we  sit. 
And  there  is  no  dispensation  from  it.  The 
covenant  of  works  began  with  service, 
and  ended  with  reward.  The  covenant  of 
grace  begins  with  mercy  and  ends  with 
service ;  and  most  certainly  a  service  not 
short  of  the  former,  either  in  the  univer- 
sality of  its  range  over  the  whole  domain 
of  our  moral  nature — or  at  length  with 
every  single  disciple  in  the  school  of 
Christianity,  in  the  tale  and  measure  of 
his  performances.    And  can  any  subordi- 


nation be  more  complete  than  that  which 
is  proposed  in  these  verses? — and  pro- 
posed too  on  the  ground  of  those  mercies, 
or  because  of  them  (iherrfore,)  as  the  right- 
ful and  proper  return  to  God  for  the  bene- 
fits of  this  new  dispensation.  We  are 
called  on  to  present  our  bodies  a  '  sacri- 
tice' — not  by  giving  them  to  be  burnt,  as 
were  the  slain  carcases  of  ihe  Jewish 
oiferings,  but  to  present  them  'a  living 
sacrifice  ;'  or,  in  other  words,  not  by  the 
extinction  of  our  animal  life,  but  by  the 
utter  mortification  of  all  that  is  evil  or 
forbidden  in  our  animal  desires,  which,  if 
not  the  death  of  the  body,  is  at  least  the 
death  of  that  which  was  formerly  dear  to 
it  even  as  life  itself.  The  voluntary  sur- 
render of  that  in  which  the  chief  enjoy- 
ment of  life  consisted,  is  a  self-denial,  or 
rather  a  self-infliction,  which,  if  not  equiv- 
alent, is  at  least  analogous  to  a  literal 
sacrifice  of  the  person  ;  and  is  thus  de- 
nominated in  various  parts  of  Scripture. 
And  certainly  it  may  require  a  strength 
of  resolution  as  great  as  that  exhibited  in 
the  martyrdoms,  whether  of  principle  or 
patriotism.  And  accordinijly  wc  read  of 
being  "crucified  with  Christ,"  of  them 
that  ai"c  His  having  "crucified  the  flesh 
with  its  affections  and  lusts,"  of  our  being 
"  buried  with  him  in  baptism,"  of  our 
"  being  made  conformable  unto  his  death," 
of  our  putting  oft'  by  a  circumcision  "  the 
body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh,"  of  our  being 
"  baptized  into  his  death."*  There  is 
nothing  surely  in  these  expressions,  to 
countenance  the  immoralities  or  the  in- 
dolence of  antinomianism ;  and  we  may 
well  understand  how  that,  to  be  carried 
into  effect,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffer- 
eth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by 
forcef .  Truly  it  is  not  by  a  slight  or  easy 
process,  by  a  listless  seeking  after  life. 


•Gal.ii,20;  v,  24;  Col.  ii,ll,12;  Phil,  hi,  10;  Rom.ti.S 
t  Matt,  si,  \'i. 


LECTURE   LXXXVIII. — CHAPTER   XII,    1,    2. 


447 


that  we  shall  make  good  our. entry  there- 
into, or  work  out  our  salvation  ;  but  by 
dint  of  a  hard  and  laborious  striving,  so 
very  hard  and  far  above  the  powers  of 
nature,  that  it  needs  the  working  of  that 
grace  which  worketh  in  us  mightily.* 

It  is  no  more  a  literal  sacrifice  that  we 
are  called  to,  than  Paul's  was  a  literal 
crucifixion,  when  he  tells  us  that  he  was 
crucified  with  Christ.  Nevertheless  he 
lived.  Yet,  to  signify  the  actuating  power 
which  thus  enabled  him  to  stifle  and  over- 
bear the  strongest  and  most  urgent  im- 
portunities of  nature,  he  further  says  that 
it  was  not  he  but  Christ  who  lived  in  him  ; 
and,  still  more  to  explain  the  principle  or 
rationale  of  this  great  achievement,  he 
lets  us  know  that  his  life  (for  the  cruci- 
fixion he  underwent  did  not,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Saviour,  imply  any  surrender  of 
this  life)  that  the  life  which  he  lived  in  the 
flesh  was  a  life  of  faith  on  the  Son  of 
God — and  he  adds,  "  who  loved  me  and 
gave  himself  for  me."  Let  us  in  like 
manner  take  the  same  firm  hold  on  the 
sure  mercies  of  David — the  identical  mer- 
cies of  our  text ;  and  on  the  strength  of 
this  confidence,  or  faith  which  over- 
cometh  the  world,  we  shall  accomplish 
the  same  victory  and  make  good  the  same 
sacrifice  which  it  was  the  incessant  labour 
of  his  life  to  perfect  in  the  sight  of  God. 
Let  the  grace  of  Christ  rule  in  our  hearts, 
and  then  sin  will  no  longer  have  the  do- 
minion over  us.  If  we  walk  in  the  Spirit, 
we  shall  not  fulfil  the  lust  of  the  flesh  ; 
but  keep  under  our  bodies  and  so  bring 
them  into  subjection,  keep  them  in  sancti- 
fication  and  honour,  keep  them  with  that 
holy  guardianship  which  is  due  to  the 
temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost — and  finally, 
to  complete  the  surrender,  or  merge  our 
will  wholly  into  God's  will,  we  shall  not 
be  satisfied  with  one  act  of  self-denial ; 
but,  making  it  the  symbol  and  earnes't  of 
a  universal  obedience,  whether  we  eat  or 
drink,  or  whatever  we  do,  we  shall  do  all 
to  the  glory  of  God.  The  supremacy 
ascribed  to  Him  at  the  end  of  the  last 
chapter  is  universal ;  and,  in  keeping  with 
this,  the  submission  laid  upon  us  at  the 
commencement  of  this  chapter  is  univer- 
sal also. 

And  this  is  a  sacrifice  which  may  well 
be  called  'holy' — a  term  properly  ex- 
pressive of  separation.  The  best  and 
indeed  the  prescribed  way  of  keeping 
down  the  appetencies  of  the  body,  is  to 
keep  at  a  distance  from  iJfflAbjects  which 
excite  them.  And  thus  WRiould  be  our 
prayer  and  our  endeavour  to  turn  away 
our  eyes  from  beholding  vanity  ;  and  we 
are  told  not  to  look  upon  the  wine  when 
it  is  red ;  and  we  are  bidden  to  refrain 


Luke,  xiii,24;  Col.  i,  29. 


our  foot  from  the  path  of  sinners,  and  to 
refrain  our  tongue  from  evil  and  eschew 
it.  The  policy  of  the  Christian  is  first  to 
flee  the  temptation  of  alluring  objects 
when  he  can,  and  then  resist  it  to  the  ut- 
termost when  he  can  not.  He  does  the 
first  when  he  sets  no  wicked  thing  before 
his  eyes,*  or  rather  avoids  it,  passes  not 
by  it,  turns  from  it,  and  passes  away.f 
He  does  the  second,  when  in  such  cir- 
cumstances as  that  he  cannot  withdraw, 
but  may  at  least  withstand — as  when  he 
sits  to  eat  with  a  ruler,  and  considers 
diligently  what  is  set  before  him ;  and 
puts  a  knife  to  his  throat  if  he  be  a  man 
given  to  appetite.  The  world  we  live  in 
is  a  world  full  of  temptation  to  those  dis- 
tempered, or  as  the  apostle  terms  them, 
these  vile  bodies ;  and  it  is  only  by  a 
strenuous  avoidance  and  a  strenuous  re- 
sistance together,  that  we  can  maintain  a 
holy  separation  from  the  objects  which 
would  otherwise  lord  it  over  us,  and  bring 
us  under  the  dominion  of  those  evil  af- 
fections which  war  against  the  soul. 

'Acceptable  unto  God.'  There  is  a  cer- 
tain rigid  and  overstrained  orthodoxy, 
which  would  banish  this  term  altogether 
from  the  doings  or  the  services  of  men ; 
and  has  thus,  we  fear,  done  a  world  of 
mischief  to  practical  religion.  It  is  most 
true,  as  they  contend,  that  the  perfect 
obedience  of  Christ  is  the  only  ground 
of  our  meritorious  acceptance  with  God — 
the  only  consideration  on  which  the  re- 
wards of  eternity  can  be  challenged  or 
claimed  for  us  as  rightfully  our  due.  But 
this  is  no  reason  why  acceptance,  nay 
acceptance  with  God,  should  be  so  utterly 
dissociated  as  some  would  have  it  to  be 
from  the  obedience  of  man.  On  this  sub- 
ject the  Bible  is  far  more  free  and  fear- 
less than  are  many  of  our  sensitive  theo- 
logians. It  can  tell  us  to  walk  worthy  of 
the  Lord  unto  all  well-pleasing;  and  of 
the  value  which  He  has  for  our  personal 
virtues,  as,  for  example,  a  meek  and  quiet 
spirit,  which  in  the  sight  of  God  is  of 
great  price ;  and  of  the  love  He  bears  to 
the  possessor  of  good  moral  qualities  and 
habits,  as  when  it  says  that  God  loveth  a 
cheerful  giver  ;  and  of  the  chief  impor- 
tance which  it  assigns  to  the  services  of 
our  new  obedience,  making  these  the  end 
or  terminating  object  of  our  Saviour's 
death,  who  gave  Him.self  for  us,  that  He 
might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and 
purify  unto  Himself  a  peculiar  people 
zealous  of  good  works  ;  and  of  the  real 
substantive  effect  or  virtue  that  there  is 
in  an  endeavour  for  adding  to  our  trea- 
sures in  heaven,  or  to  the  rewards  and 
joys  of  our  eternity,  as  when  it  bids  us 
be  steadfast  and   immovable  and  always 


'  Vaalm  ci,  3. 


t  Proverbs,  iv,  15. 


448 


LECTURE  LXXXVm. CHAPTER  XU,    l,  2. 


abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  for- 
asmuch as  we  know  that  our  labour  in 
the  Lord  shall  not  be  in  vain  :  And,  in 
one  word  more,  of  its  incessant  demand 
for  the  right  conduct. of  every  disciple, 
and  for  the  graces  and  accomplishments 
of  a  right  character,  as  shining  forth 
throughout  all  the  gospel,  and  in  each  of 
the  epistles.  Now  we  cannot  say  of  all 
or  any  part  of  this,  that  it  is  expressly 
denied  by  our  evangelical  Christians. 
Nay  rather,  it  in  words  is  expressly  ad- 
mitted by  them  ;  and  it  has  a  place  in  the 
formularies  of  every  Protestant  church  ; 
and  is  harmonised  by  theologians  into  a 
consistency  with  the  great  doctrine  of 
juslilication  by  faith — for  they  tell  us, 
and  tell  us  truly,  that  it  forms  no  part  of 
this  justification,  and  that  if  our  services 
or  sacrifices  be  acceptable  at  all,  they  are 
only  acceptable  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ, 
in  whom  alone  it  is  that  we  can  find  ac- 
ceptance either  for  our  persons  or  services. 
All  this  is  very  distinctly  laid  down  ;  and 
yet  with  many  a  mind  it  does  not  coun- 
tervail the  effect  of  those  denunciations 
which  orthodoxy  has  launched  forth  on 
the  presumption  and  vanity  of  human 
works.  Such  is  the  evil  of  fierce  contro- 
versy, that,  after  all  the  attempts  to  cor- 
rect or  to  qualify  its  previous  fulmina- 
tions  on  good  works,  there  is  still  in  many 
an  anxious  and  agitated  spirit,  a  general 
fear  of  them.  So  much  has  been  said 
respecting  the  danger  which  there  is  of 
arrogating  a  merit  because  of  our  good 
works,  that  we  almost  feel  as  if  there 
was  a  merit  in  renouncing  them — could 
almost  wish  them  undone,  because  of  the 
hazard  incurred  in  the  doing  of  them.  It 
is  thus,  we  apprehend,  that,  as  the  com- 
pound result  of  all  the  arguments  and 
asseverations  which  have  been  uttered  in 
defence  of  the  true  system  against  the 
heresies  of  gainsayers  on  the  subject  of 
our  acceptance  with  God — a  freezing  in- 
terdict has  been  laid  by  them  on  the 
activities  of  the  Christian  life.  Surely  it 
is  a  precious  encouragement  on  the  side 
of  gospel  obedience  that  God  is  highly 
pleased  with  it,  though  he  will  not  admit 
it  as  forming  our  right  to  the  inheritance 
of  heaven— just  as  the  father  of  a  family 
on  earth  may  be  delighted  with  the  ser- 
vices of  his  children  and  their  efforts  to 
do  his  will,  though  it  be  not  these  which 
constitute  their  right,  their  legal,  forensic, 
and  challengeable  right  to  a  place  and  a 
maintenance  under  the  parent's  roof.  Let 
us  dismiss,  then,  the  chilling  fears  of  a 
misplaced  and  mistaken  orthodoxy  on 
this  subject ;  but  enter  with  all  alacrity 
on  the  path  of  duty,  and  in  the  full  sense 
of  a  complacent  smile  from  the  upper 
sanctuary  to  cheer  us  on.  In  betaking 
ourselves   to   this    walk,    let   us    break 


through  the  fetters  which  an  artificial 
theology  may  have  laid  upon  it ;  and 
resolutely,  yea  hopefully  do  the  work  of 
obedience,  whether  we  can  rightly  assign 
or  not  the  place  which  it  holds  in  a  regu- 
lar and  well-built  system  of  divinity — 
trusting  in  the  Lord  and  doing  good — 
giving  ourselves  up  to  the  practical  and 
prescribed  labour  of  Christianity;  and 
this  cheerfully,  courageously,  and  with 
the  comfort  of  knowing  that  our  labour 
in  the  Lord  shall  not  be  in  vain. 

'  Which  is  your  reasonable  service.' 
Perhaps  a  reasonable,  in  contradistinction 
to  a  ritual  service — the  one  applied  to  the 
living  sacrifice  of  our  own  bodies,  the 
other  to  the  sacrifice  of  animals  under  the 
Jewish  law.  Not  that  it  is  not  altogether 
reasonable  to  do  a  given  thing,  simply 
because  it  is  the  will  of  God.  But  there 
are  certain  things  of  which  we  see  the 
reasonableness,  prior  to  and  apart  from 
the  voice  of  any  express  revelation  ;  and 
others  again  in  which  there  would  have 
been  no  reasonableness,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  distinct  and  positive  injunction  of 
them  by  authority  of  the  great  Lawgiver. 
There  would  have  been  no  reason,  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  prescribed  form  of  the  ta- 
bernacle, or  in  the  prescribed  offerings  of 
the  Hebrew  ceremonial  as  laid  down  by 
Moses,  had  it  not  been  for  the  things 
showed  to  him  or  the  things  told  to  him  on 
the  mount.  There  is  an  analogy  between 
what  we  now  say  of  the  '  reasonable,'  and 
what  might  be  as  well  said  of  the  '  right.' 
An  observance  may  be  right  in  itself,  or 
only  right  and  the  matter  of  obligation, 
because  made  the  subject  of  a  positive  or 
statutory  enactment  on  the  part  of  God. 
It  is  truly  a  most  right  thing  that  we  should 
do  what  He  hath  commanded,  though 
solely  on  the  ground  of  the  comma  nd- 
meiit.  But  the  thing  thus  commanded 
may,  anterior  to  the  commandment,  have 
a  primary  and  inherent  Tightness  of  its 
own.  "  Children,"  says  the  apostle,  "  obey 
your  parents  in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right" 
— not  right  only  because  God  had  com- 
manded it,  for  this  might  be  alleged  of 
every  precept  which  cometh  out  of  His 
lips;  but,  separately  from  this  considera- 
tion, having  a  proper  and  independent 
rightness  of  itself  And  in  like  manner, 
as  a  service  may  in  its  own  proper  cha- 
racter be  right,  so  may  it  in  its  own  pro- 
per character  be  reasonable;  and  this 
applies  pre-eminently  to  the  service  of 
the  text — thc^fe,  the  presentation  of  our 
bodies  unto  God  as  a  living  sacrifice.  For 
not  only  is  He  Lord  of  the  body,  and  its 
rich  and  bountiful  Provider,  and  the  Up- 
holder for  every  instant  of  its  complex 
and  curious  workmanship  by  the  word  of 
His  power ;  and  what  more  reasonable 
than  that  the  thing  which  so  thoroughly 


LECTURE   LXXXVIII. CHAPTER   XII,    1,    2. 


449 


and  in  all  its  parts  subsists  by  Him,  should 
in  all  things  be  subject  to  Him  1 — But  let 
us  think  of  the  elfect,  if,  instead  of  our 
bodies  being  made  by  us  a  sacrifice  unto 
God,  we  should  come  under  the  degrading, 
the  brutalising  influence  of  its  vile  alFec- 
Tions,  and  so  become  slaves  of  the  body, 
the  wretched  bondsmen  of  one  or  other  or 
all  of  its  tyrant  appetites — when  the  in- 
tervals of  a  worthless  enjoyment  should 
be  filled  up  by  the  languor,  the  remorse, 
the  disgust,  and  self-dissatisfaction,  where- 
with remaining  conscience,  so  long  as  it 
keeps  alive  exercises  the  unhappy  victims 
of  sordid  indulgence  and  excess.  Or 
should  conscience  die,  and  so  the  man 
sink  .into  the  animal,  let  us  but  think  of 
the  moral  ruin  which  ensues,  when  the 
master-faculty  is  put  out ;  and  all  that  is 
distinctive  of  a  superior  or  spiritual  na- 
ture is  obliterated  ;  and  the  hopes  of  eter- 
nity are  extinguished,  while  perhaps  the 
dark  imagery  of  terror,  as  the  only  badge 
and  relict  of  an  immortal  capacity,  might 
still  continue  at  times  to  haunt  and  ago- 
nise him  ;  and  the  Spirit  of  God  takes 
His  final  departure  from  that  foul  and 
loathsome  tenement,  which,  under  another 
regimen,  might  have  become  a  glorious 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  the  abject 
devotee  of  those  pleasures  which  he  can 
no  longer  resist  though  they  now  pall 
upon  him,  and  present  him  with  but  the 
mockery  of  enjoyment,  renounces  for  ever 
that  service  which  he  would  have  experi- 
enced to  be  perfect  freedom,  had  he  only 
yielded  up  his  members  to  be  instruments 
of  righteousness — and  thus  barters  irre- 
coverably away  from  him  the  light  and 
the  liberty  of  God's  own  children.  That 
truly  is  an  unreasonable  service,  by  which 
Reason  is  disposted  from  her  supremacy  ; 
and  all  the  objects  of  a  rational  and  im- 
mortal creature  are  given  up  in  exchange 
for  those  short-lived  pleasures  of  sin, 
which  are  but  for  a  season. 

Ver.  2.  'And  be  not  conformed  to  this 
world;  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  re- 
newing of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove 
what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable,  and 
perfect  will  of^God.'  '  And  be  not  con- 
formed to  this  world.'  The  sacrifice  of 
our  corporeal  affections,  involves  in  it  this 
bidden  nonconformity.  We  should  then 
not  fashion  ourselves  according  to  our 
former  lusts.*  The  gi-ossness  of  Pagan- 
ism made  the  nonconformity  between 
Christians  and  those  who  were  without 
all  the  more  palpable  in  these  days.  And 
accordingly  when  the  disciples  of  .Tesus 
Christ  entered  on  their  new  course — re- 
solving no  longer  to  live  the  rest  of  their 
time  in  the  flesh  to  the  lusts  of  men,  but 
to  the  will  of  God ;  and  reckoning  that 


*  1  Peter,  i,  14. 

57 


the  time  past  of  their  lives  should  suflSce 
them  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, when  they  walked  in  lasciviousness, 
lusts,  excess  of  wine,  revellings,  banquet- 
ings,  and  abominable  idolatries — then  did 
the  unconverted,  the  world  as  contradis- 
tinguished from  the  church  and  lying  in 
wickedness,  think  it  strange  of  these  Chris- 
tians that  they  ran  not  to  the  same  excess 
of  riot  with  themselves,  and  so  spake  evil 
of  them,*  The  distinction  may  not  be  so 
glaring  now-a-days,  nor  force  itself  so 
necessarily  and  irresistibly  on  the  eye  of 
the  senses.  But  the  enormities  of  the  hea- 
then world  in  these  days,  and  of  which 
we  read  in  the  descriptions  both  of  the 
New  Testament  and  of  profane  authors, 
were  as  little  scandalous  then— as  the 
gayeties  and  the  amusements  and  those 
various  companionships  from  which  all 
sense  of  God  and  all  the  conversations  of 
godliness  are  excluded,  of  the  festive  and 
fashionable  and  general  society  of  our 
modern  world  can  possibly  be  now.  The 
distinction  is  the  same,  though  its  insignia 
be  ditferent.  There  is  as  wide  a  differ- 
ence of  spirit  otill  between  the  children 
of  light  and  the  children  of  this  world, 
whatever  reforms  or  refinements  of  man- 
ner and  external  decency  the  latter  may 
have  undergone.  The  distinction  is  not 
the  less  real,  that  it  is  perhaps  more  latent 
and  lurks  now  under  the  subtlety  of  a  dis- 
guise which  serves  more  to  humanise  all. 
and  so  seems  more  to  assimilate  all.  And 
it  requires  now  as  deep  and  radical  and 
searching  an  operation  to  effect  the  indis- 
pensable change,  or  translate  the  one  char- 
acter into  the  other,  as  it  did  in  those  days 
when  the  apostle,  addressing  those  of  his 
own  disciples,  who  at  one  time  were  for- 
nicators, or  idolaters,  or  adulterers,  or 
effeminate,  or  abusers  of  tliemselyes  with 
mankind,  or  thieves,  or  covetous,  or  drunk- 
ards, or  revilers,  or  extortioners,  said — • 
"  And  such  were  some  of  you  ;  but  ye  are 
washed,  but  ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye  are 
justified,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God."f  This  was 
the  process  of  separation  from  the  world 
then,  and  it  is  the  process  still — though  it 
be  a  world  now  less  revolting  in  its  general 
aspect,  and  having  on  it  a  fairer  face  of  civ- 
ilisation and  social  morality.  The  same 
mighty  agent  is  needed  for  the  work  of  re- 
generation in  all  ages  ;  and  the  same  total 
revolution  of  spirit  and  character  must  be 
achieved  on  every  son  and  daughter  of 
Adam,  ere  they  can  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

'  But  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing 
of  your  mind.'  This  single  clause  proves 
the  magnitude  of  the  transition.  In  order 
to  our  being  not  conformed,  we  must  be 


1  Peter,  iv,  3—4.         1 1  Corinthian,?,  vi,  9—11. 


450 


LECTUEE   LXXXVm. — CHAFIbH,   XU,    1,   2. 


transformed — and  that  not  by  a  superfi- 
cial amendment,  but  by  a  renewal,  and, 
more  decisive  still,  a  renewal  in  the  very 
interior  of  our  system — a  change  not 
merely  on  the  outward  walk,  but  a  change 
in  the  central  parts  of  our  moral  nature, 
or  at  the  place  of  command  and  presiding 
authority,  and  where  the  main  spring  of 
every  deed  and  every  movement  lies. 
Some  would  have  the  body  in  ihe  first 
verse,  on  the  principle  of  the  part  for  the 
whole,  to  signify  the  entire  man.  But  this 
is  unnecessary  ;  and  we  should  beside 
lose  the  impressiveness  of  a  distinct  refer- 
ence to  each  of  the  two  great  departments 
in  the  human  constitution,  which  we  ob- 
tain when  passing  on  to  the  second  verse, 
we  find  the  subjection  of  the  mind  pro- 
vided with  an  express  and  authoritative 
lesson,  even  as  in  the  first  verse  is  the 
subjection  of  the  body  to  the  will  of  God. 
It  is  thus  that  the  whole  of  the  living  and 
willing  and  intelligent  mechanism  is  not 
only  mended,  but  is  virtually  though  not 
literally  and  in  substance,  made  over 
again.  The  carnal  mind  is  changed  into 
the  spiritual ;  and  we  are  led  to  glorify 
God  in  our  body  and  in  our  spirit,  which 
are  God's.* 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  should  be  the 
subject  of  a  precept,  or  that  we  should  be 
as  good  as  bidden  to  transform  ourselves. 
It  is  not  more  remarkable,  however,  than 
that  we  should  be  told  in  Ezekiel,  to  make 
us  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit.f  The 
solution  is  found  in  this — that  for  every 
precept,  we  may  be  said,  under  the  econ- 
omy of  grace,  to  have  a  counterpart 
promise.  And  accordingly  by  the  mouth 
of  the  same  prophet,  God,  in  His  own  per- 
son, sends  forth  this  gracious  proclama- 
tion— "  A  new  heart  also  will  1  give  you, 
and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you; 
and  I  will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out 
of  your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you  an  heart 
of  ilesh.  And  I  will  put  my  Spirit  within 
you,  and  cause  you  to  walk  in  my 
statutes."!  And  what  we  have  to  do  be- 
tween this  precept  on  the  one  hand  and 
this  promise  on  the  other,  how  we  must 
turn  ourselves  for  the  purpose  of  making 
them  good,  is  distinctly  intimated  in  a 
following  verse  of  this  chapter — "I  will 
3'^et  for  this  be  enquired  of  by  the  house 
of  Israel  to  do  it  for  them."^  In  other 
words,  we  have  to  seek  and  pray  for  the 
offered  blessing.  It  is  by  '  the  mercies  of 
God'  that  Paul  conjures  us  to  be  trans- 
formed by  the  renewing  of  our  mind.  To 
these  mercies  we  should  make  our  confi- 
dent appeal ;  and  as  these  form  the  sub- 
ject of  his  invocation,  when  he  delivers  to 
us  the  seemingly  impracticable  charge  of 


•  1  Cor.  vi,  20. 

t  Ezek.  xxsvi,  26,  27. 


t  Ezek.  xviii,  31. 
§  Ezek.  xxxvj,  37. 


renewing  ourselves  and  transforming  our- 
selves, so  our  faith  in  these  forms  our  very 
instrument  for  the  achievement  of  the  task 
which  he  puts  into  our  hands. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Even  in  the  high 
and  transcendental  matter  of  our  regene- 
ration, we  have  a  something  to  do  as  well 
as  to  pray  for.  Indeed  the  apostle,  in  the 
passage  now  in  hand,  tells  us  thus  much, 
when  in  the  preceding  verse  before  he  had 
bidden  us  be  transformed  by  the  renew- 
ing of  our  minds,  he  tells  us  how  to  dis- 
pose of  our  bodies — that  is,  keep  their 
every  appetite  under  restraint,  even  though 
it  should  be  with  such  a  violence  to  our 
inclinations  as  might  amount  to  the  feel- 
ing of  a  most  painful  sacrifice.  And  so 
also  the  prophet  Ezekiel  in  the  place 
already  quoted,  and  before  he  had  bidden 
his  countrymen  make  them  a  new  heart 
and  a  new  spirit,  lays  it  in  charge  upon 
them  to  cast  away  from  them  all  the 
transgressions  whereby  they  had  trans- 
gressed.* But  most  significant  of  all  is 
that  saying  of  Hosea,  when  he  complains 
of  the  people,  that  "  they  will  not  frame 
their  doings  to  turn  unto  their  God."f 
Amid  such  explicit  testimonies  as  these, 
the  trumpet  surely  cannot  be  said  to  give 
an  uncertain  sound.  We  can  neither  pray 
too  earnestly,  nor  work  too  diligently  ; 
and  if  it  be  asked,  which  of  these  should 
have  the  precedency, — better  far  than  any 
metaphysical  adjustment  is  the  sound 
practical  deliverance,  that  we  can  neither 
pray  nor  work  too  soon.  On  the  one  hand, 
we  should  make  haste  and  delay  not  to 
keep  the  commandments.!  But  on  the 
other,  the  cry  of  our  felt  helplessness  can 
never  ascend  too  early.  The  aspirations 
of  the  heart  and  movements  of  the  hand 
should  begin  and  keep  pace  together. 
Paul's  first  question  at  the  moment  of  con- 
version was,  What  wilt  thou  have  me  to 
do  ;  and  his  first  recorded  exercise  is,  Be- 
hold he  prayeth.  Let  us  dismiss  the  idle 
question  of  the  antecedency  between  these 
two  things.  Let  there  be  no  self-indul- 
gence in  praying,  for  thus  should  we  be 
antinomians  ;  no  self-sufficiency  in  doing, 
for  thus  should  we  be  legalists.  It  is  not 
by  sitting  still  in  the  attitude  of  a  mystic 
and  expectant  quietism,  that  we  shall 
carry  our  salvation.  But  neither  is  it  by 
activities,  however  manifold  or  boundles.s 
without  a  constant  sense  of  dependence 
upon  God.  From  the  very  outset  His 
helping  hand  must  be  sought  after.  He 
not  only  puts  His  Spirit  within  us ;  but 
He  causes  us  to  w^alk  in  His  statutes.} 

'  That  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good 
and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God.' 
The  man  who  lives  in  and  is  led  by  the 


'  Ezek.  xviii.  31. 
t  Psalm  cxix,  60. 


t  llosea,  V,  4. 
§  Ezek.  xxiLvi,  27. 


LECTURE    LXXXVIII. CHAPTER   XII,    1,    2. 


451 


Spirit  of  God,  will  come  to  know,  in  tlie 
new  and  heaven-born  desires  of  his  own 
regenerated  heart,  what  the  will  of  God 
is.  That  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  in 
all  righteousness  and  goodness  and  truth, 
must  he  best  known  in  these  its  various 
characteristics  and  excellencies,  by  him 
who  is  the  bearer  of  it.  When  God  put- 
teth  His  law  into  the  inward  parts  of  men, 
and  writes  it  in  their  hearts — then  they 
need  not  to  be  taught  of  others,  saying 
unto  them.  Know  the  Lord,  for  all  who 
are  thus  enlightened  know  Him  from  the 
least  even  to  the  greatest.*     They  surely 


'  Jeremiah,  xxxi,  33,  34. 


know  best  the  laws  and  lessons  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  who  are  the  immediate  sub- 
jects of  His  teaching  ;  and  even  they  Avho 
see  their  good  works  recognise  in  them 
the  lineaments  of  that  divine  image  in 
which  they  are  created — and  so,  on  look- 
ing to  the  righteousness  and  the  true 
holiness  of  those  whose  light  thus  shines 
before  men,  discern  in  these  virtues  the 
very  will  and  character  of  God,  and  are 
led  thereby  to  glorify  their  Father  who  is 
in  heaven.* 


'  Ephesians,  iv,  24;  Matthew,  v,  16. 


LECTURE  LXXXIX. 


Romans  xii,  3 — 8. 

"  For  I  say,  through  the  grace  given  unto  me,  to  every  man  that  is  among  you,  not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly 
than  he  ought  to  think;  but  to  think  soberly,  according  as  God  hatJi  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith.  For 
as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  members  have  not  the  same  office  ;  so  we,  being  many,  are  one 
body  in  Christ,  and  every  one  members  one  of  another.  Having  then  gifts  differing  according  to  the  grace  that  is 
given  to  us,  whether  prophecy,  let  us  prophesy  according  to  the  proportion  of  faitli ;  or  ministry,  let  us  wait  on 
our  ministering  ;  or  he  that  teacheth,  on  teaching  ;  or  he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation  ;  he  that  giveth  let  him 
do  it  with  simplicity  ;  he  that  ruleth,  with  diligence ;  he  that  showeth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness." 


Ver.  3.  *  For  I  say,  through  the  grace 
given  unto  me.'  the  particle  'for'  estab- 
lishes a  connection  between  the  present 
and  the  preceding  verse,  and  which  I 
think  might  be  made  out  in  this  way — 
Paul  had  just  as  good  as  said,  that,  by 
being  transformed  through  the  renewal 
of  our  minds,  we  should  be  enabled  to 
prove  or  discriminate  or  ascertain  what 
the  will  of  God  is.  We  should  be  "re- 
newed in  knowledge."*  We  should  not 
only  be  made  right  in  our  wills,  but  right 
in  our  understandings  also.  Indeed  the 
one  righteous  is  a  sort  of  guarantee  for 
the  other — He  that  willeth  to  do  God's 
will  shall  know  the  doctrine  of  Christ  ;f 
of  Him  who  pre-eminently  and  indeed 
exclusively  is  the  Teacher  of  the  things 
of  God,  seeing  that  no  man  knoweth  the 
Father  save  the  Son,  and  to  whom- 
soever the  Son  will  reveal  Him.t  it 
is  thus  that  he  who  wills  aright  shall 
be  made  to  know  aright,  and  more  espe- 
cially to  know  the  character  and  will 
of  God.  Now  this  rectification  of  the 
will,  and  consequently  of  the  understand- 
ing, is  done  by  a  renewal  of  the  mind, 
which  itself  is  an  operation  of  divine 
grace  ;  and  so  there  is  a  peculiar  signifi.- 
cancy  and  connection  in  Paul  telling  the 
Christians  of  Rome,  when  proceeding  to 
unfold  the  will  of  God  for  tlxe  regulation 
of  their  conduct,  that  what  he  was  going 


*  Col.  iii,  10.        t  John,  vii,  17.        I  Matt,  xi,  27. 


to  say  was  through  the  grace  given  unto 
him.  He  had  just  acquitted  himself 
throughout  the  foregoing  chapters  of  this 
epistle  as  a  teacher  of  truth  ;  and  he  now 
tells  them  how  he  came  by  his  qualifica- 
tions for  discharging  the  office  on  which 
he  was  about  to  enter  of  a  teacher  of 
righteousness.  He  was  on  the  eve  of 
giving  forth  so  many  practical  lessons — a 
list  of  particulars  respecting  the  will  of 
God — which  he  through  grace  was  ena- 
bled as  their  apostle  to  reveal ;  and  which 
they,  if  indeed  his  genuine  disciples,  would 
also  through  grace  be  enabled  to  recog- 
nise, as  those  very  lessons  of  righteous- 
ness which  proceeded  from  God,  and  had 
in  them  the  character  and  seal  of  the  up- 
per  sanctuary.  Between  him  and  them, 
there  would  be  the  tact  and  sympathy  of 
a  common  understanding.  They  would 
hear  his  voice.  If  gifted  with  spiritual 
discernment,*  their  eye  would  see  and 
acknowledge  the  righlness  of  what  their 
teacher  set  before  them.f  They  would 
not  be  unwise,  but  understanding  what  the 
will  of  the  Lord  is.t  In  knowledge  and  in 
nil  judgment  would  they  approve^  the 
things  that  are  excellent  ;||  and  so  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  God's  will  in  all 
wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding, IT 
would  both  teacher  and  taught  give  proof 


•  1  John,  iv,  1.            t  Isa.  xxx,  20.  t  Eph.  v,  17. 

§  Ai/v-i/iaCtii' — The    same  is    the  original  word   for 
"prove"  in  Romans,  xii,  2. 

II  Phil,  i,  10.  1  Col.  i,  9, 


452 


LECTURE    LXXXIX. CIIAPTEK.    XII.    3 — 3. 


to  their  common  discernmont  of  the  good 
and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God. 

'  To  every  man  that  is  among  you.'  He 
comprehends  all  in  the  advice  which  he 
offers ;  hut  with  the  special  design,  we 
have  no  doubt,  of  reading  the  lesson  which 
they  stood  most  in  need  of,  to  those  in  the 
church,  who,  like  Diotrephes,  loved  to 
have  the  pre-eminence— whether  they 
were  boastful  Jew.s*  who  still  retained 
somewhat  of  their  old  leaven,  or  arro- 
gant Gentiles  who  boasted  against  the 
branches.f  It  was  precisely  the  lesson, 
which,  if  it  but  took  them  all  in,  w^as  the 
most  fitted  of  all  others  to  hush  and  to 
harmonise  the  discordant  elements  of  the 
society  whom  he  was  addressing. 

'Not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly 
than  he  ought  to  think,  but  to  think  so- 
berly.' This  may  be  regarded  either  as  a 
general  dissuasive  against  pride,  and  we 
shall  not  go  astray  though  in  part  we  so 
understand  it;  or,  it  may  be  viewed  as 
having  a  special  reference  to  the  temper 
and  conduct  of  the  various  ecclesiastical 
functionaries — each  signalised  by  his  own 
distinct  gift,  and  holding  his  own  distinct 
office  in  the  church.  The  following  con- 
text clearly  proves  that  this  latter  object 
too  was  in  the  mind  of  the  apostle,  which 
in  no  way  precludes  our  looking  to  it  in 
the  former  light  also  as  a  morality  of  uni- 
versal application.  We  cannot  but  think, 
however,  that,  in  the  direction  here  given, 
the  case  of  the  church's  office-bearers,  if 
not  chiefly,  was  at  least  fully  in  his  eye. 
He  wanted  them  in  particular  not  to  think 
highly  of  themselves,  lest  they  should 
aspire  to  such  offices  as  they  were  not  fit 
for.  What  he  desired  was,  that  each 
should  be  satisfied  with  his  own  special 
gift  and  his  own  calling — ^just  as  he  re- 
ceived it  from  that  Spirit  who  divideth  to 
every  man  severally  as  He  will.t  He 
would  have  each  to  keep  by  the  part  as- 
signed to  him,  without  taking  upon  him, 
and  still  less  without  despising  or  under- 
valuing the  part  which  belonged  to  ano- 
ther. The  next  clause  presents  a  conside- 
ration eminently  applicable  to  this  under- 
standing of  the  matter. — 'According  as 
God  hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure 
of  faith.'  The  very  consideration  that  it 
is  God  who  determines  for  every  man  his 
place,  should  not  only  make  ihe  man 
satisfied  to  keep  within  it ;  but,  if  a  place 
of  honour,  it  should  lead  him  to  bear 
meekly  and  modestly  the  distinction  thus 
conferred  upon  him  by  a  higher  hand. 
"  What  hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  re- 
ceive 1"  And  then  it  is  but  given  in 
measure — as  if  in  contradistinction  to  Him 
who  was  the  great  Pattern  of  humility,  and 
to  whom  it  was  given  without  measure. 

Rom.  ii,  17,  23.       t  Rom.  xi,  18.       t  1  Cot.  xii,  ll. 


The  expression — every  man's  measure 
of  faith — implies  that  the  faith  of  each 
was  limited,"  which  it  might  be,  either  in 
degree,  as  the  general  faith  which  makes 
one  a  Christian  is  stronger  or  weaker  with 
different  individuals;  or  in  kind,  as  some 
special  faith,  the  exercise  of  which  was 
followed  up  by  a  forth-putting  of  some 
one  or  other  of  tiie  special  gifts  or  endow- 
ments of  that  period.  Thus  there  was  the 
faith  of  miracles,  which  enabled  one  man 
to  work  them  ;*  and  a  faith  having  respect 
to  a  different  object,  which  empowered 
another  to  prophesy,  or  a  third  to  speak 
tongues,  or  a  fourth  to  interpret  them,  or 
a  fifth  who  was  qualified  by  his  peculiar 
faith  for  his  peculiar  office  which  might 
have  been  the  discernment  of  spirits,'  or 
some  one  or  other  of  those  numerous  di- 
versities which  in  that  age  of  preternatu- 
ral manifestations  made  part  of  the  full 
complement  of  a  Christian  church. .  Each 
man  had  his  own  sort  of  faith,  and,  appro- 
priate thereto,  his  own  sort  of  function. 
Believest  thou  that  I,  the  Lord  of  these 
various  administrations,  am  able  to  do  for 
you  this  ?] — And  according  to  these  their 
several  faiths,  was  it  severally  done  unto 
them.  It  might  well  have  humbled  them 
to  consider,  that,  not  only  were  the  gifts  of 
one  and  all  received  by  them,  but  the  pre- 
ceding and  preparatory  faiths  proper  to 
each  gift  were  respectively  dealt  out  to 
them.  God  dealt  out  to  every  man  his 
measure  of  faith  ;  or,  understanding  it  in 
its  more  special  and  restricted  sense,  God 
gave  to  each  of  these  privileged  men  that 
particular  faith  which  led  or  opened  the 
way  to  him  for  his  particular  acquirement. 
And  the  very  same  consideration  ought 
powerfully  to  tell  in  the  humbling  of  all 
spiritual  pride — for  it  holds  true  of  the 
general  faith,  the  faith  by  which  we  are 
saved,  that,  not  only  is  the  salvation  a  gift 
(by  grace  are  ye  saved  ;)  but  the  very 
faith  is  not  of  ourselves,  it  being  the  gift 
of  God.t  And  indeed,  in  the  exercise  of 
faith,  from  the  very  nature  of  it,  all  is  fit- 
ted not  to  exalt  but  to  humble — for  the 
greater  our  faith,  the  greater  is  our  self- 
renunciation  ;  and  the  more  singly,  as 
well  as  more  strongly,  do  wc  draw  and 
depend  on  One  who  is  higher  than  our- 
selves. It  is  thus  that  the  loftiest  in  faith 
is  necessarily  the  lowliest  in  self-distrust 
or  self-abasement.  It  is  altogether  an 
act  of  self-emptying,  the  very  opposite  of 
arrogance  or  self-elation  ;  and  is  clearly 
so  viewed  by  the  apostle,  M-hen  he  checks 
the  boastful  disposition  of  his  converts,  by 
the  consideration  that  thou  standest  by 
faith,  and  therefore  be  not  high-minded, 
but  fear.5 

Ver.  4,  5.  •  For  as  we  have  many  mem- 


'  Luke,  xvii,6. 
t  Ephesians,  ii,  8. 


t  Matthew,  ix,  -28,  29. 
§  Romans,  xi,  20. 


LECTURE  LXXXIX. — CHAPTER  XII,  3 — E 


45^ 


bers  in  one  body,  and  all  members  have 
not  the  same  office  ;  so  we,  being  many, 
are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every  one 
members  one  of  another.'  Now  follows 
the  context  which  determines  the  more 
special  of  the  two  meanings  assigned  to 
the  preceding  verse — as  bearing,  though 
not  an  exclusive,  at  least  a  very  distinct 
reference  to  the  office-bearers  of  a  church 
— namely,  that  each  keep  within  his  own 
particular  sphere;  and  no  onethru>;t  him- 
self into  the  duties,  or  usurp  the  ottice  of 
another.  As  in  other  Scriptures,*  he 
here  avails  himself  of  the  human  body 
as  a  figure,  by  the  various  members  of 
which  he  would  illustrate  the  mutual 
helpfulness  of  the  church's  several  func- 
tionaries to  each  other,  as  well  as  the  in- 
dispensableness  of  each  to  the  well-being 
and  perfection  of  the  whole — they  being 
one  body  in  Christ  the  Head,  and  in  virtue 
of  their  common  relation  to  this  one  body, 
being  every  one  members  one  of  another. 
The  same  is  expressed  otherwise  in  1  Cor. 
xii,  27 :  and  signifies  the  mutual  subser- 
viency and  use  of  the  parts  to  each 
other,  as  well  as  their  harmonious  adjust- 
ment into  one  system.  And  upon  this 
analogy  does  he  ground  his  lesson  of  the 
confusion  and  disorder  that  would  ensue, 
did  each  encroach  on  the  proper  business 
of  the  other — as  if  the  foot  were  to  at- 
tempt the  work  of  the  hand,  or  any  one 
member  were  to  undertake  the  functions 
of  any  of  the  rest.  And  his  two-fold  di- 
rection is,  that  each  should  abide  by  his 
own  duties,  while  he  maintains  the  utmost 
deference  for  the  place  and  performance 
of  the  others — being  at  once  helpful  to  all 
and  doing  honour  to  all.  It  is  thus  that 
they  would  best  demonstrate  their  being 
in  Christ — and  that  not  by  an  ostensible 
or  merely  economical,  but  by  a  vital  and 
personal  and  real  union.  We  can  never 
overrate  the  vast  importance  for  Chris- 
tianity of  such  a  unity  as  this  among  a 
church's  members  and  church's  office- 
bearers. This  is  powerfully  manifested 
in  our  Saviour's  praj^erf — that  all  His  dis- 
ciples might  be  one,  even  "  as  thou  Father 
art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also 
may  be  one  in  us :  that  the  toorld  may  he- 
lieve  that  thou  hast  sent  me. '  It  is  further 
worthy  of  observation,  that  to  save  the 
heats  and  the  heart-burnings  incidental  to 
the  complex  and  economical  structure  of 
a  Christian  society,  the  description  of  its 
mechanism  is  similarly  followed  up  by 
the  apostle  in  his  Epistles  to  the  Corin- 
thians and  the  Romans — there  by  a  glo- 
rious persuasive  to  charity,  and  here  by 
a  series  of  verses,  which  together  make 
up  the  brightest  tablet  of  the  social  moral- 
ities ever  presented  to  the  world.    In  his 


•  I  Cor.  xii,  12 ;  Eph.  iv,  15  ;  v,  30.     t  Jo}xn,  xvii,  21. 


representation  too  of  the  same  thing  to 
the  Ephesians,  it  is  the  grand  lesson  of 
love  which  forms  the  main  end  and  bur- 
den of  his  argument. 

But  before  proceeding  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  this  lesson,  either  in  its  general 
form,  or  in  its  various  applications,  as  set 
forth  in  the  last  half  of  the  chapter  on 
hand — let  us  first  follow  the  apostle  in 
his  enumeration  of  the  diver.se  acts  or 
offices,  which  in  his  days  appertained  to 
a  Christian  church,  and  must  of  course 
have  been  of  beneficial  operation  in  sub- 
serving the  designs  of  this  great  moral 
institute.  But  before  entering  on  the  ex- 
position of  the  verses  where  these  are 
specified,  we  would  remark  on  the  great 
number  of  distinct  services  which  were 
laid  each  on  a  distinct  set  of  office-bear- 
ers in  apostolic  times,  coupled  Avith  this 
maxim  of  church  government  which 
seems  generally  to  have  obtained  at  that 
period — even  that  each  distinct  function- 
ary should  keep  by  his  own  distinct  func- 
tions, as  if  these  were  enough  for  all  his 
energies.  This  subdivision  of  employ- 
ment, and  that  too  in  the  proper  work  of 
a  Christian  church,  was  greatl}'' proceeded 
on,  and  that  too  in  the  best  and  most  pros- 
perous and  efficient  period  of  its  histor)', 
when  it  had  just  come  fresh  from  heaven 
upon  the  world,  and  drew  direct,  or  at 
first  hand,  from  the  fountains  of  inspira- 
tion. But  the  principle  which  was  so 
much  respected  then,  we  grieve  to  say  it, 
is  signally  traversed  in  the  present  day. 
One  might  well  have  imagined,  that  in 
that  season  of  extraordinary  and  preter- 
natural endowments,  the  Spirit  of  God 
could  have  overborne  the  varieties  of  na- 
ture ;  and,  without  respect  to  the  separate 
talents  and  dispositions  of  each  mental 
constitution,  could  have  fitted  one  man 
for  the  discharge  of  many  offices.  But 
this  is  not  His  method  ;  and,  instead  of 
overbearing,  He  imitates  the  variety  of 
nature — dividing  to  every  man  severally 
as  He  will  :  And  so  we  behold  in  the 
spectacle  of  a  primitive  church,  the  econ- 
omy of  a  complex  and  variegated  service 
made  up  of  many  offices — not  accumu- 
lated on  one  man,  but  parted  with  a  right 
and  proper  adaptation  among  many  of- 
fice-bearers, where  each  laboured  in  the 
task  he  was  fitted  for,  and  meddled  not 
with  the  employments  or  the  services  of 
other  men.  Surel)^  now,  and  in  this  far 
less  gifted  age,  it  is  all  the  more  neces- 
sary to  consult  the  special  ability  of  each 
forthe  special  work  in  which,  whether  by 
nature  or  grace,  he  is  most  qualified  to 
excel.  We  should  suit  the  objective  to 
the  subjective — a  great  lesson,  and  as 
well  in  the  business  of  the  church  as  in 
the  business  of  general  societ)-.  In  this 
matter  a  wise  Christian  policy,  or  sound- 


454 


LECTURE  LXXXIX. CHArXER  XII,  3 — 8, 


policy  of  the  church,  is  at  one  with  the 
policy  of  the  world.  We  should,  as 
much  as  possible,  humour,  even  as  the 
Spirit  Himself  does,  the  constitutional 
varieties  of  taste  and  talent  among  men 
— a  maxim  this,  which  has  been  signally 
traversed  in  our  present  day — when  min- 
isters ai'e  made  men  of  all  works  ;  and 
each,  more  especially  if  he  have  earned 
an  eminence  for  something,  has  many 
things  laid  upon  him;  and  so  is  drawn 
away  from  his  own  favourite,  which,  gen- 
erally speaking,  if  permitted  to  keep  by 
it  without  molestation,  would  to  him  be 
the  far  most  productive  walk  of  Chris- 
tian usefulness.  What  makes  it  all  the 
more  ruinous  is,  that  rarely  indeed  is  one 
man  eminent  in  more  than  one  thing; 
and  the  sure  way  therefore  of  degrading 
him  from  eminence  to  mediocrity,  is  to 
bustle  and  belabour  him  with  more  than 
one  thing.  In  the  time  of  the  apostles, 
the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry  was 
broken  down  into  manifcjld  departments; 
and  we  then  beheld  the  goodly  spectacle 
of  a  well-going  church,  having  its  busi- 
ness conducted  and  carried  forward  by 
means  of  a  well-stocked  agency.  The 
tendency  now  is  in  an  opposite  direction 
— to  abridge  and  economise,  and  thus 
mutilate  and  impair  to  the  uttermost  the 
original  machinery  of  a  Christian  church. 
And  so  not  only  have  many  of  its  primi- 
tive offices  been  lost  sight  of  and  fallen 
into  desuetude  ;  but  the  few  remaining 
office-holders,  on  whom  the  whole  bur- 
den is  devolved,  instead  of  operating 
each  v.'ith  intense  elficiency  and  power 
of  observation  on  his  own  separate  em- 
ployment, is  forced  to  generalize  and  do 
all  slightly,  or  to  neglect  and  leave  much 
undone.  And  no  wonder,  therefore,  at 
the  complaints  of  our  having  lighted  on 
a  day  of  small  things,  and  among  the 
pigmies  of  a  slender  and  superficial  gen- 
eration. 

Ver.  6-8.  'Having  then  gifts  differing 
according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  to  us, 
whether  prophecy,  let  us  prophesy  ac- 
cording to  the  proportion  of  faith  ;  or 
ministry,  h't  us  wait  on  our  ministering; 
or  he  that  teacheth,  on  teaching  ;  or  he 
that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation  :  he  that 
giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  simplicity;  he 
that  ruleth,  with  diligence  ;  he  that  show- 
cth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness.'  Whether 
ours  be  the  gifts  of  Providence,  or  of 
what  is  properly  termed  grace — that  is, 
whether  they  have  been  conferred  on  us 
by  nature,  or  more  especially  through 
the  channel  of  faith  in  the  gospel  of  Je- 
sus Christ,  the  very  same  lesson  is  appli- 
cable to  both.  Ii  is  alike  our  duty  to  con- 
secrate them  to  the  service  of  God  and 
the  good  of  mankind.  They  alike  pro- 
ceed from  Him— for  what  hast  thou,  O 


man,  that  thou  didst  not  receive  1  And 
far  better,  both  in  the  church  and  in  so- 
ciety, that  each  should  be  provided  with 
his  own  sphere  of  labour  ;  and  that  it 
should  be  the  kind  of  labour  for  which, 
by  his  specific  endowments,  be  they  of 
genius  or  habit  or  grace,  he  is  best 
adapted.  But  let  us  look  to  the  matter 
ecclesiastically,  and  with  a  strict  refer- 
ence to  the  promotion  of  Christianity  in 
our  respective  neighbourhoods  ;  and  we 
shall  come  nearer  to  the  main  object  of 
the  apostle,  who  recognises  the  difference 
between  the  gifts  of  one  man  and  another, 
as  due  to  the  grace  that  was  respectively 
given  to  each  of  them.  This  does  not 
necessarily  limit  our  view  to  the  varieties 
of  official  service — though  these  be  in- 
cluded in  it,  and  indeed  form  the  cases 
of  chief  consideration.  Still  the  lesson 
of  these  verses  is  a  lesson  for  the  mem- 
bers of  a  church  as  well  as  office-bear- 
ers— it  being  alike  the  duty  of  all  to  lay 
themselves  out  for  the  cause  of  religion, 
and  that  according  either  to  the  opportu- 
nities which  are  without,  or  to  the  talents 
and  capacities  which  they  feel  to  be 
within  them.  But  let  us  attend  to  what 
these  services  particularly  are,  as  speci- 
fied and  enumerated  in  the  verses  before 
us. 

♦  Whether  prophecy,  let  us  prophesy 
according  to  the  proportion  of  faith.'  In 
the  following  induction  of  the  gifts  » dif- 
fering according  to  tlie  grace'  given,  we 
may  remark,  that  there  are  none  of  those 
extraordinary  powers  which  the  apostle 
specifies  in  the  wider  enumeration  of  his 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  where  he  tells 
of  the  "diversities  of  gifts"  which  are  by 
the  same  Spirit.*  There  is  not  one  of  the 
functions  spoken  of  here,  which  might 
not  to  a  certain  extent  be  discharged  by 
Christians  in  an  individual  or  private,  as 
well  as  in  an  official  capacit3^  So  that 
while  we  have  no  doubt  the  apostle  had 
chiefly  in  his  eye  the  officials  of  the  con- 
gregation, the  lessons  which  he  gives  are 
of  catholic  application,  and  might  be  ap- 
propriated by  all.  To  prophesy  was 
without  question  the  professional  em- 
ployment of  a  distinct  class  of  office- 
bearers in  those  days — "  And  he  gave 
some,  prophets."t  It  is  well  known, 
however,  that  prophesying  in  Scripture 
is  not  restricted  to  the  foretelling  of  what 
is  future.  In  this  passage  there  is  no 
cognisance  taken  of  any  miraculous  of- 
fice. The  prophesying  here  spoken  of 
is  tantamount  to  ordinary  preaching.  In 
the  Scriptural  sense  of  the  term,  any 
man  of  God  is  a  prophet,  whether  he  be 
endued  with  the  preternatural  knowledge 
of  coming  events  or  not — simply  if   lie 


*  1  Corinthians,  xii,  4. 


t  Ephesians,  iv,  U. 


LECTURE   LXXXIX. CHAPTER   XII,    3 8. 


455 


be  an  instructor  in  the  things  of  God ; 
and  that  whether  the  instruction  in  which 
he  deals  be  instruction  in  doctrine  or  in- 
struction in  righteousness,  or  is  compre- 
hensive of  both.  Here  we  think  it  used 
in  its  generic  sense  ;  and  that  these  its 
two  species  are  particularised  afterwards 
under  the  heads  of  teaching  and  exhort- 
ation. 

And  these  prophets  are  called  on  to  exer- 
cise their  vocation  according  to  the  pro- 
portion of  faith.  We  cannot  think  that 
by  this  is  meant  what  theologians  term 
the  analogy  of  faith.  This  clause  we 
hold  to  be  of  the  same  force  and  import 
with  the  final  clause  of  the  third  verse — 
'according  as  God  has  dealt  to  every 
man  the  measure  of  faith' — that  measure, 
in  fact,  which  regulates  both  the  kind  of 
gift  and  the  degree  of  its  exercise.  The 
same  qualifications  then  may  be  applied, 
not  to  the  office  of  prophecy  alone,  but  to 
each  of  the  offices  that  are  mentioned  af- 
terwards. And  if  instead  of  offices  we 
regard  them  as  duties,  certain  it  is,  as  we 
said  before,  that  they  are  competent  to  the 
members  of  a  church  as  well  as  to  its 
office-bearers.  That  private  Christian 
8.cts  as  a  prophet  in  whom  the  word  of 
Christ  dwells  richly  in  all  wisdom* — 
when  out  of  the  abundance  of  a  heart 
thus  charged,  his  mouth  speaketh.f  He 
believes,  therefore  he  speaks ;!  or,  agree- 
ably to  the  expression  before  us,  his  utter- 
ance is  in  proportion  to  his  faith.  It  is 
not  for  clergy  alone  sure  to  monopolise 
this  branch  of  Christian  usefulness — a 
usefulness  not  confined  to  the  pulpit,  but 
which  might  spread  and  be  multiplied 
amongst  the  social  parties  of  every  neigh- 
bourhood, when  they  that  fear  the  Lord 
speak  often  one  to  another. J  It  is  not  for 
ministers  alone,  but  the  duty  of  every  man 
so  to  season  his  speech,  as  that  it  should 
be  always  with  grace.H  It  is  surely  not 
to  ministers  alone  that  the  apostle  says— 
"  Let  no  corrupt  communication  proceed 
out  of  your  mouth. "IT  As  little  then  does 
that  which  immediately  follows  apply  ex- 
clusively to  ministers,  but  is  intended  for 
all — Let  what  proceedeth  out  of  your 
mouth  be  good  to  the  use  of  edifying, 
that  it  may  minister  grace  unto  the 
hearers. 

'Or  ministry,  let  us  wnit  on  our  min- 
istering.' '  Ministry'**  we  hold  also  to  be  a 
generic  term,  like  prophecy  in  the  verse 
which  goes  before  ;  and  comprehensive  of 
the  two  things  which  come  afterwards 
under  the  heads  of  giving  and  showing 
mercy.  The  great  lesson,  however.  Let 
each  mind  his  own  business,  is  still  kept 
up  and  carried  out  to  all  the  departments 


•  Col.  iii,  16. 
§  Mai.  iii,  16. 


t  Matt,  xii,  34. 

I  Col.  iv,  6. 
**  AiaKona, 


t  Psalm  cxvi,  10. 
TT  Eph.  iv,  29. 


of  official,  and  in  all  the  instances,  we 
might  add,  of  general  service.  The  lesson 
primarily  and  specially  directed  to  the 
church  officers  is  applicable  to  every 
man.  "  As  every  man  hath  received  the 
gift,  even  so  minister  the  same  one  to 
another,  as  good  stewards  of  the  manifold 
grace  of  God."*  Looking  again  ecclesi- 
astically and  not  generally  to  the  matter, 
the  ministry  in  this  verse  may  be  distin- 
guished from  prophecy  in  the  one  before 
— as  that  which  properly  appertaineth  to 
"the  outward  business  of  the  house  of 
God."t 

'Or  he  that  teacheth,  on  teaching  ;  or 
he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation.'  The 
apostle  now  returns  on  the  prophetical 
office,  and  specifies  two  distinct  branches 
of  it.  The  faculties  of  teaching  and  ex- 
horting may  be  combined  in  the  same 
individual ;  and  indeed  in  these  days, 
they  are  best  laid  upon  one  person,  the 
ordinary  minister  of  a  congregation.  Yet 
the  two  faculties  ai'e  so  far  separate,  as 
in  other  times  to  have  given  rise  to  sep- 
arate functions  ;  and  accordinglj",  in  the 
machinery  of  more  churches  than  one, 
have  we  read  both  of  the  doctor  and  the 
pastor  as  distinct  office-bearers.  The  one 
expounds  truth.  The  other  applies  it, 
and  presses  it  home  on  the  case  and  con- 
science of  every  individual.  The  didac- 
tic and  the  hortatory  are  two  distinct 
things,  and  imply  distinct  powers — inso- 
much, that,  on  the  one  hand,  a  luminous, 
logical,  and  masterly  didactic,  may  be  a 
feeble  and  unimpressive  hortatory  preach- 
er ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  most  effective 
of  our  hortatory  men,  may,  when  they 
attempt  the  didactic,  prove  very  obscure 
and  infelicitous  e.xpounders  of  the  truth. 
Both  are  best  ;  and  we  should  conform 
more  to  the  way  of  that  Spirit  who  di- 
videth  His  gifts  severally  as  He  will,  did 
we  multiply  and  divide  our  offices  so  as 
to  meet  this  variet)^  It  were  more  con- 
sonant both  to  philosophy  and  Scripture, 
did  we  proceed  more  on  the  subdivision 
of  employment  in  things  ecclesiastical. 

'He  that  giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  sim- 
plicity.' If  the  duty  here  specified  be 
regarded  as  a  function  in  the  hand  of  a 
functionary,  it  is  that  of  a  deacon  or  dis- 
tributor of  the  church's  arms.  The  word 
in  the  original  for  simplicity  has  been  va- 
riously interpreted,  and  made  to  stand  for 
a  great  many  different  virtues.  Its  proper 
signification  is  singleness  ;  and  wherever 
its  place  or  connection  determines  its 
meaning  to  some  one  of  these  virtues,  it 
will  mean  that  virtue  in  a  state  of  purity  ; 
and  as  free  from  the  alloy  of  any  corrup- 
tion, or  the  influence  of  any  principle  ad- 
verse to,  or  different  from  itself.     Thus'  in 


'  1  Peter  iv,  10. 


t  Nehemiah,  xi,  16. 


456 


LECTURE  LXXXIX. CHAPTER  XII,  3 8. 


2  Cor,  viii.  2,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  its 
meaning  a  strong  and  single-hearted  lib- 
erality ;  in  2  Cor.  i,  12,  a  single-hearted 
conscientiousness — and  that  too  in  the 
mid.st  of  distracting  forces  ;  in  Eph.  vi,  5, 
a  simple  devotedness  to  the  will  of  Christ ; 
the  same  in  Col.  iii,  22  ;  in  2  Cor.  xi,  3,  an 
entire  and  undivided  credence  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ ;  and  the  passage  before 
us,  a  singleness  of  aim  on  the  part  of  our 
deacon  to  do  aright  the  duty  of  his  call- 
ing— a  oneness  of  purpose  to  fuUil  the 
end  of  his  appointment,  which  was  not 
the  satisfaction  of  the  poor  for  the  sake 
of  his  own  popularity,  but  so  to  deal 
with  them  in  the  office  of  a  distributor, 
as  might  best  subserve  the  good  of  the 
poor,  or  be  most  conducive  to  their  real 
and  substantial  well-being.  Such  sim- 
plicity as  this  might  lead  him  to  a  large 
distribution  of  money  or  not,  according 
to  circumstances.  Its  aim  is  ncjt  the  great- 
est possible  amount  of  liberality,  but  the 
greatest  possible  benefit  of  those  who  are 
the  objects  of  its  care.  That  Christians 
in  general  have  a  part  in  this  rule  is  quite 
obvious.  They  are  called  to  be  willing 
to  distribute,  and  ready  to  communicate, 
and  to  consider  the  poor,  and  to  open  the 
bowels  of  their  compassion  towards  them. 
What  the  office-bearers  are  required  to  do 
for  the  paupers  of  the  church,  all  are  re- 
quired to  do  as  they  have  the  opportu- 
nity and  the  call  for  the  poor  of  society 
at  large. 

'  He  that  ruleth,  with  diligence.'  There 
seems  to  be  interposed  here  a  function 
not  exclusively  confined  to  the  business 
either  of  prophecy  or  deaconship,  but 
which  may  extend  to  all  other  ecclesias- 
tical business,  and  has  been  specially  ap- 
plied to  the  discipline  of  the  church.  It 
is  true  that  of  the  ruling  elders  some 
there  were  who  laboured  in  word  and 
doctrine  ;  but  in  modern  practice  they 
who  owned  this  title  have  had  chiefly  to 
do  with  matters  of  discipline.  And  were 
but  the  territory  of  a  parish,  with  its 
population,  rightly  parcelled  out  amongst 
them — did  they  but  take  cognisance  of 
the  moral  and  religious  habits  of  their 
respective  families — would  they  but  pros- 
ecute their  weekly  or  periodic  rounds  of 
visitation,  and  do  their  uttermost  in  stimu- 
lating the  education  and  the  economy 
and  the  temperance  and  the  church-going 
and  the  family  worship  of  all  the  house- 
holds within  their  charge — In  this  high 
walk  of  philanthropy,  there  is  ample 
scope  for  as  much  diligence  as  they  can 
afford  to  expend  upon  it  :  But  along  with 
this,  by  the  Divine  blessing  on  their  la- 


bours, the  amplest  encouragement,  in 
that  most  delightful  of  all  empluyments, 
the  prosperous  management  of  human 
nature — to  be  followed  up  in  God's  good 
time  by  that  most  delightful  of  all  re- 
wards, the  elevated  morals  and  piety, 
of  those  neighbourhoods  over  which 
they  expatiate.  Here  too,  it  is  evident, 
that  the  Christian  usi-fulness  which  might 
be  achieved  by  the  elder  of  a  church,  lies 
witliin  the  reach  of  all  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  ;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all,  thus 
to  lay  themselves  out  for  the  furtherance 
of  religion  in  the  world. 

'  He  that  showeth  mercy,  with  cheerful- 
ness.' There  was  an  official  channel  pro- 
vided for  this  species  or  modification  of 
benevolence  too  in  the  ancicMit  Christian 
churches.  It  formed  a  distinct  office 
from  that  of  deacon  or  almoner,  whoso 
business  it  was  to  act  as  a  dispenser 
among  the  poor  of  the  charities  of  the 
faithful.  Besides  these,  there  were  those 
whose  part  it  was  to  officiate  among  the 
distrest  from  other  causes  than  that  of 
mere  poverty,  as  the  afflicted  in  any  other 
way,  and  especially  the  diseased.  They 
were  distinct  too  from  those  "elders  of 
the  church,"  of  whom  we  read  in  James, 
and  who  were  sent  for  by  the  sick  to 
pray  over  them,  or  in  the  discharge  of  a 
spiritual  duty.  The  visitors  of  v.'hom  we 
now  treat  had  the  charge  rather  of  a  tem- 
poral ministration — attending  the  sick  at 
their  own  houses,  to  whom  they  gave  the 
comfort  of  their  presence,  and  the  help 
of  their  personal  services.  For  the  bet- 
ter execution  of  this  trust,  there  was  ap- 
pointed an  order  of  deaconesses,  who  of- 
ficiated then  very  much  as  do  the  sisters 
of  charity  in  later  times.  It  was  quite 
an  appropriate  lesson  for  them  that  what 
they  did  they  should  do  with  'cheerful- 
ness'— or  with  perfect  good  will  and  a 
congenial  liking  for  the  task,  that,  from 
their  very  smiles  and  looks  of  kindness, 
the  objects  of  their  care  might  derive  a 
happiness  in  sympathy  with  their  own. 
This  too  is  obviously  a  lesson  for  all ;  and 
is  as  applicable  on  the  walk  of  general 
pliilanthropy  as  within  the  economy  of  a 
church.  Whoever  has,  leisure  for  such 
services  of  humanity,  would  do  well  to 
study  this  advice  of  the  apostle — though 
primarily  designed  by  him  for  the  office- 
bearers of  an  ecclesiastical  community. 
The  goodly  equipment  of  offices  in  the 
ancient  church  for  all  sorts  and  varieties 
of  well-doing,  carries  with  it  a  severe  re- 
proach on  the  meagre,  stinted,  and  parsi- 
monious apparatus  of  modern  times 


LECTURE    XC, CHAPTER   XII,    9 13,    15,    16. 


457 


LECTURE  XC. 


Romans  xi,  9—13,  15,  16. 


"  I,et  love  be  without  dissimulation.  Abhor  that  which  is  evil ;  cleave  to  that  which  is  good.  Be  Icindly  a/Tec- 
tioued  one  to  another  witli  brotherly  love  ;  in  honour  preferring  one  another  :  not  slothful  in  business  ;  fervent 
inspirit;  serving  tlie  Lord  ;  rejoicing  in  hope  ;  patient  in  tribulation  ;  continuing  instant  in  prayer  ;  distributing 

to  the  necessity  of  saints  ;  given  to  hospitality Rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice  and  weep  with  them 

that  weep      Be  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.     Mind  not  high  things,  but  condescend  to  men  of  lov/ 
estate.     Be  not  wise  in  your  own  conceits." 


Though  the  apostle  may  be  regarded  in 
the  few  last  verses  as  addressing  himself 
in  a  more  especial  manner  to  the  few 
office-holders  of  a  select  society — yet  cer- 
tain it  is,  that  the  instructions  which  he 
gives  them  are  based  on  the  soundest  prin- 
ciples of  a  general  ethics,  that  had  a  per- 
manent and  universal  application  ;  and 
wherewith  he  now  breaks  forth  on  a  field 
as  general,  as  are  the  principles  them- 
selves which  he  had  just  been  urging  and 
enforcing  on  the  occupiers  of  a  narrower 
sphere.  No  one  can  question  that  in  what 
follows,  they  are  not  rules  limited  to  but  a 
few  cases  or  situations,  but  the  wide  and 
catholic  moralities  of  the  species  in  which 
he  deals,  of  the  -same  e.vtent  and  compass 
with  humanity  itself,  or  in  every  way  as 
general  as  Clu'istianity  herself  is  general. 
We  may  therefore  omit  henceforth  the 
consideration  of  the  church's  office-bear- 
ers, and  feel  that  they  are  now  those 
duties  of  unexcepted  obligation  which 
men  owe  to  their  God  and  to  each  other 
wherewith  from  this  time  we  have  pro- 
perly to  do. 

Ver.  9.  '  Let  love  be  without  dissimula- 
tion. Abhor  that  which  is  evil ;  cleave 
to  that  which  is  good.'  '  Let  love  be  with- 
out dissimulation.'  Or,  as  we  have  it  in 
other  Scriptures — let  ours  be  "love  un- 
feigned."* The  spirit  of  this  direction  is 
the  same  with  that  which  the  apostle,  a 
few  verses  before,  had  laid  upon  the 
deacons — "  Let  him  who  giveth  do  it  with 
simplicity."  There  is  the  frequent  sem- 
blance both  of  faith  and  love  without  the 
reality  of  either  ;  and  so  he  speaks  too  of 
unfeigned  faith.f  He  elsewhere  speaks 
of  the  sincerity  of  our  love.J  The  charge 
here  given  is  tantamount  to  that  of  the 
apostle  John — "  Let  us  not  love  in  word, 
neither  in  tongue ;  but  in  deed  and  in 
truth."5 

'  Abhor  that  which  is  evil  ;  cleave  to 
that  which  is  good.'  I  think  with  Calvin, 
that  it  is  not  moral  good  in  the  general, 
or  moral  evil  in  the  general,  which  is  here 
intended  ;  but  that  good  which  springs 
immediately  from  love  to  one's  neighbour, 


•  2  Cor.  vi,  6 ;  1  Pet.  i,  22.    1 1  Tim.  i,  5  ;  2  Tim.  i,  5. 
1 2  Corintnians,  viii.  8  §  1  John,  iii,  18. 

58 


and  that  evil  which  springs  as  immedi- 
ately from  the  opposite  affections  of 
hatred,  malice,  or  revenge.  It  is  the  same 
good  and  evil  as  that  spoken  of  in  the  last 
verse  of  this  chapter — where  the  apostle 
tells  his  disciples  to  overcome  evil  with 
good — that  is,  to  meet  the  persecution  and 
the  injustice  of  enemies,  not  with  the 
maledictions  of  anger  or  returns  of  ven- 
geance, but  with  blessing  and  kindness 
and  peace.  The  good  which  he  bids  them 
cleave  to  in  the  one  verse,  is  that  which 
he  also  tells  them  not  to  quit  their  hold  of 
in  another,  but  to  keep  by  and  wield  as 
the  instrument  of  a  great  moral  victory. 
And  the  evil  which  in  the  first  of  these 
two  places  he  bids  them  abhor  having  any 
part  or  performance  in  themselves,  is  the 
very  evil  which  he  tells  them  not  to  re- 
taliate, should  it  ever  be  inflicted  on  them 
by  others. 

Ver.  10.  '  Be  kindly  afFectioned  one  to 
another  with  brotherly  love  ;  in  honour 
preferring  one  another.'  The  words  in 
the  original  convey  more  strongly  and 
specifically  the  affection  of  our  text,  than 
has  been  adequately  rendered  in  our 
translation.  The  being  kindly  affectioned 
is  expressed  by  a  term  which  means  the 
love  of  kindred,  or  by  some  called  in- 
stinctive ;  and  which  at  all  events  is  far 
more  intense  than  the  general  good  liking 
that  obtains  without  the  pale  of  relation- 
ship between  man  and  man  in  society. 
It  is  an  affection  distinct  from,  and  ia 
general  greatly  more  tenacious  and  ten- 
der, than  that  of  ordinary  friendship. 
And,  to  stamp  upon  it  a  still  greater  pe- 
culiarity and  force,  it  is  added  that  Chris- 
tians should  be  kindly  affectioned  one  to 
another  with  hroiherhj  love — an  affection, 
the  distinctness  of  which  from  that  of 
charity,  is  clearly  brought  out  in  the  enu- 
meration of  virtues  or  graces  made  by  the 
apostle  Peter.*  And  to  brotherly  kind- 
ness add  charity — the  same  with  brotherly 
love  in  the  original  ;  and  as  distinct  from 
general  love  or  charity  in  the  moral,  as 
the  magnetic  attraction  is  from  the  gene- 
ral attraction  of  gravity  in  the  material 
world.    This  more  special  affinity  which 


•  2  Peter,  i,  7. 


458 


LECTURE   XC. — CHAPTER    XII.    9 — 13,    15,     16. 


binds  together  the  members  of  the  same 
family  ;  and  even  of  wider  communities, 
as  when  it  establishes  a  sort  of  felt 
brotherhood,  an  esprit  de  corps,  between 
citizens  of  the  same  town,  or  inhabitants 
of  the  same  country,  or  members  of  the 
same  profession,  and  so  originates  the 
several  ties  of  consanguinity  or  neigh- 
bourhood or  patriotism — is  nowhere  ex- 
emplitied  in  greater  force  than  among  the 
disciples  of  a  common  Christianity,  if 
theirs  be  indeed  the  genuine  faith  of  the 
gospel.  It  is  in  fact  one  of  the  tests  or 
badges  of  a  real  disci pleshi p.  •'  We  know 
that  we  have  passed  from  death  unto  life, 
because  we  love  the  brethren."*  It  gives 
rise  to  that  more  special  benevolence 
which  we  owe  to  the  "  household  of  faith, "f 
as  distinguished  from  the  common  benefi- 
cence which  we  owe  "  unto  all  men" — 
and  which  stood  so  visibly  forth  in  the 
first  ages  among  the  fellow-worshippers 
of  Jesus,  as  to  have  made  it  common  with 
observers  to  say — Behold  how  these  Chris- 
tians love  each  other. 

'In  honour  preferring  one  another' — 
each  leading  the  way  in  acts  of  respect 
and  courtesy — the  contest  being  which 
shall  render  the  other  the  greatest  defer- 
ence and  honour.  "Let  each  esteem  other 
better  than  themselves."J  This  would  re- 
move one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  mutual  affection — the  great  lesson 
of  our  passage,  as  it  is  the  great  lesson  of 
the  evangelic  morality  throughout  the 
New  Testament.  Self-preference  and 
jealousy  of  each  other's  reputation,  have 
in  all  ages  of  the  Christian  church  been 
the  greatest  provocatives  to  that  envying 
and  strife  which  are  opposed  to  the  meek- 
ness of  the  wisdom  that  is  from  above. 
Hence  in  a  very  great  degree  the  un- 
seemly contentions  of  ecclesiastical  men, 
which  have  ever  proved  the  worst  hin- 
drances to  the  adoption  of  measures  for 
the  good  of  Christianity.  This  love  of 
power  and  of  pre-eminence  has  in  all  ages 
been  adverse  to  the  objects  of  a  sound  and 
disinterested  ecclesiastical  patriotism.  It 
might  be  traced  even  to  apostolical  times. 
Paul  seems  to  have  been  sensible  of  its 
presence  among  the  chief  men  of  the 
council  at  Jerusalem,  and  to  have  felt  the 
necessity  of  protecting  himself  against  it. 
And  so  before  he  would  submit  his  ques- 
tion to  a  public  assembly,  he  took  care  by 
a  round  of  previous  attentions  to  propi- 
tiate those  of  them  who  were  of  reputa- 
tion, by  communicating  with  them  pri- 
vately, lest  by  any  means  he  should  run 
or  had  run  in  vain.  He  with  a  most  justi- 
fiable wisdom  went  first  to  those  "who 
seemed  to  be  somewhat" — it  might  have 
been  perhaps  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 

'  1  John,  iii,  14.        t  Gal.  vi,  10.        t  Phil,  ii,  3. 


ing  counsel  and  information  ;  but  the  fur- 
ther purpose  seems  to  be  insinuated  of 
gaining  them  over  by  the  homage  before- 
hand of  his  recognition  and  respect.  And 
even  should  we  discern  in  this  policy  of 
our  great  apostle,  the  offering  of  a  little 
incense  to  the  personal  vanity  of  those  on 
whom  he  waited — we  see  nothing  in  this 
but  the  marvellous  identity  of  human  na- 
ture at  all  times  and  in  all  places  of  the 
world  ;  or  that  the  leaders  and  men  of 
consequence  then  should  be  of  the  same 
affections  with  the  men  of  consequence 
now — the  ecclesiastical  somewhats  of  the 
present  day.* 

Ver.  11.  '  Not  slothful  in  business  ;  fer- 
vent in  spirit ;  serving  the  Lord.'  The 
word  here  translated  '  business,'  is  the 
same  with  that  in  which  in  the  8th  verse 
is  translated  "  diligence."  Its  proper  and 
primitive  signification  is  '  speed,'  and 
hence  the  affection  which  prompts  to 
speed — or  earnestness,  intenseness,  the 
desirousness  of  a  heart  set  on  some  par- 
ticular object,  and  therefore  setting  one 
busily  to  work  for  its  accomplishment ; 
and  thus  the  fervency  of  spirit  in  the 
next  clause  may  be  looked  to  as  the  ani- 
mating  principle  of  that  diligence  in  bu- 
siness which  is  here  inculcated — even  as 
in  the  case  of  Apollos,f  who  "being  fer- 
vent in  the  Spirit,"  did  in  consequence 
speak  and  teach  diligently  the  things  of 
the  Lord.  But  wheUier  we  retain  the 
word  business,  or  render  it  into  any  other 
of  the  relative  terms,  there  is  no  mis- 
taking the  sense  of  this  first  clause,  which 
is  not  to  be  slothful  but  diligent;  and 
that  whatever  the  business  may  be,  if  an 
expedient  and  a  lawful  one.  The  ques- 
tion whether  it  be  a  sacred  or  secular 
employment  which  is  here  referred  to, 
will  not  embarrass  him  whose  honest  aim 
is  to  leaven  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel 
every  hour  of  his  life,  and  every  work 
which  he  puts  his  hand  to.  The  man 
who  studies  to  observe  "  all  things  what- 
soever" Christ  hath  commanded  him,t 
will  still  feel  himself  religiously  em- 
ployed when  following  the  precept — 
"Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do 
it  with  thy  might."}  He  will  see  no  dif- 
ficulty in  making  the  advice  here  given 
to  be  of  universal  application,  who  as- 
pires to  a  conformity  with  the  sayings — 
"  Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory 
of  God" — "  Whatsoever  ye  do  in  word  or 
in  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus." 

Neither  in  the  absence  of  any  express 
utterance  from  Scripture  itself,  will  he 
be  careful  to  determine,  whether  it  be  the 
Spirit  of  God  or  the  spirit  of  man  that  is 
spoken   of  in   the   next  clause — if  suffi- 


*  Galatians,  ii,  6. 
t  Matt,  xxviii,  20. 


t  Acts,  xviii,  25. 
5  Eccl.  i.\,  10. 


LECTURE   XC. CHAPTEE.    Xn,    9 — 13,    15,    16. 


459 


ciently  indoctrinated  by  Scripture  at 
large  in  the  truth,  that  all  right  fervency 
in  the  spirit  of  man  is  from  the  Spirit  of 
God  alone — is  the  product  of  fire  from 
the  sanctuary,  and  not  of  his  own  kin- 
dling.* It  is  thus  that  in  practical  Chris- 
tianity there  is  a  conjunction  of  prayer 
with  performance  ;  and  the  disciple 
striveth  mightily  according  to  the  grace 
that  worketh  in  him  mightily. 

'Serving  the  Lord.'  There  is  a  differ- 
ent reading  adopted  now  by  the  most 
learned  of  our  Biblists  ;  and  that  because 
of  the  number  and  authority  of  those 
manuscripts  which  present  the  Greek 
word  for  "  lime."  We  should  then  un- 
derstand the  direction  to  be — '  Do  dili- 
gently each  work  in  its  own  season' — or, 
'  Let  each  hour  be  busily  filled  up  with 
its  own  proper  employment.'  We  should 
have  given  our  assent  to  this  emendation, 
hut  for  the  word  'serve,'  which  in  the 
Greek  implies  subjection,  and  in  the  most 
entire  and  submissive  form  ;  and  in  which 
sense  it  stands  in  far  more  suitable  rela- 
tion to  a  living  superior,  and  most  of  all 
to  Him  who  liveth  and  is  Supreme.  It 
were  apposite  enough  to  speak  of  suiting 
the  time,  but  not  of  submitting  to  the  time 
— whereas  nothing  can  be  more  appropri- 
ate than  that  in  all  things  we  should  sub- 
mit ourselves  unto  the  Lor'd. 

Ver.  12.  '  Rejoicing  in  hope  ;  patient  in 
tribulation;  continuing  instant  in  prayer.' 
There  are  some  commentators  who  en- 
deavour to  run  a  thread  of  continuity 
throughout  the  various  precepts  of  this 
chapter;  and  so  to  force  a  dependence  of 
one  upon  another  contiguous  to  it,  as  would 
perhaps  somewhat  pervert  the  obvious 
meaning  of  certain  of  these  rules.  In- 
stead of  supposing  that  each  rule  sug- 
gested its  fellow,  and  that  they  all  follow 
each  other,  like  the  terms  of  a  series  on 
the  principle  of  the  association  of  ideas 
— it  seems  to  us  the  better  theory,  that 
they  are  also  in  part  suggested  to  the 
mind  of  the  apostle  by  his  direct  view  of 
the  exigencies  of  that  society  which  he 
was  addressing;  and  that  therefore  we 
behold  in  these  precepts  as  much  and  as 
little  of  the  miscellaneous,  as  there  was 
of  the  miscellaneous  at  the  time  in  the 
chief  temptations  and  circumstances  of 
the  Romish  Christians.  Now  in  the  first 
instance,  they  were  exposed  to  jealousies 
and  contentions  from  within,  to  meet 
which  we  have  one  class  of  charges — 
mutual  respect,  and  mutual  cordiality ; 
and  more  especially  the  duties  of  office- 
bearers, whose  part  it  was  to  refrain  from 
all  lordly  contempt  or  usurpation  of  the 
work  of  other  functionaries,  and  each  to 
keep  rightly  and  assiduously  at  the  ap- 
propriate business  of  his  own  calling. — 


*  Isaiah,  i,  11. 


And  then  in  the  second  instance,  they  were 
exposed  to  persecution  from  vvithout ;  and 
hence  another  and  a  distinct  set  of 
charges — hope,  and  patience,  and  prayer, 
and  sympathy  for  the  afilicted  among 
their  brethren,  and  succour  to  those  of 
them  who  were  spoiled  of  their  goods ; 
and,  most  of  all,  meekness  and  forbear- 
ance and  unquelled  charity  under  all 
the  provocation  and  injustice  that  were 
heaped  upon  them. 

'  Rejoicing  in  hope' — and  that  even  in 
the  midst  of  tribulations.*  This  must 
have  been  the  hope  of  glory  in  another 
life — the  only  hope  which  could  rejoice 
the  hearts  of  those,  of  whom  Paul 
says,  that  if  in  this  life  only  they  had 
hope,  they  were  of  all  men  the  most 
miserable.!  Theirs  was  a  hope  which 
reached  beyond  the  grave — the  hope  of 
those  who  walked  by  faith  and  not  by 
sight,  or  who  looked  beyond  the  things 
which  are  seen  and  temporal  to  those 
which  are  unseen  and  eternal.  It  was 
this  which  made  all  their  affiictions  light 
unto  them — the  contemplation  of  that 
exceeding  great  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory,  which  was  to  follow  their  present 
trials,  and  for  the  full  enjoyment  of 
which  these  trials  were  fitted  to  prepare 
them.t 

'Patient  in  tribulation.'  The  very  same 
hope  which  ministers  joy  in  the  bright 
prospects  of  the  future,  ministers  patience 
under  the  sufi'erings  of  the  present.  Even 
Jesus  Christ,  "for  the  joy  that  was  set  be- 
fore him,  endured  the  cross."^ 

'  Continuing  instant  in  prayer.'  For 
though  hope  will  elevate  and  sustain  in 
the  midst  of  adversities  ;  yet  the  hope  of 
unseen  realities  on  the  other  side  of 
death  requires  to  be  itself  sustained  by 
a  power  that  is  above  nature — else  nature 
gives  way.  We  are  made  to  "abound 
in  hope  through  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 'II  It  is  thus  that  the  faith  and 
fortitude  of  the  Christian  are  alimented 
by  constant  supplies  of  light  and  grace 
from  above,  and  which  supplies  are  kept 
up  by  instant  prayer.'  For  this  purpose 
we  must  pray  and  watch  for  the  Spirit 
with  all  perseverance. "iT  Prayer  is  not 
confined  to  the  occasions  of  its  set  and 
formal  utterance.  It  might  alternate  in 
brief  and  frequent  aspirations  with  the 
familiar  business  of  life.  Nay  it  may 
exist  as  a  prayerful  disposition  in  the 
heart,  or  in  the  form  of  a  perennial  ten- 
dency upward  and  heavenward  ;  and  he 
who  owns  such  a  disposition,  whether  he 
have  the  power  and  opportunity  of  send- 
ing forth  articulate  supplications  or  not, 
may  be  said  to  pray  without  ceasing. 


"  Rom.  V,  2,  3 ;  Jaraes,  i,  2.  t  1  Cor.  xv,  19. 

I  2  Corinthians,  iv,  18  j  v,  7.  §  Hebrews,  xii,  2. 

il  Romans,  xv,  13.  H  Ephes.  vi,  18. 


460 


LECTURE   XC. CHAPTER   XII,    9 — 13,    15,    16. 


Ver.  13.  'Distributing  to  the  necessity 
of  saints  ;  given  to  liospitality.'  Tlie  view 
of  the  church  of  Home  as  a  suffering 
and  persecuted  church  might  well  have 
suggested  tliese  rules  also — not  but  that 
they  are  of  permanent  and  universal  obli- 
gation, but  that  there  was  a  more  press- 
ing and  peculiar  call  for  them  in  these 
days  of  violence — when  the  very  profes- 
sion of  Christianity  exposed  them  who 
held  it  to  the  loss  of  their  substance,  or  to 
be  dismissed  from  the  service  of  their  em- 
ployers. And  the  word  is  expressive  of 
sometliing  more  than  a  simple  giving.  It 
means  to  give  with  a  fellow-feeling,  and 
as  if  the  case  of  the  sufferer  was  one's 
own.  It  is  our  duty  to  give  unto  all,  if  it 
be  for  their  good,  as  we  have  opportu- 
nity. But  here  the  apostle  speaks  of  giv- 
ing for  the  necessities  of  the  saints— of 
giving  therefore  with  that  special  sympa- 
thy which  he  enjoins  in  another  form, 
when  he  bids  his  disciples  rejoice  with 
them  who  rejoice,  and  weep  with  them 
who  weep.  The  common  danger  of  these 
times  disposed  men  all  the  more  readily 
so  to  give,  as  if  they  had  all  things  com- 
mon. 

'  Given  to  hospitality.'  And  this  too  is 
far  from  being  a  local  or  merely  occa- 
sional virtue — though  doubtless  tliere  was 
a  more  urgent  occasion  for  its  exercise  in 
these  days.  The  proper  sense  of  hospi- 
tality is  kindness  to  strangers,  or  to  those 
who  were  at  a  distance  from  their  own 
home — a  wholly  dilFerent  thing  from  the 
conviviality  which  opens  one's  house  to 
festive  parties  made  up  of  acquaintances 
from  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  This 
was  the  common  lot  of  Christians  in  those 
days — often  scattered  abroad  by  persecu- 
tion,* and  dependent  both  for  food  and 
shelter  on  the  compassion  of  their  breth- 
ren in  the  faith.  Let  it  not  be  imagined, 
however,  that  this  is  a  duty  confined  to 
any  one  period,  or  called  forth  by  the 
extraoi'dinary  circumstances  of  the  church 
during  the  first  ages — a  common  expedient 
this  for  diluting  the  peculiar  morality  of 
the  gospel,  or  blunting  the  force  and  ap- 
plication of  its  most  authoritative  pre- 
cepts. There  is  here  an  obligation  laid 
on  Christians  of  all  times  as  indelible  as 
the  record  which  contains  it — distinct, 
however,  from  that  expenditure  on  the 
enjoyments  of  the  social  board,  which 
now  forms  almost  all  that  is  known  under 
the  name  of  hospitable — as  distinct  as 
the  feasts  enjoined  by  our  Saviour  to 
the  poor  and  the  helpless  are  from  the 
merry  companionships,  that  alternate  or 
pass  in  rounds  from  house  to  house, 
among  the  children  of  fashion  and  lux- 
ury.    Not  that    we    would    utterly    pro- 


'  Acts,  viii,  1,4;  xi,  19 ;  James,  i.  1. 


scribe  these  reciprocal  convivialities  of 
the  middle  or  higher  classes — burdensome 
though  they  often  are,  and  wearisome  to 
an  extreme  from  the  entire  destitution, 
whether  of  the  intellectual  or  the  spirit- 
ual, in  the  conversation  of  our  every  day 
parties.  Our  religionists  might  in  a  great 
degree  be  protected  from  this  latter 
annoyance,  were  they  but  consistent 
with  themselves  ;  and  did  they  aim  at  an 
entire,  instead  of  a  partial  Christianity. 
Had  they  more  of  openness  and  intre- 
pidity in  their  talk — when  they  sit  at  the 
same  table,  did  they  meet  together  on  the 
footing  of  a  society  of  immortals — would- 
they  speak  of  the  country  whither  they 
were  going,  and  of  the  character  which 
prepared  for  it — A  goodly  number  even 
of  their  present  society  might  be  amalga- 
mated into  a  conformity  with  their  own 
spirit,  while  the  rest  might  be  scared 
away  from  those  resorts,  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  which  they  conld  not  breathe 
with  congeniality  or  comfort.  There 
would  thus  be  brought  about  a  thing 
mainly  Avanted  in  our  day — a  broader  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  church  and 
the  world.  It  might  seem  a  paradox,  but 
is  not  the  less  true,  that  it  is  easier  to 
be  an  altogether  than  an  almost  Chris- 
tian. 

Ver.  15,  16.  'Rejoice  with  them  that  do 
rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep. 
Be  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another. 
Mind  not  high  things,  but  condescend  to 
men  of  low  estate.  Be  not  wise  in  your 
own  conceits.'  Passing  over  at  present  a 
verse  which  regards  the  deportment  of 
the  persecuted  Christians  to  their  enemies, 
we,  in  the  next  two  verses,  still  find  the 
apostle  occupied  with  the  matters  of  that 
internal  morality  which  should  subsist 
among  themselves,  or  with  the  directory 
of  their  conduct  to  each  other. 

'Rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice.'  He, 
a  few  verses  before,  had  bidden  them  re- 
joice in  hope  ;  and  certainly  it  is  well  that 
Christians,  for  their  mutual  encourage- 
ment, and  to  uphold  the  steadfastness  of 
their  faith,  should  speak  often  together  of 
that  heaven  which  is  the  home  of  their 
common  expectations.  But  beside  this, 
the  sympatiiy  of  congratulation  seems  to 
be  recommended  in  this  clause,  even  as 
the  sympathy  of  pit_y  forms  the  subject  of 
the  next.  A  sincere  happiness  in  the  hap- 
piness of  others,  argues  not  merely  the 
strength  of  our  affections,  but  our  freedom 
from  envy  towards  them. 

'And  weep  with  them  that  weep.' 
There  is  a  charm  in  the  fellow-feeling  of 
others,  distinct  altogether  from  the  plea- 
sure we  have  in  any  material  benefit  that 
we  might  receive  from  them.  This  last  is 
provided  for  in  a  foregoing  verse,  under 
the  heads  of  'distributing  to  the  necessity 


LECTURE   XC. CHAPTER    XII,    9 13,    15,    16. 


461 


of  saints,' and  being  'given  to  hospital- 
ity.' Bat  to  complete  either  the  code  of 
charity,  or  the  happiness  of  that  society 
over  which  it  reigns,  it  is  indispensable 
that  the  moral  should  be  superadded  to 
the  substantial  or  physical  ;  for  certainly 
apart  either  from  gifts  or  services,  there 
is  enjoyment,  and  that  of  the  highest  or- 
der, both  in  the  mere  exercise  of  kind  and 
brotherly  affection  on  the  one  hand,  and 
in  being  merely  the  tDbject  of  such  affec- 
tion on  the  other — whether  it  be  that  of 
sympathy  with  the  prosperous,  which 
heightens  the  felicities  ;  or  of  sympathy 
with  the  afflicted,  the  ills  of  humanity.  It 
is  thus  that  independently  of  all  aid  from 
the  hands,  there  comes  a  direct  and  most 
precious  contribution  to  the  happiness  of 
the  species  from  the  hearts  of  men — and 
that  by  instant  transition,  in  the  play  of 
their  reciprocal  emotions  from  one  spirit 
to  another.  The  apostle  was  no  stranger 
to  the  balsamic  virtue,  as  of  some  hidden 
essence  or  elixir,  which  lay  in  this  more 
ethereal  part  of  well-doing.  In  these  days 
it  operated  with  all  the  speed  and  force 
of  a  pulsation,  throughout  the  widely 
extended  community  of  the  faithful. 
"  Whether  one  member  suffered,  all  the 
members  sulfered  with  it ;  or  one  member 
was  honoured,  all  the  membei's  rejoiced 
with  it."* 

The  three  clauses  of  the  16th  verse 
.serve,  we  think,  to  qualify  and  determine 
the  meaning  of  each.  The  general  lesson 
of  the  15th  is,  that  all,  and  more  espe- 
cially if  saints  or  members  of  the  same 
Christian  society,  should,  if  in  like  cir- 
cumstances, be  alike  sharers  of  our  sym- 
pathy. And  we  are  inclined  to  view  the 
general  lesson  of  the  16th,  as  being,  that 
these  same  parties,  as  all  members  of  the 
Christian  church,  shonld  at  least  in  far 
the  highest  and  noblest  distinction  of 
which  humanity  is  capable,  have  the  like 
place,  or  be  alike  sharers  in  our  estima- 
tion. Wo  do  not  regard  them  as  mean- 
ing that  we  should  all  think  the  same 
thintcs, — that  we  should  be  of  one  ortho- 


'  1  Corinthians,  xii,  26. 


doxy,  or  of  one  opinion  in  matters  of  doc- 
trine or  theology ;  but  that  whatever  the 
diversities  of  our  rank  or  station  might 
be,  we  should,  on  the  ground  of  our  com- 
mon Christianity,  hold  each  other  in 
equal  or  like  estimation.  The  original 
presents  a  counterpart  between  the  'each 
other'  of  the  first  clause,  and  the  'your- 
selves' of  the  third,  which  coupled  in 
each  with  the  same  radical  word,  im- 
presses the  idea  that  when  taken  together, 
they  signify  that  we  should  mutually 
hold  each  other  in  the  same  estimation, 
and  not  confine  our  estimation  to  our- 
selves.* If  in  Phil,  ii,  3,  we  are  told  that 
in  lowliness  of  mind  each  should  esteem 
other  better  than  themselves  —  in  this 
place,  and  to  our  minds  it  gives  the  pre- 
cise sense  of  the  passage,  we  are  told  that 
each  should  esteem  other  at  least  as  good 
as  themselves.  And  in  keeping  with  this 
view,  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  in  the 
middle  clause  they  are  not  men  of  low 
estate  to  whom  we  are  bidden  condescend, 
but  low  or  humble  things  that  we  are 
bidden  be  content  with.  Do  not  aspire 
after  high  things,  •  but  consent  to  be 
evened  with  low  things.  Honour  all 
your  fellow-Christians,  and  that  alike  on 
the  ground  of  their  common  and  exalted 
prospects.  When  on  this  high  level,  do 
not  plume  yourselves  on  the  insignificant 
distinctions  of  your  superior  wealth  or 
superior  earthly  consideration  of  what- 
ever soi't.  Rather  let  the  rich  rejoice  in 
that  he  is  made  low  ;  and  thus  let  the 
monopoly  of  honour,  or  self-respect,  give 
way  to  the  respect  of  each  other.  We  do 
not  lose  the  benefit  of  the  precept  in  our 
version — '  condescend  to  men  of  low  es- 
tate'— by  our  substitution  of  things  for 
men.  He  who  for  the  sake  of  the  gospel 
can  put  up  with  low  things,  with  poverty 
and  all  its  humble  accommodations,  will 
not  refuse  to  associate  with  Christian 
men,  who  are  lovers  and  followers  of 
the  gospel,  because  of  their  poverty. 

*   To  avTO  £ij  aWriXovstpptifOvvTeSj  aild  JVI17  yiveade 
ippovtjioi  Trap  snvroij. 


LECTURE  XCI. 


Romans  xii,  14,  17—21. 


"  Bless  them  which  persecute  you  ;  bless,  and  curse  not Recompense  to  no  man  evil  for  evil.     Provide  things 

honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men.  If  it  be  possiSle,  as  much  as  lielh  in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men  Dearly 
beloved,  avenpe^not  yourselves,  bnt  rather  give  place  unto  wrath  ;  for  it  is  written,  Vengeance  is  mine  ;  I  will  re- 
pay sai'th  the^Lord.  Therefore  if  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink  ;  for  in  so  doing  thou 
Shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  ou  his  head.     Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good." 

The  apostle   does  not  sati-sfy  himself  1  the  duties  which  they  owe  to  each  other; 
with  pressing   home   upon   his   converts  I  but  in  the  verses  now  read,  teaches  them 


462 


LECTURE   XCI. — CHAPTER   XII,    14,    17 — 21. 


further  how  they  should  walk  towards 
them  who  arc  without — and  this,  as 
Christians  at  that  time  formed  a  suffer- 
ing and  outcast  society  in  the  world,  was' 
tantamount  to  telling  them,  how  they 
should  conduct  themselves  to  enemies 
who  heaped  upon  them  all  sorts  of  injury, 
even  to  the  lengtli,  if  they  could  have 
achieved  it,  of  their  extermination.  The 
subject  therefore  of  the  passage  before 
us,  is  the  right  treatment,  not  of  friends, 
but  of  adversaries — that  gi'eat  peculiarity 
in  the  ethics  of  the  gospel,  which  con- 
flicts most  perhaps  with  the  natural  ten- 
dencies of  the  human  heart  ;  and  by 
which  it  is  most  distinguished  from  all 
those  moral  systems  which  are  of  merely 
human  origin. 

This  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of 
what  has  often  been  advanced  in  argu- 
ment, though  not  so  much  by  speculative 
infidels  as  by  worldly  men,  against  what 
they  deem  to  be  the  utterly  romantic  and 
impracticable  morality  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament— as  if  it  were  so  transcendentally 
above  the  powers  of  our  nature,  that  it 
were  altogether  hopeless  to  think  of  re- 
alising it  in  practice.  It  is  not  so  much 
for  a  controversial  object  that  we  propose 
to  meet  this  alleged  difficulty,  as  for  the 
purpose  of  doing  away  a  certain  mistaken 
sense  of  it  in  the  minds  even  of  honest 
and  aspiring  disciples,  who  are  bent  on 
the  perfection  of  gospel  obedience,  but 
yet  are  paralysed  in  their  efforts  to  attain 
it,  by  the  felt  impossibility  of  such  pre- 
cepts, or  of  such  performances  rather,  as 
are  here  enjoined  by  the  apostle  ;  and  had 
indeed  been  prescribed,  and  in  still  higher 
terms,  by  the  Saviour  before  him,  who 
bids  us  not  only  do  good  to  our  enemies, 
but  even  love  our  enemies — not  only  to 
render  them  acts  of  beneficence  with  the 
hand,  but  far  more  arduous  achievement, 
to  mould  our  hearts  into  such  a  union 
with  foes  and  persecutors,  as  to  bear  a 
positive  regard  or  affection  towards  them 
— Thereby  aggravating  ten-fold  the  hard- 
ships of  the  Christian  obedience,  just  as 
it  is  all  the  more  difficult  to  command  the 
sensibilities  or  emotions  of  the  inner, 
than  it  is  to  command  the  movements  of 
the  outer  man.  It  is  obvious  that  we 
shall  not  succeed  in  disposing  of  this 
objection  to  the  morality  of  the  gospel, 
but  on  the  strength  of  such  considerations 
as  might  serve  not  only  for  the  adjust- 
ment or  satisfaction  of  a  speculative  dif- 
ficulty, but  for  the  practical  guidance  of 
those  who  are  pressing  onward  to  the 
things  which  are  before,  through  every 
obstacle  in  the  work  and  walk  of  their 
sanctification. 

For  this  purpose  it  is  not  enough  to  tell 
us  in  the  general,  that  what  is  impossible 
mth  man  is  possible  with  God — for  that 


with  Him  all  things  are  possible.  Neither 
is  it  enough  to  tell  us  of  the  Spirit  given 
to  our  prayers,  that  He  might  help  our 
infirmities  and  enable  us  to  do  all  things. 
Nothing  can  be  more  true  aixl  nothing 
more  important  than  these  announce- 
ments ;  and  indeed  they  may  be  said  to 
form  the  reasons  of  the  apostle  John  for 
his  assertion,  that  the  commandments  are 
not  grievous — even  that  whatsoever  is 
born  of  God  overcometh  the  world  ;  or, 
as  he  expresses  it  elsewhere.  Greater  is 
He  that  is  in  us,  than  he  that  is  in  the 
world — greater  is  the  Spirit  of  God  than 
the  spirit  which  worketh  in  the  children 
of  disobedience.  All  this  is  most  true  ; 
but  then  we  are  not  to  imagine  of  the 
Spirit,  that  in  making  man  the  subject  of 
His  operations,  He  thwarts  or  overbears 
the  laws  of  man's  moral  machinery.  He 
does  not  make  inroad  and  innovation  on 
the  order  and  working  of  the  human  facul- 
ties. In  particular,  He  does  not  repeal  the 
affinity  which  obtains  in  the  way  of  cause 
and  effect  between  the  view  of  a  certain 
object  in  the  mind,  and  the  counterpart 
feeling  or  emotion  awakened  thereby  in 
the  heart.  He  does  not  thus  traverse  the 
fitnesses  of  things.  For  example,  did  He 
wish  to  fill  the  soul  with  a  sense  of  beauty, 
it  would  be  by  sights  or  images  of  beauty, 
and  not  by  sights  or  images  of  deformity. 
Did  He  wish  to  excite  our  compassion,  it 
would  not  be  by  turning  our  thoughts  on 
a  scene  of  enjoyment,  but  on  a  scene  of 
distress.  Did  He  wish  to  disarm  us  of  our 
anger,  it  would  not  be  by  causing  us  to 
dwell  in  memory  on  the  injustice  that  we 
had  sutFored,  but  by  the  power  of  other 
considerations — fitted,  and  let  me  add, 
naturally  fitted,  to  call  forth  other  and 
better  sensibilities.  And  so  if  He  wanted 
us  to  love,  even  to  love  an  enemy,  it  would 
be  by  the  presentation  to  our  notice  of  an 
object  proper  to  be  loved  ;  and  most  cer- 
tainl)'  that  object  never  can  be  moral  tur- 
pitude^so  as  that  we  should  look  on  the 
enemy  who  has  evinced  fraud  or  false- 
hood in  the  dealings  that  we  have  held 
with  him,  with  aught  like  the  love  of 
moral  complacency.  These  are  still  very 
general  explanations  ;  but  general  as  they 
are,  we  hope  it  may  appear  already,  that 
it  is  not  a  mere  theoretical  explanation  on 
which  we  are  now  to  enter — but  such  as 
might  help  to  set  you  on  the  right  way  for 
carrying  the  precepts  of  our  text  into 
accomplishment,  and  direct  you  aright  for 
this  purpose  what  you  are  to  do  and  how 
you  are  to  turn  yourselves. 

Our*first  remark  then  is,  that  the  apos- 
tle in  these  verses,  does  not,  immediately 
or  expressly  at  least,  enjoin  how  we  are 
to  feel  towards  enemies  and  persecutors, 
but  what  we  are  to  do  for  them.  It  is  ac- 
tion, not  affection  that  he  here  speaks  of— 


LECTURE   XCI. — CHAPTER   XII,    14,    17 — 21. 


46J 


not  the  dispositions  of  the  heart,  but  the 
deeds  of  the  hand ;  and  if  it  be  a  more 
practicable  thing  that  we  should  compel 
ourselves  to  right  bodily  performances, 
than  call  up  right  mental  propensities — 
this  might  alleviate  somewhat  our  dread 
of  these  precepts,  as  if  they  were  wholly 
unmanageable  or  incompetent  to  human- 
ity. Before  then  taking  cognizance  of 
what  should  be  the  inward  temper  of 
Christians  to  those  who  maltreat  or  op- 
press them,  we  would  bid  you  remark 
that  the  outward  conduct  to  them  is  that 
which  forms  the  literal  subject-matter  of 
the  commandments  here  given.  The  dis- 
ciples are  in  this  place  told,  that,  what- 
ever the  inward  risings  of  natui'e  might 
be  against  those  who  injure  and  oppress, 
they  are  to  utter  no  imprecations,  but 
blessings  upon  their  head — praying  for 
those  who  despitefully  use  them :  And 
that  however  nature  might  incline  them 
to  resent,  they  are  at  least  not  to  retaliate 
— recompensing  to  no  man  evil  for  evil  : 
And  that,  hard  as  it  may  be  under  their 
cruel  provocations,  to  keep  unruffled 
minds  and  feel  peaceably,  they,  as  much 
as  in  them  lies,  are  to  live  peaceably  : 
And  that,  however  nature  might  prompt 
the  desires  of  vengeance,  they  must  wholly 
abstain  from  the  deeds  of  vengeance — 
leaving  these  to  Him  whose  rightful  pro- 
vince it  is,  and  who  hath  said  that  He  will 
repay.  Nay  they  are  wholly  opposite 
deeds  which  we  are  called  on  to  perform 
— to  feed  our  enemy  if  he  hunger,  and 
give  him  drink  if  he  thirst — So  that  while 
it  may  not  be  the  tendency  of  nature  so 
to  desire,  our  bidden  obligation  is  so  to 
do — for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals 
of  fire  upon  his  head.  Finally,  we  are 
not  to  be  overcome  of  evil  ;  but  if  his 
treatment  of  us  have  been  evil,  our  treat- 
ment of  him  must  be  good.  In  short, 
these  various  duties. are  set  before  us, 
more  as  virtues  of  forbearance,  than  as  so 
many  virtues  of  forgiveness;  and  to  un- 
derstand the  distinction  between  these, 
the  one  should  be  looked  to  as  bearing 
more  of  reference  to  the  heart,  and  the 
other  to  the  conduct.  Forgiveness  to  be 
complete  must  be  cordial,  or  rather  if  not 
cordial,  it  is  not  forgiveness  at  all.  One 
can  imagine  forbearance  from  all  retalia- 
tion by  the  hand,  even  while  the  heart 
tumultuates  and  suffers  all  the  agitations 
of  a  fierce  internal  war  under  the  brood- 
ing sense  of  wrong.  This  distinction 
perhaps  might  serve  to  allay  in  some  de- 
gree our  fear  of  being  laid  in  this  passage 
under  a  wholly  impracticable  require- 
ment— seeing  that  in  its  first  and  most 
obvious  aspect,  it  speaks  not  so  much  of 
the  inward  will  that  we  should  cherish 
towards  enemies,  as  of  something  more 


under  control,  our  outward  walk  and  con- 
versation towards  thom. 

But  we  must  not  disguise  that  acts,  when 
but  looked  to  in  themselves,  and  apart 
from  the  affections  which  may  have 
prompted  them,  like  mere  bodily  exercise, 
profit  but  little.  Grant  that  the  duties 
here  set  before  us,  when  viewed  literally, 
are  nothing  more  than  deeds  of  forbear- 
ance. Yet  we  must  not  forget,  that  ia 
every  Christian  virtue  there  is  a  spirit  as 
well  as  a  letter,  and  that  according  to1he 
moral  estimate  of  the  gospel,  the  letter 
without  the  spirit  is  dead.  And  indeed  on 
this  very  lesson  of  forbearance,  it  is  well 
that  we  can  refer  to  the  express  quotation 
of  "  forbearing  one  another  in  love,"* 
There  is  something  more  then  enjoined 
on  the  followers  of  Jesus,  than  a  resolute 
abstinence  from  those  deeds  of  hostility 
by  which  an  injured  man  seeks  to  retaliate 
upon  his  adversary.  He  must  not  have 
the  feeling  of  hostility  against  him.  It  is 
not  enough  that  he  worketh  no  ill.  He 
must  have  the  charity  of  love  that  worketh 
no  ill ;  and  not  only  that  worketh  no  ill 
to  his  neighbour,  but  it  must  be  in  the 
spirit  of  love  that  he  worketh  no  ill  to  his 
enemy.  But  to  come  at  once  to  the  duty 
in  all  its  extent  and  all  its  arduousness, 
the  distinct  requirement  laid  on  us  by  the 
Saviour  is,  that  we  should  love  our  ene- 
mies. If  ere  we  can  make  this  out,  we  must 
make  war  with  the  most  urgent  propensi- 
ties of  nature — it  is  a  warfare  from  which 
there  is  no  discharge ;  and  the  question 
still  remains,  not  only  by  what  power  (for 
this  can  be  answered  generally,  and  with 
the  most  perfect  doctrinal  or  theological 
soundness,  by  replying,  the  power  of  the 
Spirit)  but,  more  than  this,  by  what  pro- 
cess, by  what  series  of  mental  exercises 
on  the  part  of  the  disciple,  is  the  high 
spiritual  achievement  carried,  of  love,  real 
inward  cordial  love,  even  to  our  deadliest 
enemies,  to  those  who  hate  and  calum- 
niate and  oppress  and  betray  us. 

To  allege  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  in 
a  merely  general  and  unintelligent  way, 
will  not  suffice  for  this  explanation.  It 
is  no  function  of  His  to  obliterate  or  con- 
found the  distinction  between  one  virtue 
and  another ;  and  should  we  confound 
them  in  our  thoughts,  this  might  land  us 
in  a  difficulty  from  which  even  He,  so 
long  as  the  misunderstanding  continues, 
may  not  extricate  us.  That  He  can  extri- 
cate us  is  a  thing  most  certain — that  He 
will  extricate  us  is  a  thing  to  be  hoped 
and  prayed  for.  But  then  His  very  first 
step  will  be  so  to  enlighten  us  in  the 
knowledge  of  God's  will,  as  to  remove 
this  ijiisunderstanding — so  as  that  we  shall 


*  Ephesians,  iv,  2. 


4G4 


LECTURE   XCI. — CHArTEn    XII,    14,    17 — 21. 


not  be  unwi.se,  but  understanding  Avliat 
the  will  of  the  Lord  is.  To  be  fully 
equipped  for  the  work  of  obedience,  it 
seems  indispensable  that,  in  the  language 
of  the  apostle,  we  should  be  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  God's  will  in  all  wis- 
dom and  spiritual  understanding — for  then 
only  shall  we  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord 
unto  all  pleasing.  Even  to  begin  aright 
the  work  of  obedience,  we  must  begin 
with  knowledge — for  ere  we  can  do  our 
duty,  we  must  surely  be  first  made  to  know 
what  it  really  is  ;  or  ere  Ave  can  rightly 
address  ourselves  to  the  work  of  practical 
Christianity,  we  must  know  what  the 
things  are  which  God  actually  requires 
of  us.  To  make  this  plain  by  an  exam- 
ple, let  us  recur  to  the  two  virtues  already 
spoken  of — those  of  forgiveness  and  for- 
bearance. By  forbearance  I  understand 
that  we  abstain  from  all  retaliation  on  an 
enemy,  whether  he  repents  or  not — 
whereas  forgiveness,  as  I  understand  it, 
presupposes  repentance.  It  is  true  that  in 
many  places  of  Scriptui'e,  forgiveness  is 
enjoined  briefly  and  absolutely,  without 
any  express  notice  of  repentance  as  the 
condition  or  necessary  accompaniment 
thereof.  But  then  one  part  of  Scripture 
qualifies  another;  and  as  to  be  spiritually 
wise  we  must  compare  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual — so  to  be  scripturally  wise, 
we  must  compare  scriptural  things  with 
scriptur<al.  If  thy  brother  trespass  against 
thee  rebuke  him,  and  if  he  repent  forgive 
him.  This  establishes  the  need  of  repen- 
tance in  him  whom  we  are  required  to 
forgive  ;  and  in  so  doing  it  alleviates  our 
sense  of  difficulty — just  as  in  another 
case,  when  we  are  told  b}'  one  evangelist 
that  they  who  have  riches  shall  hardly 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  is  a  cer- 
tain sense  of  relief  from  a  feeling  of  the 
unattainable  and  the  hopeless,  when  told 
by  another  evangelist,  that  they  who  trust 
in  riches  shall  hardly  enter  that  kingdom 
— a  distinct  and  additional  relief  from  that 
which  we  experience  in  the  general  an- 
nouncement of  both  evangelists,  even 
that  though  impossible  with  men,  it  is 
possible  with  God.  It  is  a  great  matter  to 
be  precisely  informed  both  of  the  actual 
thing  to  be  done,  and  of  the  circumstances 
in  which,  as  a  duty,  it  is  required  of  us. 
Now  in  the  grace  of  forgiveness  there  is 
something  more  than  an  abstinence  from 
revengeful  deeds,  or  even  from  revengeful 
inclinations.  Forgiveness  from  the  heart 
implies  more  than  this — not  only  that  we 
should  forget  the  injury,  but  that  we  should 
have  the  same  feeling  towards  its  author,  be 
restored  to  the  same  state  of  mind  in  re- 
gard to  him,  as  if  the  injury  had  never 
been  committed.  That  the  forgiveness  be 
complete,  that  it  be  perfect  and  entire 
wanting  nothing,  we  should  look  on  him, 


not  merely  with  the  same  sense  of  secu- 
rity, but  even  with  the  same  moral  com- 
placency as  if  he  were  a  faultless  man — 
viewing  him  just  as  we  should  have  done, 
that  is,  with  the  same  confidence  and 
esteem,  as  if  the  offence  had  been  blotted 
altogether  out  of  our  recollection,  or  as 
if  he  himself  had  never  been  an  offender. 
Now  to  feel  thus  on  our  part,  we  should 
hold  repentance  upon  his  part  to  be 
wholly  indispensable — or  that  repentance 
is  as  indispensable  to  forgiveness,  as  the 
element  of  light  is  to  vision.  The  Spirit, 
in  the  working  of  miracles,  might  cure 
a  man  of  his  blindness,  but  we  never  ex- 
pect that  He  will  enable  him  to  see  in  the 
dark  ;  and  no  more  should  we  expect  that 
He  will  enable  us  to  rejoice  over  the  reso- 
lutely and  contemptuously  impenitent — 
just  as  we  might  rejoice,  after-  we  had 
fully  readmitted  him  to  friendship  and 
respect,  over  the  sinner  who  hath  re- 
pented. We  might  abstain  from  the  acts 
of  retaliation,  even  under  all  the  provoca- 
tions which  in  the  state  of  his  hardihood 
and  defiance,  we  suffer  at  his  hands.  But 
this  is  forbearance  only — not  forgiveness. 
To  have  the  full  affection  of  forgiveness, 
such  a  forgiveness  as  the  father  of  the  re- 
turning prodigal  extended  so  promptly 
and  freely  to  his  son,  the  hardihood  must 
be  dissolved  and  done  away,  the  defiance 
be  no  longer  persisted  in.  There  is  a  dif- 
ference between  forbearance  and  forgive- 
ness ;  and  in  adaptation  to  this,  there  is  a 
counterpart  difference  between  the  objects 
of  these  two  virtues.  And  the  whole  dif- 
ference seems  to  lie  in  this,  that  the  one 
has  not  repented — the  other  has,  or  at 
least  stands  with  the  profession  and  the 
aspect  of  repentance  before  us.  We  do 
not  think  that  even  the  Spirit,  who  is 
given  to  help  our  infirmities,  ever  helps 
or  enables  us  to  forgive  in  any  other  cir- 
cumstances than  these.  His  great  offico 
is  that  of  restoring  us  to  the  Iik(?ness  of 
God,  or  making  us  perfect,  even  as  our  ' 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect.  Now  though 
He  be  a  God  ready  to  forgive.  His  for- 
giveness is  only  to  the  penitent.  Under 
the  economy  of  grace,  the  forgiveness 
of  the  Sovereign  and  repentance  of  the 
sinner  are  never  separated.  And  on  this 
footing  also  are  we  required  to  forgive 
one  another,  to  forgive  as  God  does — so 
that  repentance  in  every  instance  is  pre- 
supposed, when  called  on,  as  wo  arc  by 
the  apostle,  to  forgive  our  fellow  men, 
even  as  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath  for- 
given us. 

Now  the  like  explanation  applies  to  the 
duty  of  forbearance,  or  to  all  the  duties 
of  the  passage  now  before  us,  which  too 
might  be  done,  we  apprehend — not  with 
that  violence  to  our  moral  nature  which 
is  figured  by  many,  and  which  leads  them 


LECTURE   XCI. CHAPTER   XH,    14,    17 21. 


465 


to  view  a  performance  as  impracticable — 
but  done  sweetly  and  spontaneously  and 
in  the  spirit  of  love.  One  can  image  a 
fixed,  resolute,  and  dogged  abstinence,  if 
I  may  so  call  it,  from  all  the  deeds  of  re- 
taliation— even  under  provocations  and 
insults  the  most  galling  to  nature  which 
can  be  thought  of;  and  this  were  forbear- 
ance in  act,  or  literal  forbearance.  But 
in  these  circumstances  to  forbear  in  love, 
is  that  which  looks  so  hard  of  execution, 
so  incongruous  with  the  very  frame  and 
constitution  of  the  heart,  as  shall  amount 
to  a  moral  or  mental  impossibility.  If  the 
Spirit,  in  acting  on  the  possessor  of  this 
heart,  do  not  overbear  its  mechanism  or 
the  law  of  its  workings — then  to  do  away 
the  sense  of  a  difficulty  insuperable, 
when  called  on  to  forbear  one  another, 
though  even  our  deadliest  enemies,  in 
love,  something  more  would  require  to 
be  said,  than  merely  that  what  we  cannot 
do  of  ourselves  the  Spirit  can  do  in  us 
and  for  us — something  more  specific  than 
the  bare  generality,  that  though  with  men 
it  is  impossible,  with  God  all  things  are 
possible. 

And  so  we  have  always  deemed  it  a 
great  alleviation  of  the  felt  and  the 
feared  difficulty,  when,  attending  to  the 
distinction  between  various  kinds  of  love, 
we  come  to  understand  what  the  love  of 
forbearance  really  is.  There  is  no  as- 
surance, however  strong,  of  aids  and  in- 
fluences from  on  high,  which  would  ever 
make  us  believe  it  possible,  that  we 
should  love  the  man,  vvho  in  hatred  to 
ourselves  does  with  all  falsehood  and 
cruelty  inflict  upon  us  every  species  of 
wrong,  with  the  love  of  moral  esteem  or 
moral  complacency.  To  suppose  for  a 
moment  that  the  Spirit,  in  effecting  the 
work  of  our  renovation,  would  so  changR 
our  nature  as  to  make  us  love  our  enemy 
thus,  were  just  as  jjreat  an  outrage  on 
the  possibility  of  things,  as  to  suppose 
that  He  would  change  the  nature  of  vir- 
tue, would  turn  evil  into  good  and  good 
into  evil.  That  we  should  be  required  to 
take  into  our  esteem  the  man  who  stands 
palpably  before  us  in  the  character  of  a 
treacherous  friend  or  a  blood-thirsty  per- 
secutor, is  just  as  conceivable  as  that  we 
should  be  required  to  love  the  iniquity 
which  God  hateth — an  achievement  this 
no  more  to  be  attempted  or  thought  of, 
than  to  hate  the  righteousness  which  God 
loveth.  And  likeness  to  Him  is  the  great 
object  of  that  regenerative  process  which, 
under  the  economy  of  the  gospel,  we  are 
made  to  undergo — so  as  to  make  it  very 
sure,  Ihat  when  we  suffer  from  the  hand 
of  an  enemy,  whether  he  be  the  calumni- 
ator who  falsely  and  ungratefully  as- 
perses our  name  ;  or  the  wily  practition- 
er in  business  or  in  law,  who  has  designs 
59 


upon  our  property  ;  or  finally,  the  blood- 
thirsty persecutor  who  lays  violence 
upon  our  persons — Then  we  need  not 
try,  for  really  we  are  not  bidden,  to  love 
that  man  with  the  love  of  moral  com-. 
placency. 

Still  we  are  required  to  love  even,  such 
a  man,  and  if  not  the  love  of  complacen- 
cy, what  love  is  it  !  There  is  a  love 
distinct  from  this,  even  the  love  of  kind- 
ness— which  when  felt  towards  one  in 
distress,  is  modified  into  the  love  of  com- 
passion. Of  its  operation  in  the  breast, 
apart  from  the  love  of  moral  esteem,  we 
have  a  high  example  in  the  breast  of  the 
Godhead — when  He  so  loved  the  world, 
as  to  send  His  only-begotten  Son  into  it. 
What  then  precisely  was  that  love  of 
which  the  apostle  speaks,  when  he  says 
— "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his 
Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins  ]" 
It  could  not  be  the  love  of  moral  compla- 
cency, for  it  was  love  to  a  world  lying  in 
wickedness.  It  was  the  love  of  compas- 
sion, and  of  compassion  on  creatures  ar- 
rayed in  enmity  and  lifting  up  the  cry  of 
rebellion  against  Him.  Because  of  their 
wickedness  it  could  not  possibly  be  the 
love  of  complacency ;  but  because  of 
their  wretchedness  it  was  the  love  of 
pity  :  And  the  enquiry  is — Whether, 
while  there  is  a  like  impossibility  in 
our  regarding  with  aught  of  moral  es- 
teem a  dishonest  or  a  despiteful  adver- 
sary— whether  still  there  might  not  be  a 
something  about  him  fitted  to  engage  our 
sympathies  on  his  behalf,  so  as  not  only 
to  restrain  our  hand  from  all  mischief 
against  him,  but  so  as  that  we  could  not 
find  it  in  our  heart  to  do  him  harm — nay 
so  as  to  make  it  abundantly  possible  that 
we  should  both  pity  and  should  pray  for 
him. 

And  now  that  we  have  got  clear  of 
this  impracticable  element,  for  we  really 
cannot  love  morally  a  wicked  adversary 
— the  thing  with  man  is  impossible,  and 
though  with  God  all  things  are  possible, 
yet  this  most  assuredly  is  an  impossi- 
bility over  which  even  His  Spirit  will 
not  help  us — but  now  that  this  difficulty 
has  been  set  asid<^  and  it  is  granted  that 
in  the  case  of  a  deceitful  and  malicious 
enemy,  there  is  nothing  in  his  character 
because  of  which  we  can  love  him  mo- 
rally— still  might  there  not  be  something 
in  his  state  because  of  which  we  can 
love  him  kindly,  love  him  compassion- 
ately'! It  might  be  true  that  we  cannot 
at  present  forgive — for  as  yet  there  might 
be  no  symptom  of  repentance  on  his  part ; 
but  in  the  career  of  a  resolved  impenitence 
may  he  be  fully  set,  either  on  the  artifices 
of  a  hostile  policy  or  on  the  cruelties  of 
a  hostile  violence  against  us.     And  it 


466 


LECTURE    XCI. — CHAPTER,   XII,     14,    17 21. 


might  also  be  true,  that  in  his  present  state, 
we  can  find  nothing  to  compassionate — 
for  he  might  be  prospering  in  his  way, 
and  in  the  hey-day  of  success  be  rejoic- 
ing in  his  iniquitous  triumph  over  us. 
But  though  there  be  nothing  palpa- 
ble to  the  eye  of  sense  which  can  move 
our  pity,  it  is  for  the  Christian  to  look 
onward  and  with  an  eye  of  anticipation 
to  the  things,  which,  if  he  be  not  previ- 
ously visited  with  the  spirit  of  repent- 
ance, shall  happen  to  him  shortly — to  the 
agonies  of  his  corning  death-bed,  when, 
a  helpless  and  a  prostrate  creature,  all  tri- 
umph shall  be  gone — Or  to  the  still  more 
awful  day  of  his  last  reckoning,  when  he 
shall  stand  a  naked  and  a  trembling  cul- 

f)rit  before  the  dread  judgment-seat — Or, 
ooking  on  him  in  the  light  of  eternity  to 
the  never-ending  period  of  that  ven- 
geance, which  it  is  for  God  alone  to  min- 
ister, and  from  which  therefore  He  bids 
us  refrain  our  own  hand.  Did  we  but 
realize  all  this,  then  should  we  find,  that 
though  we  cannot  yet  forgive,  yet  even 
now  might  we  forbear,  and  that  in  the 
midst  of  cruellest  provocation — forbear 
in  love  too,  for  though  to  the  tyrant  or 
the  tormentor  the  love  of  complacency 
might  be  impossible,  yet  is  it  possible  to 
love  even  him  with  tenderest  compassion, 
as  we  behold  in  perspective  the  sentence 
and  with  it  the  tremendous  sufferings 
which  await  him. 

Thus  at  all  times,  and  even  in  the  worst 
imaginable  case,  might  the  love  of  for- 
bearance and  pity  be  practicable  ;  and 
there  are  even  cases,  though  not  of  con- 
scious or  resolved  iniquity,  yet  of  bi'nd 
infuriated  violence,  in  which  an  outlet  is 
given  for  the  higher  love  of  forgiveness. 
There  are  cases  of  ignorance.  It  was  on 
this  ground  that  Paul  obtained  mercy 
though  a  persecutor,  because  he  did  it 
ignorantly  and  in  unbelief  This  too  was 
the  palliation  which  Peter  alleged  for  the 
murderers  of  our  Saviour — "And  now, 
brethren,  I  wot  that  through  ignorance  ye 
did  it,  as  did  also  your  rulers" — "  for  had 
they  known  it,"  it  is  said  elsewhere, 
"  they  would  not  have  crucified  the  Lord 
of  glory."  It  is  in  striking  accordance 
with  this — and  it  serves  to  establish  on 
the  highest  authority  the  need  of  certain 
prerequisites  in  the  objects  of  forgiveness 
— that  our  Saviour  prays  thus  amid  the 
agonies  of  His  crucifixion — "Father,  for- 
give them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.'' 

But  the  duties  of  our  present  text  are 
those  of  forbearance ;  and  though  it 
should  be  forbearance  in  love,  yet  is  there 
no  incompatibility  between  the  object 
and  its  counterpart  emotion.  For  we  are 
expressly  bidden  look  forward  to  the 
vengeance  which  awaits  our  persecutors, 
when  we  are  bidden  abstain  from  all  ven- 


geance  ourselves ;  and  there  is  no  such 
incompatibility,  we  repeat,  between  the 
sight  of  a  creature  in  torment  and  our  love 
of  pity,  as  there  is  between  the  sight  of  a 
creature  doing  palpable  iniquity,  and  our 
feeling  as  complacently  towards  him  as 
we  should  towards  an  innocent  or  deserv- 
ing man.  The  requirement  here  laid 
upon  us  inflicts  no  jar,  or  felt  infraction 
on  any  law  of  our  nature.  True,  it  calls 
for  a  strenuous  effort ;  but  this  is  mainly 
and  properly  an  effort  of  consideration, 
which  as  being  on  things  future  and  un- 
seen, is  an  effort  of  faith.  It  is  the  effort 
of  a  mind  looking  forward  to  the  day  of 
retribution,  to  the  dread  realities  of  a 
coming  judgment  and  coming  eternity. 
That  in  the  strength  of  this  faith  we  can 
forbear  and  love  and  pity  and  pray  for 
even  our  deadliest  enemies,  and  are  thus 
enabled  to  lay  an  arrest  on  the  most  ur- 
gent propensities  of  aggrieved  and  suffer- 
ing nature — is  a  glorious  verification  of 
the  power  ascribed  to  faith  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  in  truth  our  great  instru- 
ment by  which  to  achieve  the  sublimest 
moralities  of  the  gospel.  For  not  only 
doth  it  work  by  love,  but  overcometh  the 
world.  "This  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh the  world,  even  our  faith."  It  is 
not  overcome  of  evil,  but  gains  the  noblest 
of  all  victories  over  a  world  lying  in  wick- 
edness, by  overcoming  its  evil  with  good. 

We  must  now  quit  the  general  argu- 
ment ;  and  finish  our  lecture  by  a  very 
few  explanatory  remarks  on  the  two  or 
three  verses  of  this  passage  vvhich  seem 
to  call  for  them. 

In  the  17th  verse  it  may  appear  some- 
what out  of  place,  as  not  altogeth'cr  in 
keeping  with  the  subject-matter  of  the 
other  precepts,  when  the  apostle  tells  his 
disciples  to  provide  things  honest  in  the 
sight  of  all  men.  But  the  truth  is,  that 
nothing  is  more  graceful  in  the  eyes  of 
others  than  the  grace  of  forbearance  ;  and 
nothing  more  fitted  to  engage  the  sympa- 
thy of  by.standers,  than  a  mild  and  patient 
demeanour  under  injuries,  more  especially 
if  it  be  the  obvious  eflect  of  conscience 
and  not  of  cowardice,  not  a  pusillanimous 
surrender  of  oneself  to  the  insolence  of 
oppression,  but  an  act  of  obedience  to  the 
high  behests  of  principle.  It  is  thus  that 
in  early  times,  the  Christian  religion  was 
indebted  for  much  of  its  progress  to  the 
gentleness  of  converts  under  persecution  ; 
and  so  among  the  other  sustaining  forces 
which  upheld  in  the  breasts  of  these  de- 
voted men,  the  charity  that  endureth  all 
things,  was  there,  the  exalted  motive  of 
adorning  the  doctrine  of  God  their  Saviour, 
that  it  may  find  a  growing  esteem  and 
readier  acceptance  in  the  world. 

In  the  18th  verse  it  is  evidently  sup- 
posed that  it  might  not  be  possible  even 


LECTURE    XCI. — CHAPTER    XII,    14,    17 21. 


46?^ 


for  the  best  of  Christians,  and  that  it 
might  not  lie  within  the  capacities  of  his 
moral  system,  to  live  peaceably  with  all 
men.  He  must  first  be  pure  and  then 
peaceable;  and  till  the  first  object  is  se- 
cured, it  is  his  part  not  to  acquiesce  but  to 
contend  earnestly.  And  then  as  to  what 
lies  in  him,  let  me  state,  by  way  of  one 
example,  that  it  is  not  in  him  to  look  com- 
placently on  moral  evil.  He  cannot  though 
he  would  ;  and  neither  will  the  Spirit  help 
him  to  this,  or  put  this  in  him.  And  thus 
he  might  forbear,  though  he  cannot  justify 
— even  though  his  enemy  should  seek  for 
more  than  toleration,  should  seek  an  ex- 
press approval  or  vindication  at  his  hands. 
This  he  cannot  do  with  truth  or  honour, 
and  therefore  will  not  do  at  all ;  and  hence 
a  contest  which  he  cannot  heal,  or  one 
case  among  others  which  could  be  named 
in  which  peace  is  impossible. 

In  the  19th  verse  we  are  told  to  give 
place  unto  wrath — not  to  our  own  wrath, 
for  this  we  are  forbidden,  just  as  else- 
where we  are  forbidden  to  give  place 
unto  the  devil.  We  rnust  not  give  range 
or  licence  to  any  resentful  feelings  of 
our  own  :  but  the  meaning  is — either  that 
we  give  place  to  the  wrath  of  our  enem)% 
not  resisting  but  rather  giving  way  be- 
fore him  :  Or,  that  we  leave  the  matter  to 
God,  and  do  not  preoccupy  by  any  ven- 
geance of  ours,  that  vengeance  which  it 
is  for  Him  alone  to  inflict. — and  so  com- 
mit ourselves  to  Him  who  judgeth  right- 
eously. 


And  lastly,  by  heaping  coals  of  fire  on 
the  head  of  an  enemy,  we  should  under- 
stand, that  in  returning  him  good  for  evil, 
and  persisting  in  this  till  we  shall  have 
lienped  our  kindnesses  upon  him — it  will 
either  melt  his  spirit  into  another  and  a 
gentler  mood  ;  or,  failing  this,  it  will  ag- 
gravate his  condemnation. 

In  conclusion  let  me  observe,  that  per- 
secution may  again  revisit  these  lands ; 
or  though  not,  that  still  in  ordinary  life, 
under  the  domestic  roof,  or  amid  the  fa- 
miliar dealings  of  human  society,  there 
is  ample  scope  for  the  wrongs  and  the 
heart-burnings  of  most  grievous  injustice, 
and  therefore  full  and  constant  opportunity 
for  the  exercise  of  those  virtues  which 
are  here  prescribed  to  us.  By  the  sacri- 
fice of  our  natural  interests,  or  what  is 
still  more  difficult,  as  being  at  times  well 
nigh  uncontrollable,  by  the  sacrifice  of 
our  natural  resentments,  we  prepare  the 
way  for  those  highest  of  all  conquests  in 
the  world,  the  conquests  of  principle. — 
We  set  forth  the  praccs  of  personal 
Christianity,  and  exhi')it  it  to  men  both 
in  the  most  sublime  and  the  loveliest  of 
its  aspects.  It  is  not  when  we  are  buf- 
feted for  our  faults  and  take  it  patiently, 
but  when  we  suffer  for  well-doing  and 
take  it  patiently — it  is  then  that  the  glory 
of  religion  is  advanced  upon  the  earth. 
Then  it  is  that  we  are  both  acceptable 
to  God  and  approved  of  men. 


LECTURE  XCII. 


Romans  xiii,  1 — 7. 


*'  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  tlie  higher  powers.  For  there  is  no  power  but  of  God  ;  the  powers  that  be  are  or- 
dained of  God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God ;  and  they  that  resist 
shall  receive  to  themselves  damnation.  For  rulers  are  not,  a  terror  to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou  thea 
not  be  afraid  of  the  power?  Do  that  which  is  good,  and' thou  shalthave  praise  of  the  same  :  for  he  is  the  minister 
of  God  to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  do  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid  ;  for  he  beareth  not  the  svi'ord  in  vain  ;  for  he 
is  the  minister  of  God,  a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him  thatdoeth  evil.  Wherefore  ye  must  needs  be  sub- 
ject, not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for  conscience'  sake.  For,  for  this  cause  pay  ye  tribute  also  ;  for  they  are  God's 
ministers,  attending  continually  upon  this  very  thing.  Kender  therefore  to  all  their  dues  ;  tribute  to  whom,  tri- 
bute is  due  :  custom  to  whom  custom  ;  fear  to  whom  fear  ;  honour  to  whom  honour." 


There  are  certain  speculatists  in  so- 
cial and  political  philosophy,  who  would 
measure  the  duty  of  subjection  by  what 
they  are  pleased  to  imagine  the  right  of 
sovereignty,  and  would  make  the  one  de- 
pend upon  the  other — so  that  there  shall 
be  no  incumbent  loyalty  on  the  one  side, 
unless  there  is  a  legally  constituted  go- 
vernment on  the  other.  And  thus  to 
make  out  the  obligation  of  subjects,  they 
would  go  back  on  the  theory  of  an  ori- 
ginal.  compact,  and  carry  us  upward  to 
the  first  construction  of  society,  and  tell 


us  of  rights  elective  and  rights  heredi- 
tary ;  and  on  the  basis  of  certain  juri- 
dical dogmata,  would  assign  how  much 
or  how  little  it  is  that  the  individual 
members  of  a  community  owe  in  the 
way  of  allegiance  to  the  actual  rulers, 
who,  whether  rightfully  or  not,  yet  re- 
ally and  by  actual  possession  and  exer- 
cise bear  authority  over  them.  It  has 
long  appeared  to  us,  that  the  Bible  cuts 
short  all  this  reasoning,  in  that  while  it 
defines  the  duty  of  the  subject,  it  does 
not  define  the  nature  or  composition  of 


468 


LECTURE   XCII. CHAPTER   XIH,    1 7. 


the  government  to  which  that  duty  is 
owing.  It  does  not  say  that  we  should 
be  subject  to  the  powers  which  were 
rightly  originated  or  have  been  rightly 
constituted,  but  subject  to  the  powers  that 
be.  It  is  not  the  kind  of  character  of 
any  government,  but  the  existence  of  it 
which  invests  it  with  its  claim  on  our 
obedience,  or  at  least  which  determines 
for  us  the  duty  of  yielding  subjection 
thei'eunto.  Its  mandates  should  be  sub- 
mitted to,  not  because  either  law  or  jus- 
tice or  respect  for  the  good  of  humanity 
presided  over  the  formation  of  it,  but 
simply  because  it  exists.  It  is  true  that 
the  apostle  affirms  of  those  powers  to 
which  he  requires  our  subjection,  that 
they  are  ordained  of  God;  but  this  is 
merely  because  they  are  the  powers  that 
be,  and  in  the  sense  that  whatever  is  is 
ordained  of  God.  It  is  He  who  overrules 
all  history;  and  to  His  sovereign  will  do 
we  refer  the  rise  and  continuance  of  all 
the  actual  dynasties  in  our  world — al- 
though in  their  establishment,  fraud  and 
force  and  barbaric  cruelty,  and  that 
wrath  of  man  which  He  so  often  makes 
to  praise  Him.  may  have  been  the  in- 
struments of  His  pleasure.  It  is  thus  that 
the  duty  of  our  text  is  of  universal  ap- 
plication, whatever  be  the  countr)^  and 
amid  all  the  political  diversities  which 
obtain  on  the  face  of  our  globe — inso- 
much that  the  Christian  who  lives  in 
Turkey  or  China  or  under  any  of  the 
iron  despotisms  of  the  East,  is  as  much 
bound  to  obedience  by  this  unexcepted 
law  of  the  New  Testament,  as  if  his  lot 
were  cast  in  those  more  favoured  regions 
of  civilisation  and  equitable  rule,  where 
all  the  caprices  and  the  cruelties  of  arbi- 
trary power  are  unknown. 

And  to  this  order  of  actual  power  in 
the  world,  there  seems  a  perfect  analogy 
in  the  order  of  this  world's  property.  No 
one  thinks  of  remounting  to  a  distant 
antiquity — so  as  to  take  a  view  of  its  ori- 
gination, or  to  ascertain  in  how  far  jus- 
tice presided  over  the  first  distribution  of 
it,  and  conducted  it  onward  through  its 
successive  descents  and  exchanges  to  the 
hands  of  its  actual  occupiers.  What  is 
true  of  the  powers  that  be,  holds  also  true 
of  the  properties  that  be.  The  same  def- 
erence is  rendered  to  both  of  them — and 
that  too  in  the  utter  ignorance  of  every 
other  claim  than  actual  existence  or  actual 
possession.  Such  is  the  strength  indeed 
of  this  felt  possessory  right,  that  both  law 
and  nature  do  like  obeisance  to  it ;  and 
many  thousands  are  the  estates  seized 
upon  in  days  of  marauding  violence,  the 
boundaries  of  which  are  as  sacred  from 
encroachment,  as  if  they  had  been  fixed  in 
an  assembly  of  righteous  sages,  or  by  the 
awards  of  a  judgment-seat.    It  is  better 


that  the  embers  of  long  past  injustice 
should  be  extinguished,  or  the  wrongs  of 
other  centuries  be  forgotten — than  that 
they  should  so  fester  and  be  kept  alive, 
as  to  perpetuate  and  accumulate  the 
heart-burnings  of  the  world,  or  unsettle 
the  present  order  of  society.  It  is  thus 
that  both  our  subjection  to  the  actual 
powers,  and  our  acquiescence  in  the 
actual  properties  which  are  upon  the 
earth,  seem  to  rest  on  the  same  foundation 
of  divine  wisdom — whether  as  put  forth 
in  the  lessons  of  revelation,  or  as  mani- 
fested in  that  constitution  of  humanity 
which  God  hath  given  to  us. 

And  let  it  not  be  said,  that  by  this  doc- 
trine of  an  entire  unconditional  passive- 
ness,  oppression  and  injustice  must  at 
length  have  unlimited  sway  upon  the 
earth.  God  hath  provided  a  security 
against  this  in  the  reactions  of  outraged 
nature.  But  still  it  is  nature  which  both 
prompts  and  executes  the  resistance  ;  and 
not  Christianity,  the  disciples  of  which  in 
their  simple,  self-denying,  and  elevated 
walk  of  duty,  but  act  in  the  spirit  of  their 
high  calling,  when  they  abandon  this  and 
many  more  such  offices  to  others ;  or 
when,  in  the  language  of  our  Saviour's 
injunction,  they  leave  the  dead  to  bury 
their  dead.  And  God  will  not  leave  them 
to  sutler  for  their  meekness  and  forbear- 
ance even  in  this  world,  but  will  glori- 
ously accredit  every  promise  and  every 
declaration  which  He  has  made  in  their 
favour.  It  is  a  manifold  experience,  we 
believe,  in  private  life,  that  the  humble 
and  the  patient  and  the  long-suffering,  as 
if  shielded  by  an  invisible  defence  against 
all  violence  from  without,  do  walk  more 
safely  and  more  prosperously  than  others 
through  the  world  ;  and  on  a  large  scale 
too  will  the  same  experience  be  verified — 
insomuch  as  to  be  foutid  both  morally 
and  historically  impossible,  that  a  tyrant 
shall  long  bear  the  rule  over  a  Christian- 
ised nation. 

It  is  hoped  that  by  these  preparatory 
remarks  we  have  anticipated  the  necessity 
of  entering  much  into  detail  upon  the 
verses  of  this  passage. 

Ver.  1.  'The  powers  that  bo  are  or- 
dained of  God,'  because  not  only  with  His 
permission,  but  by  His  providence  in  the 
sov'nreign  disposal  of  all  things,  they  have 
been  established  in  the  world. 

Ver.  2.  •  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth 
the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of 
God  :  and  they  that  resist  shall  receive  to 
themselves  damnation.'  The  lesson  of  our 
last  lecture  graduates  into  the  lesson  of 
our  present  one  by  a  nearer  and  more 
natural  transition  than  a  cursory  reader 
may  apprehend.  You  were  then  told  to 
resist  not  persons,  you  are  now  told  to  re- 
sist not  powers.    The  one  non-resistance 


LECTURE   XCII. CHAPTER   XIII,    1 7. 


469 


was  a  duty,  even  when  assailed  by  unlaw- 
ful violence  ;  and  how  much  more  then  is 
the  other  non-resistance  a  duty,  when  the 
mandates  of  a  rightful  authority  are 
brought  to  bear  upon  us — for  in  every 
country,  the  authority  in  force  at  the  time 
being,  or  the  authority  of  its  actual  re- 
cognised government,  is  the  ordinance  of 
God.  The  existing  property  and  the  ex- 
isting power  are  both  of  them  the  ordi- 
nances of  God,  who,  in  the  progress  of 
events  under  His  own  absolute  direction 
and  control,  hath  determined  for  every 
man  the  bounds  of  his  habitation.  It  were 
by  the  violation  of  one  commandment,  if 
we  encroached  on  the  property  ;  and  it 
were  the  violation  of  another  to  resist  the 
power.  There  is  a  certain  metaphysical 
jurisprudence  which  hath  mystified,  and 
would  attempt  to  subvert,  both  of  these 
obligations.  But  Scripture  is  alike  clear 
and  alike  imperative  with  each  of  them  ; 
and  its  dictates,  we  are  persuaded,  will  be 
found  best  to  accord  with  the  real  philo- 
sophy of  human  nature,  as  well  as  with 
the  peace  and  good  order  of  human  so- 
ciety. 

Ver.  3-5.  «For  rulers  are  not  a  terror  to 
good  works,  but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou 
then  not  be  afraid  of  the  power  1  Do  that 
which  is  good,  and  thou  shait  have  praise 
of  the  same  :  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God 
to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  do  that  which 
is  evil,  be  afraid  ;  for  he  beareth  not  the 
sword  in  vain :  for  he  is  the  minister  of 
God,  a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon 
him  that  doeth  evil.  Wherefore  ye  must 
needs  be  subject,  not  only  for  wrath,  but 
also  for  conscience'  sake.'  The  apostle 
speaks  not  only  of  the  proper  design,  but 
we  are  persuaded  also  of  the  general  and 
actual  effect  of  all  government.  We  be- 
lieve that  in  every  land,  the  institution, 
even  when  administered  by  the  most  hate- 
ful of  tyrants,  is  productive  of  good  upon 
the  whole.  It  is  true,  that  in  the  career 
of  savage  and  ambitious  despots  bent  on 
personal  aggrandisement ;  and  in  whose 
hands  crime  is  the  familiar  instrument  of 
conquest,  whether  over  the  thrones  of 
other  nations  or  the  liberties  of  their  own 
— it  is  most  true,  that  in  their  career  we 
read  of  little  else  than  of  those  sufferings 
and  sad  disorders  which  history  has  so 
often  recorded  in  characters  of  blood. 
Still  in  every  such  economy,  we  mean  of 
laws  with  power  for  the  enforcement  of 
them,  we  hold  that  there  is  an  immense 
preponderance  of  good  to  society — inso- 
much that  the  worst  of  governments  will 
bear  to  be  contrasted  with  a  state  of  anar- 
chy. Like  every  other  property  or  power, 
whether  of  mental  or  material  nature,  it  is 
in  the  hands  of  wicked  men,  occasionally, 
nay  often  perverted  from  its  own  proper 
and  beneficent  end — yet  notwithstanding 


this,  and  apart  from  this,  it,  in  its  own 
essential  character  is  a  pre-eminent  bless- 
ing to  the  world.  Amid  all  its  conspicu- 
ous aberrations,  we  must  not  forget  the 
many  thousand  benefits,  which,  beyond 
the  reach  of  sight  or  of  calculation,  it 
works  in  each  little  vicinity  and  through- 
out the  mass  and  interior  of  every  nation, 
in  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  equity 
between  man  and  man — a  mighty  interest 
this,  which  it  is  never  the  policy  of  any 
government  to  contravene ;  and  seldom, 
if  ever,  the  wish  even  of  the  most  capri- 
cious and  blood-thirsty  tyrant,  whose  am- 
bition would  in  no  considerable  way  be 
subserved  by  the  dissolution  of  all  the  so- 
cial ties  in  that  community  over  which 
the  providence  of  God  has  placed  him 
Let  but  the  controlling  and  regulating 
power  wherewith  he  is  invested  cease 
from  its  operation  ;  and  the  vast  import- 
ance of  such  a  power  for  the  general  well- 
being  would  soon  be  felt,  after  that  society 
had  fallen  to  pieces,  and  without  a  king 
or  without  a  government,  each  man  did 
that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes. 
Verily  law  or  goverment  is  the  minister 
of  God  for  good  ;  and,  in  the  great  bulk 
and  majority  of  their  doings  the  adminis- 
trators thereof  are  not  a  terror  to  good 
works,  but  to  the  evil.  If  then  we  have 
just  been  taught  in  the  former  passage  to 
resist  not  evil,  when  assailed  by  the  un- 
bridled violence  of  evil  men,  how  much 
more  should  we  abstain  from  the  resist- 
ance of  that  which  is  good,  even  of  that 
government  under  which  we  live,  and 
which  is  God's  own  ordinance — and  whose 
function  it  is  to  protect  us  from  evil.  For, 
generally  speaking,  rulers  are  not  as  in- 
dividuals often  are — who,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  envy  or  avarice  or  hatred,  may  at 
times  do  grossest  injury  to  the  righteous. 
Tlie  loyal  and  peaceable  have  nothing  to 
fear  from  laws  which  they  do  not  offend  ; 
but  if  ever  brought  before  the  judgment- 
seat,  to  be  taken  cognisance  of  by  these, 
will  obtain  sentence  of  acquittal  or  justi- 
fication at  their  hands.  They  are  the  evil, 
the  criminal,  who  need  to  be  afraid — for 
the  very  design  of  a  civil  government  in 
society,  which  is  at  once  the  effect  and 
evidence  of  God's  moral  government  in 
the  world,*  is  to  repress  and  punish  all 
such.  His  institution  will  not  be  frus- 
trated, or  fail  of  that  express  purpose  for 
which  it  has  been  set  up  among  men, 
which  is  not  only  to  protect  the  innocent, 
but  to  execute  vengeance  on  the  evil-doer 
— being  armed  with  the  power  of  the 
sword  to  fulfil  the  resentment  which  it 
feels  against  the  disobedient.  Did  our  at- 
tention stop  short  at  the  secondary  ordi- 
nance, did  we  look  no  higher  than  to  the 

*  See  Butler's  Analogy. 


470 


LECTURE   XCII. CHAPTER    XIII,    I 7.     • 


judge  or  the  magistrate — even  then,  to 
shun  their  wrath,  we  should  yield  subjec- 
tion to  government  and  law  ;  but  when  we 
rise  upward  from  the  earthly  to  the 
heavenly  Sovereign,  and  with  the  apostle 
view  the  authtjrity  that  is  beneath  as  an 
emanation  or  deviation  from  the  authority 
of  Him- who  ruleth  overall — then  will  our 
subjection  be  rendered,  not  alone  from 
fear  towards  man,  but  also  from  con- 
science towards  God. 

Ver.  6,  7.  '  For,  for  this  cause  pay  ye 
tribute  also  :  for  they  arc  God's  ministers, 
attending    continually    upon    this    very 
thing.     Render  therefore  to  all  their  dues  : 
tribute  to  whom  tribute  is  due ;  custom  to 
whom  custom  ;  fear  to  whom  fear  ;  hon- 
our to  whom  honour.'     The  apostle  now 
passes  from  the  institution  of  law  in  the 
general,  to  the   institution  of  tribute,  and 
which   he  here  singles  out  as  part  and 
parcel  of  the  same,  and  as  therefore  too 
coming  directly  from  God — the  payment 
of  which,  therefore,  we  should  not  only 
render  as  a  thing  of  force  that  we  must 
do,  but  as  a  thing  of  conscience  that  we 
ought  to  do.     It  is  a  lesson  greatly  needed 
in  this  our  day — that  the  payment  of  our 
taxes  should  be  held  as  much  a  matter  of 
principle  and  punctuality  as  the  payment 
of  our  debts.     Indeed  it  is  regarded  by  the 
apostle  as  quite  on  the  footing  of  a  debt, 
being   included   by  him   in   the   general 
precept  of  Render'unto  all  their  dues.     It 
is  a  lesson  altogether  worthy  of  strenuous 
and  repeated  enforcement  from  the  pul- 
pit— from   which   there  ought  to   be  ex- 
posed and  denounced  with  all  fidelity,  the 
shameful  laxity  which  obtains  in  this  de- 
partment of  moral   obligation.      It   is  a 
most  befitting  topic  for  the  ministrations 
of  a  clergyman  ;  audit  were  well  could 
he  lay  open  with  a  vigorous  and  faithful 
hand,  the  frauds,  the  concealments,  the 
dexterous     and     unprincipled     evasions 
which  are  often  practised  to  the  injury  of 
the  public  revenue — and  by  men  too  who 
acquit  themselves  honourably  and  with 
perfect  fairness  of  all  their  private  engage- 
ments.    There  is  a  hebetude  of  conscience 
on  this  subject  which  needs  the  quicken- 
ing of  an  earnest  and  solemn  and  scriptu- 
ral  representation.      This   were    not    to 
secularise  religion  ;  but,  what  is  mainly 
wanted,  it  were  to  sanctify  the  business 
of  human  life.     Whatever  can  "be  fixed 
upon  as  a  test  of  religious  sincerity,  must 
be  deemed  peculiarly  valuable,  both  by 
the  minister  who  feels  it  his  business  to 
hold  up,  and  that  in  all  its  features  and 
details,  a  true  picture  of  Christianity  to 
his  hearers ;  and  also  by  all  honest  disci- 
ples, who,  intent  on  their   own  personal 
sanctification,  press  onward  to  the  high 
object  .of  standing  perfect  and  complete 
in  the  whole  will  of  God.    That  is  a  fiital 


error   which   would    dissever  the  social 
from  the  sacred  ;  or  which  looks  in  the 
great  amount  of  them  on  the  moralities 
of  human  conduct,  though  specified  and 
prescribed   in  the  Bible,   merely   in  the 
light  of  so  many  week-day  proprieties.   It 
is  now  high  time  that  Christianity  should 
stand  forth  in  another  aspect,  and  that 
another  exhibition  of  it  should  be  given 
to  the  world — not  as  a  system  of  cabalistic 
dogmata,  but  as  a  pervading  and  living 
principle,  which  takes  ascendancy  over 
the  whole  man,  and  graves  upon  the  tablet 
of  his   character   all  that  is  lovely  and 
honourable  and  virtuous  and  of  good  re- 
port.   This  is  the  way  to  adorn  the  doc- 
trine of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things — 
not  to  dissociate  religion  from  morality, 
but  to  impregnate  morality  with  religion, 
and  make  it  out  and  out  the  guide  and  the 
sovereign  of  all   our  actions.     We  are 
aware  that  a  certain  feeling  of  the  strange 
and  even  of  the  ludicrous  is  often  awak- 
ened, when  such  topics  are  handled  graph- 
ically and  experimentally  in  the  pulpit, 
as  purloining,  and  eye-service,  and  fair- 
dealing,  and  the  full  and  regular  payment 
of  taxes — or  w'hen  men  of  various  condi- 
tions are  plainly  spoken  to  on  the  duties 
of  their  respective  callings,  as  household 
servants  or  field-labourers  or  artizans  or 
men   in    the    walks    of   business,   when 
severally  addressed  on  the  virtues  of  the 
shop  and  the  market  and  the  exchange 
and   the   counting-house.     Now   all  this 
proceeds  on  an  utter  misconception  as  to 
what  sort  of  thing  Christianity   is  ;  and 
because  of  which  we  forget  that  godliness 
has  to  do  with  all  things — insomuch  that 
ere  a  disciple  can  be  perfected  into  a  com- 
plete man  of  God,  he  must  be  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works.    He  must 
be  a  good  family  man,  and  a  good  neigh- 
bour, and  a  good  member  of  society.;  and 
finally,  to  return  on  the  observations  which 
the  apostle  here  lays  upon  his  converts, 
he  must  be  a  good  subject,  in  which  capa- 
city he  will   pay  custom  or  tribute  with 
cheerfulness,  and  reverence  his  superiors, 
and  award  his  comely  and  complaisant 
homage  to  station  and  rank  in  society — 
and,  giving  fear  to  whom  fear  is  due,  will 
first  and  foremost,  in  the  words  of  another 
apostle,  "  fear  God  ;"  and  honour  to  whom 
honour,  he  will  follow  out  the  injunction 
of  the  same  apostle,  to  "  honour  the  king ;" 
and   will  obey  magistrates;    and   live  a 
quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness 
and  honesty.     This  is  the  way  of  making 
his  light  shine  before  men — so  that  seeing 
his   good   works,   they   may   glorify    his 
Father  who  is  in  heaven. 

A  government  in  the  discharge  of  its 
ordinary  functions  is  a  great  blessing  to 
society  ;  and  it  is  upon  this  consideration 
that  the  duties  of  the  passage  now  under 


LECTURE    XCII. CHAPTER    XIII,    1 — 7. 


471 


review  are  grounded  and  enforced  by  the 
apostle.  But  a  government  may  depart 
from  its  proper  and  ordinary  character  ; 
and,  instead  of  a  protector,  may  become 
a  tyrant  and  a  persecutor.  It  may  abuse 
its  powers.  Tlie  sword  of  justice  in  its 
hands,  it  may  wield  as  an  instrument  of 
iniquitous  violence — turning  it  from  its 
own  righteous  purpose,  as  an  instrument 
of  vengeance  on  rebels  and  murderers. 
Instead  of  this,  it  may  become  a  murderer 
itself,  and  bathe  its  feet  in  the  blood  of 
the  innocent.  And  the  question  is.  What 
is  duty  towards  a  government  in  this  new 
attitude  and  style  of  acting  ;  and  when, 
no  longer  a  minister  to  them  for  good,  it 
becomes  an  executioner  of  wrath  on  the 
peaceable  and  the  praise-worthy — the  ter- 
ror and  scourge  of  the  righteous  1 

This  question  has  already  been  an- 
swered in  the  chapter  immediately  before 
our  present  one — where  we  are  told  to 
bless  them  which  persecute,  to  give  place 
unto  wrath,  to  avenge  not  ourselves. 
And  it  has  not  only  been  answered  didac- 
tically in  the  Bible,  but  has  been  answered 
historically  and  by  example  during  three 
long  centuries  of  persecution — beginning 
with  the  Author  of  our  faith,  and  conti- 
nued onward  to  the  reign  of  Constantino. 
If  when  the  hand  of  a  private  individual 
inflicted  outrage  and  injustice  upon  them, 
they  were  commanded  to  forbear  all  retal- 
iation— this  forbearance  was  still  more 
imperative  when  it  was  an  injustice  which 
came  from  the  hands  of  the  magistrate. 
And  accordingl)'',  in  those  ages  of  martyr- 
dom we  have  a  bright  verification  of  the 
meek  and  passive  moralities — of  the  vir- 
tues which  belong  to  a  state  of  sufferance 
— so  strenuously  recommended  by  the 
apostle.  And  it  was  not  only  in  the  fee- 
bleness of  their  infancy,  when  the  Chris- 
tians formed  but  a  very  little  flock,  amid 
the  overwhelming  majorities  that  abode 
in  the  ancient  faith,  whether  of  Jews  or 
Gentiles — it  was  not  only  then,  that  they 
gave  themselves  quietly  up  to  torture  and 
death,  as  if  in  imitation  of  their  great 
Master,  who  was  led  like  a  lamb  unto  the 
slaughter — But  even  in  the  strength  and 
maturity  of  their  manhood,  when  they 
far  outnumbered  their  adversaries  and 
could  have  taken  the  power  of  govern- 
ment into  their  own  hands — even  then  do 
we  i-ead  of  their  weathering  in  meek  en- 
durance the  last  and  bloodiest  of  those 
great  persecutions  which  they  had  to  un- 
dergo. They  might  have  risen  against 
their  enemies,  and  achieved  over  them  the 
victory  of  force — but,  still  more  glorious, 
their's  was  altogether  the  victory  of  prin- 
ciple ;  and  it  serves  for  our  admonition, 
on  whom  the  latter  ends  of  the  world  have 
come.  Siiould  the  fires  of  persecution  be 
again  lighted  up  in  our  land — in  the  holy 


discipline  of  God,  should  this  be  again 
brought  to  bear  upon  us,  as  at  once  the 

test  and  the  exercise  of  our  Christianity 

after  such  an  example,  and  still  more  with 
such  a  lesson  as  the  apostle  has  recorded 
for  our  guidance  in  the  foregoing  passage, 
we  should  know  how  to  acquit  ourselves. 
We  should,  for  conscience  toward  God, 
endure  the  grief  and  suffer  wrongfully. 
We  should  take  it  patiently.  We  should 
commit  ourselves  to  Him  that  judgeth 
righteously.  We  should  leave  to  Him  the 
cause  of  our  redress,  and  that  work  which 
is  exclusively  His  own,  the  work  of  ven- 
geance. If  we  want  to  obtain  a  like  con- 
quest with  our  predecessors  in  the  church, 
then  not  overcome  of  evil  ourselves,  we 
should  overcome  the  evil  with  good. 

Still  in  the  very  passage  from  which 
we  have  borrowed  some  of  these  expres- 
sions, there  is  a  limitation  imposed  on  our 
duty  of  '  living  peaceably  with  all  men.* 
This  is  only  if  it  be  possible  and  as  much 
as  lieth  in  us.  Now  we  have  already 
stated  in  what  circumstances  it  might  not 
be  possible  to  yield  a  pacific  acquiescence 
in  the  will  of  a  private  individual — so  that 
if  he  is  resolutely  bent  on  our  compliance 
with  it,  a  rupture  between  us  is  wholly 
unavoidable.  We  could  not,  for  example, 
give  up  our  conscience  into  his  hands,  or 
renounce  a  profession  or  a  principle  which 
we  conceive  to  have  been  laid  upon  us  by 
the  authority  of  God.  And  thus  it  was 
that  the  apostles'  converts  could  not  have 
given  up  their  Christianity  at  the  bidding 
of  friends  or  relatives — a  fertile  cause  of 
dissension  in  these  days  ;  and  so  as  to 
verify  the  forewarning  of  our  Saviour, 
"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  send  peace 
on  earth  :  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a 
sword.  For  I  am  come  to  set  a  man  at  vari- 
ance against  his  father,  and  the  daughter 
against  her  mother,  and  the  daughter-in- 
law  against  her  mother-in-law.  And  a 
man's  foes  shall  be  they  of  his  own 
household."  And  if  they  would  not  sub- 
mit in  this  matter  to  a  relative  or  neighbour, 
they  could  as  little  submit  in  it  to  a  ma- 
gistrate. They  could  not  belie  their  own 
foith,  or  say  of  what  they  did  believe,  that 
they  did  not  believe  it.  There  is  the  same 
impossibility  here  which  is  even  affirmed 
of  the  Godhead,  when  it  is  said  of  Him 
that  He  cannot  lie,  and  that  it  is  impossible 
for  God  to  lie.  If  the  faith  of  the  gospel 
was  indeod'in  them,  then  it  lay  not  in  them, 
nor  was  it  possible  for  them  to  abjure 
that  faith.  Nay,  as  if  to  aggravate  the 
moral  impossibility,  they  could  not,  at  the 
bidding  of  the  highest  power  on  earth, 
make  the  denial  of  Christ,  but  in  opposi- 
tion to  an  express  bidding  from  the  high- 
est power  in  heaven,  by  which  they  were 
required  to  confess  him  before  men — even 
when  delivered  up  to  councils  and  brought 


472 


LECTURE   XCU. CHAPTER   XUI,    1 — 7. 


before  governors  and  kings  for  a  testimony. 
And  what  had  thus  been  laid  upon  them 
by  precept,  they  exemplified  in  practice — 
as  when  called  before  the  rulers  of  Israel, 
and  straitly  threatened  and  commanded 
not  to  teach  or  preach  in  the  name  of 
Jesus,  they  replied,  "Whether  it  be  right 
in  the  sight  of  God,  to  hearken  unto  yon 
more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye.  For  we 
cannot,"  and  here  is  their  express  allega- 
tion of  its  not  being  possible  for  them  to 
live  peaceably  with  all  men,  "  we  cannot 
but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard."  And  so  with  boldness  they 
continued  to  speak,  "  not  as  pleasing 
men  but  God" — and  this  under  the  neces- 
sity which  was  laid  upon  them,  for  woe 
was  upon  them  if  they  preached  not  the 
gospel.*  To  the  superficial  it  might  ap- 
pear an  anomaly,  nay  a  contradiction, 
that  the  same  Christians  who  were 
charged  with  the  duty  of  resisting  not  evil, 
should  nevertheless  have  resisted  so  stur- 
dily upon  this  occasion  ;  and  it  seems  to 
deepen  still  more  the  inconsistency,  that 
it  was  a  resistance  to  the  mandates  of 
those  rulers,  who,  as  the  powers  that  be, 
were  ordained  of  God — so  that  whosoever 
resisteth  them  resisteth  the  ordinance  of 
God — and  shall  receive  to  himself  damna- 
tion. But  theirs  was  not  a  withholding 
of  fear  where  fear  was  due.  It  was  but 
the  subordination  of  a  lower  to  a  higher 
fear — the  fear  of  him  who  was  able  to 
kill  the  body,  to  the  fear  of  Him  who  is 
able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in 
hell.  They  did  not  i-esist  the  inflictions 
of  the  earthly  power  on  their  persons  and 
properties,  and  all  on  earth  which  belonged 
to  them.  These  they  submitted  to  the  ab- 
solute disposal  of  the  rulers  of  this  world; 
and  it  may  serve  perhaps  the  object  of  a 
right  discrimination  in  this  matter  of  re- 
sistance— if  in  the  following  verse  where 
the  term  is  introduced,  it  be  considered 
what  precisely  that  was  which  Christians 
are  there  spoken  of  as  resisting.  The 
apostle  in  the  Hebrews  tells  his  disciples 
that  they  had  not  yet  "  resisted  unto  blood, 
striving  against  sin."  This  was  wholly 
different  from  the  resistat)ce  of  war,  when 
the  soldier  strives  against  those  who  are 
seeking  after  his  blood ;  and,  for  the  de- 
liverance of  his  own  life  would  embrue 
his  hand  in  the  blood  of  an  enemy.  This 
is. one  way  of  resisting  unto  blood  ;  but  it 
is  altogether  di.stinct  from,  nay  opposite 
to,  the  resistance  unto  blood  which  Chris- 
tians were  often  called  to  in  these  days. 
The  object  of  their  resistance  was  not  to 
save  their  own  blood  by  .shedding  the 
blood  of  their  enemies.  It  was  not  against 
this  that  they  strove,  or  against  their  ene- 
mies that  they  strove.  The  precise  object 
of  their  striving  was  against  sin — the  sin  of 

'  1  Corinthians,  ix,  16. 


renouncing  their  profession,  and  thusdeny- 
ing  the  Lord  who  bought  them.  This  at 
all  hazards  they  behoved  to  resist.  Against 
this,  and  this  alone,  they  strove  ;  and  as  to 
their  lordly  persecutors,  instead  of  striving 
against  them,  they  placidly  and  submis- 
sively gave  thetnselves  up  unto  their  hands. 
And  thus  too  at  this  moment,  the  Church 
of  Scotland — submitting  to  the  civil  power 
in  all  that  is  civil ;  and  only  refusing  her 
obedience,  when  that  power  assumes  an 
authority  over  things  sacred.  Many  are 
not  able,  perhaps  not  willing,  to  discrimi- 
nate in  this  matter  ;  and  so,  at  their  hand^ 
she  suffers  the  obloquy  of  being  a  rebel 
against  the  laws — and  this  because  one  of 
the  subordinate  courts  in  our  realm,  has 
transgressed  her  own  limits,  even  as  the 
sanhedrim  or  supreme  court  of  Judea 
did  theirs,  when  they  forbade  the  apostles 
to  preach  any  more  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
It  is  a  great  and  a  vital  cause  ;  and  has 
led  to  a  contest  which  is  not  yet  termina- 
ted, and  perhaps  only  begun.  Heaven 
grant  an  apostolic  wisdom,  as  well  as  an 
apostolic  boldness,  on  the  part  of  her 
ministers — th?it  they  may  acquit  them- 
selves rightly  of  all  which  they  owe  both 
to  God  and  to  Cesar  ;  and  so  that,  while 
faithful  to  their  Master  in  heaven,  their 
loyalty  to  the  powers  which  be  on  earth 
may,  in  all  that  is  possible,  and  as  fiir  as 
lieth  in  them,  become  patent  and  palpa- 
ble to  all  men.  Meanwhile,  in  the  eyes 
of  some  she  may  wear  the  aspect  of  a  re- 
fractory member  in  the  body  politic, 
more  especially  in  an  age  when  the  prin- 
ciples are  forgotten  on  which  our  Non- 
erastian  Church  is  based — principles 
which  at  one  time  the  sustained  and  at 
length  triumphant  controversy  of  several 
generations,  had  made  as  familiar  as 
household  words,  even  to  the  peasantry 
of  our  land.  O  Lord,  may  Thy  grace  and 
Thy  guidance  be  with  the  present  major- 
ity of  our  Church — so  that  whether  they 
shall  achieve  a  victory  or  sustain  a  de- 
feat. Wisdom  may  yet  be  justified  of  all 
her  children.  If  theirs  be  the  victory,  let 
it  become  manifest,  O  God,  that  a  rightly 
administered,  and  withal  an  established 
church,  in  the  full  possession  of  her 
spiritual  independence,  is  the  great  pal- 
ladium, not  of  freedom  alone,  but  of  sta- 
bility and  good  order  in  the  common- 
wealth. But  if  it  seem  good  unto  Thee 
that  it  shall  be  otherwise,  and  that  defeat 
and  disappointment  shall  be  theirs — we 
will  not  let  go  our  confidence  in  the  final 
and  everlasting  establishment  of  Thine 
own  divine  supremacy  over  the  nations — 
when,  after  it  may  be  the  fearful  period 
of  a  wasteful  and  wide-spread  anarchy, 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  have  be- 
come the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ 


LECTURE  XCUI. CHAPTER  XIH,  8 10. 


473 


LECTURE  XCIII. 


Romans  liii,  8 — 10. 

'  Owe  no  man  any  thing,  but  to  love  one  another  :  for  he  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the  law.  For  this,  Thou 
shall  not  commit  aduTtery,  Tliou  shait  not  kill.  Thou  shall  not  steal.  Thou  shall  not  bear  false  witness.  Thou 
shall  not  covet ;  and  if  there  be  any  other  commandment,  it  is  brietiy  comprehended  in  this  saying,  namely.  Thou 
shall  love  Ihy  neighbour  as  thyself.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbour  :  therefore  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law." 


•  Owe  no  man  any  thing.'  This  precept 
of  the  apostle,  limited  within  these  few 
■words,  may  signify  one  or  other  of  these 
two  things — either  to  leave  not  our  debts 
unpaid  ;  or,  higher,  and  many  would  say 
more  scrupulous  still,  never  get  into  debt. 
The  clause  now  quoted  of  our  present 
verse  may  be  looked  to  as  a  repetition  of 
the  clause  in  that  verse  which  goes  imme- 
diately before  it — "  Render  unto  all  their 
dues" — what  is  due,  (debitum,  debt,)  being 
the  same  with  what  is  owing.  And  in  this 
form  too  it  admits  of  both  the  interpreta- 
tions now  given — either  let  every  debt  be 
at  length  cancelled,  or  let  no  debt  ever  be 
contracted.  Never  let  it  become  a  debt — 
Be  in  no  man's  books.  If  he  be  an  indi- 
vidual with  whom  you  are  dealing,  pay 
the  moment  that  you  buy.  Or  if  it  be  the 
government,  and  so  the  liability  is  not  a 
price  but  a  tax,  pay  on  the  day  that  it  be- 
comes due.  According  to  the  usages  of 
society,  the  injunction  in  this  latter  or 
more  rigorous  meaning  of  it  is  far  from 
being  generally  adhered  to.  Perhaps  it 
may  not  at  all  times  suit  the  conveniences 
or  even  the  possibilities  of  business,  that 
each  single  transaction  should  be  what  in 
familiar  phrase  is  termed  a  ready-money 
transaction.  Perhaps  even  in  the  matters 
of  family  expenditure,  it  might  save 
trouble,  instead  of  paying  daily  and  in 
detail,  to  pay  at  certain  terms ;  and  so 
with  the  consent,  nay  even  the  preference 
of  both  parties,  is  there  often  a  running 
of  accounts,  and  a  discharge  or  settlement 
of  these  periodically.  We  shall  not  there- 
fore insist  very  resolutely  or  dogmatically 
on  this  rule  of  the  apostle,  in  the  literal 
or  extreme  sense  of  it.  Perhaps  it  were 
an  over-sensitive  casuistry,  a  sort  of  ultra- 
ism  in  morals,  to  urge  the  unexcepted  ob- 
servance of  our  text  in  the  very  terms  of 
this  its  second  interpretation.  There  can 
be  no  doubt,  however,  that  in  the  first  in- 
terpretation of  it,  it  is  a  matter  of  absolute 
and  universal  obligation.  Though  we  can- 
not just  say  with  full  and  perfect  assu- 
rance, that  a  man  should  never  in  any 
circumstances  get  into  debt — we  can  feel 
no  hesitation  in  saying,  that,  once  in,  he 
should  labour  most  strenuously  and  with 
all  his  might,  to  get  out  of  it.  1  will  not 
therefore  be  so  altogether  intolerant  and 
peremptory,  as  to  give  it  forth  in  the  style 
60 


of  an  aphorism  or  dictation — that  he 
should  never  become  a  debtor  to  any 
man,  be  it  for  a  single  month  or  even  sin- 
gle day.  Yet  will  we  proclaim  it  as  a 
very  high  and  undoubted  ethical  propriety 
— that  each  man,  if  in  business,  should  so 
square  his  enterprises  to  his  means ;  or, 
if  in  whatever  else,  should  so  square  his 
expenditure  to  his  income,  as  to  be  at  all 
times  within  the  limits  of  sufficiency  or 
safety — so  that,  should  the  computation 
at  any  time  be  made,  and  were  the  settle- 
ment of  all  reckonings  and  claims  what- 
soever to  take  place  at  the  moment  ac- 
cordingly, it  be  found  of  him  at  the  very 
least,  that  in  customary  phrase  he  was 
even  with  the  world,  and  so  as  that  he 
could  leave  the  world  and  owe  no  man 
any  thing. 

But  though  unwilling  to  press  the  duty 
of  our  text  in  the  extreme  and  rigorous 
sense  of  it — yet  I  would  fain  aspire  to- 
wards the  full  and  practical  establishment 
thereof,  so  as  that  the  habit  might  become 
at  length  universal,  not  only  of  paying  all 
debts,  but  even  of  making  conscience 
never  to  contract,  and  therefore  never  to 
owe  any.  For  although  this  might  never 
be  reached,  it  is  well  it  should  be  looked 
at,  nay  moved  forward  to,  as  a  sort  of 
optimism,  every  approximation  to  which 
were  a  distinct  step  in  advance,  both  for 
the  moral  and  economic  good  of  society. 
For,  first,  in  the  world  of  trade,  one  can- 
not be  insensible  to  the  dire  mischief  that 
ensues  from  the  spirit  often  so  rampant, 
of  an  excessive  and  unwarrantable  specu- 
lation— so  as  to  make  it  the  most  desira- 
ble of  all  consummations  that  the  system 
of  credit  should  at  length  give  way,  and 
what  has  been  termed  the  ready-money 
system,  the  system  of  immediate  pay- 
ments in  every  commercial  transaction, 
should  be  substituted  in  its  place.  The 
adventurer  who,  in  the  walks  of  merchan- 
dise, trades  beyond  his  means,  is  often 
actuated  by  a  passion  as  intense,  and  we 
fear  too  as  criminal,  as  is  the  gamester, 
who  in  the  haunts  of  fashionable  dissipa- 
tion, stakes  beyond  his  fortune.  But  it  is 
not  the  injury  alone,  which  the  ambition 
that  precipitates  him  into  such  deep  and 
desperate  hazards,  brings  upon  his  own 
character — neither  is  it  the  ruin  that  the 
splendid  bankruptcy  in  which  it  termi- 


474 


LECTURE    XCIII. CHAPTER   XIII,    8 — 10. 


nates  brings  upon  his  own  family — These 
are  not  the  only  evils  which  we  deprecate 
— for  over  and  above  these,  there  is  a  far 
heavier  disaster,  a  consequence  in  the 
train  of  such  proceedings,  of  greatly  wider 
and  more  malignant  operation  still,  on 
the  habit  and  condition  of  the  working 
classes,  gathered  in  hundreds  around  the 
mushroom  establishment,  and  then  thrown 
adrift  among  the  other  wrecks  of  its  over- 
throw in  utter  helplessness  and  destitu- 
tion on  society.  This  frenzy  of  men  hast- 
ing to  be  rich,  like  fever  in  the  body  natu- 
ral, is  a  truly  sore  distemper  in  the  body 
politic.  No  doubt  they  are  also  sufferers 
themselves,  piercing  their  own  hearts 
through  with  many  sorrows  ;  but  it  is  the 
contemplation  of  this  suffering  in  masses, 
which  the  sons  and  daughters  of  industry 
in  humble  life  so  often  earn  at  their  hands, 
that  has  ever  led  me  to  rank  them  among 
the  chief  pests  and  disturbers  of  a  com- 
nionwealih. 

But  again,  if  they  who  trade  beyond 
their  means  thus  fall  to  be  denounced, 
they  especially  in  the  higher  and  middle 
classes  of  life,  who  spend  beyond  their 
means  and  so  run  themselves  into  debt, 
merit  the  same  condemnation.  Perhaps 
they  who  buy  on  credit,  certain  of  their 
inability  to  pay,  as  compared  with  those 
who  borrow  on  speculation,  and  though 
uncertain  of  its  proceeds,  yet  count  on  the 
favourable  chances  of  success,  so  as  that 
they  shall  be  able  to  pay  all — perhaps 
the  former  are  distinctly  the  more  inex- 
cusable of  the  two.  But  without  entering 
on  this  computation,  we  can  imagine  no- 
thing more  glaringly  unprincipled  and 
selfish  than  the  conduct  of  those,  who,  to 
uphold  their  place  and  take  part  with 
their  fellows  in  the  giddy  rounds  of  the 
festive  and  fashionable  world,  force  out  a 
splendour  and  luxury  which  their  means 
are  unequal  to  ;  and  thus  either  build  or 
adorn  or  entertain  in  a  style  so  costly,  ! 
that  it  must  be  done  not  at  their  own  e.x- 
pence,  beggared  as  they  are  by  extrava- 
gance, but  at  the  cxpence  of  tradesmen 
and  artificers  and  shopkeepers,  whom 
they  hurry  onward  to  beggary  with  them- 
selves. I  do  not  need  to  expatiate  on  a 
delinquency  so  grievous  and  undeniable 
as  this.  But  you  will  at  once  perceive, 
how  both  the  rage  of  speculation,  prompt- 
ed by  what  the  apostle  calls  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  in  the  work  of  making  a  fortune  ; 
and  the  rage  of  exhibition  and  excess, 
stimulated  by  the  pride  of  life,  in  the 
■work  of  overspending  it — the  one  sowing 
the  wind,  and  the  other  reaping  the  whirl- 
wind—how both  of  these  would  be  eff'ect- 
ually  mitigated  and  kept  in  check,  were 
all  men  to  act  on  the  sacred  prohibition 
of  "Owe  no  man  any  thing." 
But  lastly,  there  is  another  application 


of  this  precept,  to  me  the  most  interesting 
of  all — because  of  all  others  the  applica- 
tion, which  if  fully  carried  out,  would  tell 
more  beneficially  than  any  otlier  on  that 
high  object  of  enlightened   pliilanthopy, 
the    greatest   happiness    of   the  greatest 
number;  and  so  make  a  larger  contribu- 
tion than  any  we  have  yet  specified  to  the 
well-being  of  a  then  happy  and  healthful 
society.     What  1  advert  to  as  a  thing  of 
pre-eminent    worth    and  importance    is, 
that  men  in  humble  life,  our  artizans,  our 
mechanics,  and  labourers,  should  be  ef- 
fectually taught  in  the  art  of  owing  no 
man  any  thing ;  and  learn  to  find  their 
way  from  the  pawn  office  to  the  savings' 
bank — so  that  instead  of  debtors  to  the 
one,  they  should  become  depositors  in  the 
other.     That  it  is  not  so,  is  far  more  due 
to  the   want  of  management  than  to  the 
want   of  means ;    and   it  needs   but  the 
kindness  and  trouble  of  a  few  benevolent 
attentions  to  put  many  on  the  way  of  it. 
It   is   this  which,   among   other   objects, 
makes  it  so  urgently  desirable — that  every 
town   should    be   broken   up   into   small 
enough   parishes,  and  every  parish  into 
small   enough  districts ;  and  an   official 
superintendent  be  attached  to  each,  who, 
in  perfect  keeping  with  his  character  as 
a  deacon,  might  charge  himself  with  the 
economics  of  the  poor,  and  tell  them  how 
so  to  husband  their  resources,  as  to  save 
themselves  from  a  sore  and  heavy  burden, 
which  often  presses  on  them  like  an  incu- 
bus that  they  never  can  shake  off — we 
mean  the  debt  usuall)^  contracted  at  the 
outsetofafamily  establishment,  and  which 
keeps  them  in  a  state  of  dilficult}''  and  de- 
pendence to  the  end  of  their  days.     It  is 
not  to  be  told  how  soon  and  how  easily 
by  a  few  cheap  and   simple  and   withal 
friendly  advices,  the   whole  platform  of 
humble  life  might  come  to  be  raised,  and 
the  working  classes  be  guided  to  an  en- 
largement and  sulficiency,  which,  save  by 
dint  of  their  own  sobriety  and  providen- 
tial habits,  can  never  be  realised.    Though 
we  cannot  ott'er  here  the  scientific  demon- 
stration of  this  great  and  glorious  result, 
we  may  at  least  be  suffered,  as  an  act  of 
homage,   fo  make    this   acknowledgment 
in  passing — that,  in  the  practical  depart- 
ment of  Christianity,  only  second  to  our 
admiration  of  its  perfect  ethical  system, 
is  the  admiration   we  have   ever  felt,  and 
tlic  unbounded  confidence  that  we  repose 
in    the   sound   political  economy  of  the 
New  Testamtuit. 

'  But  to  love  one  another.'  The  apostle 
here  speaks  of  love  as  a  debt,  as  a  thing 
owing.  He  would  have  it  to  be  our  only 
debt ;  and  that  this  alone  is  what  we 
should  still  continue  to  owe,  after  having 
so  acquitted  ourselves  of  all  other  obliga- 
tions, as  to  owe  nothing  else.    The  point 


LECTURE   XCm. CHAPTER   XHI,    8 10. 


475 


to  be  remarked  upon  is,  that  the  apostle 
should  speak  of  love  as  a  debt  at  all,  as 
a  thing  that  we  owe — thus  placing  in  the 
same  category  the  duty  under  which  we 
lie  to  love  one  another,  as  the  duty  to  pay 
up  the  price  of  that  which  we  had  bought, 
or  the  sum  that  we  had  borrowed  from 
him.  It  is  certainly  not  so  regarded  in  the 
light  of  natural  conscience.  We  should 
never  think  that  we  did  the  same  injustice 
to  a  neighbour  by  withholding  our  love 
from  him,  as  we  did  to  a  creditor  by  with- 
holding from  him  the  payment  of  a  debt. 
In  that  play  or  reciprocation  of  moral 
feeling  and  moral  judgment  which  takes 
place  between  men  and  men  in  society, 
those  two  things  are  not  so  confounded. 
It  is  true  that  should  God  interpose  with 
the  commandment  that  we^should  so  love, 
we  owe  every  thing  to  Him  ;  and  would 
therefore,  on  its  being  intimated  to  us  as 
His  will,  owe  love  to  those  who  are  around 
us,  and  love  to  all  men.  But  we  at  pre- 
sent speak  of  our  natural  sense  of  justice 
as  it  decides  and  operate's  irrespectively 
of  God's  will  in  the  community  of  human 
beings  ;  and  are  considering  how  it  would 
pronounce  on  the  matter  of  obligation — 
between  the  duty  of  paying  an  ordinary 
debt,  and  the  duty  of  loving. 

Now  we  must  be  conscious  of  a  wide 
diversity  in  our  moral  sensation,  if  I  may 
so  term  it,  of  these  two  things.  I  feel  that 
I  have  a  right  to  the  payment  of  that 
which  is  owing  to  me  ;  and  that  for  the 
exaction  of  it  f  might  bring  the  fear  and 
the  force  of  law  to  bear  upon  my  debtor. 
1  have  no  such  feeling  of  a  right  to  his 
love  ;  and  did  I  assert  or  prosecute  such  a 
right,  did  I  try  to  seize  upon  the  man's  af- 
fections in  the  same  way  that  I  might 
seize  upon  his  goods,  did  I  prefer  a  claim 
to  his  heart,  and  for  the  making  of  it  good 
put  either  fear  or  force  into  operation — there 
would  soon  be  found  an  element  wanting, 
and  which  made  this  attempt  at  the  com- 
pulsion of  another's  love  to  be  altogether 
a  thing  most  outrageously  and  ridiculously 
wrong.  The  question  still  remains  then 
as  to  any  possible  analogy  between  things 
which  at  the  first  blush  of  them  appear  so 
different  ;  and  how  it  is,  that  while  in  the 
most  strict  and  literal  sense  of  the  word 
we  owe  a  man  the  full  value  of  all  that 
we  may  have  bought  or  borrowed  from 
him — how  it  is,  that  with  any  propriety, 
or  by  means  of  any  figurative  resem- 
blance, I  can  be  said  to  owe  him  my  love 
also. 

What  gives  the  strongest  impression  of 
a  reciprocity  in  this  matter,  and  brings  it 
nearest  to  a  thing  of  mutual  and  equita- 
ble obligation  is,  that  celebrated  moral 
sentence  of  our  great  Teacher — "  Whatso- 
ever things  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them."    Now 


we  all  would  that  men  should  love  us 
rather  than  that  they  should  hate  us  ;  and 
it  is  a  precept  which  at  once  announces 
its  own  equity,  that  what  we  should  like 
from  men,  we  should  do  to  men.  If  we 
wish  them  to  love  us,  it  seems  a  selfish 
and  unequitable  thing,  that  we  should  not 
love  them  back  again  ;  or  that  we  should, 
not  be  willing  to  give  them  that,  which  we 
at  the  same  time  are  abundantly  willing 
to  get  from  them.  We  do  not  just  say, 
that,  even  on  this  principle,  the  obligation, 
to  love  others  is  placed  on  the  very  same 
footing  with  the  obligation  to  pay  our 
debts — yet  if  on  this  principle  we  do  not 
strictly  and  literally  owe  them  our  love, 
the  moral  sense  of  all  men  will  go  along 
with  me  when  I  say,  that  on  this  principle 
we  at  least  ought  to  love  them.  Surely  if 
we  should  like  all  men  to  love  us,  it  is 
nothing  but  a  fair  and  legitimate  moral 
conclusion  from  this,  that  we  in  return 
should  or  ought  to  love  all  men. 

Now  I  would  have  you  attend  to  the  two 
terms,  the  owe  and  the  ought.  They  have 
a  common  origin  ;  and  though  not  abso- 
lutely identical,  this  of  itself  demonstrates, 
if  human  language  be  at  all  the  interpreter 
of  human  feeling,  a  certain  affinity  be- 
twixt them.  And  accordingly  they  do 
substantially  resemble  each  other  thus 
far,  that  both  of  them — the  payment  of 
what  we  owe  to  others,  and  the  love  we 
are  required  to  bear  them — that  both  of 
these  are  duties.  But  though  generally, 
and  to  this  extent,  they  are  alike — still 
there  is  a  difference  between  them  ;  and 
on  looking  narrowly  into  it,  we  shall  find 
what  the  difference  is.  In  the  one  duty, 
the  payment  of  debt,  there  is  not  merely 
an  obligation  upon  the  one  side,  there  is 
a  precise  and  counterpart  right  upon  the 
other — it  being  not  only  my  duty  to  pay 
what  I  owe  to  a  creditor,  but  his  right  tu 
challenge  and  enforce  the  payment.  In 
the  other  duty,  the  love  of  a  neighbour,  it 
might  be  .my  obligation  thus  to  love,  but 
not  necessarily  his  right  to  demand  it  of 
me.  That  there  are  other  such  duties, 
will  appear  still  more  clearly  from  this 
example — the  duty  of  forgiveness.  Here 
there  may  be  an  obligation,  and  most 
certainly  no  corresponding  right — an 
obligation  on  my  part  to  forgive  the  of- 
fender, while  it  were  a  contradiction  in 
terms  to  say  of  him  that  he  hath  a  right 
to  be  forgiven.  The  distinction  is  quite 
familiar  to  ethical  writers  ;  and  they  have 
had  recourse  to  a  peculiar  nomenclature 
for  the  expression  of  it.  In  the  one  case, 
as  with  the  virtues  of  truth  and  justice, 
where  there  is  both  a  duty  on  the  one 
side  and  a  counterpart  right  up'jn  the 
other,  they  are  termed  virtues  or  perfect 
obligation.  In  the  other  case,  as  with  be- 
nevolence, whether  in  the  form  of  mercy 


476 


LECTURE   XCIII. — CHAPTER   XIH,    8—10. 


or  hospitality  or  almsgiving  or  a  kind- 
ness and  courtesy  beyond  the  general 
habits  or  expectations  of  any  given  neigh- 
bourhood—these, though  all  of  them  vir- 
tues in  themselves  which  serve  to  grace 
and  exalt  the  giver,  yet  for  which  no  right 
or  claim  can  be  alleged  by  the  receiver — 
these  are  but  the  virtues  of  imperfect 
obligation. 

This  leads  us  to  observe,  that  there  are 
two  distinct   regimens,  and  both   on  the 
side  of  morality.     There  is  the  regimen 
of  fear  and  the  regimen  of  conscience. 
Each  might  be  brought  to  bear  upon  man 
at  the  same  time,  when  the  duty   to   be 
performed  is  one  of  perfect  obligation— 
which  it  is  not  only  right  for  every  moral 
agent  to  observe  ;  but  in  which  also  there 
is,  counterpart  to   this,   the   holder  of  a 
right,    who   might  by   legal  enforcement 
compel   the  observance  of  it,  virhethcr  it 
be  for  the  payment  of  a  debt   or  the  ful- 
filment of  a  promise.     On  the  side  then 
of  one  and  the  same  virtue,  there  might 
both  be  the  coarser  regimen  of  fear,  and 
the  finer  regimen  of  conscience — the  one 
put  into  operation  by  a  government  with- 
in the  breast,  which  tolls  of  the  right  and 
the  wrong,  and,  by  the  force  of  principle 
alone,  persuades  to  the  former,  and  res- 
trains from  the  latter— the  other  put  into 
operation  by  the  government  of  a  country 
which   institutes  a   law,  and  ordains  its 
penalties   against   all  the  aggressions  of 
injustice.     One  could  imagine  a  virtuous 
society  where  conscience  was  omnipotent 
and   universal — in   virtue   of    which    the 
government  of  principle  might  have  per- 
fect and  unlimited  sway,  and  so  the  go- 
vernment of  law  might  be  dispensed  with. 
And   there   are  mnny  individuals,  whose 
honour  and  integrity  are  full  guarantees 
for   their   punctual   discharge   of  all  the 
equities   of    social    life  ;    and    of    whom 
therefore  it  may  be  said  that  the  law  is 
not  needed  for  such  righteous  persons — 
of  which  indeed  they  often  give  proof,  by 
the  admirable  way  in  which  they  acquit 
themselves  also  of  the  generosities  of  so- 
cial life,  those  virtues  of  imperfect  obliga- 
tion,  wherewith  the  law  of  the  heart  alone 
hath  to  do,  and  the  law  of  the  state  or  of  the 
statute-book  has,  or  ouorht  to  have  no  con- 
cern.    But  though  the  law  of  conscience 
be  sufficient  for  these,  it  needs,  in  the  ac- 
tual state  or  character  of  humanity,  and  for 
the  etfectual  regulation  of  the  common- 
wealth at  large — it  needs   to    be  supple- 
mented by  the  civil  and  criminal  law  of 
the  country.     And  accordingly    both   in- 
fluences might  tell  at  once  on  the  same 
individual.        Both      considerations     are 
pressed  by  the  apostle  upon  his  converts 
--and    this  by  the    way  proves  that  the 
distinction  on  which  we   insist  is  not  a 


vain  one — when  he  says,  "  Wherefore  ye 
must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for  wrath 
but  also  for  conscience'  sake." 

It  is  well  that  you  should  keep  hold  of 
this  distinction   between  a  lower  and  a 
higher  regimen — the  regimen  of  fear,  and 
the  regimen  of  conscience — as  it  might 
prepare  you  for   understanding  another 
regimen,  even  higher  than  that  of  con- 
science ;  and  lead  you  along  to  another 
distinction — we  mean  the  distinction  that 
we  now  announce  between  the  regirnen 
of  conscience  and  the  regimen  of  love. 
In  every  exercise  of  the  conscience,  there 
seems  a  balancing  between  the  right  and 
the   wrong — a  comparison   of  opposites, 
grounded  on  the  knowledge  both  of  good 
and  evil,  whereupon,  in  virtue  of  its  sense 
of  rectitude,  it  enjoins  a  preference  for 
the  one,  and  an  avoidance  of  the  other. 
Now  this  work  of  comparison  on  the  part 
of  a  moral  agent,  might  as  unnecessary 
be  dispensed  with — if  in  doing  what  is 
right  he  always  did  that  which  he  liked 
best ;  or,  in  other  words,  if  the  taste  and 
affections  did  of  themselves  prompt,  and 
at  all  times,  that  very  conduct,  which,  had 
the   arbitration   of  conscience   been    re- 
quired, it  would  have  pronounced  to  be 
our  righteous  and  incumbent  obligation. 
It  might  seem  hard  to  say  that  conscience 
in    this   case  would   be   superseded — yet 
there  is  a  certain  sense  in  which  it  would 
be  true — for  it  is  obvious  enough,  that  if 
we  abandon  ourselves  to  our  own  heart's 
desire,  and  that  desire  was  ever,  sponta- 
neously and  of  its  own  full  accord,  on 
the  side  of  that  which  is  most  righteous 
and  best,  the  office  of  conscience,  at  least 
for  the  purposes  of  guidance  or  regula- 
tion, would  then   be  uncalled  lor.     And 
however  difficult  it  might  be  to  say  that 
love  would  supersede  conscience,  we  need 
go  no  farther  than  to  our  text  fur  decisive 
instances  of  love  superseding  the   com- 
mandment.    For  certain  it  is,  that  if  we 
thoroughly  loved  a  neighbour,  loved  him 
as  we  do  ourselves,  we  could  no  more  in- 
flict pain  or  violence  upon  him  than  upon 
our  own  persons — no  more  rob  him  of  his 
property  than  cast  our  own  into  the  fire — 
no  more  deceive  him  by  a  falsehood  than 
willingly  give  ourselves  up  to  the  wiles 
of  an  impostor — no  more  wish  aught  de- 
sirable thing  of  his  to  be  ours,  than  we 
should  aught  of  ours  to  be  either  abstract- 
ed or  destroyed.     To  a  man  thus  actuated 
the  prohibitions  of  kill  not,  and  steal  not, 
and  lie  not,  and  covet  not,  were  altogether 
superfluous — nor   would    his    conscience 
need   at  all   to  ruminate,  on  the  rightful- 
ness, either  in   respect  of  matter  or  au- 
thority, of  any  of  these  commandments.. 
What  under  the  regimen  of   conscience 
would  be  a  thing  of  obedience — the  very 


LECTURE   XCm. CHAPTER   XIII,    8 10. 


477 


same,  under  the  regimen  of  love,  would  be 
a  thing  of  inclination.  Love  would  be  an 
equivalent,  nay  a  greatly  overpassing 
substitute  for  law.  Under  its  simple  and 
spontaneous  impulse,  there  could  be  the 
working  of  no  ill.  Of  itself  it  would  do 
the  work  of  all  the  commandments. 
Where  such  an  enlargement  takes  place 
upon  the  character  of  man,  the  will  might 
with  all  safety  be  left  to  take  the  place 
of  conscience.  The  law  of  God  would  be 
his  delight ;  nor  could  there  be  any  haz- 
ard of  disobedience  at  the  hands  of  him, 
the  delight  of  whose  heart  lay  in  the  ful- 
filling of  the  law. 

Now  the  question  comes  to  be.  Which 
is  the  higher  moral  state — that  of  him  who 
loves  his  neighbour  as  himself,  and  in 
virtue  of  this  affection  would  abstain 
from  doing  him  any  evil ;  or  of  him,  who 
without  this  aflfection,  but  iii  virtue  of  the 
commandments,  and  under  a  sense  not 
only  of  their  authority,  but  their  right- 
ness,  would  alike  abstain  from  doing  him 
any  evil  1  Were  it  because  of  their  author- 
ity alone,  then  the  obedience  might  pro- 
ceed from  an  apprehension  of  the  threat- 
ened penalties,  or  be  a  forced  obedience 
under  the  regimen  of  fear.  Were  it  be- 
cause of  their  rightness,  then  would  it  be 
a  higher,  for  now  a  duteous  obedience, 
under  the  regimen  of  conscience.  But 
what  we  ask  is,  Whether,  when  not  be- 
cause he  thinks  of  the  commandments, 
but  because  he  realizes  the  saying  in 
which  they  are  briefly  comprehended, 
even  loves  his  neighbour  as  himself — 
whether,  when  it  is  because  of  this  that 
he  kills  not  and  steals  not  and  lies  not  and 
covets  not — whether  it  be  not  now  a  still 
higher,  being  now  a  willing  obedience 
under  the  regimen  of  love  ?  When  he 
has  gotten  so  far  as  that  love  supersedes 
law,  has  he  not  reached  a  higher  stage  in 
this  moral  progression  from  one  degree 
of  excellence  to  another? — and  were  this 
consideration  thoroughly  pondered  and 
pursued  into  all  its  consequences,  might 
it  not  serve  to  elucidate  an  else  mysteri- 
ous passage  of  the  Bible — where  we  read 
that  the  law  was  not  made  for  a  righteous 
person,  for  a  person  thus  far  refined  and 
exalted  in  his  principles  and  feelings — but 
for  those  in  the  ruder  or  more  rudimental 
and  initiatory  stages  of  their  moral  disci- 

filine ;  and  who  for  the  restraint  or  regu- 
ation  of  their  conduct  needed  that  the 
coarser  appliances  of  law,  its  obligations 
or  even  its  terrors,  should  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  them  ?  It  is  thus  we  might  un- 
derstand the  apostolic  averment — "That 
the  law  is  not  made  for  a  righteous  man, 
but  for  the  lawless  and  disobedient,  fur 
the  ungodly  and  for  sinners,  for  unholy 
and  profitne,  for  murderers  of  fathers  and 
murderers  of  mothers,  for  man-slayers, 


for  whoremongers,  for  them  that  defile 
themselves  with  mankind,  for  men-steaU 
ers,  for  liars,  for  perjured  persons,  and  if 
there  be  any  other  thing  that  is  contrary 
to  sound  doctrine."  To  this  purpose 
serveth  the  law.  "It  was  added  because 
of  transgressions."  Every  commandment 
in  the  decalogue,  with  the  exception  of 
the  fifth — for  we  do  not  except  the  fourth, 
which  tells  us  not  to  work  upon  the  Sab- 
bath— is  of  a  negative  or  prohibitory, 
rather  than  of  a  prescriptive  character. 
It  tells  us  not  of  the  things  which  we  are 
to  do,  but  of  the  things  which  we  are  not 
to  do  ;  and  most  certainly  they  are  such 
things,  that  if  the  moral  dynamics  of  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man  had  full  operation 
in  our  heart,  we  should  have  no  wish  for 
the  doing  of  them. 

And  yet,  as  already  hinted,  we  should 
feel  it  a  hard  and  difficult  thing  to  say 
that  love  might  supersede  conscience ; 
and  so  as  that  the  element  of  moral  right- 
ness, or  the  consideration  of  what  we 
ought  or  of  what  we  owe,  might  never  be 
present  to  the  mind — merely  because  there 
reigned  an  affection  there,  which  formed 
a  sufficient  and  a  practical  security  for 
the  observance  of  them.  We  apprehend 
that  if  destitute  of  the  conception  or  know- 
Ledge  of  the  moral  character  of  actions,  as 
right  or  wrong,  we  should  want  an  essen- 
tial feature  of  that  resemblance  to  the 
Godhead,  the  restoration  whereof  is  one 
great  object  of  the  economy  under  which 
we  sit* — even  His  admiration  of  the  one 
and  His  abhorrence  of  the  other,  so  that 
like  Him  we  may  love  righteousness  and 
hate  iniquity.  It  is  true  that  Adam  was 
interdicted  in  paradise  from  the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil — and  there- 
fore that,  apart  from  this  knowledge  and 
by  the  spontaneous  tendencies  of  his  own 
perfect  nature,  he  may  have  been  kept 
close  to  the  one  and  altogether  clear  of 
the  other.  But  instead  of  this  there  was 
one  commandment  laid  upon  him — and 
by  the  way  a  negative  one,  or  not  a  bid- 
ding but  a  forbidding — even  that  he  should 
not  eat  of  this  tree.  It  was  on  his  trans- 
gression thereof  that  his  eyes  were  opened  ; 
and  his  conscience  we  have  no  doubt,  his 
sense  of  good  and  evil  and  of  the  differ- 
ence between  them,  would  then  come 
into  vigorous  play.  But  we  must  not 
therefore  imagine  that  in  the  process  of 
man's  regeneration  this  sense  of  good  and 
evil  behoves  to  be  extinguished.  He  will 
be  "renewed  in  knowledge;"  and  as  a 
proof  that,  though  heaven  be  that  holy 
place  into  which  sin  doth  not  enter,  yet 
that  the  knowledge  or  conception  of  sin 
will  be  there,  is  evident  from  this,  that 
holiness  will  be  there  ;  and  what  is  holi- 

*  Colossians,  iii,  10. 


478 


LECTURE    XCIII. CHAPTER   XllI,    8 — 10. 


ness  but  the  fearful  and  determined  recoil 
of  perfect  moral  excellence  from  all  that 
is  opposite  to  itself! — a  property  of  such 
high  estimation,  that  some  would  vindicate 
the  origin  of  evil  on  the  principle  that  it 
afforded  a  scope  for  the  display  and  the 
exercise  of  holiness.  However  this  may 
be,  certain  it  is  that  the  love  or  charity  of 
heaven  will  not  supersede  there  the  con- 
science or  moral  sense,  which  lakes  cog. 
nizance  both  of  the  good  and  the  evil — 
as  manifested  both  by  the  song  of  the  re- 
deemed to  Him  who  washed  them  in  His 
blood,  and  by  their  intelligent  ascriptions 
to  Him  who  sitteth  on  the  throne  of  H0I3-, 
Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty ;  and 
Just  and  true  are  Tl>y  ways,  Thou  King 
of  saints ; 

At  all  events,  there  .seems  to  be  a  pro- 
gression, an  ascent  by  successive  stages 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  discipline,  in  the 
moral  education  and  moral  history  of  our 
species — whether  we  comprehend  or  not 
the  various  footsteps  of  it — As  when  the 


spirit  of  bondage  gives  way  to  the  spirit 
of  adoption,  or  the  oldness  of  the  letter  to 
the  newness  of  the  spirit ;  or  as  when  the 
terrors  of  the  law  are  succeeded  by  a  de- 
light in  the  law  ;  or  as  when  the  com- 
mandment, formerly  graven  on  tables  of 
stone,  comes  to  be  graven  on  the  fleshly 
tablets  of  the  heart ;  or  as  when  the  law 
fulfils  but  the  office  of  a  preparatory 
schoolmaster  for  bringing  men  to  Christ, 
or  guiding  them  onward  to  their  higher 
lessons  of  the  gospel  ;  or  finally,  as  when 
the  supremacy  of  law  makes  place  for 
the  supremacy  of  love,  even  of  the  charity 
which  never  faiieth,  but  abideth  and 
reigneth  everlastingly  in  heaven,  after 
that  the  means  and  the  preparatives  for 
this  great  consummation  have  all  vanished 
away. 

"  I'm  apt  to  think  the  rnan 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God,  and  secrets  of  His  empire, 
Would  speak  but  love  ;  with  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes, 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology." 


LECTURE  XCIV. 


RoMAN-s  xiii,  11 — 14. 

"  And  that,  knowing  the  time,  that  now  it  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep  :  for  now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than 
when  we  believed.  The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand  ;  let  us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and 
let  us  put  on  the  armour  of  light.  Let  us  walk  honestly,  as  in  the  day;  not  in  rioting  and  drunUnnness,  not  iu 
chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying  :  but  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,  and  make  not  pro- 
vision for  the  flesh,  to  lulfil  the  lusts  thereof." 


Ver.  11.  '  And  that,  knowing  the  time, 
that  now  it  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of 
sleep  :  for  now  is  our  salvation  nearer 
than  when  we  believed.'  Some  commen- 
tators would  refer  the  nearer  salvation  of 
which  the  apostle  here  speaks,  to  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem,  as  standing  some- 
how or  other  connected  with  a  great 
enlargement  to  the  professors  of  Chris- 
tianity. Others  again  would  refer  it  to 
the  expected  second  coming  of  our  Lord — 
in  which  it  is  thought  that  even  apostles 
were  not  yet  so  far  instructed  or  inspired, 
as  to  be  free  from  the  then  prevalent  im- 
agination that  he  would  shortly  revisit 
the  world — nay  make  His  appearance 
before  the  present  generation  had  passed 
away.  Without  deciding  on  either  of 
these  interpretations,  we  hold  it  a  sounder, 
or  at  least  a  safer  application  of  the  ad- 
vice here  given  ;  to  understand  the  nearer 
salvation  of  every  disciple,  as  signifying 
the  greater  nearness  of  his  death — seeing 
of  that  event,  that  it  is  indeed  a  great 
salvation  to  all  who  fall  asleep  in  Jesus, 
for  with  them  to  hv  absent  from  the  body 
IS  to  be  present  with  the  Lord.  When  the 
verse  is  thus  apprehended,  it  becomes  a 


great  and  universal  lesson,  for  Christians 
of  all  ages,  '»vhich  carries  its  own  obvious 
recommendation  along  with  it ;  and  is  in 
harmony  with  many  similar  injunctions 
delivered  in  other  places  of  Scripture — 
as.  Brethren,  the  time  is  short,  and  let  us 
not  therefore  abuse  the  world ;  or  Let  us 
work  while  it  is  day,  the  night  cometh 
when  no  man  can  work. 

'And  that,  knowing  the  time,  that  now 
it  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep.' 
The  clause  of  'knowing  the  time'  seems 
to  strengthen  one  or  other  of  the  more 
special  interpretation.s  of  this  verse — as 
referring  to  the  knowledge  of  a  .something 
which  the  Christians  of  that  period  had 
been  made  to  see  in  the  light  of  prophecy 
or  inspiration,  whether  the  rightly  antici- 
pated destruction  of  Jerusalem  or  the 
then  misunder.stood  reappearance  of  our 
Saviour.  We  however  shall  still  keep  by 
the  more  general  meaning  that  we  have 
already  assigned  to  this  verse — under- 
standing it  thus,  that  it  is  now  high  time  to 
bestir  ourselves,  and  make  diligent  prepa- 
ration for  that  blissful  eternity  which  is 
so  fast  approaching ;  for  that  this  is  the 
great  work  to  be  done,  and  there  remains 


LECTURE   XCIV. CHAPTER    XIH,    11 14. 


479 


but  little,  yea  a  rapidly  lessening  time  for 
the  doing  of  it. 

But  how  comes  it  that  Christians  should 
be  called  upon  to  awake  out  of  sleep  1 
Are  they  not  already  awakened  ?  Did 
they  not  at  the  first  outset  of  their  disci- 
pleship  yield  obedience  to  the  apostolic 
call  of  "Awake,  O  sinner,  and  Christ 
sjiall  give  thee  light  1"  Has  not  every 
believer  already  passed  out  of  darkness 
into  the  marvellous  light  of  the  gospel  ; 
and  why  then  should  he  be  so  urged,  as 
if  he  had  yet  to  shake  himself  from  the 
sleep  of  carnality  or  spiritual  death,  or 
to  arouse  him  out  of  the  lethargy  of 
nature  ] 

It  is  because  of  the  constant  and  cleav- 
ing earthliness  which  continues  to  subsist 
even  after  regeneration  ;  and  which, 
though  weakened  and  under  process  of 
extinction,  is  not  wholly  exterminated 
while  we  remain  in  the  body — it  is  because 
of  this  that  we  need  to  be  reminded  even 
of  the  incipient  calls,  and  that  we  need  to 
be  put  on  the  incipient  duties  of  the 
Christian  life.  Thus  it  is  that  to  be  kept 
from  lapsing  into  unbelief,  we  must  hold 
fast  the  beginning  of  our  confidence;  and 
lest  our  love  should  wax  cold,  we  must 
remember  the  strength  of  it  at  the  outset 
of  our  discipleship.  In  a  word,  we  must 
be  ever  recurring  to  the  exercises  of  our 
first  faith,  our  first  love,  our  first  obedi- 
ence ;  and  more  especially  should  awaken 
out  of  sleep,  or  keep  awake,  amia  the 
opiates  of  sense  and  of  a  deceitful 
world. 

Thus  understood,  it  is  the  charge  of 
the  apostle,  that  we  should  open  our  eyes 
to  the  realities  of  that  unseen  world,  to 
which  we  every  day  are  coming  nearer. 
What  he  teaches  in  this  verse  is  the  wis- 
dom of  considering  our  latter  end,  to 
which  we  are  hastening  onward.  In  order 
to  meet  the  salvation  which  then  awaits 
us,  our  distinct  aim  should  be  to  perfect 
our  holiness  ;  or  to  give  all  diligence  that 
we  may  be  found  without  spot  and  blame- 
less ;  or  so  to  run  as  to  reach  the  prize  of 
our  high  calling,  and  be  presented  fault- 
less before  the  presence  of  God.  The  sal- 
vation here  spoken  of  is  the  salvation 
that  we  are  called  upon  to  work  out — a 
task  from  which  we  are  not  the  less  ex- 
empted, though  it  be  said  that  God  works 
in  us.*  We  are  justified  on  the  moment 
of  our  believing  ;  but  our  sanctification 
is  the  business  of  a  lifetime.  For  there 
is  a  life  of  faith  as  well  as  a  birth  of 
faith  ;t  and  it  should  be  our  care  that  ere 
this  life  is  finishedf  its  object  should  be 
fulfilled  ;  which  is,  that  wt>  stand  perfect 
and  complete  in  the  whole  will  of  God. 
Ver.  12.  *  The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day 


•  PWl.  ii,  12, 13.         t  Cfal.  ii,  20.         J  2  Tim.  iv,  7. 


is  at  hand  :  let  us  therefore  cast  off  the 
works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put  on  the 
armour  of  light.'  The  imagery  of  this 
verse  requires  the  same  explanation  as 
did  that  of  the  preceding.  It  is  true  the'-, 
the  proper  night  of  the  soul — the  mo  al 
night — is  anterior  to  conversion  ;  an^  that 
when  this  event  takes  place,  the  soul 
passes  out  of  darkness  into  marvellous 
light.  And  accordingly  the  true  disciples 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  are,  said  to  be  no  longer 
the  children  of  night,  but  the  children  of 
light  and  of  the  day.  Still  it  is  true  that 
so  long  as  we  abide  in  this  world,  ours  is 
but  a  state  of  comparative  darkness — for 
here  though  we  see  it  is  but  through  a 
glass  darkly  ;  and  that  it  is  only  in  the 
next  world  where  we  shall  live  in  the  full 
light  of  the  risen  day,  when  we  shall 
know  even  as  we  are  known.  The  soul 
of  a  saint  on  earth,  still  in  twilight  ob- 
scurity, has  not  yet  made  its  conclusive 
escape  from  the  region  of  darkness  ;  and 
not  till  ushered  into  heaven,  or  among 
the  cloudless  transparencies  of  the  upper 
sanctuary,  will  it  in  God's  light  clearly 
see  light;  Such  then  are  the  night,  and 
such  the  day  spoken  of  in  our  text ;  and 
it  is  because  this  night  is  far  spent,  and 
this  day  is  at  hand,  that  we  are  called  on 
to  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  to 
put  on  the  armour  of  light. 

There  are  works  of  darkness  which 
shun  the  light  of  day,  or  would  shrink 
from  exposure,  even  in  this  world — such 
as  the  deeds  either  of  shameful  dishon- 
esty or  of  shameful  licentiousness.  There 
are  other  works  again,  which,  though 
alike  condemned  in  the  eye  of  Heaven, 
we  should  not  here  on  earth  call  works 
of  darkness,  such  as  the  overt  acts  which 
transgress  no  social  law,  yet  bespeak  a 
heart  of  deep  irreligion,  and  utterly  de- 
void of  all  sensibility  to  the  sacredness  or 
authority  of  God's  spiritual  law — as  when 
His  Sabbaths  are  secularised  in  convivial 
parties ;  or,  in  the  intent  prosecution, 
whether  of  the  amusements  or  the  business 
of  life,  decisive  manifestation  is  given 
forth  of  a  preference  for  the  creature  over 
the  Creator,  for  the  things  and  interests 
of  time  over  the  things  and  interests  of 
eternity.  These  last,  as  being  the  mere 
fruits  of  nature's  carnality,  and  springing 
universally  forth  of  the  habits  and  affec- 
tions of  natural  men,  we  should  not  call 
works  of  darkness — for  they  are  exhibited 
daily  and  without  a  blush  in  the  face  of 
society — not  however  because  not  utterly 
worthless  in  themselves,  but  because  done 
before  the  eye  of  spectators,  who  have  no 
perception  of  their  defarmity,  done  on  the 
theatre  of  a  world  which  has  been  rightly 
denominated  the  land  of  spiritual  blind- 
ness and  spiritual  death.  But  if  seen  in 
the  light  of  the  divine  law,  and  placed 


480 


LECTURE   XCIV.— CHAPTER   XIU,    11 — 14. 


before  the  rebuke  of  the  divine  counte- 
nance, they  will  then  be  recognised  as 
works  of  darkness,  and  ranked  as  they 
ought  with  the  worst  atrocities  of  human 
wickedness.  And  accordingly  on  the 
great  day  of  manifestation,  and  when  the 
principles  of  a  higher  jurisprudence  arc 
brought  to  bear  on  the  characters  of  men, 
many,  the  most  esteemed  and  honourable 
among  their  fellows,  will  awaken  to 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  Ungod- 
liness will  then  appear  in  its  true  esti- 
mate, as  the  great  master-sin — being  in- 
deed the  seminal  principle  of  all  misrule 
and  anarchy  in  creation  ;  and  therefore 
to  be  exiled  and  put  forth  into  everlasting 
darkness,  as  a  thing  unfit  to  be  seen  on 
the  open  panorama  of  a  harmonious  and 
well-ordered  universe. 

Yet  it  might  subserve  a  practical  ob- 
ject, to  view  apart  from  each  other  those 
grosser  offences  which  are  usually  stig- 
matised as  works  of  darkness;  and  those 
more  subtle  delinquences  of  the  heart  and 
spirit,  which  are  universal  as  the  species, 
and  none  therefore  are  at  pains  to  con- 
ceal, because  none  are  ashamed  of  them. 
It  might  help  to  distinguish  between  the 
incipient  and  advanced  duties  of  the 
Christian  life.  At  the  very  outset,  nay 
anterior  to  their  conversion,  though  with 
a  view  to  it,  nay  in  the  aim  of  carrying  it 
or  bringing  it  to  pass,  we  should  call  on 
all  men  to  abandon  their  drunkennesses 
and  dishonesties  and  impurities,  or  what 
themselves  would  all  understand  and  ad- 
mit to  be  works  of  darkness.  This  is  a 
voice  which  should  be  distinctly  and 
audibly  given  forth  at  the  first  call  of 
the  gospel,  or  first  soLtnd  of  the  trumpet 
which  it  lifts  in  the  hearing  of  all  men. 
It  is  a  work  often  done  in  fact  at  the  bid- 
ding of  natural  conscience,  or  on  the  still 
lower  impulses  of  prudence  and  calcula- 
tion— as  when,  to  use  a  familiar  phrase, 
the  profligate,  making  a  pause  in  his 
career,  turns  over  a  new  leaf,  or  becomes, 
in  the  worldly  sense  of  the  term,  a  re- 
formed man.  Such  a  reformation  is  often 
achieved  without  Christianity ;  but  on 
the  other  hand,  there  can  be  no  Christian- 
ity without  such  a  reformation.  And  it 
is  a  reformation  which  should  be  peremp- 
torily demanded  of  all  enquirers  at  their 
very  entrance  on  the  way  of  life — as  be- 
ing an  indispensable  part,  or  even  pre- 
liminary, of  that  movement  by  which  men 
pass  out  of  darkness  into  the  marvellous 
light  of  the  gospel.  Else  they  are  not 
framing  their  doings  to  turn  unto  God.* 
They  are  not  turning  unto  Christ,  if  they 
are  not  turning  from  their  iiiiquities.f  It 
is  thus  that  the  moral  character  of  gospel 
teaching  should  be  vindicated  and  made 


•  Hoses,  V,  4. 


t  Acts,  iii,  26. 


palpable  in  the  eyes  of  all  men  ;  and  so 
as  that  they  might  recognise  it  to  be 
something  more  than  what  they  often  ap- 
prehend it  to  be — the  mere  teaching  of  a 
cabalistic  orthodoxy.-  Instead  of  which 
it  is  pre-eminently  a  practical  system — 
striking  at  once  at  the  evil  habits,  while 
its  higher  aim  is  to  regenerate  the  evil 
hearts  of  men — So  that  in  commanding 
them  everywhere  to  repent  and  turn  unto 
God,  it  charges  them,  at  the  first  and  earli- 
est outset  of  their  religious  earnestness, 
to  do  works  meet  for  repentance.* 

But  there  are  other  and  higher  graces 
more  distinctive  of  Christianity,  and 
serving  more  specifically  to  signalise  and 
separate  the  children  of  light  from  the 
children  of  this  world  ;  and  which  are 
altogether  beyond  the  reach  of  unaided 
nature.  There  are  certain  things  which 
nature,  by  the  sheer  force  of  her  own 
resolute  and  sustained  purposes,  might  be 
able  to  cast  otf;  but  there  are  certain 
other  things  which  nature  in  her  own 
strength  cannot  possibly  put  on.  She 
may  of  herself  cast  off  many  of  the  works 
of  darkness  ;  but  of  herself  she  cannot 
put  on  the  graces  and  virtues  which  serve 
more  specially  to  characterise  and  adorn 
the  children  of  light.  Thus  to  array  her- 
self, she  needs  other  instruments  than 
those  which  natively  and  originally  be- 
long to  her — an  instrumentality  which  is 
here  significantly  termed  the  armour  of 
light,  because,  in  the  utter  inadequacy  of 
those  implements  or  faculties  which  we 
ourselves  possess,  we  require  the  use  of 
other  tools,  other  instruments  of  action 
than  these,  that  we  may  have  power  to 
walk  as  children  of  light  and  of  the  day  ; 
or,  which  is  tantamount  to  this,  that  we 
may  have  power  to  become  the  children 
of  God.f 

Still  to  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness  is 
to  throw  aside  a  great  obstruction,  which 
if  suffered  to  remain,  would  prove  a  fatal 
impediment  to  the  access  of  all  spiritual 
and  saving  light  into  our  minds.  It  may 
be  nothing  more  than  a  mere  shaking  of 
the  dead  bones,  ere  the  Spirit  of  life  is 
blown  into  us — that  mere  awakening  of 
the  sinner,  which  is  previous  or  prepara- 
tory to  the  act  of  Christ  giving  him  light.t 
It  is  an  essential  step,  however,  in  the  pro- 
cess of  our  regeneration.  There  is  a 
something  to  cast  otf,  as  well  as  to  put  on. 
The  former  we  should  give  our  immediate 
hand  to.  The  latter  we  should  give  our 
immediate  and  earnest  heed  to.  And  it 
may  perhaps  help  to  elucidate  the  singu- 
lar expression,  'armour  of  light' — if  we 
attend  to  the  manner  in  which,  under  the 
economy  of  the  gospel,  the  power  of  a  be- 
liever to  serve  the  Lord  Christ  is  made  to 


Acts,  xxn,  20.      t  John,  i,  12.      t  Ephesians,  v,  11—14. 


LECTURE   XCIV. CHAPTERXIII,    11  — 14. 


481 


stand  allied  with  his  perception  of  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus.  It  is  in  the  right  views 
of  his  understanding  in  fact,  that  his  great 
strength  for  obedience  lies.  And  accord- 
ingly we  read  of  his  being  sanctified  by 
faitii,  of  his  being  renewed  in  knowledge, 
of  his  receiving  power  to  become  a  son 
of  God  on  the  moment  of  his  believing  in 
the  name  of  Christ.  But  our  best  explana- 
tion perhaps  of  the  armour  of  light,  which 
in  the  verse  before  us  we  are  called  to 
put  on — is  to  be  had  in  Paul's  description 
of  the  armour  of  God,  which  in  his  Epistles 
to  the  Ephesians  and  Colossians  we  are 
also  called  to  put  on  ;  and  where  we  learn 
that  the -main  furniture  of  a  disciple,  and 
by  which  he  is  equipped  for  the  work  and 
warfare  of  Christianity,  lies  in  such  acts 
and  acquisitions  as  are  altogether  mental, 
nay  chiefly  intellectual — as  having  our 
loins  girt  about  with  truth,  and  our  taking 
the  shield  of  faith,  and  our  putting  on  for 
a  helmet  the  hope  of  salvation,  and  our 
having  a  constant  respect  unto  the  word, 
with  prayer  for  the  Spirit,  that  in  the 
clear  element  of  His  manifestations  we 
might  be  enabled  rightly  to  discern  and 
to  make  the  right  application  of  it — To 
which  word  therefore,  we  in  the  language 
of  Peter,  should  give  earnest  heed,  as  unto 
a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until 
the  day  dawn  and  the  day-star  arise  in 
our  hearts. 

Before  quitting  this  verse,  it  is  well  to 
remark,  that  as  even  the  most  advanced 
Christians  are  required  to  be  constantly 
holding  by  and  keeping,  in  exercise  their 
first  faith — so  there  is  a  call  upon  them 
too  to  be  ever  practising  at  their  first  obe- 
dience. For  they  too  are  still  beset  with 
their  old  temptations — insomuch,  that  if 
not  vigilant  and  jealous  of  themselves, 
they  may  be  precipitated  back  again  into 
the  most  enormous  and  disgraceful  works 
of  darkness.  The  injunction  therefore  to 
cast  off  these  is  not  yet  superfluous, 
although  Paul  here  addresses  liimself  to 
men  who  had  long  embraced  the  truth 
and  had  long  walked  in  it.  There 
is  room  for  the  utmost  strenuousness 
even  to  the  end  of  our  days — lest  we 
should  fall  short  of  heaven  ;  or,  at  all 
events,  lest  we  should  fall  short  of  that 
rank  in  its  blessedness  and  glory  which 
we  might  have  otherwise  attained.  Nay 
there  is  a  most  grievous  misunderstanding 
of  the  gospel,  if  we  be  not  as  diligent 
and  watchful  and  painstaking,  as  if 
overhung  by  the  risk  or  the  possibility 
of  losing  heaven  altogether.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  orthodoxy  of  Paul  that 
relaxed  his  self-discipline,  and  this  too 
under  the  apprehension  lest  he  himself 
should  turn  out  to  be  a  castaway.  With 
these  views  we  can  imagine  nothing  more 
urgent  or  impressive  than  the  considera- 
61 


tion  in  our  text,  that  the  night  is  far  spent 
and  the  day  is  at  hand.  In  particular,  it 
should  tell  most  emphatically  on  those  who 
have  now  entered  the  vale  of  years,  and 
may  now  regard  themselves  as  walking 
on  the  shores  or  along  the  brink  of  eter- 
nity. And  if  the  righteous  scarcely  be 
saved — where  shall  the  ungodly  and  sin- 
ner appear  1 — an  appalling  thought  truly, 
and  most  of  all  to  such  as  him  of  whom 
Hosea  speaks* — "  Yea  grey  hairs  are  here 
and  there  upon  him,  yet  he  knoweth  it 
not :"  "  And  they  do  not  return  to  the 
Lord  nor  seek  him  for  all  this."  These 
premonitory  symptoms  of  a  dissolution, 
and  so  of  a  reckoning  at  hand,  fail  to 
alarm  them  ;  and  so  they  go  on  in  nature's 
torpid  infatuation,  when  they  should  be 
lifting  this  fearful  cry — "  The  harvest  is 
past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  we  are  not 
saved." 

Ver.  13.  'Let  us  walk  honestly,  as  in 
the  day  ;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness, 
not  in  chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in 
strife  and  envying.'  The  term  honest 
is  now  of  different  meaning  from  what  it 
was  at  the  time  that  our  translation  was 
executed.  It  then  signified  that  which  is 
seemly,  decent,  reputable.  It  bore  an  es- 
pecial regard  to  the  aspect  of  our  doings, 
and  so  we  are  called  on  to  provide  things 
honest  in  the  sight  of  men.  It  is  accord- 
ing to  this,  the  proper  and  original  sense  of 
the  word,  that  we  are  here  bidden  to  walk 
honestly  as  in  the  day — that  is,  so  as  that 
our  whole  conduct  shall  bear  exposure, 
and  be  sustained  as  respectable  and  right, 
though  lying  patent  to  the  observation  of 
all  our  fellows  in  society.  There  was  a 
mighty  stress  laid  by  our  apostle  on  ap- 
pearance— on  the  creditable  bearing  of  his 
disciples — on  their  character,  not  abso- 
lutely and  in  itself  only,  but  on  their  cha- 
racter in  the  eyes  of  the  world — Insomuch 
that,  all  sensitive  and  alive  to  the  honour 
of  his  Master's  cause,  he  wept  over  those 
professors  who  gloried  in  their  shame,  and 
through  whom  the  way  of  truth  was  evil 
spoken  of.  It  was  obviously  not  as  an 
end  but  as  a  means,  that  he  so  valued  the 
good  report  of  his  converts — even  that 
their  light  might  shine  before  men,  and 
men  might  of  consequence  be  won  to  the 
gospel  by  their  conversation.  Thus  also 
Peter,  in  warning  his  converts  against 
fleshly  lusts,  adds — "having  your  con- 
versation honest  among  the  Gentiles  ;  that, 
whereas  they  speak  against  you  as  evil- 
doers, they  may  by  your  good  works, 
which  they  shall  behold,  glorify  God  in 
the  day  of  visitation."t 

It  is  with  this  view  that  he  first  warns 
them  against  those  vices  which  most  shun 
the  light,  and  are  peculiarly  unfit  for  ex- 


•  Hosea,  vii,  9, 10. 


1 1  Peter,  ii,  12. 


482 


LECTURE    XCIV. CHAPTER    XIII,     11 14. 


hibition  in  the  face  of  others — the  vices 
of  low  and  loathsome  dissipation — drunk- 
enness and  impurity — of  so  offensive  a 
description,  that  it  was  held  a  sore  aggra- 
vation of  their  wickedness  who  practised 
them,  if  they  counted  it  a  pleasure  to  riot 
in  the  day-time.  They  are  vices  of  inhe- 
rent turpitude  in  themselves ;  but  it 
evinces  a  higher  degree  of  moral  hardi- 
hood, when  it  was  a  turpitude  in  which 
men  could  glory — and  highest  of  all,  in  an 
ostensible  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  who 
could  thus  bring  disparagement  and  dis- 
grace on  that  sacred  cause  which  he  was 
bound  by  every  tie  of  gratitude  and  sin- 
cerity to  adorn. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  object  of  Chris- 
tianity to  conceal  vice,  but  to  exterminate 
it — not  to  give  its  disciples  but  the  face 
and  appearance  of  virtue,  but  to  give 
them  virtue  in  substance  and  reality — and 
so  as  that  they  shall  glorify  the  Lord  with 
their  soul  and  spirit,  as  well  as  with  their 
bodies.  And  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that, 
for  the  achievement  of  this  great  moral 
change,  it  proceeds — not  in  the  style  of  an 
ascetic — that  is,  not  in  the  way  of  exci- 
sion, but  in  the  way  of  substitution — Or, 
in  other  words,  when  it  calls  for  the  sacri- 
fice or  the  expulsion  of  one  affection,  it  is 
by  replacing  it  with  another — and  not  by 
an  act  of  simple  dispossession,  leaving 
the  heart  in  a  state  of  desolation  and 
dreariness.  Even  the  disposition  to  mirth 
it  does  not  propose  to  extinguish,  but 
rather  provides  with  the  outgoing  of  a 
kindred  exercise — Is  any  merry  let  him 
sing  psalms,  making  melody  in  his  heart 
unto  the  Lord.  We  can  fancy  it  to  be 
another  exemplification  of  the  same  de- 
sign, another  specimen  of  the  same 
reigning  character — that  when  it  charges 
the  disciples  not  to  be  drunk  with  wine 
wherein  is  excess,  it  follows  up  the  admo- 
nition, by  telling  them  to  be  filled  with 
the  Spirit;  and  so  to  exchange  the  mad- 
dening influence  of  a  mere  animal  excite- 
ment for  another  influence,  glorious  and 
elevating  too,  and  fitted,  though  in  a 
higher  and  holier  way,  to  transport  the 
soul  above  the  cares  of  a  present  sordid 
and  earthly  existence.  And  as  this  holds 
true  of  the  rioting  and  drunkenness,  it 
holds  alike  true  of  the  habits  or  practices 
which  are  specified  immediately  after — a 
thought  suggested  to  us  by  the  proximity 
of  the  advice  given  a  few  verses  before, 
where  the  apostle  subordinates  all  virtue 
to  the  law  of  love,  and  would  supplant  all 
vice  by  the  same  law.  And  certainly 
there  is  a  high  and  holy  and  heavenly 
affection  of  love,  which,  if  present  and 
predominant  within  us,  would  most  effec- 
tually overrule,  if  not  eradicate  those 
evil  affections  which  war  against  the  soul. 
The  love  of  the  Father  is  directly  and 


specifically  opposite,  we  are  told  by  the 
apostle,  to  the  lust  of  the  flesh.*  So  that, 
if  the  love  of  God  were  but  admitted  into 
the  bosom,  and  had  ascendency  there,  it 
would  not  only  cast  out  fc^r,t  but  would 
cast  out,  or  at  least  keep  down  lust  also. 
When  called  to  abandon  lust,  it  is  by 
means  of  the  sweetest  and  softest  affec- 
tion of  which  nature  is  susceptible — and 
that  affection  directed  too  to  the  best  and 
the  noblest  of  all  objects.  Did  we  love 
God  with  all  our  heart,  there  would  be  no 
room  in  it  for  those  base  and  foul  and 
unhallowed  imaginations,  which  in  the 
expressive  language  of  the  prophet,  turn 
it  into  a  cage  of  unclean  birds.  Under 
such  a  regimen,  instead  of  being  fright- 
ened from  the  indulgences  of  nature  as 
by  the  scowl  of  an  anchoret,  we  are 
gently  yet  irresistibly  weaned  from  them 
as  by  the  mild  persuasions  of  a  friend ; 
and  we  feel  it  to  be  in  beautiful  accord- 
ance with  this,  that  the  apostolic  dissua- 
sives  against  licentiousness  are  so  often 
couched  in  terms  of  so  much  endearment 
and  tenderness.  "  Dearly  beloved,  I  be- 
seech you,  as  strangers  and  pilgrims,  ab- 
stain from  fleshly  lusts,  which  war  against 
the  soul."  "  Be  ye  therefore  followers  of 
God,  as  dear  children  ;  and  walk  in  love, 
as  Christ  also  loved  us,  and  hath  given 
himself  for  us  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice 
to  God  for  a  sweet-smelling  savour.  But 
fornication  and  all  uncleanncss,  or  covet- 
ousness,  let  it  not  be  once  named  among 
you."  "Set  your  affection  on  things 
above,  not  on  'things  on  the  earth." 
"When  Christ  who  is  our  life  shall  ap- 
pear, then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him 
in  glory — Mortify  therefore  your  mem- 
bers which  are  upon  the  earth." 

He  concludes  his  enumeration  of  those 
works  which  are  unfit  for  the  light  of  day 
with  strife  and  envying — which  in  another 
place  he  ranks  among  the  works  of  the 
flesh. J  The)'  belong  to  the  malignant, 
and  not  as  the  former  to  the  licentions 
vices  of  our  nature — but  like  these  too  are 
of  such  a  character,  as  to  shun  the  ob- 
servation of  general  society.  This  holds 
especially  true  of  envy,  of  which  all  men 
dislike  the  exhibition  ;  and  which  there- 
fore is  left  to  eat  inwardly  on  him  who  is 
actuated  thereby,  because  ashamed  of 
showing  it.  Every  strife,  when  it  breaks 
forth  in  outrageous  expressions,  soon  be- 
comes too  much  for  the  sympathy  of  our 
fellows  ;  and  so  restrains  at  least  its  ut- 
terance, or  its  deeds  of  open  retaliation, 
for  the  sake  of  decorum.  There  is  a 
grossness  in  resentment,  as  well  as  a 
grossness  in  impurity — both  of  which  re- 
quire to  have  a  veil  thrown  over  them, 
even  from  this  world's  toleration  ;  so  that 


*  1  John,  ii,  15,  16.      1 1  John,  iv,  18.      J  Gal.  v,  20,  21. 


LECTURE   XCIV. — CHAPTER   XIII,    11 — 14. 


483 


over  and  above  the  spiritual  propriety  of 
denouncing  and  denominating  all  sins  as 
works  of  darkness,  there  is  a  natural  or 
social  propriety  in  affixing  this  denomina- 
tion to  the  latter  as  well  as  the  former  of 
the  sins  enumerated  in  our  text. 

Ver.  14.  'But  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the 
flesh,  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof.'  '  But  put 
ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  This  figu- 
rative expression  is  more  readily  con- 
ceived by  us  as  bearing  appUcation  to  the 
imputed  righteousness  of  Christ,  rather 
than  to  the  graces  of  His  example.  That 
everlasting  righteousness  which  he  hath 
brought  in,  is  viewed  by  us  under  the 
image  of  a  garment,  wherein  we  are  in- 
vited to  appear  before  God,  clothed  upon 
as  it  were,  or  invested  with  an  order  of 
merit,  won  not  by  ourselves  but  by  the 
Captain  of  our  salvation  ;  and  because 
of  which,  God  looks  upon  us,  not  in  our 
own  characters,  but  in  the  face  of  His 
anointed.  There  is  undoubted  truth  in 
all  this — yet  it  hinders  not  the  application 
of  the  very  same  phrase,  the  putting  on 
of  Christ,  to  the  adornment  of  our  per- 
sons with  those  identical  virtues  which 
made  Him  to  be  chief  among  the  sons  of 
men,  and  altogether  lovely.  Such  a  re- 
presentation, beside  that  it  is  correct  doc- 
trinally,  harmonises  with  the  Scriptural 
expression  of  it — as  when  called  to  put 
on  the  new  man,  to  put  on  bowels  of 
mercies,  kindness,  humbleness  of  mind, 
meekness,  long-suffering.  And  thus  too, 
"Be  clothed  with  humility." 

And  we  confess  our  exceeding  value  for 
that  view,  which  puts  our  sanctification 
on  the  same  footing  with  our  justification, 
in  that  it  subordinates  both  to  our  faith  in 
Christ.  We  feel  it  to  be  a  truth  inestima- 
bly precious,  that  our  personal  holiness 
is  a  thing  received  by  us,  and  from  the 
hands  or  at  the  giving  of  another — -just  as 
ou-r  judicial  acceptance  is.  It  would 
mightily  speed  onwards  our  practical 
Christianity,  did  we  habitually  look  unto 
Jesus  as  the  Lord  our  strength,  as  well  as 
the  Lord  our  righteousness.  The  greatest 
lesson  we  have  to  learn  in  the  school  of 
preparation  for  heaven,  is  the  efficacy  of 
believing  prayer  for  grace  to  help  us  in 
every  time  of  need — that  we  might  not 
only  have  His  propitiation  to  shield  us, 
but  His  power  to  rest  upon  us.  Then 
should  we  know  what  it  is  to  strive 
mightily  according  to  the  grace  of  God 
working  in  us  mightily.  The  mystery 
would  come  to  be  resolved,  because  then 
experimentally  realised,  of  the  utmost 
diligence  in  performance  along  with  the 
utmost  dependence  in  prayer — a  happy 
and  fruitful  combination,  mysterious  to 
the  general  world,  but  not  to  the  fellow- 
workers    with    God,    because    by    them 


exemplified  and  carried  into  effect.  The 
active  and  the  passive  of  this  conjunct 
operation  work  most  prosperously  into 
each  other's  hands  ;  and  the  experience 
of  the  apostle,  who  when  he  was  weak 
yet  was  he  strong,  reflects  while  it  explains 
the  beautiful  saying  of  the  prophet — 
that  in  quietness  and  in  confidence  ye 
shall  have  strength.  A  reposing  confi- 
dence in  Christ  gives  efficacy  to  prayer  , 
and  by  the  gratitude  which  it  awakens, 
gives  impulse  to  all  the  springs  of  obedi- 
ence. Creature  perfection,  says  old 
Riccalton,  lies  in  the  habit  of  bringing 
our  own  emptiness  to  the  fulness  that  is  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

♦  And  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh.' 
'  Provision.'*  The  word  implies  a  fore- 
casting of  the  mind  ;  and  the  prohibition 
therefore  is  against  all  deliberation  or 
devising  of  means  or  expedients  for 
the  gratification  of  our  lusts.  These  base 
affections  of  our  nature  may  be  excited 
even  involuntarily,  on  the  sudden  sugges- 
tion or  unforeseen  presentation  of  the 
objects  which  awaken  them.  Even  then 
it  is  our  duty  to  shun  these  objects,  to 
turn  our  sight  and  our  thoughts  from 
vanity,  and  so  to  flee  the  lusts  which  war 
against  the  soul.  But  a  far  greater  de- 
pravity than  thus  to  feel  them,  is  it  to  go 
forth  upon  them.  One  should  be  ever  on 
the  watch  lest  he  is  surprised  into  temp- 
tation;  but  it  evinces  a  greater  height 
and  hardihood  of  profligacy  to  seek  after 
it,  and  when,  so  far  from  a  defensive  vi- 
gilance against  the  inroad  of  evil  desires, 
there  is  an  aggressive  vigilance  in  quest 
of  methods  or  opportunities  for  their  in- 
dulgence. He  is  a  confirmed  and  ad- 
vanced learner  in  the  school  of  wicked- 
ness, who  can  thus  in  his  cooler  moments 
bestow  care  and  calculation  on  such  an 
enterprise,  and  in  short  make  a  study  of 
the  likeliest  methods  for  securing  to  himself 
the  enjoyment  of  unhallowed  pleasures  ; 
and  this  is  the  pronoia,  the  unholy  provi- 
dence, if  it  may  be  so  termed,  on  which 
our  text  lays  its  interdict. 

But  it  is  not  against  all  p7-onoia,  all  res- 
pect to  things  future,  even  though  the 
futurities  of  this  life,  that  the  Bible  warns 
us.  Some  might  think  so,  because  of  such 
texts  as  "  Take  no  thought  for  your  life." 
"  Take  no  thought,  saying,  what  shall  we 
eat."  "  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow."f 
Take  no  thought,  merimna.t  Not  pronoia, 
but  merimna — which  latter  word  does  not 
properly  mean  thought,  but  anxious 
thouglit ;  and  is  accordingly  better  trans- 
lated so  in  the  following  places.  "But  I 
would  have  you  without  carefulness" l^ — 
not  without  thought,  but  without  careful- 


*   Tlpovoia, 


t  Matthew,  vi,  25,  31,  34. 
§  1  Corinthians,  vii,  32. 


484 


LECTURE   XCIV. CHAPTER    XIII,    11 14. 


ness.  And  the  same  word  is  also  thus 
rendered  in  Philippians,  iv,  6 — "Be  care- 
ful for  nothing."  We  are  not  therefore 
to  imagine,  that  because  told  not  to  be 
careful  or  not  to  be  thoughtful  for  to- 
morrow, we  must  take  no  thought  of  to- 
morrow at  all.  True,  it  were  highly 
criminal  to  make  provision  for  to-morrow's 
lusts.  But  it  is  not  unlawful  on  that  ac- 
count to  make  provision  for  to-morrow's 
necessities.  Nay,  there  is  another  part  of 
the  Bible  in  which  we  are  told  that  it 
were  highly  criminal  not  to  make  such 
provision.  The  pronoia  of  our  text  were 
criminal,  but  not  the  pronoia  (the  word 
there  too)  of  the  following  verse — "But 
if  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  spe- 
cially for  those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath 
denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  in- 
fidel."* We  should  not  have  adverted 
thus  minutely  to  the  original  Greek,  or 

•  1  Timothy,  v,  8. 


introduced  it  at  all  into  a  popular  exposi- 
tion of  Scripture — had  not  our  quotation 
from  Matthew  been  one  of  those  very  few 
passages  in  holy  writ,  where  the  emen- 
dation of  our  present  version  is  of  any 
real  popular  or  practical  importance. 

^To fulfil  the  lusts  thereof  Although 
there  is  no  word  for  fulfil  in  the  original, 
but  is  supplied  by  the  translators — yet, 
as  it  is  rightly  supplied,  we  might  here 
remark  on  the  dillcrcnce  between  the 
feeling  of  a  lust  and  the  fulfilment  thereof. 
To  feel  a  lust  implies  the  presence  of  sin 
in  us.  To  fulfil  a  lust  implies  the  power 
of  sin  over  us.  The  one  is  the  sad  evi- 
dence that  sin  still  dwells  in  our  mortal 
bodies.  The  other  is  the  far  sadder  evi- 
dence that  sin  has  still  the  dominion  over 
them.  When  made,  not  of  our  own  seek- 
ing but  by  surprise,  to  feel  an  evil  desire, 
it  is  our  part  to  flee  from  it.  But  greatly 
worse  than  to  feel  is  to  follow  it ;  and 
worst  of  all  is  to  provide  for  it. 


LECTURE  XCV. 


Romans  xiv,  1 — 16. 

"  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive  ye,  but  not  to  doubtful  disputations.  For  one  believeth  that  he  may  eat  all 
things:  another,  who  is  weak,  eateth  herbs.  Let  laot  him  that  eateth  despise  him  that  eatelh  not;  and  let  not 
him  which  eatelh  not  judge  him  that  eateth  :  for  God  hath  received  him.  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another 
mans  servant?  to  liis  own  master  lie  standeth  or  falleth.  Yea,  he  shall  be  holden  up  ;  for  God  is  able  to  make 
him  stand.  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another:  another  esteemelh  every  day  alike.  Let  every  man  be 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  He  that  regardelh  tlie  day,  regardelh  it  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  he  that  regardeth 
not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it.  ile  that  eateth,  e:iteth  to  the  Lord,  for  he  giveth  God  thanks  ;  and 
he  that  eateth  not,  to  the  Lord  he  eateth  not,  and  giveth  God  thanks.  For  none  of  us  livcth  to  himself  and  no 
man  dieth  to  himself  For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord  : 
whether  we  live  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's.  For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and  revived,  that 
he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  living.  But  why  dost  thou  judge  thy  brother'!  or  why  dost  thou  set  at 
nought  thy  brother  7  for  we  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ.  For  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saitki 
the  Lord,  every  knee  shall  bow  to  me,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God.  So  then  every  one  of  us  shall  give 
account  cf  himself  to  God.  Let  us  not  therefore  judge  one  another  any  more  :  but  judge  this  rather,  that  no 
inan  put  a  stumblingblnck,  or  an  occasion  to  fall,  in  his  brother's  way.  I  know,  and  am  persuaded  by  the  Lord 
Jesus,  that  there  is  nothing  unclean  of  itself:  but  to  him  that  esteenietli  any  thing  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is  un- 
clean. But  if  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy  meat,  now  walkest  thou  not  charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with  thy 
meat  for  whom  Christ  died.     Let  not  then  your  good  be  evil  spoken  of" 


The  church  at  Rome  was  made  up 
partly  of  Jews  and  partly  of  Gentiles  ; 
and  one  great  and  obvious  design  of  this 
epistle,  as  might  be  seen  in  various  pas- 
sages from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  it, 
was  to  reconcile  them  so  far  as  that  they 
should  be  brought  to  one  mind — if  not  in 
all  matters  of  opinion,  at  least  in  mutual 
affection,  which,  when  there  happen  to  be 
diversities  of  sentiment  or  practice,  can- 
not possibly  be  sustained  without  mutual 
forbearance.  Their  common  faith,  while 
implying  a  full  agreement  in  certain 
great  and  essential  principles,  did  not 
supersede  the  diversities  here  spoken  of; 
and  the  object  of  Paul  was  not  that  in 
these  they  should  cease  to  ditfer,  but  that 
in  these  they  should  agree  to  differ.  He 
did  not  vainly  attempt  by  a  stern  decree 


of  uniformity  to  harmonise  their  under- 
standings, so  as  that  they  should  think 
alike  ;  but  he  did  attempt,  by  the  mild 
persuasives  of  gospel  charity,  the  far 
likelier  fulfilment  of  harmonising  their 
spirits,  so  as  that  they  should  feel  alike 
in  their  love  and  benignant  toleration  of 
each  other.  Paul  was  pre-eminently  and 
characteristically  a  peace  maker — up  to 
the  limit  within  which  peace  was  at  all 
practicable,  or  in  as  far  as  the  high  de- 
mands of  principle  and  purity  would 
allow — for  beyond  that  limit  none  more 
unyielding,  and  none  more  uncompromis- 
ing than  he.  It  was  only  as  far  as  lay  in 
him,  or  as  far  as  it  was  possible,  that  he 
lived  peaceably  himself,  or  would  recom- 
mend others  to  live  peaceably  with  all 
men.    He  was  first  pure  ;  and  it  was  after 


LECTDRE   XCV. CHAPTER   XIV,    1 16. 


485 


he  had  provided  for  this  high  interest — it 
was  then  that  he  was  peaceable. 

This  beautiful  combination,  this  blend- 
ing together  of  truth  and  charity,  is  more 
fully  and  intimately  seen  by  us,  as  we 
pass  in  detail  over  the  successive  verses 
of  this  truly  catholic  and  enlightened 
chapter. 

Ver.  1,  2.  '  Him  that  is  weak  in  the 
faith  receive  ye,  but  not  to  doubtful  dis- 
putations. For  one  believeth  that  he  may 
eat  all  things :  another,  who  is  weak, 
eateth  herbs.'  Who  is  meant  by  him  that 
is  weak  in  the  faith  we  learn  from  the  se- 
cond verse,  where  we  are  told  that  the  weak 
man  was  he  who  ate  herbs — leaving  us  to 
infer,  of  course,  that  the  strong  man  was  he 
who  believed  that  he  might  eat  all  things. 
He  who  was  strong  in  the  faith  that  Christ 
had  fulfilled  for  him  all  righteousness, 
and  left  him  nothing  but  the  law  of  love 
would  in  very  proportion  to  the  force  of 
this  conviction,  feel  exempted  from  the 
scrupulosities  of  a  mere  formal  or  exter- 
nal observation ;  and  not  only  assert, 
without  compunction  or  fear,  but  also 
live  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  had 
made  him  free.  It  was  easier,  however, 
for  the  Gentile  to  do  this  than  for  the  Jew, 
who  had  to  overcome  the  prejudices  of 
his  early  education  and  make  a  conquest 
over  his  yet  lingering  sensibilities  on  the 
side  of  what  he  had  been  taught  to  look 
upon  as  right  and  religious  in  other  days. 

For  the  genuine  exhibition  then  of  a 
strong  and  enlightened  conscience,  we 
should  look  not  so  much  to  the  Gentile 
converts  as  to  those  Jewish  disciples  who 
did  not  judaisc.  And  to  them  too  should 
we  look  fol'  greater  tenderness  towards 
those  mere  sensitive  of  their  brethren, 
who  felt  themselves  not  able  to  surmount 
the  native  partialities  wherewith  the  recol- 
lections of  their  birth  and  of  their  here- 
ditary worship  had  inspired  them.  They 
would  all  the  more  readily  sympathise 
with  feelings  in  which  they  themselves 
had  shared — though  with  a  struggle  they 
had  got  the  better  of  them.  They  could 
make  greater  allowance  for  these  their 
brethren  in  the  flesh  than  could  others ; 
and  this  is  not  the  only  example  of  first- 
rate  men,  the  highest  in  strength  and  in- 
tellect, being  at  the  same  time  the  most 
generous  in  their  indulgence  to  the  in- 
tirmities  'of  others.  Paul,  himself  a  con- 
verted Jew,  and  who  now  regarded  as 
superstitious  that  which  he  formerly  held 
as  most  bindingly  and  inviolably  sacred — 
he  nobly  interposes  to  throw  the  shield  of 
his  protection  over  those  kinsmen  and 
countrymen  of  his  who  had  embraced  the 
gospel,  yet  could  not  altogether  and  con- 
clusively quit  the  dear  associations  which 
had  begun  with  their  infancy,  and  were 
strengthened  along  the  successive  stages  of 


youth  and  manhood,  till  they  had  become 
babes  in  Christ,  and  continued  babes  or 
were  still  in  the  childhood  of  their  Chris- 
tianity, at  the  time  when  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans  was  penned.  We  conceive  that 
they  would  be  chiefly  the  Gentiles  who  de- 
spised such.  Paul,  and  those  of  the  Jews 
who  like  him  had  had  experience  of  the 
trial,  would  we  imagine,  with  a  fellow- 
feeling  for  the  doubts  and  difficulties 
which  themselves  had  mastered,  view 
their  weaker,  but  still  their  conscientious 
brethren,  with  respect  and  tenderness. 

Accordingly  in  arbitrating  between  the 
weak  and  the  strong,  it  is  on  the  side  of 
the  weak  that  his  first  apostolic  deliver- 
ance is  given.  He  bids  them  be  received 
but  not  to  doubtful  disputations — to  be  re- 
cognised on  the  footing  of  their  common 
brotherhood  in  all  the  great  and  essential 
principles  of  Christianity ;  but  not  to  be 
harassed  with  contentious  argumentation 
about  those  matters  of  indiff"erency,  which 
with  their  yet  abiding  prejudices,  were 
not  of  indifterency  to  them.  If  they  had 
not  the  understanding  to  be  convinced  of 
the  nullity,  because  now  the  expiration 
of  the  Mosaic  ceremonial — or  at  least  if 
they  could  not  attain  such  a  strength  of 
conviction  as  to  displace  their  feelings  on 
the  side  of  certain  Hebrew  observances  to 
which  they  still  so  fondly  and  tenaciously 
clung,  it  was  not  the  part  of  their  brethren 
to  overbear  these  feelings,  or  even  to  an- 
noy them  with  vexatious  controversies,  at 
once  endless  and  unfruitful.  These  are 
what  the  apostle  in  his  other  writings  cha- 
racterises as  vain  janglings,  and  foolish 
questions,  and  contentions,  and  strivings 
about  the  law,  which  were  unprofitable 
and  vain.  What  he  inculcates,  instead 
of  these,  is  a  discreet  silence,  and  mean- 
while a  respectful  toleration — in  the  con- 
fidence, we  have  no  doubt,  that  with  mild 
and  patient  forbearance,  all  would  come 
right  at  the  last.  He  felt  as  if  the  impor- 
tant gospel  truths  which  they  laid  hold  of, 
would,  by  their  own  direct  influence,  dis- 
possess the  mind  of  all  its  Jewish  absurdi- 
ties and  trifles.  Seeing  that  at  least  the 
foundation  on  which  they  rested  was 
sound,  he  trusted  that  the  wood  and  hay 
and  stubble  would  at  length  be  consumed.* 
This  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  his  treat- 
ment of  the  disciples  in  other  instances. 
They  agi-eed  in  all  that  was  essential, 
else  they  could  be  no  disciples  of  his  ;  but 
they  did  not  therefore  agree  in  all  things. 
He  knew  however  that  they  were  in  the 
faith,  and  so  under  the  teaching  of  the 
Spirit ;  and  he  trusted  more  to  this 
than  to  the  efficacy  of  any  disputatious 
argument.  And  accordingly,  instead 
of    attempting    to    force    them    all    pre- 


•  1  Corinthians,  iii,  11 — 15. 


486 


LECTURE   XCV. CHAFTER   XIV,    1 16. 


maturely  into  one  way  of  thinking — he, 
on  certain  matters  of  inferior  moment, 
left  them  very  much  to  themselves,  as  he 
did  those  Philippians  who  were  not  yet 
perfect  in  all  their  views — Telling  them, 
that  "if  in  any  thing  ye  be  otherwise 
minded  God  shall  reveal  even  this  unto 
you."  Meanwhile  he  was  satisfied  if, 
with  all  their  differences  and  shortcomings 
in  things  of  lesser  consideration,  his  own 
paramount  cliarity  toolc  but  full  posses- 
sion of  them.  "  Nevertheless  whereto  we 
have  already  attained,  let  us  walk  by  the 
same  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing." 
This  was  admirable  and  exquisitely  good 
management — the  same  indeed  with  that 
of  our  Saviour,  who  refrained  from  put- 
ting new  wine  into  old  bottles  ;  and,  in- 
stead of  dogmatising  His  apostles  either 
into  truths  or  observances  which  they 
Avere  not  yet  prepared  for,  spake  to  them 
only  as  they  were  able  to  bear  it.  It  was 
in  this  spirit  that  Paul  treated  his  Jewish 
converts;  and  he  wanted  all  who  were 
alike  enlightened  with  himself  to  treat 
them  in  the  same  way. 

There  are  other  general  lessons  envel- 
oped in  this  passage  ;  but,  before  expa- 
tia*.ing  any  further  on  these,  let  me  prose- 
cute a  little  longer  our  examination  of 
particular  verses. 

Ver.  3,  4.  'Let  not  him  that  eateth  de- 
spise him  that  eateth  not ;  and  let  not  him 
which  eateth  not  judge  him  that  eateth  : 
for  God  hath  received  him.  Who  art  thou 
that  judgest  another  man's  servant  ]  to  his 
own  master  he  standeth  or  fallelh.  Yea, 
he  shall  be  holden  up  ;  for  God  is  able  to 
make  him  stand.'  The  apostle,  in  his 
even-handed  manner,  deals  alike  with 
both  parties.  After  having  told  the  strong 
that  ihey  should  not  despise  the  weak,  he 
tells  the  weak  that  they  should  not  con- 
demn the  strong.  Let  not  him  that  eateth 
not  judge  him  that  eateth.  In  the  state  of 
his  conscience,  it  were  a  profane  thing  in 
him  to  eat — for  this  would  be  to  eat  what 
he  still  thought  was  forbidden.  But  let 
him  not  judge  others  who  do  not  think  so 
in  the  same  way.  Let  him  not  look  upon 
them  as  profane  persons,  though  they 
should  eat  what  he  would  religiously  re- 
coil from.  God  has  received,  or  taken 
them  into  acceptance.  It  is  likely  that 
they  had  some  palpable  evidence  of  this 
acceptance  in  the  visible  and  extraordi- 
nary gifts  of  that  period — conferred  on 
some  of  those,  who,  in  the  full  use  of  their 
Christian  liberty,  looked  on  all  meats  as 
alike  :  And  so  they  might  make  out  the 
same  conclusion  for  themselves  that  Peter 
did  respecting  the  Gentiles  of  the  house- 
hold of  Cornelius,  after  that  they  had  re- 
ceived the  Holy  Ghost.  Have  a  care  then, 
lest,  in  refusing  fellowship  with  these,  you 
withstand  or  contravene  the  judgment  of 


God.  It  is  not  improbable  that  these  ex- 
traordinary gifts  were  shared  alike  by 
both  parties — a  lesson  therefore  to  botti 
of  mutual  respect  and  toleration.  At  all 
events,  they  had  the  express  authority  of 
the  apostle,  who,  in  the  first  verse,  bade 
the  strong  receive  the  weak  ;  and,  in  the 
third  verse,  tells  the  weak  that  God  had 
received  the  strong.  And  it  is  thus  that 
he  would  guard  the  one  party  against 
contempt  of  their  fellows,  and  the  other 
against  censoriousness. 

Ver.  5,  6.  '  One  man  esteemeth  one  day 
above  another :  another  esteemeth  every 
day  alike.  Let  every  man  be  fully  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind.  He  that  re- 
gardeth  the  day,  regardeth  it  unto  the 
Lord  ;  and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day, 
to  the  Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it.  He 
that  eateth,  eateth  to  the  Lord,  for  he 
giveth  God  thanks ;  and  he  that  eateth 
not,  to  the  Lord  he  eateth  not,  and  giveth 
God  thanks.'  The  same  lesson  is  ex- 
tended to  days,  respecting  the  observance 
of  which  there  obtained  a  like  diversity 
of  sentiment.  The  apostle  brings  the 
same  enlarged  and  enlightened  casuistry 
to  bear  on  both.*  He  wanted  each  man 
to  act  in  conformity  with  his  own  per- 
suasion, whatever  that  persuasion  might 
be — only  he  wanted  each  man  to  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  He  did  not 
care  so  much  about  what  the  persuasion 
specially  was  in  such  matters,  as  that 
the  conduct  should  be  agreeable  thereto. 
He  therefore  forbore  himself,  and  would 
have  his  disciples  to  forbear  also,  from 
all  argumentation  between  the  right  and 
the  wrong  persuasion  in  these  matters ; 
but  held  it  imperative  that  as  the  persua- 
sion,  which  he  wanted  to  be  as  thorough 
and  decided  as  possible,  so  ought  in  all 
consistency  the  performance  to  be.  The 
persuasion  might  be  wrong,  but  this  were 
only  an  obliquity  of  intellect.  But  if  the 
performance  were  not  as  the  persuasion, 
this  were  far  more  grievous — a  moral  ob- 
liquity— sin  against  the  light  of  a  man's 
own  conscience — the  dereliction  of  what 
he  thought  to  be  his  duty  towards  God. 
To  think  in  one  way  of  God's  will  and 
act  in  another,  were  to  renounce  the 
authority  of  His  will — an  abjuration  of 
the  principle  of  living  unto  God — Whereas 
men  might  think  diversely  of  that  will, 
and  yet  the  will  of  God  be  alike  respected  ; 
or  the  principle  of  living  unto  Him  be 
alike  retained  and  alike  proceeded  on  by 
all.  Paul  generously  grants  the  benefit 
of  this  fair  and  liberal  allowance  to  both 
parties   in  this  controversy,  whether  of 


*  For  our  views  in  greater  fulness  on  the  usuistry  of 
meals  and  days,  and  certain  other  cognate  questions — 
see  seven  Sermons,  from  the  xii  to  the  xvii,  of  the  sec- 
ond volume  of  onr  '  Congregational  Sermons,'  being  the 
ninth  volume  of  the  Series. 


LECTURE   XCV. CHAPTER   XIV,    1 16. 


487 


meats  or  of  days.  The  Lord  may  be  alike 
the  object  of  regard  with  him  who  ob- 
serves the  day  and  with  him  who  ob- 
serves it  not — or  with  him  who  eateth  and 
him  who  eateth  not.  In  the  hearts  of  both 
these  His  supremacy  may  be  alilce  felt 
and  recognised  ;  and  there  may  be  a  like 
devotedness  to  His  service  in  the  lives  of 
both. 

Ver.  7,  8.  'For  none  of  us  liveth  to  him- 
self, and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.  For 
whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord  ; 
and  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the 
Lord :  whether  we  live  therefore,  or  die, 
we  are  the  Lord's.'  Paul,  as  his  manner 
is,  stops  at  the  passing  suggestion  which 
had  occurred  in  the  course  of  his  argu- 
ment— to  render  homage,  by  the  way  as 
it  were,  to  the  principle  which  it  embodied. 
That  principle  is  the  entire  surrender  of 
the  creature,  in  all  his  desires  and  doings, 
to  the  Creator  who  gave  him  birth.  It 
is  our  part  to  make  ourselves  wholly  over 
unto  God.  All  true  Christians,  whether 
the  observers  or  not  of  meats  and  days, 
are  alike  in  this  ;  and  cannot  possibly  be 
otherwise  without  the  forfeiture  of  their 
discipleship.  Each  real  convert  liveth 
unto  God,  and  not  unto  himself;  and  each 
man  dieth  unto  God,  and  not  unto  himself. 
We  think  that  there  is  a  difference  be- 
tween these  two  clauses,  which,  however 
minute  in  expression,  is  worthy,  in  respect 
of  substance  and  meaning,  to  have  per- 
haps a  greater  stress  laid  upon  it  than  is 
usually  done.  It  is  'none  of  us,'  who 
liveth  to  himself;  but  it  is  '  no  man'  who 
dieth  to  himself.  None  of  us,  none  of  the 
household  of  faith,  no  real  Christian,  but 
who  liveth  unto  God  and  not  unto  himself 
— for  at  the  commencement  of  his  new 
life  he  made  a  voluntary  dedication  of 
himself  unto  God ;  and  the  constant, 
while  throughout  the  voluntary  habit 
of  this  life,  is  to  yield  himself  up  in  all 
things  unto  the  will  of  God  and  not  unto 
his  own  will.  Whereas  universally  no 
man  dieth  unto  himself.  When  he  dies 
it  is  not  by  a  voluntary  act  of  his  own  ; 
but  at  the  decree  of  God,  to  whose  absolute 
disposal  of  him,  whether  at  death  or  after 
it,  he  must  helplessly  and  passively  give 
himself  over.  When  it  comes  to  this, 
then  it  is  true  of  every  man  without  ex- 
ception, that  he  can  have  no  choice,  but 
is  wholly  in  the  hands  of  God — if  not  a 
Christian  to  be  judged,  and  consigned  by 
Him  as  a  vessel  of  wrath  to  the  place  of 
everlasting  condemnation  ;  and  if  a  Chris- 
tian to  be  judged  by  Him,  but  that  in 
in  order  to  his  preferment  as  a  vessel  of 
mercy  in  the  realms  of  everlasting  bles- 
sedness and  glory.  It  is  only,  however, 
the  dying  of  the  Christian  that  is  of  a 
piece  with  his  living.  If  with  him  to  live 
is  Christ  with  him  also  to  die  is  gain,  or 


Christ  still,  whom  to  win  he  counts  all 
things  but  loss.  It  is  he  and  he  only  who 
both  lives  unto  the  Lord  and  dies  unto 
the  Lord — so  that  whether  he  live  or  die, 
he  is  the  Lord's — it  beipg  his  great  aim, 
and  that  of  all  genuine  disciples  so  to 
labour,  that,  whether  present  or  absent, 
whether  living  or  dead,  they  may  be  ac- 
cepted of  Him. 

Ver.  9.  'For  to  this  end  Christ  both 
died,  and  rose,  and  revived,  that  he  might 
be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  living.' 
One  naturally  enquires  here  how  it  is, 
that  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ 
stand  connected  with  His  right  of  do- 
minion or  lordship  over  both  the  dead 
and  the  living.  That  His  death  in  parti- 
cular, gave  Him  a  rightful  sovereignty 
over  the  living,  is  otherwise  expressed  by 
the  apostle  in  the  following  passage — "If 
one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead  ;  and 
he  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live, 
should  not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves, 
but  unto  him  which  died  for  them  and 
rose  again."  It  is  indeed  a  most  rightful 
thing,  that  as  He  poured  out  His  soul 
unto  the  death  for  us,  we  should  give  up 
our  souls  in  absolute  and  entire  dedica- 
tion to  Him.  By  His  death  He  purchased 
us,  and  made  us  His  own.  We  are  His 
property,  as  bought  with  the  price  of  His 
blood  ;*  and  therefore  it  is  our  part  to 
glorify  the  Lord  with  our  soul  and  spirit 
and  body,  which  are  the  Lord's. — And 
again,  as  to  the  effect  of  His  resurrection, 
we  are  told  that  Christ  is  the  first  fruits 
of  them  who  slept — that  because  He  liveth 
we  shall  live  also — through  death  He 
destroyed  him  who  had  the  power  of 
death  ;  and  so,  in  virtue  of  the  power 
wherewith  He  is  now  invested  over  hea- 
ven and  earth.  He  can,  in  behalf  of  His 
captives  in  the  grave,  open  for  them  the 
door  of  their  prison-house,  and  make 
them  sit  together  with  himself  in  heavenly 
places,  even  around  that  throne  of  exal- 
tation to  which  He  has  Himself  been 
raised — and  this  "  that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should  bow  of  things  in 
heaven  and  things  in  earth  and  things 
under  the  earth  ;  and  that  every  tongue 
should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord, 
to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  In  this 
and  many  other  Scriptures,  there  is  enough 
of  harmony  with  the  verse  before  us — to 
explain  the  dependence  here  stated  be- 
tween, on  the  one  hand,  the  lordship  of 
Christ  over  both  dead  and  living,  and 
His  own  death  and  own  revival,  upon  the 
other. 

Ver.  10-13.  '  But  why  dost  thou  judge 
thy  brother  1  or  why  dost  thou  set  at 
nought  thy  brother !  for  we  shall  all 
stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ. 


'  1  Peter,  i,  19. 


488 


LECTURE   XCV. CHAPTER   XIV,    1  — 16. 


For  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saith  tlie  Lord, 
every  knee  shall  bow  to  me,  and  every 
tongue  shall  confess  to  God.  So  then 
every  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  him- 
self to  God.  Let  us  not  therefore  judge 
one  another  any  more:  but  judge  this 
rather,  that  no  man  put  a  stumblingblock, 
or  an  occasion  to  fall,  in  his  brother's 
way.'  The  consideration  stated  in  these 
verses  is  so  very  obvious,  and  put  so 
clearly  and  conclusively,  that  it  requires 
no  lengthened  illustration  on  our  part.  It 
had  indeed  been  already  put — in  the 
fourth  verse — '  Who  art  lliou  that  judgest 
another  man's  servant  1  to  his  own  mas- 
ter he  standeth  or  falleth.'  It  really  does 
not  belong  to  us — it  is  not  ours — thus  to 
be  judging  and  censuring  one  another. 
Speak  not  evil  then  one  of  another,  and 
judge  not  thy  brother — for  thou  thyself 
art  but  a  doer  of  the  law,  and  not  a 
judge.  Your  business  with  the  law  is  to 
obey  it,  not  to  judge  out  of  it.  Who  art 
thou  then  that  judgest  another  1*  The 
reason  given  by  the  apostle  last  quoted 
for  not  reckoning  with,  and  not  grudging 
against  one  another,  is,  that  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh,  and  that  the 
Judge  is  at  the  door.f  The  habit  of  sit- 
ting in  judgment  on  each  other,  so  preva- 
lent not  only  in  the  world  at  large,  but  in 
the  professingly  religious  world,  is  a  pe- 
culiarly dangerous  one — because  it  pecu- 
liarly exposes  us,  and  that  in  the  way  of 
reaction  or  recompence,  to  the  judgment 
of  God.  And  accordingly  we  are  told  to 
judge  not  "that  we  be  not  judged  ;"t  and 
that  if  we  will  judge  others,  we  must  not 
think  that  ourselves  shall  "escape  the 
judgment  of  God  ;"^  and  finally,  that  we 
should  abstain  from  this  practice,  lest 
ourselves  "  be  condemned. "|1  But  the 
consideration  urged  here  is  not  properly 
the  danger  of  it,  but  rather,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  the  impertinence  or  the  presump- 
tion of  it.  It  is  intruding  on  the  office  of 
another — an  ofiice  wherewith  He  and  He 
alone  has  been  invested  ;  and  which  it  is 
competent  for  Him  only  to  discharge.  In 
the  language  of  the  Psalmist — when  we 
thus  venture  on  a  function  so  sacred  and 
so  lofty,  we  really  are  meddling  with  a 
matter  too  high  for  us.lT  It  is  really  not 
for  us,  who  ourselves  are  to  be  sisted  at 
the  bar  of  judgment,  thus  to  usurp  the 
place  of  its  tribunal,  and  take  the  judg- 
ment upon  ourselves.  This  is  the  exclu- 
sive office  of  Him,  before  whom  every 
knee  is  to  bow  and  every  tongue  to  con- 
fess ;  and  our  right  place  is  that  of  them 
who  do  this  homage,  not  of  Him  who 
receives  it.  This  sort  of  judgment  there- 
fore, the  judgment  of  others,  is  not  within 


•  James,  iv,  11,  12.       t  James,  v,  9.       X  Matt,  vii,  2. 
S  Romans,  ii,  3.  II  James,  v,  9.        H  Ps.  cxxxi  1. 


our  province — although  there  be  another 
judgment  which  Paul  does  allow  us  to 
exercise,  and  which  indeed  he  himself 
exemplifies — the  judgment  not  of  ano- 
ther's characttr,  but  of  our  own  duty — the 
duty,  not  of  pronouncing  on  what  others 
are,  but  of  performing  what  we  owe  to 
them,  and  owe  them  too  in  this  very 
matter.  No  doubt  he  tells  us  authorita- 
tively what  this  duty  is  ;  but  he  leaves  us 
at  liberty  to  form  our  own  judgment  in 
regard  to  the  real  truth  and  principle  of 
the  question,  and  to  act  accordingly.  We 
are  free  to  judge,  whether  we  should  eat 
or  not ;  but  he  lays  it  down  as  our  clear 
and  imperative  obligation  not  to  eat,  if 
thereby  we  are  to  put  a  stumblingblock 
or  an  occasion  to  fall  in  our  brother's 
way.  None  more  tolerant  than  Paul  in 
things  doubtful  or  insignificant  —  yet 
none  more  peremptory  or  uncompromis- 
ing than  he,  when  once  the  light  of  a 
clear  and  great  principle  breaks  in  upon 
him.  Himself  the  strongest  of  the  strong, 
he  was  yet  the  most  indulgent  of  all  men 
to  the  infirmities  of  the  weak  ;  nor  can 
we  imagine  a  more  rare  and  beauteous 
combination  than  was  realised  by  our 
apostle,  who,  without  disturbance  either 
to  his  enlightened  conscience  or  manly 
understanding,  could  eat  freely  of  all  sorts 
of  food — yet  would  eat  no  flesh  while  the 
world  standeth,  lest  it  should  make  his 
brother  to  offend.* 

Ver.  14-16.  'I  know,  and  am  persuad- 
ed by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  there  is  nothing 
unclean  of  itself:  but  to  him  thatestcem- 
eth  any  thing  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is 
unclean.  But  if  thy  brother  be  grieved 
with  thy  meat,  now  walkest  thou  not 
charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with  thy 
meat  for  whom  Christ  died.  Let  not  then 
your  good  be  evil  spoken  of.'  Paul  here 
asserts  his  own  right  of  judgment  on  the 
absolute  merits  of  the  question,  and  tells 
us  the  result  of  it — even  the  persuasion, 
nay  more  positive  than  this,  the  know- 
ledge that  no  meat  was  unclean  in  itself. 
He  further  tells  us,  that  he  was  so  per- 
suaded by  the  Lord  Jesus — yet  so  unes- 
sential was  this  persuasion,  so  unimpor- 
tant the  point  in  question,  that  the  same 
Jesus,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
faith,  did  not  interdict  him  from  allowing 
to  others  the  liberty  of  thinking  dilferent- 
ly.  And  accordingly  at  the  very  time  of 
giving  forth  the  sentence,  and  on  the 
highest  of  all  authority,  that  there  is 
nothing  unclean  of  itself,  he  yet  leaves 
others  at  liberty  to  esteem  any  thing  un- 
clean. We  are  not  sure,  if  anywhere  else 
in  Scripture,  the  divine  authority  of  tole- 
ration is  so  clearly  manifested  ;  or  so  dis- 
tinct a  sanction  given  to  a  certain  amount 


*  1  Corinthians,  viii,  13. 


LECTURE   XCV. CHAPTER   XIV,    1  — 16. 


489 


of  liberty  in  opinion — even  though  it 
should  be  branded  as  latitudinarianism  by 
those  strainers  at  a  rigid  uniformity,  who, 
as  appears  from  this  whole  chapter, 
might  carry  their  intolerance  too  far. 
Even  at  the  expense  of  absolute,  though 
not,  it  would  appear,  of  indispensable 
truth,  were  men  allowed  to  think  of  meats 
that  they  were  unclean — and  this  in  the 
face  of  the  apostolic  deliverance  that 
they  were  not  unclean.  But  while  Paul 
suffered  them  to  think  so,  he  made  it  im- 
perative, that,  if  they  thus  thought,  so 
also  should  they  act.  They  were  at  lib- 
erty to  think  any  particular  meat  unclean  ; 
but,  so  thinking,  they  were  not  at  liberty 
to  use  it.  This  would  have  been  to  sin 
against  the  light  of  their  own  minds — to 
trample  on  the  high  prerogatives  of  con- 
science, which,  even  though  mistaken, 
does  not  therefore  forfeit  the  supreme  au- 
thority which  belongs  to  it. 

'  But  if  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy 
meat,  now  walkest  thou  not  charitably' — 
or  better  and  more  impressive  to  the  Eng- 
lish reader — now  walkest  thou  not  in 
love.  We  are  aware  of  nothing  more  at- 
tractive or  amiable  than  the  way  in  which 
Paul  lets  himself  down  to  the  weak  ;  or 
than  the  flexibility  of  his  accommodation 
to  the  harmless  peculiarities  even  of  the 
.perverse  and  erring — all  the  more  en- 
gaging in  that  when  the  slightest  inroad 
was  offered  upon  essential  principle,  none 
more  resolute  or  inflexible  in  withstanding 
it  than  he.  The  explanation  of  these  two 
different,  though  by  no  means  opposite  or 
inconsistent  aspects,  in  the  mind  of  our 
great  apostle,  seems  to  be  this.  He,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  strong  man  himself,  could 
be  all  respect  and  indulgence  to  the  weak  ; 
and  he  pressed  upon  others  strong  as  he 
was,  the  duty  of  being  alike  respectful 
and  alike  indulgent.  But  should  these 
weak,  on  the  other  hand,  not  satisfied 
with  this  full  allowance  to  themselves  of 
their  own  peculiarities,  impose  these  pe- 
culiarities on  others  as  essential  to  salva- 
tion, and  thus  derogate  from  the  sufficiency 
and  the  power  of  what  Paul  had  all  along 
and  most  zealously  contended  for  as  the 
alone  ground  of  our  acceptance  with  God, 
even  the  righteousness  of  Christ  made 
ours  by  faith — then  what  he  most  freely 
and  generously  conceded  to  the  infirmities 
of  others,  he  would  not,  even  by  the 
minutest  fraction,  yield  to  their  intole- 
rance. The  one  he  could  do,  for  this 
were  but  an  exercise  of  pity.  The  other 
he  could  not  do,  for  this  were  a  surrender 
of  principle.  And  thus  it  is  that  acts  of 
seeming  contrariety  in  the  life  and  minis- 
try of  Paul  admit  of  being  fully  harmo- 
nised. When  he  circumcised  Timothy 
for  example,  and  purified  himself  along 
with  the  four  men  who  had  a  vow  upon 
62 


them  for  the  accomplishment  of  certain 
rites  prescribed  by  the  law — these  things 
he  did  under  the  influence  of  the  first 
consideration,  "  because  of  the  Jews  which 
were  in  these  quarters,"  as  we  read  in 
one  place ;  and  in  the  spirit  of  charitable 
accommodation  to  "  the  many  thousands 
of  the  Jews  which  believe,"  as  we  read 
in  another.  Paul  was  quite  satisfied  that 
on  all  such  questions,  the  Gentiles  should 
let  alone  the  Jews  ;  and  that  the  Jews,  oh 
the  other  hand,  should  let  alone  the  Gen- 
tiles. But  when  the  Jews,  not  content 
with  a  toleration  for  themselves,  turned 
upon  the  Gentiles,  and  would  compel 
them  "  to  live  as  do  the  Jews"* — then  it 
was  that  the  influence  of  the  second  con- 
sideration came  into  play.  And  so  the 
same  Paul  who  circumcised  Timothy.-j 
and  purified  himself  according  to  the 
ritual  of  Moses,t  and  that  because  of  true 
brethren,  who  advised  this  deference  to 
the  Jews  that  he  might  not  grieve  or  dis- 
turb their  consciences — would  not  suffer 
Titus  to  be  circumcised, ^  and  that  because 
of  false  brethren,  who  would  have  made 
this  deference  to  the  Jews  an  occasion  for 
bringing  the  Gentiles  into  bondage.  To 
them  he  gave  place  by  subjection,  no  not 
for  an  hour,  and  this  for  sake  of  "the 
truth  of  the  gospel."  Nay,  when  Peter 
gave  way  in  so  far  to  this  scheme  of  com- 
pulsion, Paul  withstood  him  to  the  face — 
and  this  again  for  ''  the  truth  of  the  gos- 
pel." A  generous  and  voluntary  compli- 
ance with  Jewish  scrupulosity  is  one 
thing  ;  a  forced  compliance  with  Jewish 
intolerance  is  quite  another.  Paul  would 
have  yielded  the  former,  because  he  felt 
for  those  which  were  of  the  circumcision, 
and  is  therefore  to  be  applauded.  Peter 
would  have  yielded  the  latter,  because  he 
"  feared  them  which  were  of  the  circum- 
cision," and  is  therefore  "to  be  blamed." 
We  can  never  sufficiently  admire  the 
honourable  and  consistent  way  which  our 
great  apostle  found  out  for  himself,  when 
pressed  with  difficulties  on  the  right  hand 
and  on  the  left. '  When  holding  question 
with  those  of  his  countrymen  who  were 
burdened  with  their  own  weak  and 
wounded  consciences,  Paul. knew  how  to 
be  meek  and  harmless  as  a  dove.  When 
holding  question  with  those  of  his  coun- 
ti-ymen,  who,  intent  on  judaising  the 
whole  Christian  world,  would  have  laid 
the  burden  of  their  ritual  upon  others, 
and  thus  infringed  on  the  great  doctrine 
of  justification  by  the  faith  of  Christ  and 
not  by  the  works  of  the  law — then  Paul 
knew  how  both  to  be  wise  as  a  serpent, 
and  bold  as  a  lion.  As  the  exhibition  of 
a    well-balanced    mind,    there    are    few 


*  Galatians,  ii,  14. 

*  Acts,  xxi,  26, 


■t  Acts,  xvi,  3. 

§  Galatians,  ii,  3,  i. 


490 


LECTURE   XCV. CHAPTER,   XIV,    1 16. 


things  more  admirable  than  this  :  Nor, 
after  Him  who  is  the  great  Pattern  of  all 
righteousness,  is  there  any  scriptural 
character  in  which  the  best  qualities  of 
our  nature  are  more  gracefully  and  har- 
moniously blended ;  or  where  the  noble 
conjunction  of  truth  with  mercy,  of  firm- 
ness with  gentleness,  is  more  conspicu- 
ously realised. 

It  is  on  the  side  of  tenderness  that  he 
appears  at  present ;  and  in  behalf  of  a 
distress  wherewith  he  of  all  others  could 
most  readily  and  delicately  sympathise — 
the  distress  of  an  afHicted  conscience. 
Let  not  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy 
meat.  The  mere  spectacle  of  what  he 
deems  to  be  a  profane  violation  is  fatted 
to  give  him  pain.  Or  if  brought  into  a 
stale  of  ambiguity  on  this  question  of 
meats,  between  the  influence  of  his  own 
Jewish  education,  that  would  lead  him  to 
abstain,  and  the  influence  of  Christian 
example,  that  would  lead  him  to  indulge 
— the  very  conflict  is  painful.  But  worse 
than  painful,  it  might  come  to  be  destruc- 
tive, should  the  authority  of  this  example 
overbear  him  into  a  premature  compli- 
ance against  the  light  of  his  own  con- 
science, not  yet  satisfied.  In  the  one  way 
you  grieve,  in  the  other  you  would  de- 
stroy him — destroy  him  whom  Christ  died 
to  save.  Surely  a  little  self-denial  on  our 
part  is  not  too  much  to  maintain  the  safety 
of  the  object  for  which  Christ  gave  Him- 
self up  unto  the  death. 

'  Let  not  then  your  good  be  evil  spoken 
of.'  He  is  c.ddressing  himself  to  the 
strong ;  and  the  good  he  here  means, 
their  especial  good,  was  the  liberty  where- 
with Christ  had  made  them  free.  This 
liberty  was  liable  to  be  perverted  and 
abused  in  various  ways.  For  example, 
they  had  to   be  warned  not  to  use  this 


"  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh."* 
And  it  is  added,  "  but  by  love  serve  one 
another."  Now  they  were  violating  this 
love,  if  to  please  themselves  they  were 
either  grieving  or  hurting  the  consciences 
of  their  brethren.  And  so  there  wjfs  a 
limit  or  a  discretion  to  be  observed  in  the 
exercise  of  this  liberty — a  liberty  which 
ought  never  to  be  indulged,  either  for  the 
gratification  of  their  own  licentiousness, 
or  in  opposition  to  that  love  which  they 
owed  to  others. 

And  the  reason  given  in  our  text  sup- 
plies  another  limitation.  They  should  not 
unnecessarily  expose  this  good  to  be  evil 
spoken  of — even  though  the  evil  should 
be  spoken  of  it  falsely,  or  undeservedly. 
We  learn  from  1  Corinthians,  x,  30 — that 
the  eating  of  certain  things,  such  as  what 
had  been  offered  unto  idols,  was  liable  to 
be  thus  spoken  of;  and  so  along  with  the 
liberty  of  the  gospel,  the  gospel  itself  was 
slandered,  and  Christianity  made  to  suffer 
at  the  hands  of  its  own  friends.  It 
should  be  felt  enough  surely,  if  this  liberty 
minister  peace  to  our  own  consciences; 
and  it  is  a  most  unthankful  return  on  our 
part,  if  we  so  parade  it  before  the  eye  of 
others — as  to  excite  prejudice  and  calumny 
thereby  against  the  truth  that  is  in  Jesus. 
We  might  well  surely  deny  ourselves 
somewhat  for  the  good  of  the  church  and 
the  advancement  of  godliness  among  men. 
"  Whether  therefore  ye  eat  or  drink,  or 
whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God.  Give  none  offence,  neither  to  the 
Jews,  nor  to  the  Gentiles,  nor  to  the  church 
of  God.  Even  as  I  please  all  men  in  all 
things,  not  seeking  mine  own  profit,  but 
the  profit  of  many,  that  they  may  bo 
saved." 

'  Galatians,  v,  13. 


LECTURE  XCVI. 


Romans  xiv,  17. 


"  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink  ;  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 


'Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  In  the  high 
and  hidden  walk  of  a  Christian's  experi- 
ence, there  is  much  that  looks  very  inac- 
cessible to  the  eye  of  the  general  world. 
And  it  is  evident,  that  just  in  proportion 
to  their  sense  of  its  mystery  and  exceed- 
ing remoteness,  will  be  their  own  hope- 
lessness of  ever  realising  it.  They  regard 
it  as  something  of  too  recondite,  too  lofty 
a  nature,  for  them  to  think  of  aspiring 
after.    They  have  no  fellowship  with  the 


joys  or  exercises  of  a  believer,  no  common 
feeling,  and  even  no  common  understand- 
ing with  Christ's  peculiar  people,  in  ought 
that  distinguishes  this  class  of  men  from 
the  rest  of  the  species  ;  and  so  they  keep 
at  a  distance  from  these  saintly  and  select 
few,  just  as  they  would  from  any  outland- 
ish society  with  whose  tastes  and  gratifi- 
cations they  had  no  possible  sympathy — 
either  taking  refuge  in  the  thought,  that 
it  is  all  a  fanatical  imagination — or  if  it 


LECTURE  XCVI. CHAPTER  XIV,  17. 


491 


be  indeed  a  reality,  that  it  is  a  reality 
which  lies  at  so  wide  a  separation  from 
themselves,  as  to  iflock  their  every  effort 
to  lay  hold  of  it. 

It  must  be  quite  obvious,  that  in  these 
circumstances  it  is  most  unwise  needless- 
ly to  aggravate  this  impression  which 
men  have  of  the  gospel,  as  of  a  hopeless 
and  impracticable  mystery — for  this  will 
only  widen  their  separation  from  it  the 
more.  It  is  not  for  the  friends  of  Christi- 
anity to  give  it  more  of  a  transcendental 
air  and  character  than  what  natively  be- 
longs to  it — for  this  would  be  to  check 
the  approaches  of  the  yet  uninitiated,  who 
might  thus  be  deterred  from  the  enter- 
prise of  ever  scaling  those  heights  which 
seem  so  awful,  or  of  penetrating  those  ob- 
scurities which  seem  to  cloud  the  sum- 
mits, or  to  gather  and  to  settle  among  the 
deep  recesses  of  experimental  religion. 
Whatever  can  be  made  plain  and  palpa- 
ble to  the  world  at  large,  should  be  made 
to  stand  out  in  full  exhibition  before 
them  ;  and  nothing  that  is  unnecessary 
or  uncalled  for  should  be  said,  which  can 
augment  their  conception,  either  of  the 
gospel  as  a  thing  that  lies  beyond  the 
range  of  all  ordinary  apprehension,  or  of 
its  disciples  as  of  those  who  are  kept  to- 
gether by  some  secret  tact  that  is  incom- 
municable to  all  other  men — the  spell  of 
a  magic  or  a  masonry,  that  can  only  be 
known  or  guessed  at  by  themselves. 

We  are  sensible,  however,  that  with 
every  effort  at  the  explanation  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  there  will  remain  on  the  minds 
of  all  who  are  not  Christians  an  impres- 
sion of  its  mystery.  The  distinction  will 
stih  be  kept  up  between  the  children  of 
light  and  the  children  of  this  world  ;  and 
the  former  will  appear  to  the  latter  as  if 
they  spoke  in  an  unknown  language. 
There  will  be  little  community  of  thought 
or  of  feeling  betwixt  them  ;  and  however 
desirable  to  make  the  most  of  any  right 
approximation  that  is  at  all  possible,  yet 
we  are  not  to  expect  but  that,  in  the  whole 
east  and  habitude  of  their  understandings, 
the  two  societies  of  the  church  and  the 
world  will  ever  be  widely  apart  from  each 
other. 

.These  are  the  first  reflections  which 
our  text  has  given  rise  to — for  we  are  not 
aware  of  any  that  is  more  removed  be- 
yond the  limits  of  all  common  and  earth- 
ly experience.  We  even  fear  that  among 
those  who  profess  a  stricter  and  more  se- 
rious Christianit)S  this  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  seldom  realised  ;  and  that  how- 
ever much  it  may  be  in  harmony  with 
their  doctrinal  speculations,  they  have, 
little  or  no  experimental  feeling  of  it. 
This  is  a  topic  on  which,  if  they  have  any 
doctrine  at  all,  it  is  at  least  a  doctrine  that 
has  outstript  their  experience.    They  can- 


not speak  of  this  joy  as  a  thing  that  is  per- 
sonally and  practically  their  own.  They 
cannot  specify  an  occasion  of  their  histo- 
ly  that  has  been  at  all  brightened  by  it. 
They  have  no  distinct  imagination  of 
what  it  is ;  and  altogether  it  is  even  to  them 
that  matter  of  strangeness  and  of  secrecy 
which  they  do  not  recollect  ever  to  have 
shared  in.  They  would  like  to  know 
about  it — for  as  yet,  we  doubt  not,  the 
conceptions  of  many  even  of  these  are 
vague  and  unsatisfactory  ;  and  therefore, 
to  help  the  understandings  even  of  the 
zealous  and  declared  orthodox  upon  this 
topic,  as  well  as  to  reconcile  to  the  utter- 
most those  who  look  upon  our  faith  as 
little  better  than  that  of  mystics  and 
visionaries,  we  should  like  that  as  much 
of  elucidation  as  possible  could  be  shed 
upon  a  theme  that  is  either  now-a-days 
very  little  thought  of,  or  regarded  in  the 
light  of  a  wild  and  fanciful  illusion. 

It  may  perhaps  tend  to  a  certain  degree 
to  dissipate  the  mystery,  if  you  advert  to 
a  distinction  which  I  shall  now  propose 
to  you.  Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be 
either  a  joy  in  His  directly  felt  presence 
within  you  ;  or  it  may  be  a  joy  in  the 
work  which  He  has  done  within  you. 
Now  the  first  of  these  conceptions  is  far 
more  mysterious  than  the  second  of  them. 
We  shall  not  now  enquire,  whether  His 
presence,  as  a  visitor  or  indweller,  is  ever 
ielt  directly — whether  he  is  ever  recog- 
nised to  be  in  our  hearts  by  any  immedi- 
ate feeling  or  immediate  perception — ■ 
whether,  in  short,  the  first  conception  is 
ever  realised  in  the  experience  of  any 
Christian  below.  Instead  of  knowing 
Him  to  be  present  in  the  way  of  contact 
or  of  His  immediately  felt  and  perceived 
residence  within  us,  His  presence  in  the 
soul  of  the  believer  may  only  be  inferred, 
not  from  His  contact  with  the  human  spi- 
rit, but  from  His  work  upon  the  human 
spirit.  And  so  this  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
might  mainly  resolve  itself  into  joy  be- 
cause of  the  truths  which  He  has  revealed 
to  the  eye  of  the  understanding,  and  joy 
because  of  the  virtues  which  He  has  im- 
pressed upon  the  character. 

Let  us  take  these  two  in  order — dwell- 
ing very  briefly  on  the  first ;  and  reserv- 
ing our  chief  attention  for  the  second  of 
these  particulars. 

1.  First  then,  there  is  a  joy  felt  in  the 
belief  and  contemplation  of  the  truths 
impressed  on  our  conviction  by  God's 
Holy  Spirit.  Thus  far  the  joy  is  not  some 
mistaken  afflatus  which  you  can  give  no 
account  of.  You  can  distinctly  tell  what 
it  is.  There  is  a  palpable  thing  which 
the  Spirit  has  enabled  you  to  lay  hold 
of.  He  has  taken  of  the  things  of 
Christ  and  showed  them  unto  you.  More 
particularly,  He  has  shed  a  clearness  on 


492 


LECTURE  XCVI. CHAPTER  XIV,  17. 


the  efficacy  of  the  atoning  blood  ;  and 
though  He  has  let  3'ou  know  that  you  are 
a  very  great  sinner,  He  has  also  let  you 
know  that  Jesus  Christ  is  a  very  great 
Saviour.  That  truth  to  which  you  were 
aforetime  blind,  He,  by  opening  your  eye, 
has  made  you  to  see  ;  and  it  is  such  a 
truth  as  you  cannot  but  rejoice  in.  He 
has  caused  you  both  to  see  a  truth,  and  to 
hear  a  tenderness,  in  that  gospel  voice 
which  issues  from  the  mercy  seat ;  and 
as  surely  as  when  the  hostility  of  the  best 
and  powerfullest  of  your  earthly  acquain- 
tances is  turned  into  friendship,  you  can- 
not but  be  glad — so  surely  will  you  feel 
a  gladness,  so  soon  as  made  to  behold, 
that  the  God  who  challenges  iniquity  and 
cannot  bear  it  in  His  presence,  has  be- 
come God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world 
to  Himself,  and  not  imputing  unto  them 
their  trespasses.  The  man  who  is  tost 
and  distracted  because  of  the  dangers 
and  the  fears  which  encompass  him,  when 
freed  from  Ihese  and  so  translated  into 
peace,  vividly  feels  a  joy  along  with  it. 
Now  this  peace  is  of  the  Spirit's  working, 
just  because  the  truth  from  which  the 
peace  did  emanate  is  of  the  Spirit's  teach- 
ing. He  teaches  it  through  the  word,  by 
opening  our  eyes  to  the  reality  of  Scrip- 
ture. And  so  the  joy  which  is  felt  be- 
cause of  the  first  ingredient  of  Heaven's 
kingdom  that  is  specified  in  our  text,  even 
because  of  the  peace  into  which  the  sinner 
has  been  translated — this  joy  may  be  re- 
garded as  entering  into  the  third  ingre- 
dient of  that  kingdom,  even  joy  in  the  Ho- 
ly Ghost 

II.  But  secondly.  There  is  a  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost  because  of  the  virtues  which 
He  has  impressed  upon  the  character. 
Here  too  there  is  something  tangible,  that 
furnishes,  as  it  were,  a  material  for  our 
joy.  The  Holy  Ghost  works  virtue  in  the 
character  of  him  upon  whom  he  operates  ; 
and  joy  in  this  virtue  is  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Here  is  another  abatement  then, 
on  the  supposed  mystery  of  this  affection  ; 
and  though  we  cannot  go  along  with  those 
who  term  themselves  rational  Christians, 
and  would  expunge  all  mystery  from  the 
doctrines  of  the  gospel — yet  we  hold  it 
most  undesirable  that  any  of  its  truths 
should  be  enveloped  in  greater  mystery 
than  properly  belongs  to  them  ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  most  desirable,  that  all  should 
be  made  as  plain  to  the  understanding,  as 
the  actual  state  of  revelation,  and  the  pos- 
sibilities of  human  knowledge  and  com- 
prehension will  allow.  We  are  aware  of 
one  expedient  which  we  cannot  go  along 
with,  and  by  which  it  has  been  attempted 
to  make  the  whole  of  that  theology  which 
relates  to  the  visitation  and  indwelling  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  more  palatable  to  the  in- 
tellect of  the  natural  man.     The  Holy 


Ghost  is  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  whether 
that  Spirit  take  up  its  residence  within 
our  hearts  or  not — whetfter  or  not  it  abides 
substantively  there — whether  it  be  in  us 
as  an  essence,  or  only  as  a  quality — still 
it  is  thought  by  many  enough  to  warrant 
the  gospel  affirmation,  that  Christians 
have  the  Spirit  of  God  if  they  have 
barely  the  characteristics  of  that  Spirit 
fixed  and  delineated  upon  their  own  moral 
nature.  And  so  in  the  estimation  of  many 
to  have  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  just  to  have 
a  character  kindred  to  that  of  God,  just 
as  in  common  language  we  may  say  of 
one  man  that  he  has  in  him  the  soul  of 
Newton,  if  he  have  the  like  taste  and  tal- 
ent for  philosophy — or  that  he  has  the 
spirit  of  some  great  statesman,  if  animat- 
ed by  the  same  patriotism — or  of  some 
great  warrior,  if  actuated  by  the  same 
thirst  for  the  hazards  and  excitements  of 
the  contest — And  so  to  have  the  Spirit  of 
God,  is  regarded  as  tantamount,  not  to 
having  that  very  Spirit  within  the  recep- 
tacles of  your  bosom,  but  to  your  having 
a  spirit  there  which  is  like  unto  His — and 
thus  to  have  the  Holy  Spirit  only  designs 
you  to  be  a  holy  creature,  or  that  you 
have  within  you  the  spirit  of  holiness. 

Now  certain  it  is,  in  the  first  instance, 
that  this  view  of  the  matter  tends  to  alle- 
viate the  mystery,  and  reduces  the  doc- 
trine of  God's  Spirit  being  in  man  to  a 
something,  which  tliose  of  merely  secular 
or  literary  habits  of  conception  can  easily 
undaJ'stand.  If  by  having  the  Spirit  of 
God  within  us,  there  is  nothing  more 
meant,  than  that  our  spirit  is  kindred  to 
that  of  God — there  is  in  this  affirmation 
nought  of  that  miraculous  sort  of  aspect 
which  provokes  the  incredulity  of  nature. 
It  is  simply  assigning  to  our  mind  the 
character  which  it  happens  to  possess; 
and  it  must  moreover  be  admitted,  that 
whether  a  similarity  between  our  spirits 
and  that  of  God  be  the  whole  doctrine  or 
not — this  similarity  is  allowed  by  all  to 
be  the  undoubted  effect  of  that  inhabita- 
tion by  the  Holy  Ghost  of  man  as  His 
dwelling-place,  and  man  as  His  temple 
which  many,  and  we  think  soundly  and 
scripturally,  do  contend  for.  The  great 
object  in  fact  of  the  Spirit's  descent  upon 
earth,  and  of  His  assuming  as  the  place 
of  His  occupancy  this  one  man  and  that 
other,  is  to  impress  upon  them  the  very 
image  and  character  of  God.  He  bloweth 
where  He  listeth,  but  the  design  of  it  is  to 
inspire  every  one  whom  He  so  listeth 
with  the  very  virtues  of  the  Godhead — 
and  so  there  is  one  view  according  to 
which  this  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  is  really 
not  at  all  unintelligible  nor  ought  it  to 
stir  up  that  incredulity  which  a  feeling 
of  the  marvellous  and  the  incomprehensi- 
ble so  often  brings  along  with  it.     It  is 


LECTURE  XCVi. — CHAPTER  XIV,  17. 


493 


simply  that  direct  joy  which  we  have  in 
the  possession  and  the  exercise  of  virtue. 
Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  joy  that 
naturally  and  constitutionally  as  it  were, 
attaches  to  the  spirit  of  holiness.  If  it  be 
not  pleasure  in  the  immediate  fellowship 
of  God's  Spirit — it  is  at  least  pleasure  in 
its  fruits,  all  of  which  are  sweet  unto  the 
taste,  and  have  in  them  what  may  be 
called  a  moral  fragrance  that  ministers 
delight  to  the  higher  senses  and  faculties 
of  our  nature.  There  is  an  instant  grati- 
fication to  the  heart  in  its  own  aspirations 
of  love  and  purity  and  heaven-born  sa- 
credness ;  and  if  these  indeed  come  from 
the  Spirit,  then  it  is  a  gratification  in 
what  He  hath  done  and  wrought  upon  us, 
and  this  is  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  recognise  His  direct 
presence  in  our  bosoms  ;  but  if  we  rejoice 
in  the  virtues  which  He  hath  implanted 
there,  then  it  nnay  truly  be  said  that  in 
Him  we  rejoice.  And  thus  there  may  be 
many  wlio  have  realised  this  affection, 
and  yet  perhaps  have  hitherto  conceived 
that  they  were  strangers  to  it ;  and  just 
because  they  were  looking  for  something 
else.  They  have  perhaps  been  thinking 
all  along,  that  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
a  felt  and  conscious  delight,  from  fellow- 
ship with  a  visitor  within  of  whose  per- 
sonal agency  and  indwelling  they  had 
some  mysterious  access  to  know — other- 
wise than  by  the  fruits  of  his  operation, 
otherwise  than  by  the  graces  and  virtues 
which  he  imprest  upon  the  character. 
Now  should  it  so  happen,  that  He  is  only 
known  by  His  fruits — should  the  presence 
of  God's  Spirit  in  the  soul,  instead  of 
being  a  matter  of  direct  consciousness,  be 
only  a  matter  of  inference  from  the  graces 
and  the  virtues  that  be  engraven  upon  the 
soul,  then  when  rejoicing  in  them  we  may 
in  fact  be  rejoicing  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
There  are  some,  we  are  per-suaded,  who 
have  experienced  this  affection  without 
knowing  it.  They  have  breathed  a  holy 
and  a  heavenly  delight  in  prayer.  The}'^ 
have  felt  a  lofty  and  ethereal  transport  in 
the  contemplations  of  sacrednessV  They 
have  experienced  how  good  a  thing,  it  is 
to  draw  near  unto  God,  and  in  the  beati- 
'  tudcs  of  intercourse  with  Him  as  their 
Friend  and  reconciled  Father,  they  have 
often  tasted  upon  earth  of  those  very  be- 
atitudes which  shall  be  perfected  in  hea- 
ven. They  have  had  the  dawn  upon 
their  spirits  even  here  of  that  ecstacy 
which  lies  'in  an  affection  for  the  God- 
head ;  and  in  the  outflowings  of  a  kindred 
love  towards  their  brethren  of  the  species, 
they  have  also  felt  that  there  is  a  native 
and  most  exhilarating  joy.  Now  during 
the  whole  of  this  experience  they  may 
not  have  adverted  to  the  Spirit  as  at  the 
time  dwelling  and  operating  within  them; 


and  in  the  very  moment  when  they  were 
rejoicing  in  His  work,  they  may  not  have 
been  at  all  sensible  that  they  were  rejoic- 
ing in  Himself.  Nevertheless  it  is  even 
so.  There  is  a  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  is  net  more  inexplicable  than  the 
joy  that  every  Christian  feels  in  the  play 
and  exercise  of  his  good  affections — in 
the  good-will  that  moves  him  kindly  to- 
wards one — in  the  gratitude  that  draws 
him  in  loving  regards  and  services  to 
another — in  the  virtuous  triumphs  of  tem- 
perance or  purity,  when  the  eye  has 
closed  itself  against  some  ensnaring 
temptation,  or  when  a  victorious  resistance 
has  been  made  to  it — in  the  fervour  of 
those  more  saintly  and  celestial  exercises, 
when  the  soul  entei's  into  communion 
with  its  God  ;  and  just  as  the  eye  delights 
itself  with  all  that  is  graceful  or  engaging 
in  the  scenery  of  nature  so  is  the  spiritual 
eye  regaled  when  it  expatiates  over  the 
graces  of  that  moral  imagery  which 
stands  revealed  on  the  character  of  the 
Godhead.  It  is  thus  that  there  may  be  a 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  even  when  He  is 
not  thought  of  in  His  personality,  or  in 
the  power  of  His  influence  upon  the  hu- 
man spirit.  It  is  a  very  possible  thing  to 
be  under  an  influence,  and  at  the  very 
time  when  the  influence  itself  is  not  at  all 
the  object  of  contemplation.  The  mind 
may  in  truth  be  busied  with  other  objects. 
It  may  be  thinking  only  of  God  or  of  man 
or  of  duty  ;  or  of  those  precious  truths  on 
which  hang  the  salvation  of  the  sinner, 
and  his  obligation  to  a  life  of  sacrodness 
— and  the  only  delight  whereof  it  may  be 
conscious,  is  the  delight  that  it  has  in  en- 
tertaining these,  and  in  feeling  virtuously 
of  these.  Yet  still,  it  may  be  true  that  it 
is  both  the  Holy  Ghost  who  hath  intro- 
duced him  to  a  luminous  view  of  the 
objects,  and  who  hath  awakened  in  him 
all  the  good  and  corresponding  emotions; 
and  so,  while  to  all  sense  he  is  occupied 
with  virtue  alone,  and  the  joy  that  is  felt 
by  him  is  therefore  a  joy  in  virtue — yet 
nevertheless  it  is  the  Spirit  that  has  ori- 
ginated and  sustains  the  whole;  and  his 
joy  in  virtue  is  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

According  to  this  view  of  it  then,  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  joy  in  holiness;  and  it 
appears  by  our  text  to  be  one  ingredient 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  By  partaking 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  we  are  made  to 
partake  in  the  virtues  of  the  Godhead ; 
and  the  joy  in  question  is  a  joy  in  these 
virtues.  It  is  just  such  delight  as  the 
Eternal  Himself  has  in  the  view  and  in 
the  conscious  possession  of  His  own  ex- 
cellence— that  primeval  delight  which 
Cometh  out  of  the  inseparable  union  that 
obtained  from  everlasting  between  good- 
ness and  happiness — realised  by  the  Mind 
of  the  DiviniPy,  and  reproduced  in  the 


494 


LECTURE   XCVI.— -CHAPTER   XIV,    17. 


minds  in  which  He  has  stamped  the  like- 
ness of  His  own  character.  There  may 
be  no  way  of  recognising  the  power  of  an 
agent  within  your  heart,  but  by  the  effects 
of  his  agency.  There  may  be  no  way  of 
ascertaining  that  the  hand  of  a  worker 
has  been  there,  but  by  his  handiwork  ; 
and  all  the  pleasure  which  many  a  Chris- 
tian feels  in  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be 
nothing  more  than  the  pleasure  that  is 
felt  in  those  moralities  of  the  heart,  into 
which  he  has  been  renewed,  and  which 
are  the  traces  of  the  Spirit's  operation. 
If  you  want  to  ascertain  whether  ever 
you  had  the  joy  of  our  text,  it  is  surely 
indispensable  tliat  you  fix  and  determine 
what  sort  of  thing  it  is.  You  may  other- 
wise be  led  upon  a  wrong  track  of  en- 
quiry; and  droop  into  despondency  be- 
cause you  have  not  met  with  an  evidence 
that  is  no  where  to  be  found.  In  regard 
to  the  Spirit  of  God,  you  neither  hear  His 
voice,  nor  do  you  see  His  shape  ;  and  you 
cannot  tell  whence  it  cometh  nor  whither 
it  goeth.  But  you  may  know  Him  by  His 
fruits  ;  and  if  these  fruits  do  indeed  regale 
j^our  moral  appetite  for  goodness  and 
righteousness  and  truth — if  obedience  be 
the  fruit ;  and  you  feel  that  in  this  obedi- 
ence, as  in  the  keeping  of  the  command- 
ments, there  is  a  great  reward — if  glad- 
ness have  sprung  up  in  your  heart  along 
with  the  graces  of  the  new  creature — if 
you  have  ever  tasted  that  to  be  in  a  holy 
is  to  be  in  a  happy  frame;  and  that  to 
breathe  in  a  religious  atmosphere  is  of 
itself  to  breathe  in  an  atmosphere  of  purest 
delight — This  perhaps  is  all  the  evidence 
that  you  have  a  warrant  to  look  for ;  and 
instead  of  expecting  a  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost  analogous  to  that  which  one  has  in 
personal  intercourse  with  a  friend — in- 
stead of  beholding  any  direct  manifesta- 
tion of  His  presence  within  you,  you  may 
never  on  this  side  of  time  be  admitted  to 
see  more  than  the  marks  of  His  perform- 
ance upon  you — And  we  repeat,  that  if 
you  have  ever  felt  a  joy  in  the  meekness 
and  the  godliness  and  the  love  anS  the 
temperance  and  the  purity  which  it  is  His 
office  to  impress  upon  the  soul,  this  may 
be  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost — this  may  be 
the  very  joy  that  you  are  in  quest  of. 

And  by  urging  this  upon  you,  I  have 
another  object  in  view  than  to  guide  you 
aright  in  the  pursuit  of  evidence.  I  should 
like  to  take  an  opportunity  now  of  ex- 
pounding to  you  the  real  essence  of 
heaven's  blessedness.  This  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  an  ingredient  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  ;  and  you  cannot  be  too 
pointedly  or  repeatedly  told — that  what 
constitutes  your  happiness  there,  is  that 
which  has  constituted  the  happiness  of 
the  Godhead  from  all  eternity.  I  want 
you  to  separate  in  though  the  main  and 


characteristic  enjoyments  of  paradise  from 
all  those  secondary  or  subordinate  en- 
joyments wherewith  we  fancy  it  to  be 
peopled ;  and  again  to  assure  you  that 
the  ecstacy  of  these  ethereal  abodes  lies 
not  in  heaven's  music,  or  heaven's  splen^ 
dour,  or  any  adaptation  between  the  ma- 
terialism of  heaven  and  the  glorified 
senses  of  those  who  are  admitted  to  its 
transports  and  its  triumphs.  The  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  will  be  enhanced 
and  perfected  there,  and  of  which  w^ 
have  a  foretaste  here,  is  the  joy  which 
God  Himself  has  in  holiness.  He  delights 
in  His  own  Spirit,  in  its  graces,  in  its  at- 
tributes, in  all  the  beauteous  and  venera- 
ble characteristics  which  belong  to  it; 
and  by  imparting  to  us  of  this  Spirit,  He 
gives  us  the  very  materials  of  that  delight 
which  constitutes  His  own  essential  and 
unchangeable  happiness. 

In  other  words,  the  joy  of  heaven  is 
mainly  and  substantially  speaking,  a 
moral,  a  spiritual  joy  ;  and  if  the  greatest 
happiness  lie  in  the  enjoyment  of  what 
we  most  love,  then  the  best  definition  that 
can  be  given  of  the  happiness  of  immortal- 
ity, is  that  it  consists  in  the  enjoyment  of 
righteousness  by  those  whose  nature  it  is 
supremely  to  love  righteousness.  To 
them  the  most  delicious  harmony  by 
far  is  that  moral  harmony  which  they 
feel  to  be  within  their  own  heart,  where 
righteousness  hath  taken  up  its  secure 
and  everlasting  possession  ;  and  to  them 
the  most  glorious  of  all  splendour  is  that 
splendid  righteousness  wherewith,  among 
the  angels  and  saints  and  hosts  both  of  the 
redeemed  and  the  unfallen,  they  are  every 
where  encompassed.  But  chiefly  will  they 
have  joy  in  the  city  of  the  living  God,  be- 
cause God  Himself  is  there  ;  and  the  light 
of  His  manifested  countenance  will  be  the 
light  thereof.  It  is  because  of  the  worth 
and  the  goodness  and  the  moral  grace  and 
grandeur  that  radiate  direct  upon  their 
view  from  the  aspect  of  the  Divinity — it  is 
because  of  the  high  and  the  holy  perfec- 
tions of  virtue  which  sit  enthroned  in  the 
place  where  His  honour  dwelleth — it  is  be- 
cause of  the  sympathy  which  through  the 
Spirit  given  to  us  is  felt  in  our  own  bosom 
with  the  virtues  of  the  Godhead,  and  the- 
love  wherewith  He  rejoices  over  those 
creatures  on  whom  He  hath  imprest  the 
lineaments  of  His  own  holy  nature,  reflect- 
ed back  again. by  them  on  that  primary 
excellence  from  which  all  their  holiness  is 
derived — It  is  because  of  these  moral  ele- 
ments that  the  joy  of  paradise  is  full.  All 
there  have  a  godlike  virtue,  and  therefore 
it  is  that  their  happiness  is  godlike. 

And  it  would  at  once  purify  your 
thoughts  of  heaven,  and  deliver  the  work 
of  your  preparation  for  it  from  all  taint ' 
of  legalism,  could  you  but  clearly  under- 


LECTURE  XCVI. — CHAPTER  XIV,  17. 


495 


Stand  that  the  great  object  of  the  economy 
under  which  you  sit  is  to  make  you  like 
both  in  character  and  in  enjoyment  to 
God.  Just  think  what  it  is  that  forms 
His  motive  to  righteousness.  Just  make 
out  a  distinct  reply  to  the  one  question — 
whether  is  God  righteous  because  of  a  law 
of  righteousness  that  is  over  Him,  or  be- 
cause of  the  love  to  righteousness  that  is 
in  Him  ]  He  it  is  obvious,  is  under  no 
law,  and  is  responsible  to  no  jurisdiction. 
Any  act  of  virtue  in  Him  is  not  an  act  of 
deference  to  any  authority — nor  is  it  in 
submission  to  the  control  or  the  cogni- 
sance of  any  superior.  When  He  does 
what  is  right,  it  is  not  because  He  is  so 
bidden,  but  because  to  his  taste  there  is  a 
beauty  and  a  beatitude  in  Tightness.  The 
virtue  that  is  obsei'ved  as  a  thing  of  com- 
mandment, is  of  a  character  wholly  dis- 
similar and  distinct  from  the  virtue  that  is 
indulged  in  as  a  thing  of  native  and  spon- 
taneous delight.  Now  God  is  not  the  sub- 
ject of  a  commandment.  All  that  He  does 
is  not  of  constraint  from  without,  but  of 
choice  from  within  :  and  when  righteous- 
ness, from  a  matter  of  constraint  becomes 
a  matter  of  choice,  it  instantly  changes  its 
whole  nature,  and  rises  to  a  higher  moral 
rank  than  before.  It  is  impossible  that 
*  God  can  be  at  all  moved  by  the  authority 
of  a  law,  or  that  the  fear  of  its  reckoning 
or  its  vengence  can  have  any  weight  upon 
Him.  And  so  we,  in  proportion  as  we 
are  like  unto  God,  are  dead  unto  the  law 
— that  is,  dead  to  a  sense  of  its  threaten- 
ings — dead  to  all  feeling  of  compulsion — 
delivered  from  every  impression  of  a  su- 
perior standing  over  us,  and  overbearing 
our  own  pleasure  by  His  resistless  prerog- 
ative and  power.  But  the  same  God 
whom  it  is  impossible  to  move  by  law's 
authority,  moves  of  His  own  proper  and 
original' inclination  in  the  very  path  of 
the  law's  righteousness.  And  so  again, 
we  in  proportion  as  we  are  like  unto  God, 
are  alive  to  the  virtues  of  that  same  law, 
to  the  terror  of  whose  severities  we  are 
altogether  dead.  We  are  no  longer  under 
a  schoolmaster.  Our  obedience  is  changed 
from  a  thing  of  force  into  a  thing  of  free- 
ness.  It  is  moulded  to  a  higher  state  and 
character  than  before.  We  are  not  driv- 
en to  it  by  the  rod  of  authority.  We  are 
drawn  to  it  by  the  regards  of  a  now  will- 
ing heart  to  all  moral  and  all  spiritual  ex- 
cellence. It  is  upon  a  well  of  living  water 
being  struck  out  in  the  heart  of  renovated 
man — it  is  upon  the  entrance  there  by  the 
Holy  Ghost — given  unto  all  who  receive 
the  Saviour — it  is  upon  His  operation  by 
which  we  are  made  to  delight  in  the  very 
moralities,  and  so  to  taste  the  very  joys 
of  the  Godhead — it  is  upon  that  transform- 
ation by  which  the  spirit  of  bondage  is 
cast  out,  and  succeeded  by  the  spirit  of 


adoption  and  of  glorious  liberty — It  is 
thus  that  the  joy  of  my  text  arises  in  the 
disciple's  bosom  ;  and  while  even  here  it 
forms  an  ingredient  of  heaven's  kingdom, 
it  is  also  the  best  presage  of  that  eternal 
heaven  which  is  awaiting  him. 

Such  views,  if  more  cherished  and 
more  proceeded  on,  would  do  away  every 
imagination  of  an  antinomianism  in  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  end  of  that  gos- 
pel is  not  to  set  aside  human  virtue,  but  al- 
together to  purify  and  to  raise  it.  It  is  to 
set  aside  an  old  economy,  by  which  virtue 
was  prescribed  ;  but  under  which  it  be- 
came an  ignoble  thing,  and  gathered  upon 
its  whole  aspect  a  taint  of  mercenary  sor- 
didness.  And  it  is  to  substitute  a  new 
economy  in  its  place,  under  which  virtue, 
so  far  from  being  expunged,  is  animated 
by  the  very  spirit  and  brightened  into 
those  very  hues  of  loveliness  wherewith 
it  is  irradiated  in  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Eternal.  It  is  to  exalt  the  selfish  and  low- 
born morality  of  earth  into  the  sacredness 
of  heaven  ;  and  not  to  extort  the  offerings 
of  reluctance  and  fear,  but  to  inspire  at 
the  very  time  that  it  bids  the  services  of 
an  affectionate  and  willing  obedience.  I 
do  not  ask,  if  you  ever  rejoiced  in  the 
Spirit  of  God  felt  as  if  personally  alive 
and  present  in  your  bosom.  This  is  a  test 
of  your  discipleship,  to  which  I  fear  that 
few  if  any  of  this,  and  very  few  of  any 
congregation  whatever,  could  respond. 
But  I  ask,  if  you  ever  rejoiced  in  the  law 
of  God,  felt  to  be  tha-t  pure  and  righteous 
and  elevated  thing  which  the  Psalmist 
professed  to  be  his  delight  and  meditation 
all  the  day.  This  is  a  test  that  I  do  insist 
upon  ;  and  if  not  a  joy  in  the  direct  feel- 
ing of  the  Spirit's  presence,  it  is  at  least 
a  joy  in  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit's  power. 
It  is  all  the  length  to  which  I  feel  war- 
ranted to  carry  my  explanation  ;  and  a 
length  to  which,  if  there  be  any  here 
present  who  has  practically  come,  we 
can  at  least  promise  to  him  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  man  who  delighteth  greatly  in 
the  commandments. 

In  our  first  head,  we  spake  of  the  joy 
that  is  felt  on  our  believing  the  truths  of 
the  gospel,  and  more  especially  the  truth 
of  God's  reconciliation  to  us  in  Christ 
Jesus.  We  are  glad  because  of  peace 
betwixt  us  and  God ;  and  peace  is  one 
ingredient  of  heaven's  kingdom  mentioned 
in  our  text.  In  our  second  head  of  dis- 
course, we  spoke  of  the  joy  that  is  felt 
on  our  acquiring  the  virtues  of  the  gospel. 
There  is  an  immediate  delight  in  right- 
eousness or  virtue,  that  accrues  by  a  law 
of  moral  nature  to  the  possessor  of  it ; 
and  righteousness  is  another  ingredient 
of  heaven's  kingdom  mentioned  in  our 
text.  Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  Uie 
third  ingredient,  may  be   regarded   by 


496 


LECTURE  XCVI. — CHAPTER  XIV,  17. 


some  as  joy  in  the  two  former ;  and 
called  joy  in  the  Holy.  Ghost,  simply  be- 
cause peace  and  righteousness  arc  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  addition- 
ally to  the  joy  which  the  mind  has  in 
these  effects  of  the  Spirit's  operation, 
there  must,  after  experience  of  these  ef- 
fects, be  a  distinct  joy,  when  the  mind 
takes  cognisance  of  them  in  connection 
with  their  cause — when  the  Christian  can 
trace  the  virtues  which  he  has  been  ena- 
bled to  exercise,  to  the  source  from 
whence  they  emanate — when  he  finds, 
that  in  proportion  to  the  fervency  and 
faith  of  his  prayers  for  the  Spirit  of  all 
grace,  he  is  actually  made  rich  in  the 
graces  and  accomplishments  of  the  new 
creature.  There  is  a  joy  in  the  very  in- 
vestiture of  these  moralities  ;  but  a  fur- 
ther and  a  distinct  joy  in  the  consideration 
of  who  it  is  that  has  put  them  on.  When 
the  Christian  reflects  on  himself  as  a 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost — when  he  thinks 
of  being  so  signalised — when  enabled 
thus  to  judge,  that  God  walks  in  him  and 
dwells  in  him;  and  upon  this  evidence 
that  He  has  put  a  law  into  his  heart 
making  him  to  love  it,  and  written  it  in 
his  mind  making  him  to  understand  it — 
There  is  elevation  in  the  very  thought ; 
and  though  it  may  not  be  joy  in  the  di- 
rectly felt  presence,  yet  it  may  be  joy  in 


the  inferred  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
To  arrive  at  this,  my  brethren,  you  have 
to  entertain  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  even 
until  you  come  clearly  to  see  and  lirmly 
to  have  faith  in  them.  You  have  to  culti- 
vate the  virtues  of  the  gospel,  even  until 
they  become  the  main  delight  and  exer- 
cise of  your  lives.  You  have  to  pray  that 
the  eye  might  be  made  clearly  to  appre- 
hend the  one  ;  and  the  heart  to  be  more 
and  more  smitten  with  a  love  for  the 
other,  and  a  sense  of  their  supreme  obli- 
gation. You  are  to  persevere  in  asking 
even  till  you  receive,  and  in  seeking  even 
till  you  find,  and  in  knocking  even  till  it 
be  opened  to  you  ;  and,  however  remote 
and  recondite  the  acquirement  may  ap- 
pear to  you  now — yet,  if  you  will  just  set 
out  in  good  earnest  from  the  humble  ele- 
ments of  Christian  scholarship  and  go  on 
unto  perfection,  you  will,  from  a  joy  in 
the  truth  and  a  joy  in  the  virtues  of  the 
gospel,  arrive  at  a  distinct  joy  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  Him  who  hath  manifested 
these  truths,  and  moulded  you  to  these 
virtues.  You  will  pass  on  to  the  higher 
stages  of  the  Christian  experience,  and 
be  at  length  emboldened  to  say  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  witnesseth  with  our  spirits, 
that  we  are  indeed  His  children  ;  and 
hereby  know  we  that  we  are  in  Him,  even 
by  the  Spirit  which  He  hath  given  to  us. 


LECTURE  XCVII. 


Romans  xiv,  17 — 23. 

"  For  the  kingdnm  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink  ;  but  righteonsness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  TToly  Ghost.  For  ho 
that  in  these  things  serveth  Christ  is  acceptable  to  God,  and  approved  of  men.  Let  us  therefore  follow  aflcr  the 
things  which  make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another.  For  meat  destroy  not  the  work  of 
God.  All  things  indeed  are  pare  ;  but  it  is  evil  for  that  man  who  eateth  with  offence.  It  is  good  neither  to  eat 
flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  any  thing  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  or  is  ollended,  or  is  made  weak.  Hast  thou 
faith  f  have  it  to  thyself  before  God.  Happy  is  he  that  condemneth  not  himself  in  tliat  thing  which  he  alloweih. 
And  he  that  doubteth  is  damned  if  he  eat,  because  he  eatetli  not  of  faith  :  for  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin." 


We  recur  to  the  17th  verse  in  this  lec- 
ture, simply  because  of  the  immediate 
reference  made  to  it  in  the  verse  which 
follows — 'He  that  in  these  things  serveth 
Christ' — serveth  Him  in  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost — These 
things  are  both  acceptable  to  God  and 
approved  of  men.  The  circumstance  of 
their  being  approved  of  men,  as  well  as 
acceptable  to  God,  plainly  enough  inti- 
mates that  the  social  is  blended  with  the 
sacred  in  the  services  here  specified.  The 
righteousness  of  our  text  includes  more 
than  the  righteousness  which  is  made 
ours  by  the  faith  that  is  well-pleasing  to 
God,  but  also  the  righteousness  that  is 
good  and  profitable  to  men.  The  peace 
comprehends  in  it  more  than  that  peace 


of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding, 
keeping  our  hearts  and  minds  in  Christ 
Jesus;  but  also  the  pacific  virtues  of  the 
blameless  and  unoffending  citizen,  who 
does  all  that  in  him  lies  to  maintain  con- 
cord and  good-will  in  his  neighbourhood. 
Even  the  joy,  though  primarily  it  be  that 
joy  in  the  Lord  which  is  the  strength  and 
aliment  of  the  spiritual  life — yet  as  being 
the  opposite  of  morosene.s.s,  or  of  sullen 
and  infectious  gloom,  is  fitted  to  have  a 
gladdening  influence  over  the  daily  com- 
panionships of  that  believer  who  serves 
his  God,  not  in  the  spirit  of  fear,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  love  and  peace  and  a  sound 
mind.  In  all  these  ways  may  the  virtues 
of  the  17th  verse  realise  the  two-fold 
property   ascribed  to   them   in  the  18th. 


LECTURE   XCVII. CHAPTER   XIV,    17 — 23. 


497 


They  may  at  once  be  acceptable  to  God 
and  approved  of  men.* 

Ver.  19.  'Let  us  therefore  follow  after 
the  things  which  make  for  peace,  and 
things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another.' 
In  tins  pacilic  spirit,  the  spirit  of  concili- 
ation and  charity,  let  us  follow  after  the 
things  which  maUe  for  peace — not  after 
**the  vain  questions  which  minister  strife 

•  rather  than  godly  edifying,  but  after  the 
great  and  undoubted  objects  on  which  all 
the  real  disciples  of  Jesus  are  sure  to  co- 
alesce, and  to  strive  for  with  one  mind 
and  one  soul.  The  things  on  which  they 
agree  are  not  only  far  more  numerous, 
but  of  greatly  surpassing  importance  over 
the  things  which  differ — provoking  each 
other  to  love  and  to  good  works — exhort- 
ing one  another  daily,  while  it  is  called 
to-day — assembling  together  in  meetings 
of  fellowship  and  prayer,  for  their  mutual 
confirmation  both  in  the  faith  and  holi- 
ness of  the  gospel — uniting  in  their 
schemes  of  Christian  philanthropy,  the 
combined  prosecution  of  which  in  our 
day  has  led  to  many  a  delightful  re-union 
of  spirit  among  professing  Christians ; 
and  given  rise  to  so  many  periodic  festi- 
vals of  a  common  cause  and  common 
charity,  in  which  all  might  rejoice — These 

.  be  the  things  that  make  for  peace  ;  and 
within  the  limits  of  essential  principle, 
will  cause  all  sectarian  diversities  to  be 
forgotten. 

•And  things  wherewith  one  may  edify 
another.'  Seek  that  )'^e  may  excel  to  the 
edifying  of  the  church.f  Let  us  live,  not 
peaceably  only,  but  profitably  with  each 
other.  He  had  before  told  his  converts — 
as  far  as  possible,  and  as  much  as  lay  in 
them,  to  live  peaceably  with  all  men.  He 
was  obliged  to  lay  these  qualifications  on 
the  advice  he  gave  them — for  purity  is  a 
higher  object  than  peace  ;  and  as  it  is  our 
first  duty  to  profit  men,  rather  than  please 
them,  it  might  often  be  impracticable  to 
labour  for  the  convenience  of  saints,  with- 
out stirring  up  the  enmity  of  unconverted 
nature.  But  whatever  danger  there  may 
be  of  exciting  the  displeasure  of  the  un- 
regenerate  in  our  attempts  to  convert, 
there  is  far  less  danger  of  incurring  the 
wr;<.th  or  hostility  of  disciples  in  our  at- 
tempts to  edify — only  provided  however, 
that  we  keep  by  the  things  which  make 
for  edification.  We  cannot  answer  for 
that  unanimity  which  is  so  desirable,  if 
Christians  will  be  so  pragmatical  and  in- 
judicious, as  to  be  urging  their  own  small 
and  senseless  peculiarities  on  the  accep- 
tance of  others.  Would  they  only  keep 
by  what  is  great  and  essential,  seldom  or 


*  For  a  larger  exposition  of  this  verse,  see  the  second 
aermon  in  our  volume  of  '  Commercial  Discourses'  — 
beiag  the  sixth  volume  of  the  Series. 

*  1  Corinthians,  xiv,  12. 

63 


never  would  any  real  Christians  at  least 
fall  out  by  the  way.  They  are  the  vaia 
janglings  about  words  of  no  profit,  which 
minister  to  wrath  rather  than  to  godly  ed- 
ifying ;  and  often  the  very  reason  why  the 
things  which  men  follow  after  make  not  for 
peace,  is  because  they  make  not  for  edifi- 
cation. Surely  there  is  good  and  worthy 
cause  here,  why  a  disproportionate  stress 
should  not  be  laid  upon  trifles.  A  most 
important,  nay  a  vital  interest  may  hinge 
upon  it.  Our  Saviour's  prayer*  would  in- 
timate that  the  progress  of  Christianity 
in  the  world,  its  further  and  larger  accep- 
tance among  men,  depends  most  materi- 
ally on  the  ostensible  unity  of  those  who 
are  already  Christians.  They  are  the 
divisions  of  the  religious  world  which 
have  proved  so  fatal  to  the  growth  of  re- 
ligion in  society.  Zeal  is  a  good  thing, 
but  only  when  expended  on  a  good  and 
adequate  subject.  It  is  not  to  be  told 
what  «nischief  has  been  done  by  needless 
controversies — both  within  the  church, 
among  Christians  themselves  ;  and  with- 
out, in  restraining  the  operation  of  that 
good  leaven  which  might  otherwise  have 
leavened  all  the  families  of  the  earth. 
Christ's  prayer  on  earth  for  His  disciples 
was,  "  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou 
Father  art  in  me  and  I  in  thee,  that  they 
also  may  be  one  in  us ;  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me." 

Ver.  20.  '  For  meat  destroy  not  the  work 
of  God.  All  things  indeed  are  pure  ;  but 
it  is  evil  for  that  man  who  eateth  with  of- 
fence.' .  Do  not  for  the  sake  of  meat  de- 
stroy the  work  of  God — a  reiteration  of 
what  he  had  said  before  in  ver.  15 — '  De- 
stroy not  him  with  thy  meat  for  whom 
Christ  died.'  For  if  any  man  defile  the 
temple  of  God,  him  will  God  destroy.  It 
is  true  that  that  which  entereth  into  a 
man  defileth  not  a  man  ;  and  as  far  as  the 
effects  of  the  mere  material  entry  of  any 
sort  of  food  into  the  stomach  are  con-' 
cerned  '  all  things  are  pure.'  God  hath  now 
abolished  the  distinction  between  clean 
and  unclean  meats ;  and  what  He  hath 
cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  common  or 
impure.  The  evil  thing  lies  not  in  the 
eating,  but  in  the  eating  with  offence.  It 
is  the  offence,  and  that  alone,  which  con- 
stitutes the  evil.  There  is  no  evil  that 
results  from  eating,  if  no  spiritual  injury 
is  sustained  by  it.  But  there  does  accrue 
a  very  great  spiritual  injury,  if  not  to 
yourself,  at  least  to  your  brother — if  you 
so  eat  as  to  make  him  fall. 

Ver.  21.  '  It  is  good  neither  to  eat  flesh, 
nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  any  thing  whereby 
thy  brother  stumbleth,  or  is  offended,  or 
is  made  weak.'  In  opposition  to  what  he 
denounces  as  evil  in  the  preceding  verse, 


'  John,  xvii. 


498 


LECTURE   XCVn.— CHAPTER   XIV,    17 — 23. 


he  tells  us  what  is  good  in  the  present  one 
— a  good  which  he  nobly  exemplified 
himself,  when  he  said  thai  he  would  not 
eat  flesh  while  the  world  standeth,  lest  it 
should  make  his  brother  offend.  He 
would  not  grieve  him  by  stirring  up  weak 
and  anxious  scrupulosities  in  his  mind. 
And,  what  is  worse  than  merely  grieving, 
he  would  not  seduce  him  into  an  act  of 
positive  transgression,  by  causing  him  to 
outrun  the  light  of  his  own  conscience — 
which  he  would  do,  if,  through  the  power 
of  imitation,  he  tempted  him  to  eat  that 
which  he  saw  himself  eat,  before  that  he 
was  fully  convinced  of  its  lawfulness. 
The  good  or  the  evil  all  hinged,  not  on 
the  thing  in  itself,  but  on  the  effect  it  was 
calculated  to  have,  or  actually  had,  on 
the  practice  of  others — which  practice 
was  in  them  sinful,  if  it  travei'sed  their 
own  principles.  It  is  thus  that  our  eating 
might  prove  the  putting  of  a  stumbling- 
block,  or  an  occasion  to  fall  in  a  brpther's 
way. 

Ver.  22.  'Hast  thou  faith?  have  it  to 
thyself  before  God.  Happy  is  he  that 
condemneth  not  himself  in  that  thing 
which  he  alloweth.'  It  is  obvious  that 
Paul  had  a  greater  respect  for  him  whose 
conscience  was  free  of  these  difficulties, 
and  of  the  consequent  distress  that  en- 
sued from  them.  The  man  who  fisit  him- 
self at  liberty,  had  on  these  questions  at 
least  the  spirit  of  power  and  of  a  sound 
mind,*  which  in  one  of  his  addresses  to 
Timothy  he  opposes  to  the  spirit  of  fear. 
But  to  complete  the  description  of  that 
which  he  commends,  we  must  add  the 
spirit  of  love  also  ;  and  this  would  lead 
us  to  look  not  only  at  our  own  things,  but 
at  the  things  of  others.  It  is  very  well  for 
himself  that  his  conscience  does  not 
trouble  him — so  that  whether  he  eateth 
or  eateth  not,  his  own  peace  with  God 
might  remain  unbroken.  It  is  a  happy 
thing  for  him  that  he  condemneth  not 
himself  in  that  which  he  alloweth.  This 
is  so  far  good  ;  and  were  self  one's  only 
concern,  there  might  in  this  matter  be  the 
indulgence  of  an  unbounded  liberty. 
But  there  are  other  interests  at  stake; 
and  he  is  bound  by  the  obligation  of  God's 
second  great  law  to  look  at  these.  More 
especially  is  he  bound  not  to  give  offence, 
in  a  thing  not  of  obligation  butof  inditfer- 
ency,  so  as  to  pain  his  brother's  feelings, 
or  gall  him  in  a  matter  on  which  he  is 
sore  or  weak  ;  and  still  more  not  to  place 
a  stumblingblock  before  him,  over  which 
he  might  fall  by  running  against  the  light 
of  his  own  convictions — for  though  the 
strong  man  may  eat,  because,  believing  it 
to  be  lawful,  with  him  to  eat  is  a  matter 
of  indifferency — the   weak  man  may  not 


•  2  Timothy,  i,  7. 


eat,  because  if  he  do,  believing  it  to  be 
unlawful,  then  it  would  prove  that  with 
him  to  sin  were  a  matter  of  indifferency — 
'  Hast  thou  faith  V  is  a  question  which 
does  not  refer  to  the  faith  that  is  unto  sal- 
vation— but  to  clearness  in  the  matter  on 
hand — Art  thou  clear  and  confident  as  to 
the  lawfulness  of  eating  what  by  the  law 
of  Moses  was  forbidden  ?  They  who  are 
not  clear,  but  stand  in  doubt,  have  not. 
faith  in  this  matter,  though  they  may  have  1 
the  faith  which  is  unto  salvation.  He  who- 
has  the  faith,  who  is  fully  persuaded  in 
his  own  mind  that  to  eat  is  allowable — let 
him  have  it  to  himself  before  God.  There 
is  no  call  upon  him  to  parade  it  before 
others — so  as  either  to  hurt  their  religious 
sensibilities,  or  to  harass  them  with  doubt- 
ful disputations. 

Ver.  23.  'And  he  that  doubteth  is 
damned  if  he  eat,  because  he  eateth  not 
of  faith  :  for  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is 
sin.'  For,  'he  that  doubteth,'  the  transla- 
tion would  be  as  correct  in  itself  and  more 
accordant  with  the  apostle's  reasonings 
if  we  read  'he  that  discerneth  and  putteth 
a  difference  between  meats.'  It  is  so  given 
in  the  margin  of  some  of  our  Bibles.  The 
judaising  Christian  did  something  more 
than  doubt  the  lawfulness  of  eating  what 
was  forbidden  by  the  Mosaic  law.  He 
had  the  positive  conviction  of  its  unlaw- 
fulness. For  him  then  to  eat  would  be  to 
sin,  not  in  the  face  of  a  doubt,  but,  worse 
than  this,  in  the  face  of  an  absolute  and 
affirmative  conviction.  It  is  proper,  how- 
ever, to  observe,  that  even  to  do  that  of 
which  one  doubts,  or  is  not  sure,  whether 
it  be  lawful  or  no,  has  in  it  a  certain, 
though  it  may  be  a  less  degree  of  moral 
hardihood.  It  is  to  incur  the  hazard,  if 
not  the  certainty,  of  falling  into  a  trans- 
gression ;  and  to  brave  such  a  risk,  ar- 
gues a  weak  feeling  of  religious  obli- 
gation. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  further  proper  to 
remark — that  whereas  the  word  damna- 
tion, in  the  common  acceptation,  means 
the  future  and  everlasting  punishment  of 
the  wicked — the  proper  and  original  mean- 
ing of  it  is  condemnation — marking  there- 
ft)re  the  blameworthiness  of  the  act  to 
which  it  is  applied — but  not  implying 
necessarily  the  final  and  irreversible  ruin 
of  him  who  has  committed  it.  The  same 
observation  holds  true  of  1  Cor.  xi,  29 — 
"  He  that  eateth  and  drinketh  unworthily, 
eateth  and  drinketh  damnation  (judgment) 
unto  himself."  This  mitigation  of  the 
sense  will  not  make  any  real  Christian 
less  careful  of  offending. 

' What.soever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin* 
This  here  is  not  the  univeral  proposition 
which  some  would  make  of  it.  It  does 
not  mean  that  every  action  of  an  unbe- 
liever is  sinful,  because  he  wants  that 


LECTCRE   XCVII. CHAPTER    XIV,    17 23. 


499 


justifying  faith,  without  which  there  can 
be  no  acceptance  either  for  his  person  or 
his  services.  This  may  be  true,  but  it  is 
not  the  truth  contained  in  this  passage. 
As  we  said  before,  the  faith  here  spoken 
of  is  a  faith  limited  to  a  particular  point. 
The  man  has  not  the  belief  that  to  eat 
certain  kinds  of  food  is  lawful  ;  and  if  he 
eat  of  them  notwithstanding,  to  him  it  is 
unlawful. 

We  are  not  to  imagine  of  this  chapter, 
that  the  subject  of  it  has  now  gone  by. 
There  are  principles  here  of  universal  and 
abiding  application — lessons  of  standing 
authority,  the  obligation  and  importance 
of  which  remain  to  this  day  ;  and  though 
the  casuistry  of  Jewish  meats  may  seldom 
or  never  be  in  practical  demand  amongst 
us — yet  is  there  a  certain  other  casuistry, 
which  gives  rise,  as  before,  to  the  distinc- 
tion between  weak  and  strong  ;  and  which 
still  continues  to  exercise,  and  sometimes 
to  perplex  the  consciences  of  enquirers. 

In  separating,  as  our  great  apostle  did 
with  inimitable  skill,  the  clear  from  the 
doubtful — there  is  one  obvious  considera- 
tion which  ought  never  to  be  forgotten. 
Each  man  is  still  his  brother's  keeper. 
We  are  all  responsible  to  a  certain  extent 
for  the  Christianity  of  other  men ;  and 
though  there  be  many  indulgences,  which, 
viewed  singly  and  in  themselves,  the  light 
and  liberty  of  the  gospel  would  allow — 
yet  are  we  bound  to  abst^n  from  them, 
if  our  example  otherwise  would  inflict  a 
moral  injury  upon  any  of  our  fellows. 
Let  me  notice,  as  a  case  in  point,  the  liter- 
alities  of  Sabbath  observation.  There  are 
certain  imaginable  freedoms  on  that  day 
— an  evening  walk — an  act  of  convivial 
intercourse  with  a  pious  relative  or  friend 
— a  journey,  a  visit,  or,  written  message 
in  reply  to  some  call  of  greater  or  less 
urgency,  but  the  necessity  of  which,  or 
the  mercy  of  which,  admits  of  being  in- 
terpreted variously.  Many  will  be  found 
to  contend  for  the  innocence  of  these  ; 
and  perhaps  some  undoubted  Christians 
there  are,  who  might  occasionally  give  in 
to  them,  without  violence  to  their  own 
consciences,  or  even  any  damage  done  to 
their  own  spirituality.  But  there  might 
be  others  looking  on  of  a  different  habit 
and  education,  who  could  not  share  in 
these  liberties,  without  a  shock  on  their 
religious  feelings  ;  or  it  may  be  such  a 
stress  on  the  inner  man,  as  might  seriously 
derange  and  put  out  of  joint  the  whole 
structure  or  system  of  their  religious 
character.  They  may  have  been  precipi- 
tated into  an  imitation  which  yet  sat 
heavy  on  their  consciences — condemning 
themselves  in  that  to  which  the  example 
of  another  may  have  emboldened  them  ; 
and  in  which  circumstances,  therefore, 
more  especially  if  the  danger  of  an  issue 


so  lamentable  was  known,  the  example 
ought  not  to  have  been  given.  It  is  thUvS, 
we  apprehend,  that  an  English  Christian 
would  acquit  himself  during  his  tempo- 
rary residence  in  one  of  the  retired  par- 
ishes of  Scotland.  He  would  conform  to 
our  standard  of  Sabbath  observation  ;  and 
in  the  exercise  of  a  right  delicacy  and 
discretion,  would  refrain  here  from  lib- 
erties which  might  be  comparatively 
harmless  in  or  around  his  own  dwelling- 
place.  He  would  not,  for  instance,  if 
made  aware,  scandalise  the  domestics  of 
any  of  our  families,  by  superadding  the 
instrumental  music  of  the  drawing-room 
to  the  worship  of  Sabbath  even — though, 
possibly  with  him  a  usual  accompani- 
ment, it  might  minister  to  the  devotion  of 
his  own  feelings,  and  so  add  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  service.  Would  that  this 
principle  had  been  more  respected  ere 
the  fearful  experiment  now  in  progress 
of  railway  desecration  had  been  so  reck- 
lessly gone  into  ;  and  which,  if  persevered 
in,  threatens  to  speed  beyond  all  calcula- 
tion the  religious  degeneracy  of  our  be- 
loved land. 

As  a  further  exemplification  of  the 
principles  unfolded  in  this  chapter,  we 
might  instance  those  numerous  questions, 
of  shade  and  degree,  which  have  been 
raised  about  conformity  to  the  world  ;  or, 
more  explicitly,  about  the  share  which, 
might  be  lawfully  taken  in  this  world's 
companies  or  this  world's  amusements. 
Amid  the  difficulties,  perhaps  the  impos- 
sibility, of  advancing  any  strict  and 
literal  solution  that  shall  bo  applicable  to 
ail  cases,  there  is  one  thing  unquestion- 
able— and  that  is  the  concern  which  all 
ought  to  feel  for  the  moral  safety  of  others 
beside  themselves.  Grant  of  the  strong 
Christian  that  he  may  pass  unscathed 
through  the  festive  parties  of  the  ungodly, 
and  perhaps  even  leave  the  savour  of 
what  is  good  in  the  mid.?t  of  them  ;  or 
grant  that  without  injury  to  his  own  spirit, 
he  may  lend  his  occasional  presence  to 
certain  of  the  haunts  of  public  or  fash- 
ionable entertainment — it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  many  are  the  weak  Chris- 
tians, who,  if  led  to  the  premature  imita- 
tion of  his  example,  would  inevitably 
perish  among  the  surrounding  contamina- 
tions of  an  atmosphere  which  they  could 
not  breathe  in  and  yet  live.  There  can 
be  no  mistaking  here  the  application  of 
Paul's  heroic  and  truly  high-minded  ex- 
ample. He  would  not  eat  flesh  while  the 
world  standeth,  should  it  make  his  brother 
to  offend  ;  and  neither  ought  we  to  enter 
the  ball-room  or  theatre  while  the  world 
standeth,  if  it  make  even  the  very  weak- 
est of  our  brethren  to  offend.  It  were 
making  an  unlawful  use  of  our  Christian 
liberty  to  do  even  that  which  is  lawful— 


500 


LECTURE  XCVII. — CHAPTER  XIV,  17 23. 


Bhould  it  precipitate  others  to  do  the  same 
things,  if  either  with  a  deleterious  eflecl 
upon  their  characters,  or  if  beyond  the 
concurrence  and  bidding  of  their  own 
consciences. 

And  if  in  things  doubtful  or  indifferent, 
it  be  the  duty  of  any  Christian  to  deny 
himself  for  the  sake  of  others,  how  much 
more  imperative  is  the  obligation  under 
which  he  lies  to  refrain  from  the  example 
of  all  that  is  clearly  and  undoubtedly 
wrong.  It  is  not  to  be  told  what  enormous 
mischief  has  been  done  by  the  infirmities, 
and  still  more  by  the  sins  of  those  who 
have  attained  a  name  and  eminent  repu- 
tation in  the  Christian  world — and  this  in 
the  way  of  tempting  others  to  relax  the 
strictness  of  their  lives,  because  con- 
cluding that  they  too  are  surely  within 
the  limits  of  safety,  though  with  the  same 
amount  bf  carelessness  and  sinfulness 
which  they  see  to  be  in  those  whom  all 
have  agreed  to  acknowledge  and  admire. 
The  pernicious  consequences  of  even  an 
occasional  slip,  and  still  more  of  a  sinful 
habit,  in  professors  of  high  standing,  are 
truly  deplorable  ;  and  such  as  to  lay  them 
under  a  deep  responsibility  for  the  souls 
of  others  as  well  as  their  own  .souls. 
Their  fall  might  involve  the  fall  of  many. 
Because  of  their  misconduct  the  spirit- 
uality of  many  might  wax  cold.  Their 
mere  follies  or  faults  of  temper  might 
serve  to  lower  the  standard  of  practical 
Christianity  in  their  neighbourhood.  Even 
their  wrongness  and  waywardness  in  little. 
things  may  cast  a  soil  on  the  profession 
of  the  gospel ;  and  when,  instead  of  a 
small,  a  great  moral  injury  is  done — how 
dreadful  the  penalty.  For  woe  to  the 
world  because  of  offences.  It  were  bet- 
ter for  a  man  that  a  millstone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  he  were  cast  into  the 
sea — than  that  he  should  offend  one  of 
Christ's  little  ones. 

There  is  another,  and  we  think  a  most 
legitimate  inference,  to  be  drawn  from 
this  passage.  It  is  that  Christians  should 
either  cease  to  differ — or,  if  this  be  impos- 
sible, that  then  they  should  agree  to  differ. 
We  of  course  exclude  such  differences, 
as,  relating  to  what  is  vital  and  essential, 
imply  that  either  one  or  other  of  the  par- 
ties is  not  Christian — disowning,  as  they 
do,  some  weightier  matters,  whether  of 
doctrine  or  of  the  law.  There  is  a  terri- 
tory within  which  controversy  is  not  only 
permitted  but  enjoined ;  and  so  we  are 
bidden  to  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  And  there 
is  another  territory  within  which  contro- 
versy has  had  the  interdict,  and  that  of 
sacred  and  scriptural  authority,  laid  upon 
it ;  and  so  we  are  told  to  avoid  foolish  and 
hurtfnl  questions,  and  to  indulge  not  in 
vain  janglings,  and  to  refrain  from  doubt- 


ful disputations  :  And  we  hold  it  a 
mighty  reinforcement  of  this  lesson  by 
the  apostle,  that  our  Saviour  should  have 
rebuked  His  disciples,  because  they  for- 
bade the  man  w^ho  worked  miracles  yet 
followed  not  after  themselves — saying, 
Forbid  him  not,  for  he  that  is  not  against 
us  is  for  us.  It  may  be  ditiicult  to  assign 
in  theory  the  limit  between  these  two  ter- 
ritories— yet,  with  a  .stronger  and  more 
general  charity  in  the  religious  world,  we 
feel  pei'suaded  that  it  were  not  so  difficult 
to  conform  to  it  in  practice.  The  treatise 
which  should  undertake  to  define  and  set 
forth  the  line  of  demarcation,  might  very 
possibly  give  new  impetus  to  the  whirl- 
pool of  debate — being  itself  the  brooding 
or  fermenting  cause  of  new  controversies. 
This  is  a  very  likely  result,  whenever  the 
subject  is  introduced  or  started  anew  on 
the  field  of  argument.  Yet  we  despair 
not  that  on  the  field  of  action,  or  in  the 
real  and  actual  administration  of  the 
church's  affairs — many  of  the  stoutest  and 
fiercest  differences  both  of  the  present  and 
former  ages  will  at  length  fall  into  desue- 
tude— so  that  all  Christians  might  be  at 
length  brought  to  be  of  one  mind  ;  or,  if 
not,  that  it  shall  at  least  be  patent  to  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  that  they  are  all  of  one 
spirit.  We  are  aware  of  liberalism,  that 
it  is  a  term  recently  devised  to  express  a 
spurious  liberality,  or  this  virtue  carried 
to  a  hurtful  and  unprincipled  excess. 
And  we  are  fflso  aware  that  latitudinari- 
anism  is  generally  employed  in  a  stig- 
matical  or  bad  meaning — else  we  might 
have  said  that  there  is  a  wholesome  lati- 
tudinarianism.  For  example,  we  cannot 
imagine  how  one  should  read  in  moral 
fairness  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  or  still 
more  perhaps  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
— and  yet,  if  he  ^efer  to  these  scriptures 
at  all,  should  reject  the  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone — So  that  to  recog- 
nise as  Christians  those  who  deny  this 
article,  we  should  hold  to  be  liberalism. 
Again,  there  are  other  differences,  on 
neither  side  of  which  has  the  Bible  left 
any  such  express  or  authoritative  deliver- 
ance, as  would  lead  us  to  pronounce  of 
one  or  other  of  the  parties,  not  only  that 
they  are  in  the  wrong,  but  fatally  in  the 
wrong.  We  should  rank  among  these 
differences  many  questions  of  meats  and 
days  and  priestly  vestments,  and  many 
points  both  of  church  order  and  church 
government — So  that  to  recognise  as 
Christians  those  of  the  Episcopalian  or 
Independent  or  Methodist  or  Baptist  per- 
suasions, we  should  hold  not  to  be  liber- 
alism, but  right  and  genuine  liberality. 
Paul  exemplified  both  these  methods  of 
dealing  with  controversies  and  disposing 
of  them — Bold  and  resolute  and  uncom- 
promising  in    all    that    was  essential — 


LECTURE   XCVII. CHAPTER   XIV,    17 23. 


501 


Yielding  and  generous  in  all  that  was  not 
so  ;  and,  however  strong  and  free  from  all 
scrupulosity  himself,  yet  deferring  with 
the  utmost  tenderness  to  the  honest  and 
conscientious  scruples  of  other  men.  He 
thus  acquitted  himself  of  two  most  im- 
portant services — the  one  as  an  intrepid 
soldi<ir,  the  manly  defender  and  guardian 
of  the  church's  purity  ;  the  other  as  a 
discreet  and  wary  cojunsellor,  who  knew 
both  how  to  judge  charitably,  and  to  arbi- 
trate wisely,  for  the  church's  unity  and 
peace. 

And  unless  we  follow  this  high  exam- 
ple, we  do  not  see,  how  the  blissful  con- 
summation of  that  unanimity  in  the  Chris- 
tian world,  of  which  our  Saviour  speaks 
as  the  stepping-stone  to  a  universal  Chris- 
tianity through  the  world  at  largci,*  is  ever 
to.be  arrived  at.  Surely  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  this  sacred  object,  it  were  well 
that  in  the  confessions  of  different 
churches,  articles  of  faith,  viewed  as  arti- 
cles of  distinction  or  separation,  should 
not  be  unnecessarily  multiplied  ;  and  we 
would  further  submit,  whether  it  is  not  a 
most  unwarrantable  hazarding  of  this 
high  and  precious  interest,  to  speak  of  the 
exclusively  divine  right  of  any  form  what- 
ever of  ecclesiastical  government.  It  is 
thus  that  certain  strenuous  advocates,  both 
of  Presbytery  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
Episcopacy  on  the  other,  have  been  heard 
to  affirm,  that  they  will  never  consent 
to  the  loosening  or  letting  down  of  a  sin- 
gle pin  in  the  tabernacle.  This  tenacity 
of  theirs  we  should  all  the  more  readily 
understand — if  the  specific  information 
of  each  and  every  pin  were  really  to  be 
had  in  Scripture.  But  in  the  absence  of 
this,  we  do  think  that  there  might  be  a 
great  deal  more  of  mutual  toleration.  It 
has  been  well  said,  that,  while  it  is  our 
duty  to  be  wise  up  to  that  which  is  writ- 
ten, we  should  not  attempt  to  be  wise  above 
or  beyond  it ;  and  so  too,  while  it  is  our 
duty  to  be  inflexible  up  to  that  which  is 
written,  it  is  surely  not  our  part  to  be  in- 
flexible beyond  it.  We  feel  confident,  that 
with  the  use  and  right  application  of  this 
principle,  there  is  immense  room  for  the 
abridgment  of  the  church's  controversies. 
Let  us  hope  that  the  movement  is  upon 
the  whole  in  this  direction  ;  and  that,  even 
amid  the  fits  and  fermentations  of  this 
busy  period,  the  Christian  world  is  now 


*  John,  xvii,  21,  23. 


heaving  towards  this  better  state  of  things 
— when  the  war  of  opinions  shall  cease  ; 
and  both  truth  and  charity  shall  walk 
hand  in  hand.  Heaven  grant,  that  this 
perspective  of  brighter  and  happier  days 
may  be  speedily  realised. 

And  let  us  not  be  afraid  lest,  when  con- 
troversies shall  cease,  men  will  therefore 
sink  down  into  the  ease  and  indifferency 
of  liberalism.  The  tension  of  the  mind 
will  be  fully  kept  up — only  in  another 
direction,  and  in  a  better  way.  If  Chris- 
tians will  not  then  strive  so  much  for  the 
mastery  in  argument,  they  will  be  differ- 
ently and  far  more  profitably  employed 
— in  provoking  to  love  and  to  good  works. 
They  might  not  be  so  intent  on  the  work 
of  judging  each  other,  because  far  more 
intent  on  the  exercise  of  judging  them- 
selves. Christianity  will  not  be  so  much 
agitated  as  a  question  of  opinion  between 
man  and  man ;  but  far  more  sedulously 
prosecuted  as  a  question  between  God 
and  their  own  consciences.  There  will 
still  be  ample  room  for  zeal  and  strenu- 
ousness — for  an  ardour  that  will  bura 
with  as  pure  and  bright  a  flame,  if  not  so 
fiercely  as  before.  Ere  the  church  mili- 
tant shall  become  the  church  triumphant, 
we  might  still  have  to  fight  the  battles  of 
principle  and- of  the  faith  with  them  who 
are  without ;  but  let  us  hope  that  our  in- 
ternal wars  will  cease,  by  the  differences 
among  ourselves  being  healed.  And  let 
us  not  imagine  that  because  there  will 
then  be  the  repose  of  mutual  charity  and 
peace,  there  must  therefore  be  the  indo- 
lence of  quietude.  The  struggle  to  be 
uppermost  on  the  field  of  championship, 
will  then  give  way  before  a  kindlier  and 
more  generous  emulation — the  struggle  to 
be  foremost  in  the  zeal  for  the  glory  of 
God,  and  for  all  the  services  of  Christian 
philantrophy  ;  and  this  too  without  the 
heart-burnings  of  rivalship  or  envy.  For 
they  will  be  all  the  readier  in  honour  to 
prefer  each  other — when  they  shall  have 
become  more  alive  to  their  own  short- 
comings than  to  the  perversities  or  defects 
of  their  fellow-men.  Even  now,  and  not- 
withstanding the  manifold  yet  chiefly 
incidental  controversies  of  our  day,  men 
in  theology  are  looking  greatly  more  to 
the  points  of  agreement,  and  less  to  the 
points  of  difference — the  promise  and 
preparation,  let  us  hope,  for  a  long  mil- 
lennium of  peace  and  prosperity  to  the 
Christian  world. 


502 


LECTURE  XCVUI. CHAPTER  XV,  1  — 13. 


LECTURE  XCVIII. 


Romans  xv,  1 — 13. 


"  \\'(  then  tnat  are  stroni;  oiiglit  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  ourselves.  Let  every  one  of 
us  please  his  neighbour  lor  his  good  to  edification.  For  even  Christ  pleased  not  himself;  but,  as  it  is  written. 
The  reproaches  ot  thtin  that  reproached  thee  fell  on  me.  For  whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime  were 
written  lor  our  learning ;  that  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  might  have  hope  Now  the 
God  of  patience  and  consolation  grant  you  to  be  like  minded  one  toward  another  acfordiiig  to  Christ  Jesus;  that 
ye  may  with  one  mind  and  one  mouth  glorify  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Wherefore  receive 
ye  one  another,  as  Christ  also  received  us,  to  the  glory  of  God.  Now  I  say,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  minister  of 
the  circumcision  for  the  truth  of  God,  to  confirm  the  promises  made  unto  the  fathers :  and  that  the  Gentiles 
might  glorify  God  for  his  mercy ;  as  it  is  written,  For  this  cause  1  will  confess  to  thee  among  the  Gentiles,  and 
sing  unto  thy  name.  And  again  he  saith,  Rejoice,  ye  Gmitiles,  with  his  people.  And  again,  Praise  the  Lord,  all 
ye  Gentiles;  and  laud  him,  all  ye  people.  And  again  Esaias  saith,  There  shall  be  a  root  of  Jesse,  and  he  that 
shall  rise  to  reign  over  the  Gentiles ;  in  him  shall  the  Gentiles  trust.  Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  ail  joy 
and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 


In  the  two  first  verses  we  are  told  what 
is  the  duty  of  the  strong  towards  the  weak 
— which  duty  is  an  obvious  practical  in- 
ference from  the  principles  laid  down  in 
the  foregoing  chapter.  It  was  that  they 
should  please  their  neighbour  and  not 
themselves.  And  yet  Paul  himself  was  in 
one  sense  any  thing  but  a  nian-pleaser. 
In  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  he  appears 
in  wholly  another  character  ;  and  so  tells 
us  there — "  Do  I  seek  to  please  men  ?  for 
if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I  should  not  be  the 
servant  of  Christ."*  And  in  a  former 
part  of  this  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  he 
says  to  the  commendation  of  those  who 
had  not  gained  the  approval  of  the  Jews 
by  submitting  to  circumcision,  that  their 
praise  was  not  of  men  but  of  God.  This 
difference  between  Paul  at  one  time  and 
Paul  at  another  lay  altogether  in  this. 
He  never  sought  the  praise  or  pleasure 
of  men  as  an  end  ;  but  he  often  sought  it 
as  a  means  to  an  end.  He  sought  it  when 
he  could  serve  Christ  by  it.  It  would  not 
have  served  Christ,  but  the  contrary,  had 
he  given  in  to  the  judaising  Christians  in 
the  Church  of  Galatia  ;  and,  in  compli- 
ance with  their  demand,  laid  the  rite  of 
circumcision  on  their  Gentile  brethren — 
and  this  too  on  the  ground  that  it  was  ne- 
cessary for  their  salvation.  He,  had  it 
been  placed  on  the  same  footing,  would 
also  have  resisted  their  abstinence  from 
meats — but  not,  when,  without  the  conces- 
sion of  any  such  vital  principle,  this  ab- 
stinence subserved  the  peace  or  extension 
of  the  Christian  church.  When  these 
high  objects  were  to  be  gained — then  this 
thing  of  indifferency  became  a  thing  of 
duteous  obligation ;  and  then  not  only 
were  the  strong  taught  to  bear  the  infir- 
mities of  the  weak — but  every  one  was 
taught,  not  to  please  his  neighbour,  but 
to  please  his  neighbour  for  his  good  to 
edification.  Thus  did  Paul  seek  to  please 
men  in  all  things — because  not  seeking 
his  own  profit,  but  the  profit  of  many, 
that  they  might  be  saved  .f 


*  Galatians,  i,  10. 


t  1  Corinthians,  x,  33. 


Ver.  3  '  For  even  Christ  pleased  not 
himself;  but,  as  it  is  written.  The  re- 
proaches of  them  that  reproached  thee 
fell  on  me.'  And  here  this  matter  of  not 
eating  flesh,  in  itself  a  perfect  trifle,  is 
made  to  rank  with  a  virtue  of  the  very 
highest  order — the  imitation  of  Christ. 
The  quotation  here  given  is  from  Psalm 
Ixix,  9 — the  first  part  of  which  verse  is  ap- 
plied by  the  apostle  John  to  our  Saviour; 
and  the  latter  in  this  place  by  the  apos- 
tle Paul.  There  was  no  pleasure  in 
those  reproaches  of  men,  which  were 
borne  by  our  blessed  Lord  in  the  work  of 
seeking  after  and  saving  them — when  He 
endured  the  contradiction  of  sinners,  and 
despised  the  shame  of  it.  But  a  still 
more  emphatic  application  of  these  words 
to  Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  found  in  that  vica- 
rious sacrifice  which  He  underwent  for 
the  sins  of  the  world — even  those  sins 
wherewith  so  much  reproach  and  dis- 
honour had  been  cast  upon  God.  The 
burden  of  all  this  was  made  to  fall  upon 
the  head  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  who  in- 
deed  took  it  upon  Himself;  and,  by  mag- 
nifying the  law,  took  oft"  indignity  from 
the  Lawgiver.  Truly  He  pleased  not 
Himself,  when  under  the  heavy  load  of  the 
hour  and  the  power  of  darkness.  His  soul 
became  exceeding  sorrowful,  and  He  be- 
came obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death 
of  the  cross.  Surely  if  Christ  thus  bore 
the  sins  of  the  wicked,  we  might  well  bear 
the  infirmities  of  the  weak. 

Ver.  4.  'For  whatsoever  things  were 
written  aforetime  were  written  for  our 
learning  ;  that  we  through  patience  and 
comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  might  have 
hope.'  He  had  just  quoted  from  the 
Scriptures  ;  and,  to  enforce  the  lesson  he 
had  just  drawn  from  them,  he  comes  forth 
with  a  general  testimony  to  the  worth 
and  the  estimation  in  which  these  wri- 
tings ought  to  be  held.  It  is  true,  that 
they  are  only  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament  which  are  here  alluded  to — or 
such  as  were  written  aforetime — or,  im- 
mediately,  for  the  instruction  of  those 


LECTURE   XCVIII. CHAPTER   XV,    1  — 13. 


503 


who  lived  many  centuries  back  ;  yet  dis- 
tinctly and  universally,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  men  of  all  ages.  This  is  only 
one  out  of  many  places  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, where  the  '  Scriptures,'  though 
but  consisting  then  of  the  Hebrew  sacred 
writings,  have  a  power  and  a  sufficiency 
ascribed  to  them  which  now-a-days  we 
are  apt  to  overlook.  It  is  the  illustrious 
testimony  of  Paul  himself  that  they  are 
able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation 
through  the  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.*  There  is  a  glory  and  a  virtue  in 
these  elder  Scriptures,  which  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of.  It  were  well  that  we 
made  ourselves  familiar  with  the  high 
aspirations  given  to  them  by  the  Psalmist 
of  old  ;t  and  still  better  with  the  attesta- 
tions in  their  favour  by  Him  who  is  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith — as  re- 
peated by  His  apostles  after  Him,  and 
from  which  we  assuredly  gather  that  they 
were  written,  not  for  the  men  of  bygone 
periods  only,  but  also  for  our  admonition 
on  whom  the  latter  ends  of  the  world  have 
come. 

'  That  we  through  patience  and  comfort 
of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope' — 
through  the  comfort  which  they  directly 
give,  and  through  the  patience  which 
both  Scripture  examples  and  Scripture 
e.xhortations  are  fitted  to  inspire.  The 
connection  of  hope  with  comfort  is  quite 
obvious — seeing  that  hope  is  the  best  and 
likeliest  of  all  topics  for  ministering  con- 
solation to  those  who  may  at  present  have 
much  to  bear ;  and  also  of  hope  with  pa- 
tience— seeing  that  patience  worketh  ex- 
perience, and  experience  hope.  The  per- 
tinency of  this  whole  consideration  to  the 
argument  which  the  apostle  is  now  hold- 
ing, will  appear  more  distinctly  if  we  re- 
collect, that  when  he  asked  the  dissentient 
p^irties  of  the  church  that  he  was  address- 
ing to  give  up  their  controversies,  they 
were  carrying  their  differences  so  far  as 
to  refuse  one  another  the  hopes  and  priv- 
ileges of  their  comntion  salvation.  There 
were  judaising  teachers,  we  know,  who 
taught  that  except  men  were  circumcised 
after  the  manner  of  Moses,  they  could  not 
be  saved.J  And  it  would  seem  as  if  from 
the  apostle's  reasoning,  that  at  least  the 
weak  brethren,  were  apt  to  look  on  their 
opponents  as  so  many  reprobates  who 
had  forfeited  their  claims  to  a  blissful  im- 
mortality ;  and  also  that  the  strong  breth- 
ren made  too  little  account  of  the  spiritual 
well-being,  and  so  the  ultimate  safety  of 
their  adversaries,  in  this  contention — 
wounding  their  consciences,  and  perhaps 
caring  not  although  destroyed  by  their 
meats,  those  disciples  should  perish  for 
whom  Christ  died.     The  great  object  of 


'  2  Tim.  iii,  15.     t  Psa.  xix,  cxix,  &c.    i  Acts,  xv,  1. 


the  apostle  was  to  convince  them  that  the 
question  now  so  keenly  agitated  need  not 
affect  the  everlasting  condition  of  either 
party:  that  both  might  alike  stand  unto 
God  and  be  alike  accepted  of  Him  ;  and 
that,  after  having  passed  through  the  or- 
deal of  the  last  judgment,  both  might  be 
admitted  to  life  everlasting  with  Him  who 
is  Lord  of  the  dead  and  the  living.  He 
therefore  bids  them  cherish  both  for  them- 
selves and  others  the  hope  of  their  com- 
mon salvation — looking  on  each  other  as 
heirs  and  expectants  now,  and  to  be  par- 
takers hereafter  of  the  same  glorious  in- 
heritance— when  they  shall  ever  be  at 
rest,  and  all  their  partial  and  temporary 
differences  here  will  be  lost  and  forgotten 
in  the  reign  of  an  endless  and  universal 
charity.  Here  they  speak,  and  under- 
stand, and  think,  as  children  ;  but  there, 
where  they  shall  have  attained  to  man- 
hood, and  all  shall  have  become  strong, 
they  will  put  away  the  childish  things — 
the  trifles  of  their  present  vain  and  fruit- 
less controversy. 

Ver.  5.  '  Now  the  God  of  patience  and 
consolation  grant  you  to  be  like  minded 
one  towards  another,  according  to  Christ 
Jesus.'  '  The  God  of  patience  and  conso- 
lation ' — the  expression  varied  here  from 
comfort  to  consolation,  though  not  in  the 
original — where  the  reference  therefore 
to  the  very  terms  of  the  last  verse  is  all 
the  more  distinct  in  the  ascription  given 
to  God,  as  the  God  of  patience  and  com- 
fort— or  as  the  giver  of  these  graces, 
which  He  is,  when  He  strengthens  us 
"with  all  might  according  to  his  glorious 
power  unto  all  patience  and  long-suffer- 
ing with  joyfulness."*  We  are  here  re- 
minded of  what  is  said  of  God  the  Father 
in  2  Cor.  i,  3,  4 — "  The  Father  of  mercies 
and  the  God  of  all  comfort ;  who  com- 
forteth  us  all  in  our  tribulations,  that  we 
may  be  able  to  comfort  them  which  are 
in  any  trouble  by  the  comfort  wherewith 
we  ourselves  are  comforted  of  God."  The 
sympathy  of  a  common  hope,  begetting 
the  sense  of  a  common  interest,  would  in 
every  good  and  Christian  mind,  beget  al- 
so the  fellowship  of  a  common  or  mutual 
charity,  and  so  make  them  "like-minded 
one  to  another;"  and  it  is  added,  "ac- 
cording to  Christ  Jesus,"  or  after  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ  Jesus — even  the  example 
which  he  had  already  quoted  in  the  third 
verse.  The  patience  and  comfort,  it  might 
have  been  said,  though  from  God,  are 
nevertheless  through  the  Scriptures — the 
one  being  the  Source  of  all  our  graces, 
the  other  their  channel  of  conveyance. 
And  the  like-mindedness  of  this  verse  has 
certainly  in  it  as  one  ingredient  at  least, 
that  of  which  in  Philippians,  ii,  2,  this 


*  Colossians,  i,  11. 


504 


LECTURE  XCVm. CHAPTER  XV,  1 13. 


like-mindedriess  is  said  to  consist — even 
in  having  the  same  love,  of  one  accord, 
of  one  mind — under  the  influence  of 
which  spirit  nothing  would  be  done 
through  strife  or  vain-glory  ;  but  in  low- 
liness of  mind  each  would  esteem  other 
better  than  themselves. 

Ver.  6.  But  it  is  evident  from  this  verse, 
that  the  like-mindedness  here  does  not  lie 
exclusively  in  this  fellowship  of  a  mutual 
charity  one  for  another.  It  points  also  to 
the  common  direction  of  their  minds  to- 
wards one  and  the  same  object — that  ob- 
ject being  the  glory  of  God.  They  may 
differ  in  certain  observances  ;  but  what 
he  wants  of  them  is  that  they  shall 
agree  in  this.  Let  him  that  regardeth  the 
day  regard  it  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  he  that 
regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  let  him 
not  regard  it.  In  like  manner,  let  him 
who  eateth,  and  him  who  eateth  not, 
agree  in  giving  God  thanks,  and  in  giving 
God  glory.  This  they  should  do  with  one 
mind ;  and,  he  adds,  with  one  mouth. 
With  our  mind  we  must  think  the  same 
things,  ere  with  our  mouth  we  can  speak 
the  same  things.  Were  we  then  more 
slow  to  speak  of  the  things  on  which  we 
differ,  and  more  ready  to  speak  of  the 
things  on  which  we  agree,  it  would  might- 
ily conduce  to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the 
visible  church.  The  members  of  the 
church  at  Rome  differed  in  regard  both 
to  moats  and  days  ;  and  Paul  as  good  as 
enjoined  silence  about  these,  when  he 
bade  them  receive  each  other,  but  not  to 
doubtful  disputations.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  bids  them  join  with  one  mouth, 
as  well  as  one  mind,  in  giving  glor}^  to 
God.  "  Nevertheless  whereto  we  have 
already  attained,  let  us  walk  by  the  same 
rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing."* 

'Even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.'  This  is  the  peculiar  aspect  in 
which,  as  Christians,  we  regard  God. 
Did  we  but  view  Him  as  the  God  of  Nat- 
ural Theology — apart  from  Christ,  and 
out  of  Christ — there  might  be  a  fearful- 
ness  toward  God,  but  no  fellowship.  It  is 
our  looking  to  Him,  and  so  trusting  in 
Him,  as  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ — it  is  this,  which,  specifically  and 
characteristically  marks  our  entrance  on 
the  religion  of  the  gospel.  Then  begins 
our  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with 
the  Son — the  best  of  all  preparatives,  ac- 
cording to  the  apostle  John,  for  our  hav- 
ing fellowship  one  with  anolher.f  And 
so  it  follows  in 

Ver.  7.  '  Wherefore  receive  yc  one  ano- 
ther, as  Christ  also  received  us,  to  the 
glory  of  God.'  He  winds  up  his  argu- 
ment on  this  topic,  by  re-echoing  what 
he  had  said  at  the  outset  of  it.    He  bids 


*  Fhllippians,  iii,  16. 


1 1  John,  ij  3,  7. 


them  receive  one  another,  even  by  bear- 
ing one  another.  Surely  if  Christ  made 
our  sins  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our 
reception,  and  that  too  at  the  time  when 
we  were  enemies,  we  should  make  their 
infirmities  no  obstacle  to  the  reception  of 
those  who  are  our  brethren — weak  breth- 
ren, they  may  be  ;  but  it  will  make  us  all 
the  liker  to  our  Saviour,  who  was  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart,  if  we  bear  ourselves 
with  a  peculiar  gentleness  towards  them, 
seeing  that  we  are  required  not  to  strive, 
but  to  be  gentle  towards  all  men.*  He 
had  compassion  on  them  who  were  out 
of  the  way  ;  and  far  more  grievously  out 
of  it,  than  those  erring  or  over-scrupulous 
disciples,  in  whose  behalf  and  for  whose 
indulgence  Paul  is  now  pleading.  Surely 
if  Christ  adopted  us  into  God's  family,  we 
should  adopt  one  another  into  our  fellow- 
ship. And  'to  the  glory  of  God'  too. 
He  effected  peace  on  earth  in  the  way 
that  brought  glory  to  God  in  the  highest. 
He  reconciled  us  sinners  unto  God — yet 
so  as  to  exalt  His  authority,  and  make  all 
the  glories  of  His  character  stand  out  in 
brighter  manifestation  than  ever,  to  the 
eyes  both  of  angels  and  of  men.  He  re- 
ceived and  recognised  us  as  the  children 
of  His  own  Father,  and  so  as  His  own 
brethren  ;  but  on  such  a  footing  as  never- 
theless redounded  to  the  vindication  and 
honour  of  the  divine  perfections  :  And  it 
was  indeed  a  signal  triumph  over  difficul- 
ties insuperable  to  all  but  He — when  out 
of  such  materials  as  the  guilty  aliens  of 
the  human  race,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
He  gained  such  large  accessions  to  the 
spiritual  household  of  the  faithful.  Let 
not  us  impair  this  household,  or  narrow 
its  limits — whether  in  reality,  or  in  our 
own  imaginations — whether  by  offences, 
on  the  one  hand,  as  when  we  wound  the 
consciences  of  the  weak,  and  perhaps 
destroy  those  for  whom  Christ  died  ;  or 
by  our  intolerant  and  exclusive  sectarian- 
ism on  the  other,  as  when  we  say  that 
without  certain  ceremonial  observances 
men  cannot  be  saved.  Let  us  not  thus 
defeat  the  sacred  policy  of  Him,  who 
opened  the  door  of  admission  for  the  world 
at  large.  Let  Gentiles  give  up  their  con- 
tempt, and  Jews  give  up  their  bigotry; 
and  as  Christ  received  both,  let  both  re- 
ceive one  another.  Lot  us  do  nothing  to 
break  off  this  fyllovvship  ;  or  to  mutilate 
that  church,  by  which  is  shewn  to  the 
universe  the  manifold  wisdom  of  Goil.f 
It  is  therefore  well  added — that  we  should 
receive  each  other  •  to  the  glory  of  God  ' 
— for  it  were  indeed  a  minishing  of  His 
glory,  thus  to  abridge  the  extent  and  en- 
tireness  of  that  great  temple,  the  materi- 
als whereof  are  gathered  out  of  all  nations 


•  2  Timothy,  ii,  24. 


t  Ephesians,  iii,  10. 


LECTURE  XCVm. CHAPTER  XV,  1 13. 


505 


and  of  which  Christ  Himself  is  the  chief 
corner-stone. 

Ver,  8-12.  '  Now  I  say  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  a  minister  of  the  circumcision  for  the 
truth  of  God,  to  confirm  the  promises 
made  unto  the  fathers  :  and  that  the  Gen- 
tiles might  glorify  God  for  His  mercy  ;  as 
it  is  written,  For  this  cause  I  will  confess 
to  thee  among  the  Gentiles,  and  sing  unto 
thy  name.  And  again  he  saith,  Rejoice, 
ye  Gentiles,  with  his  people.  And  again, 
Praise  the  Lord,  all  ye  Gentiles  ;  and  laud 
him,  all  ye  people.  And  again,  Esaias 
saith.  There  shall  be  a  root  of  Jesse,  and 
he  that  shall  rise  to  reign  over  the  Gen- 
tiles ;  in  him  shall  the  Gentiles  trust.'  As 
he  draws  towards  the  close  of  his  epistle, 
he  seems  as  if  to  redouble  his  strenuous- 
ness  for  the  fulfilment  of  ils  main  object 
— which  was  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
mon understanding  between  Jews  and 
Gentiles — a  full  settlement  of  all  the  un- 
happy differences  betwixt  them.  To  ef- 
fectuate this  his  favourite  design,  on  which 
it  is  obvious  that  his  whole  heart  was  set, 
he  puts  forth  all  his  powers  of  persuasion  ; 
and  he  evidently  feels  that  his  chief  at- 
tempt must  be  to  soften  the  prejudices  of 
the  Jewish  understanding — or  that  his 
most  necessary,  as  well  as  hardest  task, 
was  to  propitiate  and  reconcile  the  minds 
of  his  own  countrymen,  all  whose  par- 
tialities had  been  violently  thwarted  by 
the  free  admission  of  Gentiles  into  the 
church,  and  more  especially  when  accom- 
panied with  the  indulgence  of  being  ex- 
empted from  the  obligations  of  the  cere- 
monial law.  We  can  fancy  as  if  it  were 
in  the  spirit  of  his  own  characteristic  pol- 
icy, and  to  appease  the  wounded  vanity 
of  the  Jews,  that  in  the  8th  verse  he  sets 
forth  Jesus  Christ  Himself  as  being  in  His 
own  person  the  direct  minister  of  the  cir- 
cumcision— whereas  afterwards  he  puts 
himself  forward  as  being  the  humble 
minister  under  Christ  for  the  conversion 
of  the  Gentiles.  Certain  it  is  that  our 
Saviour,  while  on  earth,  very  much  re- 
stricted His  ministrations  to  the  lost  sheep 
of  the  house  of  Israel.  But  the  great  in- 
strumentality employed  by  our  apostle, 
and  which  he  most  wielded  for  gaining 
over  the  Jews,  was  a  plentiful  quotation 
of  their  own  Scriptures.  This  was  pre- 
cisely what  our  Saviour  Himself  did, 
when,  to  do  away  another  of  their  nation- 
al antipathies,  even  the  revolt  which  they 
all  felt  in  the  notion  of  a  crucified  Messi- 
ah— He  argued  from  Moses  and  the  Pro- 
phets, that  Christ  ought  to  h;ive  suffered 
these  things,  expounding  "in  all  the 
Scriptures  the  things  concerning,  himself " 
And  thus  too  Paul  has  recourse  to  a 
scriptural  demonstration  ;  and  brings  both 
psalms  and  prophecies  to  witness  that  the 
truth  of  God  was  as  much  committed  to 
64 


the  admission  of  the  Gentiles  within  the 
pale  of  gospel  mercy,  as  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promises  made  on  behalf  of  the 
Jews  in  the  ears  of  those  patriarchs  fromi 
whom  they  had  descended. 

Ver.  13.  'Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you 
with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that 
ye  may  abound  in  hope,  through  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Having  thus 
merged  the  distinction  between  these  two 
classes,  he  makes  them  both  the  objects 
of  a  common  invocation — and  this  in  one 
of  the  most  pregnant  and  precious  verses 
of  the  Bible.  The  God  whom  he  thus 
calls  upon  is  designed  by  him  'the  God 
of  hope' — just  because  He  is  the  Author 
of  this  grace,  making  us  to  'abound  in 
hope' — even  as  a  little  before  He  is  called 
the  God  of  patience  and  comfort,  because 
He  works  in  us  these  graces  also — strength- 
ening us  "  with  all  might,  according  to  his 
glorious  power,  unto  all  patience  and 
long-suffering  with  joyful ness." 

There  are  certain  weighty  lessons  en- 
veloped in  the  brief  but  emphatic  sentence 
now  before  us,  and  some  of  which  we 
shall  slightly  touch  upon. 

Our  first  remark  is  founded  on  the  com- 
parison of  the  4th  and  13th  verses — ► 
whence  we  are  made  to  perceive  the 
identity  of  that  effect  which  is  ascribed 
to  the  Scriptures  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  other.  In  the 
first  of  these  the  apostle  directs  the  atten- 
tion of  his  disciples  to  the  things  'which 
were  written  aforetime,'  that  through  the 
Scriptures  they  might  have  hope.  In  the 
second,  he  prays  for  the  same  disciples, 
that  they  'may  abound  in  hope  through 
the  power  of  the 'Holy  Ghost.'  The  re- 
spective functions  of  the  Word  and  Spirit 
are  thus  brought  into  view;  and  more 
especially  this  important  truth — that, 
though  perfectly  distinct  from  each  other, 
their  joint  operation  on  the  soul  of  man 
issues,  not  in  two  different  results,  but  in 
one  and  the  same  result.  The  reason  is, 
that  the  one  is  the  agent,  and  the  other 
the  instrument,  of  one  and  the  same  ser- 
vice. And  so  the  woid  of  God  is  called 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit.*  It  is  that  which 
He  works  by.  When  He  enlightens,  it  is 
by  opening  the  understanding  to  under- 
stand the  Scriptures ;  and  when  He  im- 
presses,  it  is  by  giving  the  influence  and 
power  of  moral  suasion  to  the  lessons  of 
Scripture.  It  might  help  perhaps  to  alle- 
viate the  mysteriousness  of  certain  pas- 
sages in  the  Bible — if  the  comparing  of 
spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  we  under- 
stand to  be  the  comparing  of  scriptural 
things  with  scriptural,  and  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  were  regarded  as  the  things  of 
Scripture  spiritually  discerned.  We  should 

•  Eph.  vi,  17. 


g06 


LECTURE  XCVm. CHAPTER  XV,  I 13. 


then  be  at  no  loss  to  harmonise  the  saying 
that  we  are  born  again  of  the  Spirit,* 
with  the  saying  that  we  are  born  again 
by  the  word  of  God.f  And  as  both  co- 
operate in  the  work  of  our  regeneration, 
so  both  co-operate  in  the  production  of 
each  special  grace  that  belongs  to  the 
new  creature  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

The  joy  and  peace  here  spoken  of  are 
both  to  be  understood  subjectively — or  in 
the  sense  of  mental  affections,  wherewith 
it  is  the  prayer  of  the  apostle  that  his 
disciples  should  be  filled.  It  is  not  the 
joy  which  there  is  in  heaven  over  a  sinner 
that  repenteth,  but  the  joy  felt  by  the  sin- 
ner himself  when  he  comes  to  have  the 
faith  of  the  gospel.  Neither  is  it  the  peace 
which  there  is  in  the  heart  of  the  Godhead 
towards  us,  when,  on  our  acceptance  of 
His  Son  as  our  Saviour,  His  purposes  of 
wrath  and  vengeance  against  us  are 
turned  away.  But  it  is  the  peace  which 
enters  our  own  hearts,  when,  visited  by 
the  sense  of  forgiveness,  or  by  the  con- 
viction that  God  hath  ceased'  from  His 
anger,  we  cease  from  all  our  disquietudes 
because  of  it.  And  more  than  this.  Not 
only  are  we  relieved  from  the  terrors  of  a 
coming  vengeance,  but  also  from  those 
sensations  of  disquietude  which  might 
else  have  agonised  us,  amid  the  vexations 
or  vicissitudes  of  the  life  that  soon  passelh 
away.  Because  of  the  glorious  prospect 
beyond  it,  we  are  calm — even  when  beset 
with  tribulation  ;  or  are  not  troubled  as 
other  men.  This  peace  of  our  text  is  of 
a  more  negative  character  than  the  joy 
of  our  text ;  yet  it  too  admits  of  degrees — 
the  strength  of  it  being  rightly  estimated 
by  the  magnitude  of  those  trials,  under 
which  we  maintain  the  serenity  of  our 
spirits  notwithstanding.  In  the  world,  our 
Saviour  tells  us,  we  shall  have  tribulation  ; 
but  in  Him  we  shall  have  peace  :  And,  as 
a  proof  that  it  admits  of  being  increased 
and  strengthened,  it  is  said  in  one  place 
to  be  a  peace  so  great  that  it  passeth  all 
understanding;  and  it  is  spoken  of  by 
Isaiah  as  the  privilege  of  God's  reconciled 
children,  that  they  will  delight  greatly  in 
the  abundance  of  their  peace — a  peace 
of  such  depth  and  stability,  that  it  is  con- 
ceived of  by  the  same  prophet,  as  flowing 
through  the  heart  like  a  mighty  river — 
the  surface  of  which  might  be  ruflled  by 
the  passing  wind  that  blows  over  it,  while 
all  is  stillness,  all  is  tranquil  and  beyond 
the  reach  of  disturbance  within  and 
below. 

There  is  as  great  a  complexional  vari- 
ety in  the  experience  of  Christians,  as 
there  is  in  the  natural  temperaments  of 
men.  It  is  because  of  this  constitutional 
difference,  that  while  the  faith  of  the  gos- 


*  John,  iii,  3,  5. 


1 1  Peter,  i,  23. 


pel  works  joy  in  the  heart  of  one  man,  it 
works  peace  in  another.  And  so  we  read 
of  death-beds  of  ecstacy,  and  also  of 
death-beds  of  calm  and  settled  assurance 
— the  latter  evincing,  it  is  possible,  as 
strong  a  degree  of  faith,  though  unaccom- 
panied by  the  raptures  of  a  lively  and 
overpowering  manifestation. 

And  what  is  worthy  of  our  special  no- 
tice is,  that  both  the  joy  and  the  peace 
may  be  felt  in  the  direct  exercise  of  be- 
lieving. They  may  flow,  and  flow  imme- 
diately, from  the  faith  of  the  gospel — 
without  aught  to  intervene  between  them. 
Those  would  throw  a  sad  obscuration  on 
the  freeness  of  the  gospel,  and  greatly 
embarrass  the  outset  of  an  enquirer  who 
is  groping  for  an  entrance  on  the  way  of 
salvation — who  insist  that  ere  joy  or  peace 
can  be  felt,  there  must  be  some  subjective 
ground  of  experience  on  which  to  sustain 
it.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  sub- 
jective in  Christianity  does  minister  both 
joy  and  peace  to  the  believer — as  when 
Paul  rejoiced  in  the  testimony  of  his  con- 
science ;  and  John  could  tell  that  when 
his  heart  condemned  him  not,  then  had  he 
confidence  towards  God.  But  when  one 
principle  is  admitted,  must  it  always  be 
at  this  expence — the  exclusion  or  extinc- 
tion of  another  equally  legitimate,  and 
equally  indispensable  to  the  Christian 
state  and  the  Christian  character  ?  There 
are  a  peace  and  a  joy  in  the  subjective — 
or  on  our  finding  what  good  things  have 
been  worked  in  us  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
But  distinct  from  this,  and  I  should  say 
anterior  to  this,  there  are  also  a  peace 
and  a  joy  in  the  objective — or  on  our  be- 
lieving what  good  things  have  been  spo- 
ken to  us  by  the  word  of  God,  and  to  be 
felt  immediately  on  our  giving  credence 
to  them — A  peace  and  a  joy  which  ema- 
nate directly  from  the  sayings  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  and  such  sayings  too  as  are  ad- 
dressed, not  to  disciples  only,  but  to  yet 
unconverted  sinners  also.  VVould  not  the 
man  whom  we  had  injured,  and  of  whom 
we  had  good  reason  to  be  afiaid — did  he 
stand  before  us  \vit!i  an  angry  or  menacing 
countenance — would  not  he  be  the  object 
of  our  dread  and  disquietude,  and  this 
simply  on  our  view  of  the  objective  } 

And  on  the  other  hand,  did  his  counte- 
nance bespeak  a  readiness  for  peace  and 
pardon,  would  not  terror  give  way  to  con- 
fidence— and  that  simply  too  on  our  view 
of  the  objective  ?  And  does  the  Lawgiver 
make  no  such  exhibition  of  Himself  in  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  when  He  looks 
compassion  on  the  children  of  men,  or 
sets  forth  His  own  Son  as  the  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  world  1  But  there  are 
sounds  as  well  as  sights  of  encourage- 
ment, words  which  am  the  direct  bearers 
of  comfort  to  the  soul,  a  proclamation  of 


LECTURE   XCVIII. — CHAPTER   XV,    1  — 13. 


507 


amnesty  as  well  as  a  flag  of  amnesty  ; 
and  which,  as  coming  from  without,  are 
objective  things  external  to  ourselves, 
and,  apart  from  ourselves,  fitted  to  light 
up  an  immediate  gladness  in  our  bosoms, 
did  we  but  open  our  eyes  or  our  ears  to 
them — as  surely  as  when  the  wise  men 
from  the  east  saw  the  star  over  Bethle- 
hem, they  rejoiced  with  exceeding  great 
joy ;  or  as  surely  as  the  shepherds  who 
first  heard  the  proclamation  of  good- will 
from  the  sky,  and  saw  the  babe  in  the 
manger,  glorified  and  praised  God  for  all 
the  things  that  they  had  heard  and  seen, 
as  it  was  told  them.  We  cannot  well 
imagine  how  any  tidings  should  be  desig- 
nated tidings  of  great  joy — unless  they 
had  the  property  of  making  joyful,  simply 
and  immediately  on  our  believing  them — 
and  this  without  any  thought  bestowed 
upon  ourselves,  or  subjective  regards  cast 
downwardly  or  inwardly  on  our  own 
spirit,  or  on  the  state  of  our  own  hearts 
and  characters.  It  is  thus  that  there  are 
a  peace  and  joy  in  believing  what  we 
read  of  God,  and  of  God  in  Christ,  in  our 
bibles — as  when  He  swears  by  Himself 
that  He  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  a 
sinner,  but  rather  that  all  should  come 
unto  Him  and  live  ;  or  beseeches  us  to 
enter  into  reconciliation  ;  or  assures  us 
that  whosoever  cometh  unto  His  Son  shall 
in  no  wise  be  cast  out ;  and  that  if  we  so 
come,  our  sins,  though  as  crimson,  should 
become  as  wool,  though  as  scarlet,  should 
be  made  whiter  than  snow.  The  ministers 
of  the  gospel  are  the  heralds  of  a  univer- 
sal proclamation — a  proclamation  of 
mercy,  in  the  believing  of  which  there 
are  instant  peace  and  joy. 

But  neither  would  we  exclude  the  sub- 
jective as  being  a  ground  of  peace  and 
joy  also.  Nay  we  will  admit  that  there 
must  be  a  certain  harmony  between  the 
objective  and  the  subjective  at  the  very 
outset  of  our  Christianity.  The  same 
heavenly  Teacher  and  Saviour  who  says. 
Come  unto  me  all  and  I  will  receive  you, 
says  also,  He  who  cometh  unto  me  must 
forsake  all.  There  are  here  both  an  in- 
vitation and  a  declaration.  I  cannot 
imagine,  notwithstanding  the  perfect  ful- 
ness and  freeness  of  the  one,  how  any  man 
could  come  confidently  or  rejoice  in  the 
faith — if  in  the  face  of  the  other,  he  was 
not  honestly  desirous  of  forsaking  all  sin, 
and  making  an  entire  surrender  of  him- 
self to  the  will  of  Christ.  If  at  all  con- 
scious of  this  reservation  or  of  this  dupli- 
city, it  will  make  him  incapable  of  clearly 
or  cot.tidently  believing — or,  in  other 
words,  an  evil  conscience  will  darken 
faith.  But  this  does  not  preclude  the  im- 
portance, nay  even  the  necessity,  of  set- 
ting forth  in  full  presentation  before  the 
eye  of  the  mind  the  objective  truths  of 


Christianity,  the  objects  that  faith  must 
have  to  rest  upon ;  and  the  fruit  of  this 
on  all  truly  earnest  enquirers,  or  in  other 
words,  on  all  good  and  honest  hearts,  will 
be  peace  and  joy.  And  this  whether  they 
be  looking  inwardly  on  their  hearts  or  no. 
Nay  you  must  give  them  time  to  look 
outwardly  on  the  tidings  from  heaven  ere 
they  can  rejoice ;  and  in  virtue  of  their 
hearts  being  good  and  honest  (a  goodness 
and  honesty  which  abide,  and  stand  them 
in  stead,  even  when  they  are  not  looking 
inwardly) — in  virtue  of  this  singleness 
of  eye,  and  singleness  of  purpose,  will 
their  whole  bodies  be  full  of  light  ;*  and 
they  will  see  clearly  outward  these  ob- 
jects of  vision,  because  within  them  there 
is  a  clear  medium  of  vision.  And  there 
is  a  counterpart  to  this  in  them  who  want 
singleness  of  eye,  or  whose  hearts  are 
full  of  duplicity,  and  so  of  darkness  ;f 
and  to  whom  therefore  the  objects  of 
faith,  bereft  of  all  luminousness,  might  be 
preached  or  presented  but  in  vain.  Still 
it  is  our  duty  to  preach  at  a  venture — that 
to  the  good  and  honest  it  might  be  the 
savour  of  life  unto  life,  although  it  should 
be  the  savour  of  death  unto  death  to  all 
other  hearers.  In  the  simple  exercise  of 
believing  they  will  have  hope — the  hope 
as  yet  of  faith  only,  and  not  till  after- 
wards the  hope  of  experience.  But  the 
stronger  the  faith  is,  and  the  hope  founded 
upon  it — the  brighter  will  the  experience 
be,  and  the  hope  also  which  is  founded 
upon  it.  These  two  will  work  like  con- 
spiring influences,  which  keep  pace  to- 
gether, and  work  into  each  other's  hands. 
For  the  more  vigorous  the  faith,  the  more 
vigorous  also  will  be  the  obedience.  The 
faith  and  the  good  conscience  will  thus 
grow  with  each  other's  growth,  and 
strengthen  with  each  other's  strength — 
whereas  if  we  cast  away  our  good  con- 
science, of  our  faith  we  shall  make  ship- 
wreck. 

And  it  is  the  Holy  Ghost  who  causeth 
us  to  abound  in  both — in  the  hope  that 
cometh  directly  from  the  objective,  by 
taking  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  showing 
them  unto  us  ;  and  in  the  hope  that  com- 
eth reflexly  from  the  subjective,  by  work- 
ing in  us  those  personal  graces,  whence 
men  take  knowledge  of  us,  and  we  may 
also  take  knowledge  of  ourselves,  that  we 
are  indeed  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  He  is 
alike  the  author  of  the  hope  that  springs 
from  the  inherent  and  of  the  hope  that 
springs  from  the  imputed  righteousness — 
of  the  one  when  experience  worketh  hope 
by  the  love  of  God  being  shed  abroad  in 
our  hearts  through  the  Holy  Ghost  given 
to  us  ;t  of  the  other,  when  througli  the 
Spirit  we  wait  for  the  hope  of  righteous- 
ness by  faith. 


Malt,  vi,  22, 23. 


t  Matt,  vi,  23.  i  Rom.  r,  5. 


508 


LECTDRE  XCIX. CHAPTER  XV,  14 — 23. 


LECTURE  XCIX. 


Romans  xv,  14 — 23. 

"  And  T  myself  also  am  persuaded  of  you,  my  brethren,  that  ye  also  are  full  of  goodness,  filled  with  all  knowledge, 
able  also  to  admonish  one  another.  Nevertheless,  brethren,  I  have  written  the  more  boldly  unto  you  in  some 
sort,  as  putting  you  in  mind,  because  of  the  grace  that  is  given  to  me  of  God,  that  I  should  be  the  minister  of 
Jesus  Cnrist  to  the  Gentiles,  ministering  the  gospel  of  God,  that  the  offering  up  of  the  Gentiles  ni'ght  be  accep- 
table, being  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  1  have  then-fore  whereof  I  may  glory  through  Jrsus  Christ  in  those 
things  which  pertain  to  God.  For  I  will  not  dare  to  speak  of  any  of  those  things  which  Christ  hath  not  wrought 
by  me,  to  make  the  Gentiles  obedient  by  word  and  deed,  through  mighty  signs  and  wonders,  by  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  ;  so  that  from  Jerusalem,  and  round  about  unto  Illyricum,  I  have  fully  preached  the  gospel  of 
Cnrist.  Yea,  so  have  I  strived  to  preach  the  gospel,  not  where  Christ  was  named,  lest  I  should  build  upon  another 
man's  foundation  :  but  as  it  is  written,  To  whom  he  was  not  spoken  of,  they  shall  see  ;  and  they  that  have  not 
heard  shall  understand.  For  which  cause  also  I  have  been  much  hindered  from  coming  to  you.  But  now  having 
no  more  place  in  these  parts,  and  having  a  great  desire  these  many  years  to  come  unto  you  ;  whensoever  I  take 
>ny  journey  into  Spain,  I  will  come  to  you  :  for  I  trust  to  see  you  in  my  journey,  and  to  be  brought  on  my  way 
thitherward  by  you,  if  first  I  be  somewhat  filled  with  your  company.  But  now  I  go  unto  Jerusalem  to  minister 
unto  the  saints.  For  it  hath  pleased  them  of  IVlucudouia  and  Achaia  to  make  a  certain  contribution  for  the  poor 
saints  which  are  at  Jerusalem.  It  hath  pleased  them  verily  ;  and  their  debtors  they  are.  For  if  the  Gentiles  nave 
been  made  partakers  of  their  spiritual  things,  their  duty  is  al.'-o  to  minister  unto  them  in  carnal  things.  When 
therefore  I  have  performed  this,  and  have  sealed  to  them  this  fruit,  I  will  come  by  you  into  Spain.  Andl  am  sure 
that,  when  I  come  unto  you,  I  shall  come  in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Now  I  beseech 
you,  brethren,  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit,  that  ye  strive  together  with  me  in 
your  prayers  to  God  for  me  ;  that  I  may  be  delivered  from  them  that  do  not  believe  in  Judea  ;  and  that  my  service 
■which  1  nave  for  Jerusalem  may  be  accepted  of  the  saints  ;  that  I  may  come  unto  you  with  joy  by  the  will  of 
God,  and  may  with  you  be  refreshed.     Now  the  God  of  peace  be  with  you  all.     Amen." 


Ver.  14.  Paul,  in  drawing  towards  the 
close  of  his  epistle,  seenns,  with  the  char- 
acteristic delicacy  which  breaks  fortli  in 
many  other  passages,  to  feel  that  he  must 
apologise  for  the  freedom  of  his  exhorta- 
tions. The  likest  thing  to  it  in  any  of  the 
other  apostles,  is  when  Peter  tells  the  dis- 
ciples to  whom  he  writes,  that  he  addresses 
them,  not  to  inform  as  if  they  were  igno- 
rant persons ;  but  to  stir  up  their  pure 
minds  in  the  way  of  remembrance — and 
this  though  they  already  knew  the  things 
of  which  he  was  reminding  them,  and 
though  they  were  established  in  the  pres- 
ent truth.*  And  so  Paul,  as  if  to  soften 
the  effect  of  his  dictations — and  this  though 
his  manner  was  the  farthest  possible  from 
that  of  a  dictator — tells  his  converts  of 
his  persuasion  that  they  were  filled  with 
knowledge  and  goodness  ;  and  that  though 
he  took  it  upon  him  to  admonish  them,  he 
was  sure  nevertheless  that  they  were  able 
to  admonish  one  another.  The  truth  is, 
that  neither  the  greatest  knowledge,  nor 
the  greatest  goodness,  supersedes  the  ne- 
cessity of  our  being  often  told  the  same 
things  over  again.  Men  might  thoroughly 
know  their  duty,  and  yet  stand  constantly 
in  need  to  be  reminded  of  their  duty.  The 
great  use  of  moral  suasion  is  not  that 
thereby  people  should  be  rriade  to  know, 
but  should  be  led  to  consider.  And  thus 
our  Sabbaths  and  other  seasons  of  peri- 
odical instruction,  are  of  the  greatest  pos- 
sible service,  although  there  should  be  no 
dealing  in  novelties  at  all — though  but  to 
recall  the  sacred  truths  which  are  apt  to 
be  forgotten,  and  renew  the  good  impres- 
sions which  might  else  be  dissipated 
among  the  urgencies  of  the  world.  Whe- 
ther then  an  apostle  should  write,  or  a 

•  2  Peter,  i,  12—14;  iii,  1. 


minister  should  substantially  present  the 
same  things,  it  ought  not  to  be  grievous, 
because  it  is  safe.*  He  speaks  but  as  the 
helper  of  his  congregation,  and  not  as 
having  dominion  over  them.f  He  is  but 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  whose  office  it  is,  not  merely  to 
teach  what  is  new  but  to  recall  what  is 
old — to  bring  all  things  to  remembrance.! 
It  is  true  that  they  might  already  have 
received  the  gospel,  and  that  in  the  gos- 
pel they  stand— Yet  they  shall  have  be- 
lieved in  vain,  unless  they  keep  in  mem- 
ory that  which  has  been  preached  unto 
them.ij  In  keeping  with  thi.s,  Paul  says  in 
the  14th  verse  that  he  writes,  not  to  in- 
form but  to  put  in  mind. 

Ver.  15,  16.  '  Nevertheless,  brethren,  I 
have  written  the  more  boldly  unto  you  in 
some  sort,  as  putting  you  in  mind,  because 
of  the  grace  that  is  given  to  me  of  God. 
Tliat  I  should  be  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  Gentifcs,  ministering  the 
gospel  of  God,  that  the  offering  up  of  the 
Gentiles  might  be  acceptable,  being  sanc- 
tified by  the  Holy  Gho.st.'  Still  further 
to  conciliate  their  toleration  fur  his  ad- 
vices, he  tells  them  of  the  large  warrant 
that  he  had  received  from  God  Himself, 
and  by  which  he  was  fully  authorised  to 
act  the  part  of  their  instructor.  In.stead 
of  being  dissatisfied,  they  might  well  have 
felt  most  grateful  for  the  distinction  con 
ferred  on  them  by  the  message  of  an  am- 
bassador invested  with  suclT  powers  and 
credentials  from  heaven.  At  the  same 
time,  the  special  designation  of  himself, 
which  he  here  intimates,  of  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  while  it  excused  the  liberties 
which  he  took  with   them,  might  help  to 


Philippians.  iii,  1 
I  John,  xiv,  2G. 


t  2  Corinthians,  i,  24. 
§  1  Corinthians,  xv,  2. 


LECTURE  XCIX. CHAPTER  XV,  14 33. 


509 


mitigate  the  discontent  of  his  other  and 
more  impracticable  disciples  the  Jews — 
inasmuch  as  it  explained  and  justified  his 
peculiar  zeal  for  their  privilege  of  ex- 
emption from  the  servitudes  of  the  Mosaic 
ritual,  in  behalf  of  those  who  had  been 
given  to  him  as  his  own  peculiar  charge. 
That  he  had  the  Jews  in  his  eye,  and  was 
still  laying  himself  out  to  propitiate  their 
favour,  seems  probable  from  the  sacrifi- 
cial style  in  which  he  describes  the  ser- 
vice that  had  been  put  into  his  hands. 
He  represents  himself  as  the  minister  of 
Christ* — in  which  office  he  does  the  work 
of  a  priest  with  the  gospel,f — his  offering]: 
being  the  Gentile  converts,  who,  anointed 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  made  acceptable 
thereby,  even  as  the  meat-offering  of  the 
Jews,  which  had  oil  and  frankincense 
poured  upon  it,  arose  with  a  sweet  savour 
unto  the  Lord. 

Ver.  17.  'I  have  therefore  whereof  I 
may  glory  through  Jesus  Christ  in  those 
things  which  pertain  to  God.'  Paul's  ob- 
ject in  glorying  was  not  to  magnify  him- 
self, but  to  constrain  a  willing  and  whole- 
some submission  to  the  lessons  which  he 
gave  forth,  in  his  capacity  as  steward  of 
Heaven's  high  mysteries.  His  glorying 
was  all  through  Jesus  Christ ;  and  the 
things  of  which  he  was  the  dispenser  did 
not  pertain  to  him  but  to  God.  His  func- 
tions were  wholly  ministerial ;  and  no- 
thing can  exceed  the  perfect  humility  as 
well  as  wisdom  wherewith  he  discharged 
them.  All  that  he  arrogated  to  himself 
was  the  office  of  a  servant,  though  it  was 
a  service  so  honourable  and  so  signalised, 
as  would  above  measure  and  unduly  have 
exalted  many  other  men. 

Ver.  18,  19.  '  For  I  will  not  dare  to 
speak  of  any  of  those  things  which  Christ 
hath  not  wrought  by  me,  to  make  the 
Gentiles  obedient,  by  word  and  deed, 
through  mighty  signs  and  wonders,  by 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  so  that 
from  Jerusalem,  and  round  about  unto 
Illyricum,  I  have  fully  preached  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ.'  There  is  a  peculiarity  in 
the  mode  of  expression  here,  which  may 
perhaps  be  ascribed  to  the  sensitive  re- 
pugnance of  our  apostle  to  aught  like  the 
assumption  of  superiority  over  other  men. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  pre- 
eminently, though  not  exclusively  the 
apostle  of  the  Gentiles — Yet  he  will  not 
say  that  he  will  dare  to  speak  of  the 
things  which  Christ  had  done  by  him,  but 
that  he  will  not  dare  to  speak  of  the 
things  which  Christ  had  not  done  by  him 
— thus  modestly  recognising  the  contri- 
bution of  other  men's  labours  in  a  cause, 
where  he    himself  had    been  the  chief 

*  A.ttTovpyos.  '  t  'lepovpyuu. 

t  Jlpoarjiopa, 


labourer ;  and  far  the  most  powerful  in- 
strument in  the  hand  of  God  for  its  suc- 
cess and  advancement  in  the  world.  This 
could  not  be  disguised — so  that  after  lead- 
ing his  readers  to  understand  that  there 
were  others  who  shared  along  with  him 
in  the  great  achievement  of  making  the 
Gentiles  obedient  through  mighty  signs 
and  wonders,  and  leaving  them  to  ima- 
gine how  great  this  share  might  be — he 
could  not  avoid  the  direct  statement  of 
his  own  apostolical  work,  in  that  from 
Jerusalem  and  round  about  unto  Illyricum 
he  had  fully  preached  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

'Through  mighty  signs  and  wonders, 
by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God.'  It  is 
not  likely  that  Paul  would  have  made 
mention  at  all  of  these  miracles,  had  they 
not  been  wrought  at,  Rome  as  well  as  in 
other  places  along  his  apostolical  tour, 
where  churches  had  been  planted  by  him. 
At  all  events,  he  in  epistles  to  other 
churches,  does  appeal  to  the  miracles 
which  had  been  wrought  in  the  midst  of 
them.  For  example,  in  the  free  and  fear- 
less remonstrance  which  he  held  with  the 
Galatians,  he  puts  the  question  with  all 
boldness — "  O  foolish  Galatians" — "  he 
that  ministereth  to  you  the  Spirit  and 
worketh  miracles  among  you,  doeth  he  it 
by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hear- 
ing of  faith  V*  And  in  the  enumeration 
which  he  makes  of  the  powers  conferred 
on  various  of  the  church  office-bearers,  he 
tells  the  Corinthians  that  to  one  is  given 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  the  working  of  mira- 
cles ;  and,  more  specifically  still,  to  ano- 
ther the  gifts  of  healing,  and  to  another 
divers  kinds  of  tongues,  and  to  another 
the  interpretation  of  tongues.f  And  again, 
in  another  epistle  to  the  same  people,  he 
says,  "  Truly  the  signs  of  an  apostle 
were  vvroughc  among  you  in  all  patience, 
in  signs,  and  wonders,  and  mighty  deeds."t 
In  this  respect  he  tells  them  that  they 
were  not  inferior  to  other  churches  ;  nor 
is  it  probable  that  he  would  have  written 
of  these  miracles  to  his  converts  at  Rome, 
had  they  been  in  this  state  of  inferiority 
to  others. 

There  cannot  then  be  imagined  a  more 
satisfactory  historical  evidence  for  these 
high  and  undoubted  credentials  of  a  di- 
vine mission,  than  we  are  able  to  adduce 
for  the  miracles  which  abounded  in  the 
primitive  churches,  and  for  those  in  par- 
ticular which  were  worked  by  Paul's  own 
hands.  He  indeed,  in  common  with  the 
other  apostles,  possessed  the  endowment 
in  a  degree  that  might  be  called  transcen- 
dental— insomuch  as,  beside  having  the 
gift  of  miracles,  they  had  the  power,  by 
the  laying  on  of  their  hands,  of  conferring 
this   gift   upon   others.^     Now    whatever 


'  Galatians,  iii,  1,  5.  t  1  Corinthians,  xii.  9,  10. 

i  2  Coriiithians,  xii,  12.      §  Acts,  viii,  18,  &c. 


510 


LECTURE  XCIX. CHAPTER  XV,  14 — 33. 


exhibition  might  have  been  made  of  such 
things  at  Rome — certain  it  is  that  for 
miracles  both  at  Corinth  and  in  Galatia, 
we  have  testimony  in  such  a  form  as 
makes  it  quite  irresistible.  Here  we 
have,  in  the  custody  of  these  two  church- 
es from  the  earliest  timt?s,  the  epistles 
which  they  had  received  from  Paul — the 
original  documents  having  been  long  in 
their  own  possession,  while  copies  of 
them  were  speedily  multiplied  and  dif- 
fused over  the  whole  Christian  world. 
In  these  records  do  we  find  Paul  in  vindi- 
cation of  his  own  apostleship,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  severe  reckoning  with  the 
people  whom  he  addresses,  make  a  con- 
fident appeal  to  the  miracles  which  had 
been  wrought  before  their  eyes.  Had 
there  been  imposture  here,  the  members 
of  these  two  churches  would  not  have 
lent  their  aid  to  uphold  it.  They  would 
not  have  professed  the  faith  which  they 
did  in  pretensions  which  they  knew  to  be 
false,  and  that  for  the  support  of  a  claim 
to  divine  authority  now  brought  to  bear 
in  remonstrance  and  rebuke  against 
themselves.  We  might  multiply  at  plea- 
sure our  suspicions  of  Paul,  and  conjure 
up  all  sorts  of  imaginations  against  him  ; 
but  no  possible  explanation  can  be  found 
for  the  acquiescence  of  his  converts  in 
the  treachery  of  the  apostle,  or  rather  of 
their  becoming  parties  to  his  fabrication, 
if  fabrication  indeed  it  was.  One  can 
fancy  an  interest,  which  he  might  have 
in  a  scheme  of  deception ;  but  what 
earthly  interest  can  we  assign  fui-  the 
part  which  they  took  in  the  deception, 
knowing  it  to  be  so  ?  Or  on  what  other 
hypothesis  than  the  irresistible  truth  of 
these  miracles,  can  we  explain  their  ad- 
herence to  the  gospel,  and  that  in  the  face 
of  losses  and  persecutions,  nay  even  of 
cruel  martyrdoms — but  over  and  above 
all  this,  the  taunts  and  cutting  reproaches 
to  the  bargain,  of  the  very  man  who 
could  tell  them  of  the  miracles  which 
themselves  had  seen,  as  the  vouchers  of 
his  embassy  from  God  ;  and  threatened, 
if  necessary,  to  come  amongst  them  with 
a  rod,  and  make  demonstration  in  the 
midst  of  them  of  his  authority  and  power  ? 
Had  there  been  deceit  and  jugglery  in 
the  matter,  why  did  they  not  let  out  the 
secret,  and  rid  themselves  at  once  and  for 
ever  of  this  burdensome  visitation  1  The 
truth  is,  that  the  overpowering  evidence 
from  without,  and  their  own  consciences 
within,  would  not  let  them.  There  is  no 
other  historical  evidence  which  in  clear- 
ness and  certainty  comes  near  to  this. 
And  whether  we  look  to  the  integrity  of 
these  original  witnesses,  men  faithful  and 
tried  ;  or  to  the  abundant  and  continuous 
and  closely  sustained  testimony  which 
flowed  downward  in  well  filled  vehicles 


from  the  first  age  of  the  apostles — we  arc 
compelled  to  acknowledge  a  sureness  and 
a  stamp  of  authenticity  in  the  miracles  of 
the  gospel,  not  only  unsurpa.ssed  but  un- 
equalled by  any  other  events,  the  know- 
ledge of  which  has  been  transmitted  from 
ancient  to  modern  times. 

Ver.  20,  21.  '  Yea,  so  have  I  strived  to 
preach  the  gospel,  not  where  Christ  was 
named,  lest  I  should  build  upon  another 
man's  foundation :  but,  as  it  is  written. 
To  whom  he  was  not  spoken  of,  they 
shall  see ;  and  they  that  have  not  heard 
shall  understand.'  Not  that  Paul  would 
have  withheld  the  benefit  of  his  instruc- 
tions from  those  who  were  already  Chris- 
tians, if  they  came  in  his  way.  But  what 
he  strove  for  and  sought  after,  was  to 
enter  on  altogether  new  ground — deeming 
it  more  his  vocation  to  extend  and  spread 
abroad  Christianity,  by  the  planting  of 
new  churches — than  to  build  up  or  per- 
fect the  churches  which  had  been  already 
founded.  There  seems  to  have  been  an 
emulation  in  these  days  among  the  first 
teachers  of  the  gospel,  which  betokens 
that  even  they  were  not  altogether  free 
from  the  leaven  which  Paul  hud  detected 
in  his  own  converts,  when  he  charged 
them  with  being  yet  carnal.*  There  was 
something  amongst  them  like  a  vain- 
glorious rivalship  in  the  work  of  prose- 
lyting— insomuch  that  the  credit  of  their 
respective  shares  in  the  formation  of  a 
Christian  church  was  a  matter  of  compe- 
tition and  jealousy.  Our  apostle  wanted 
to  keep  altogether  clear  of  this,  and  to  bo 
wholly  aloof  from  the  temptation  of  it — 
as  indeed  he  himself  intimates  in  2  Cor. 
X,  15,  16,  where  he  tells  us  that  he  would 
not  boast  of  other  men's  labours,  or  in 
another  man's  line  of  things  made  ready 
to  his  hand.  Certain  it  is,  that  while  he 
refrained  from  building  on  another  man's 
foundation,  he  experienced  no  little  dis- 
turbance from  other  men  building  on  the 
foundation  which  hehimself  had  laid — and 
these  not  only  the  false  teachers,  but  even 
men  who  were  true  at  bottom — yet  would, 
like  Peter  at  Antioch,  have  laid  some  of 
their  wood  and  hay  and  stubble  there- 
upon. 

The  prophet  from  whom  Paul  here 
quotes,  had  the  Gentiles  chiefly  in  his 
eye  ;  and  to  be  their  apostle  was  his  pe- 
culiar destination.!  This,  however,  was 
not  a  mere  arbitrary  appointment ;  for 
we  read  that  he  was  chosen  to  this  office, 
because  of  his  peculiar  qualifications. 
He  was  a  wise  master-builder  who  could 
lay  well  the  foundation. f  He  had  the  tal- 
ent beyond  other  men  to  begin  at  the  be- 
ginning— or  to  lay  down  what  he  himself 


*  1  Corinthians,  iii,  4.  t  Acts,  xxii,  21. 

i  Ap^iTCKTCov  ]  1  Cor.  iii,  10. 


LECTURE  XCIX. — CHAPTER  XV,  14 33. 


511 


calls  the  principles  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ.*  No  one  could  excel  him  iti  tiie 
admirable  skill  wherewith  he  made  his 
first  outset,  when  reasoning;  with  those  to 
whom  the  doctrine  3f  Christ  was  as  yet  a 
perfect  novelty  ;  and  such  being  his  forle, 
if  we  may  thus  express  ourselves  on  such 
a  subject,  we  cannot  wonder  that  it  was 
also  his  favourite  walk  to  speak  unto 
those  who  had  not  yet  seen  or  heard  the 
truth,  and  address  himself  to  those  who 
had  no  previous  notice  or  understanding 
of  it.  We  meet  with  manifold  traces  of 
this  distinct  and  distinguishing  power  in 
our  great  apostle — the  power  of  taking  up 
a  right  vantage-ground  whence  to  date 
his  argument,  or  on  which  to  rear  his  de- 
monstration in  behalf  of  the  gospel.  We 
can  discern  the  faculty  of  which  we  now 
speak,  in  his  speech  before  Agrippa  and 
his  address  to  the  people  of  Athens.  But 
it  was  a  faculty  which  availed  him  in  his 
converse  with  Jews  as  well  as  Gentiles — 
the  former  in  fact  often  standing  at  as 
great,  and  in  some  respects  a  greater  dis- 
tance than  the  latter  from  the  first  rudi- 
ments, or  as  he  himself  terms  it,  the  first 
principles  of  the  oracles  of  God.  It  is 
obvious  that  thus  to  commence  aright 
with  any  one,  respect  must  b^  had  to  his 
special  state  or  habitudes  of  mind — so  as 
to  fit  in  the  initial  consideration  with  the 
initial  prejudices  or  tendencies  of  those 
whom  he  was  addressing.  We  have  re- 
peated exhibitions  of  this  in  the  history 
of  Paul — of  the  judgment  wherewith  he 
took  a  right  point  of  departure  ;  or  set  up 
a  right  starting-post,  when  his  object  was 
to  find  an  access  and  an  acceptance  into 
the  minds  of  men  for  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity— As  with  idolaters,  when  he  rea- 
soned with  them  out  of  their  own  super- 
stition ;  or  with  scholars,  when  he  rea- 
soned with  them  out  of  their  own  litera- 
ture;! or  with  Pharisees,  when  he  reasoned 
with  them  from  the  tenets  of  their  own 
sect  ;1  or  with  Israelites  in  general,  when 
he  reasoned  with  them  out  of  their  own 
scriptures.  But  the  amplest  memorials 
of  this  rare  and  remarkable  gift,  in  the 
most  gifted  of  all  the  apostles,  are  his 
epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians,  and 
most  of  all  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews — 
in  all  of  which  he  lays  himself  out  more 
expressly,  it  is  true,  for  the  Jewish  under- 
standing ;  but  in  that  way  of  skilful  open- 
ing, as  well  as  skilful  adaptation  and 
approach,  which  showed  that  he  stood  the 
highest  of  all  his  colleagues  as  an  accom- 
plished tactician  in  the  warfare  of  minds 
— or  who  best  knew  how  he  should  ad- 
dress himself  to  this  work  of  laying 
seige,  as  it  were,  to  men's  understandings, 


'  Apxn;  Heb.  vi,  1. 
t  Acts,  xvii.  t  Acts,  xxiii,  6. 


and  this  for  the  achievement  of  a  victory 
over  them — And  so  could  be  all  things  to 
all  men,  that  he  might  gain  some.  No- 
wonder  then  that  his  delight  and  his  pre- 
ference was  to  put  himself  to  the  task  ho 
was  .  best  fitted  for — whether  to  mak'  a 
first  encounter  with  Jewish  prejudic  o,  or 
as  a  pioneer  in  the  wilderness  of  heathen- 
ism. To  express  it  otherwise,  if  there 
was  one  stage  in  the  process  of  the  spirit- 
ual manufacture  which  he  liked  better  to 
deal  with  than  another,  it  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  stage  of  it;  when  he  had  to 
deal  with  the  raw  material,  or  with  minds 
in  the  greatest  possible  state  of  rudeness 
and  alienation  from  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ — whether  by  grossest  ignorance  a& 
with  barbarians ;  or  by  contempt  and 
bigotry,  as  with  Jews  upon  the  one  hand^ 
and  yet  unconverted  Greeks  upon  the 
other. 

Ver.  22-24.  '  For  which  cause  also  I 
have  been  much  hindered  from  coming  to 
you.  But  now  having  no  more  place  in 
these  parts,  and  having  a  great  desire 
these  many  years  to  come  unto  you ; 
whensoever  I  take  my  journey  into  Spain* 
I  will  come  to  you  :  for  I  trust  to  see  you 
in  my  journey,  and  to  be  brought  on  my 
way  thitherward  by  you,  if  first  I  be 
somewhat  filled  with  your  company.'  It 
is  obvious,  that  in  the  multitude  of  such 
engagements,  he  could  not  be  so  frequent 
in  his  attentions  or  visits  to  the  churches 
that  had  been  already  formed.  And  it  is 
accordingly  on  this  ground  that  he  apolo- 
gises for  his  lengthened  absence  from  the 
Christians  at  Rome.  'For  which  cause 
also  I  have  been  much  hindered  from 
coming  to  you.'  He  had  had  a  great  de- 
sire for  many  years  to  make  out  a  visit ; 
and  states  this  in  the  next  verse,  in  order 
that  they  might  accept  of  the  will  for  the 
deed.  He  pleads  the  hindrance  of  his  in- 
cessant occupation  in  those  regions  where 
Christ  had  not  been  before  named  ;  and  it 
is  interesting  to  note  what  it  was  that  re- 
leased him  from  this  hindrance.  It  was 
because  that  now  he  had  '  no  more  place 
in  these  parts.'  Paul  might  come  to  know, 
by  a  direct  intimation  from  the  Spirit, 
that  God  had  no  more  work  to  do  in  these 
parts — even  as  we  read  in  the  book  of 
Acts  of  his  being  bidden  go  to  some  places 
and  restrained  or  hindered  from  others.* 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Paul  filled 
up  the  various  regions  which  he  had  vis- 
ited with  the  preaching  of  the  gospel — 
though  he  might  have  left  a  church  in 
each  of  the  larger  towns,  as  a  centre  of 
emanation  whence  others  might  propa- 
gate the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  through 
the  countries  around  them.  And  even 
where  he  preached  with  little  or  no  suc- 


*  Acts,  XVI,  6,  7;  xviii,  9, 10;  xix,  21. 


612 


LECTURE  XCIX. — CHAPTER  XV,  14 — 33. 


cess,  he  might  be  said  to  have  no  more 
place  in  that  part — no  more,  for  example, 
at  Athens,  although  he  left  it  a  mass  of 
nearly  unalleviatcd  darkness — just  as  our 
Lord's  immediate  apostles  might  well  be 
said  to  have  no  more  place  in  those  towns 
that  rejected  their  testimony,  and  against 
which  they  were  called  to  shake  off  the 
dust  of  their  feet,  and  then  to  take  their 
departure — fleeing  from  the  cities  which 
either  refused  or  persecuted  them,  and 
turning  to  others.  The  way  in  fact  of 
apostles  or  ministers,  the  outward  instru- 
ments in  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  is 
the  same  with  the  way  of  the  Spirit,  who 
is  the  real  agent  in  this  teaching,  by  giv- 
ing to  their  word  all  its  efficacy.  He  may 
visit  every  man  ;  but  withdraws  Himself 
from  those  who  resist  Him — just  as  the 
missionaries  of  the  gospel  might  visit  ev- 
ery place,  and  have  fulfilled  their  work 
even  in  those  places  where  the  gospel  has 
been  put  to  scorn,  and  so  become  the 
savour  of  death  unto  death  to  the  people 
who  live  in  them.  Yet  we  must  not  slack- 
en in  our  endeavours  for  the  evangelisa- 
tion of  the  whole  earth,  although  the  only 
effect  should  be  that  the  gospel  will  be 
preached  unto  all  nations  for  a  witness, 
and  the  success  of  the  enterprise  will  be 
limited  by  the  gathering  in  of  the  elect 
from  the  four  corners  of  heaven. 

It  is  a  matter  of  unsettled  controversy 
whether  Paul  ever  was  in  Spain,  or  was 
able  to  fulfil  his  purpose  of  a  free  and 
voluntary  journey  to  Rome — his  only  re- 
corded journey  there  being  when  taken 
up  as  a  prisoner  in  chains.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  epistle  he  tells  them  of  his 
prayer  ;  and  here  expresses  his  hope  of 
again  seeing  them  in  circumstances  of 
prosperity,  when,  after  a  full  and  satisfac- 
tory enjoyment  of  their  society,  he  might 
be  helped  forward  by  them  on  his  way  to 
the  country  beyond.  Let  me  here  notice 
in  passing,  how  accordant  the  movements 
both  of  Paul  beyond  Judea,  and  of  our 
Saviour  and  the  apostles  within  its  limits, 
as  described  in  the  Gospels  and  Acts — are 
with  the  abiding  geography  of  towns  and 
countries  still  before  our  eyes.  It  is  in 
itself  a  pleasing  exercise  to  trace  this 
harmony  of  Scripture  with  the  known 
bearings  and  distances  of  places  still  ; 
and  even  serves  the  purpose  of  confirma- 
tion as  a  monumental  evidence  to  the 
truth  of  Christianity. 

Ver.  25-27.  'But  now  I  go  unto  Jerusa- 
lem to  minister  unto  the  saints.  For  it 
hath  pleased  them  of  Macedonia  and 
Achaia  to  make  a  certain  contribution  for 
the  poor  saints  which  are  at  Jerusalem. 
It  hath  pleased  them  verily  ;  and  iheir 
debtors  they  are.  For  if  the  Gentiles  have 
been  made  partakers  of  their  spiritual 
things,  their  duty  is  also  to  minister  unto 


them  in  carnal  things.'  Paul  however 
had  an  intermediate  duty  to  perform,  ere 
he  could  fulfil  his  purpose  of  a  journey 
to  Rome.  He  had  to  go  to  Jerusalem  with 
the  produce  of  the  charities  of  the  faith- 
ful, gathered  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia 
for  the  necessities  of  the  poor  and  perse- 
cuted Christians  in  Jerusalem.  This  very 
collection  is  referred  to  in  several  other 
places;*  and  the  comparison  of  scripture 
with  scripture  is  also  a  pleasing  and  con- 
firmatory exercise.  This  is  not  the  first 
time  that  such  an  exertion  of  liberality 
had  been  made  for  the  destitute  brethren 
in  Judea,  as  we  read  in  Acts,  xi,  30 ;  xii, 
25.  The  truth  is,  that  the  Jewish  were 
sooner  the  objects  of  persecution  than  the 
Gentile  Christians — the  effects  of  which 
seem  to  have  been  first  felt  by  the  lower 
classes — deprived  in  all  likelihood  of  their 
custom  and  employment,  in  consequence 
of  the  ill-will  conceived  against  them  by 
those  on  whom  they  wont  to  depend  for 
the  means  of  their  subsistence.  It  was 
for  their  relief  that  the  wealthier  converts 
who  were  beyond  the  reach  of  any  im- 
mediate suffering  from  this  cause,  made 
the  generous  surrender  of  all  their  pro- 
perty.f  This  resource  appears  to  have 
been  at  length  exhausted,  when  the  ap- 
peal in  their  favour  was  at  length  carried 
abroad  over  the  Christian  world  at  large. 
The  charity  at  home,  however,  nobly  did 
its  part,  ere  the  charity  at  a  distance  was 
called  for  or  drawn  upon. 

'  And  their  debtors  they  are.'  He  here 
accredits  the  Jewish  Christians  generally 
and  nationally,  as  being  the  dispensers 
of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles — though 
properly  they  ware  but  the  teachers  and 
apostles  who  came  forth  of  Jerusalem 
that  were  entitled  to  the  honour  of  this 
consideration,  and  to  a  grateful  return 
because  of  it.  It  is  in  this  more  proper 
and  restricted  sense  that  he  pleads  for  the 
right  both  of  himself  and  Barnabas  fb  a 
livelihood  from  the  church  at  Corinth. t 
But  it  is  not  unnatural,  when  any  signal 
benefit  has  been  conferred  by  the  mem- 
bers of  a  certain  community,  to  feel  as  if 
an  acknowledgment  were  due  on  that  ac- 
count to  the  whole  collective  body  of 
whom  they  form  a  part ;  and  Paul  avails 
himself  of  this  dispusition  when  pleading 
for  the  poor  saints  of  Jerusalem,  because 
of  the  blessings  which  had  emanated  from 
Jerusalem  on  all  the  churches,  though  the 
great  majority  of  these  poor  saints  hiid 
personally  no  hand  in  them.  It  were  well 
if  we  of  the  present  day  felt  similarly  to 
this.  It  is  true  that  they  are  not  the  Jews 
who  are  now  in  the  world  to  whom  we 
owe  our  spiritual  privileges  as  Christians ; 
but  still  let  us  indulge  the  thought  of  a 

•  2  Cor.  viii,  4 ;  ix,  13.     t  Acts,  iv,  34—37.     t  1  Cor.  ix. 


LECTURE   XCIX, — r-CHAPTER   XV,    14 — 33. 


515 


gratitude  being  due  to  them,  because  of 
the  mighty  benefits  that  we  have  received 
from  their  ancestors,  from  meu  of  their 
natron  in  other  days,  from  the  prophets 
and  apostles  of  old,  who  bequetithed  to 
us  the  oracles  of  God ;  and  who  in  dis- 
pensing the  word  of  life  among  the  na- 
tions, were  chief  instruments  for  the  ful- 
filment at  length  of  the  promise  made  to 
their  great  ancestor — that  in  him  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed. 
It  is  a  reproach  to  Christians  that  this 
consideration  has  not  operated  more  pow- 
erfully in  favour  of  the  Jewish  people — 
so  as  to  have  made  them  the  objects  of  a 
far  higher  benevolence,  both  in  things 
spiritual  and  temporal,  than  they  have 
ever  yet  experienced  at  our  hands. 

'For  if  the  Gentiles  have  been  made 
partakers  of  their  spiritual  things,  their 
duty  is  also  to  minister  unto  them  in  car- 
nal things.'  The  comparison  in  respect 
of  magnitude  and  worth  between  spiritual 
and  carnal  things,  is  still  more  distinctly 
made  in  1  Cor.  ix,  11 — where  the  apostle 
speaks  of  the  right  which  he  and  Barna- 
bas had  earned  to  a  maintenance  from 
their  hands.  In  this  matter  too  there  is 
great  room  for  the  condemnation  of  pro- 
fessing Christians — because  of  their  gross 
practical  insensibility  to  the  rule  of  equity 
here  laid  down ;  and  which  is  strikingly 
evinced  throughout  Protestant  countries 
in  particular,  by  the  extreme  feebleness 
and  defect  of  the  voluntary  principle  for 
the  support  of  ministers  of  religion.  It  is 
in  virtue  of  this,  that  the  instructors  even 
of  large  and  opulent  congregations,  have 
often  so  pitiful  and  parsimonious  an  al- 
lowance doled  out  to  them ;  and  if  so 
wretched  a  proportion  of  their  own  car- 
nal be  given  in  return  for  spiritual  things 
to  themselves,  we  are  not  to  wonder  at 
the  still  more  paltry  and  inadequate  con- 
tributions which  are  made  by  them  for 
the  spiritual  things  of  others.  The  ex- 
pence  of  all  missionary  schemes  and  en- 
terprises put  together,  a  mere  scantling 
of  the  wealth  of  all  Christendom,  argues 
it  to  be  still  a  day  of  exceeding  small 
things — a  lesson  still  more  forcibly  held 
out  to  us  by  the  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  at  our  own  doors  who  are  per- 
ishing for  lack  of  knowledge.  There  is 
a  carnal  as  well  as  a  spiritual  benevo- 
lence. That  the  carnal  benevolence 
makes  some  respectable  head  against  the 
carnal  selfishness  of  our  nature,  is  evinced 
by  the  fact,  that  so  very  few  are  ever 
known  to  die  of  actual  starvation.  That 
the  spiritual  benevolence  falls  miserably 
behind  the  other,  is  evinced  by  the  fact 
of  those  millions  and  millions  more  in 
our  empire,  who,  purely  from  want  of  the 
churches  which  ought  to  be  built,  and  of 
ministers  who  ought  to  be  maintained  for 
65 


them,  are  left  to  wander  all  their  days 
beyond  the  pale  of  gospel  ordinances — 
and  so  to  live  in  guilt  and  die  in  utter 
darkness.  Verily  in  such  a  contemplation, 
it  might  well  be  said  even  of  this  profes- 
sing age — Are  ye  not  yet  altogether  carnal  1 

Ver.  28.  '  When  therefore  I  have  per- 
formed this,  and  have  sealed  to  them  this 
fruit,  I  will  come  by  you  into  Spain.'  To 
seal  here  is  to  make  sure  or  to  consummate. 
When  I  am  conclusively  done  with  this 
business,  when  I  have  brought  the  fruit 
of  Christian  liberality  which  has  been  put 
into  my  hands  to  Jerusalem,  and  delivered 
it  to  the  apostles  there  for  distribution 
among  the  poor  saints — then  will  I  come 
by  you  into  Spain. 

Ver.  29.  'And  I  am  sure  that,  when  I 
come  unto  you,  I  shall  come  in  the  fulness 
of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.' 
There  are  manuscripts  in  which  the  word 
'  for  gospel'  is  pmitted,  and  where  never- 
theless a  complete  sense  is  retained — 'I 
am  sure  that  when  I  do  come,  I  shall  come 
in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  Christ.' 
Of  this  one  thing,  or  main  thing,  he  was 
sure  ;  but  there  are  certain  other,  things 
of  detail  and  circumstance  in  this  whole 
anticipation,  of  which  he  is  not  so  sure. 
In  chap,  i,  10,  11,  he  speaks  of  his  pros- 
perous journey  to  Rome  as  but  a  prayer 
and  thing  of  longing  desirousness  ;  in  i, 
15,  of  his  preaching  there  as  but  a  pur- 
pose ;  in  XV,  23,  of  his  future  visit  to  them 
as  an  earnest  wish  ;  in  xv,  24,  of  his  jour- 
ney  to  Spain  as  being  yet  a  contingency, 
and  his  seeing  the  church  at  Rome  in  his 
way  as  no  more  than  a  confident  expecta- 
tion ;  lastly,  of  his  coming  to  them  on  his 
road  to  Spain  as  a  determination  :  And, 
to  crown  all,  as  a  certainty  and  absolute 
certainty — that  when  he  did  come,  or  if  he 
should  come,  he  would  come  in  the  fulness 
of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel,  or  blessing 
of  Him  who  was  the  Author  and  Finisher 
of  the  gospel.  It  marks  most  strikingly 
the  shortsightedness  of  men,  even  of  men 
inspired  on  certain  occasions  and  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  as  contrasted  with  the 
counsel  of  that  God  which  alone  shall 
stand — it  most  emphatically  tells  of  His 
ways  as  not  being  our  ways — that  the 
hopes,  nay  the  prayers  of  an  apostle,  rein- 
forced by  the  prayers  which  he  requested 
from  his  people  for  a  prosperous  journey 
to  Rome,  were  all  frustrated-^o  that,  in- 
stead of  a  joyful  procession  to  his  friends 
in  the  world's  metropolis,  he  came  to  them 
as  a  criminal  in  fetters,  a  captive  in  the 
hands  of  unbelievers.  It  is  thus  that 
the  things  of  which  he  was  only  hope- 
ful or  desirous  were  disposed  of;  but 
the  thing  of  which  he  felt  assured  had  its 
fixed  accomplishment.  He  did  come  to 
Rome  fully  charged  with  spiritual  bles- 
sings, and  which  he  fully  and  freely  de- 


514 


LECTURE   XCIX. — CHAPTER  XV,    14 — 33. 


livered  to  the  people  there.  «'  And  Paul 
dwelt  two  whole  years  in  his  own  hired 
house,  and  received  nil  that  came  in  unto 
him — preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
teaching  those  things  which  concern  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  confidence,  no 
man  forbidding  him." 

Ver.  30 — 33.  'Now  I  beseech  you  breth- 
ren for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and 
for  the  love  of  the  Spirit,  that  ye  strive 
together  with  me  in  your  prayers  to  God 
for  me ;  that  I  may  be  delivered  from 
them  that  do  not  believe  in  Judea ;  and 
that  my  service  which  I  have  for  Jerusa- 
lem may  be  accepted  of  the  saints ;  that 
I  may  come  unto  you  with  joy  by  the 
will  of  God,  and  may  with  you  be  re- 
freshed. Now  the  God  of  peace  be  with 
you  all.  Amen.'  He  seems  to  make 
appeal  here  to  that  love  in  their  hearts 
which  the  Spirit  worketh — the  love  more 
especially  which  Christiajis  who  have 
passed  from  death  unto  life  bear  in  their 
hearts  for  each  other;  and  under  the 
promptings  of  which  it  behoved  them  to 
pray  for  the  safety  of  him  who  was  their 
spiritual,  father.  His  request  for  such  a 
prayer  implies  a  sense  of  danger  in  the 
mind  of  the  apostle — an  apprehension 
fully  warranted  by  his  knowledge  of  the 
deadly  hatred  borne  him  by  the  Jews; 
and  against  which  he  in  this  very  journey 
took  the  precaution  mentioned  in  Acts, 
XX,  3.  It  is  perhaps  not  so  easy  to  ex- 
plain why  he  should  stand  in  any  doubt 
of  his  service  being  accepted  by  the  saints 
at  Jerusalem.  But  many  of  them  too 
were  jealous,  and  did  not  like  his  par- 
tiality for  the  Gentiles — nay,  it  was  pos- 
sible, might  have  disdained  the  receiving 
of  any  charity  at  their  hands.  On  this 
matter  therefore,  as  on  every  other,  he 


desired  to  relieve  his  carefulness  by  mak- 
ing his  requests  known  unto  God,* — both 
from  his  own  mouth,  and  through  the 
mouths  of  his  interceding  brethren.  It 
is  worthy  of  being  noted,  that  the  next 
object,  his  coming  unto  them  with  joy, 
he  asks  to  be  prayed  for  with  a  submis- 
sive reference  to  the  will  of  God.  It  may 
be  regarded  as  the  sample  of  a  condi- 
tional as  distinguished  from  an  absolute 
prayer.  We  know  of  certain  things 
which  expressly  and  at  all  times  are 
agreeable  to  the  will  of  God,  and  for 
these  we  might  pray  without  any  qualifi- 
cation— as  for  our  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
and  our  growth  in  the  divine  life,  and  our 
final  salvation;  and  generally  for  all 
spiritual  blessings.  TPor  temporal  bless- 
ings we  might  pray  also  ;  but,  with  the 
exception  of  daily  bread,  and  things  ab- 
solutely needful  for  the  life  and  the  body, 
respecting  which  we  have  the  declared 
will  and  pi-omise  of  God — for  all  other 
blessings  of  an  earthly  description,  we 
should  pray  with  a  salvo,  laying  our 
wants  and  wishes  before  God,  while  sub- 
jecting them  withal  to  God's  good  plea- 
sure. The  things  of  this  class  when 
prayed  for,  may  or  may  not  be  conceded 
to  us ;  but  at  all  events,  as  the  fruit  of 
this  believing  intercourse  with  Heaven, 
the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  un- 
derstanding shall  keep  our  hearts  and 
minds  through  Christ  Jesusf — even  that 
peace  which  is  the  subject  of  the  apostle's 
closing  benediction,  and  of  which  no 
tribulations  or  adversities  can  deprive 
us.t  And  therefore  with  an  unfaltering 
amen  could  he  pray — '  The  God  of  peace 
be  with  you  all.' 


Phil,  iv,  6.       t  Phil,  iv,  6,  7.       J  John,  xvi,  33. 


LECTURE   C. 


Romans  xvi. 


"  I  commend  unto  you  Phebe  our  sister,  which  is  a  servant  of  the  church  which  is  at  Cenchrea:  that  ye  receive 
her  in  the  Lord,  as  be*ometh  saints,  and  that  ye  assist  her  in  whatsoever  business  she  hath  need  of  yon  :  for  she 
hath  been  a  succonrer  of  many,  and  of  myself  also.  Greet  Pri.scilla  and  Aquila  my  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus  :  who 
have  for  my  life  laid  down  their  bwij  necks  :  unto  whom  not  only  I  give  thanks,  but  also  all  the  churches  of  the 
Gentiles.  Likewise  greet  the  cliurch  that  is  in  their  house.  Salute  my  wcU-beloved  Epenotus,  who  is  the  first- 
fruits  of  Achaii#uuto  Christ.  Greet  -Mary,  who  bestowed  much  labour  on  us.  Salute  Andronicus  and  Junia,  my 
kinsmen,  and  my  fellow-prisoners,  who  are  of  note  among  the  apostles,  who  also  were  in  Christ  before  me.  Greet 
Amplias  my  beloved  in  the  Lord.  Salute  Urbane  our  helper  in  Christ,  and  Stachys  my  bel(;ved.  Salute  Apelles 
approved  in  Christ.  Salute  them  which  are  of  Aristobulus'  household  Salute  Ilerodion  my  kinsman.  Greet 
them  that  be  of  the  household  of  Narcissus,  which  are  in  the  Lord.  Salute  Trvpbena  and  Tryphosa,  who  labour 
in  the  Lord.  Salute  the  beloved  Persis,  which  laboured  much  in  the  Lord.  Salute  Rufus  chosen  in  the  Lord,  and 
his  mother  and  mine.  Salute  Asyncritus,  Plilegnn,  Ilermas,  Patrobas,  Hermes,  and  the  brethren  which  are  with 
them.  Salute  Philologus,  and  Julia,  Nereus,  and  his  sister,  and  Olympas,  and  all  the  saints  which  are  with  them. 
Salute  one  another  with  an  holy  kiss.  The  churches  of  Christ  salute  you.  Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  mark 
them  which  cause  divisions  and  oifenoes  contrary  to  the  doctrine  which  ye  have  learned  ;  and  avoid  them.  For 
they  that  are  such  serve  not  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  their  own  belly  ;  and  by  good  words  and  fair  speeches  de- 
ceive the  hearts  of  the  simple.  For  your  obedience  is  come  abroad  unto  all  men.  I  am  glad  therefore  on  your 
behalf:  but  yet  1  would  have  you  wise  unto  that  which  is  good,  and  simple  concerning  evil.  And  the  God  of 
peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet  shortly.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you.  Amen. 
Timotheus  my  work-fellow,  and  Lucius,  and  Jason,  and  Sosipater,  my  kinsmen,  salute  you.    I  Tertius,  who  wrott 


LECTURE  C. — CHAPTER  XVI. 


515 


this  epistle,  salute  you  in  the  Lord.  Gaius  mine  host,  and  of  the  whole  church,  saluteth  you.  Erastus  the  cham- 
berlain of  the  city  saluteth  you,  and  Quartus  a  brother.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all, 
Amen.  Now  to  him  that  is  of  power  to  stablish  yon  according  to  my  gospel,  and  the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ., 
according  to  the  revelation  of  the  mystery,  which  wa.s  kept  secret  since  the  world  began,  but  now  is  made  mani- 
fest, and  by  the  Scriptures  of  the  prophets,  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  everlasting  God,  made  known 
to  all  nations  for  the  obedience  of  faith;  to  God  only  wise,  be  glory  through  Jesus  Christ  for  ever.     Amen." 


This  whole  chapter,  filled  with  the  sal- 
utations of  respect  and  cordiality — not 
only  from  Paul  direct  to  his  correspon* 
dents,  but  from  the  friends  and  compan- 
ions who  were  with  Paul  to  those  whom 
he  was  addressing — evinces  how  much 
Christianity  is  fitted  to  promote  the  inter- 
change of  such  feelings  between  man  and 
man.  We  are  here  presented  with  the 
forms  and  homages  of  our  own  modern  po- 
liteness, animated  by  the  spirit  and  since- 
rity of  the  gospel — fdtons  which,  though  but 
in  themselves  the  dry  bones  of  Ezekiel's 
vision,  are  yet  befitting  vehicles  for  the 
best  and  highest  of  our  mutual  affections, 
after  that  the  breath  of  life  has  been  in- 
fused into  them.  Altogether  we  hold  this 
chapter  to  be  a  singularly  valuable  doc- 
ument— as  proving  how  capable  the 
usages  of  a  Christian  church  are  of  being 
amalgamated  with  the  graces,  and  the 
amenities,  and  the  complimentary  expres- 
sions of  the  every  day  intercourse  that 
takes  place  in  general  society. 

Ver.  1,  2.  'I  commend  unto  you  Phebe 
our  sister,  which  is  a  servant  of  the  church 
which  is  at  Cenchrea :  that  ye  receive 
her  in  the  Lord,  as  becometh  saints,  and 
that  ye  assist  her  in  whatsoever  busi- 
ness she  hath  need  of  you :  for  she  hath 
been  a  succourer  of  many,  and  of  myself 
also.'  And  here  too  we  are  presented 
with  another  most  useful  indication — the 
employment  of  female  agency,  under  the 
eye  and  with  the  sanction  of  an  apostle,  in 
the  business  of  a  church.  It  is  well  to  have 
inspired  authority  for  a  practice  too  little 
known  and  too  little  proceeded  on  in  mo- 
dern times.  Phebe  belonged  to  the  order 
of  deaconesses — in  which  capacity  she 
had  been  the  helper  of  many,  including 
Paul  himself  In  what  respect  she  served 
them  is  not  particularly  specified.  Like 
the  women  in  the  Gospels*  who  waited 
upon  our  Saviour,  she  may  have  minis- 
tered to  them  of  her  substance  though 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  that  as  the  hold- 
er of  an  official  station  in  the  church,  she 
ministered  to  them  of  her  services  also. 
They  to  whom  she  was  commended  by 
Paul  were  to  receive  her  as  becometh 
saints  or  with  all  that  respect  and  deli- 
cacy which  were  due  to  a  Christian  fe- 
male ;  and  also  to  render  her  all  that 
assistance  which  her  business,  not  here 
specified,  might  require  at  their  hands. 

Ver.  3,  4.  '  Greet  Priscilla  and  Aquila 
my  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus :  who  have  for 
my  life  laid  down  their  own  necks  :  unto 

*  Luke,  viii,  2,  3. 


whom  not  only  I  give  thanks,  but  also  all 
the  churches  of  the  Gentiles.'  Aquila  and 
Priscilla  must  at  this  time  have  been  at 
Rome.  They  had  formerly  been  at  Cor- 
inth, where  Paul  was  their  guest,  and  then 
at  Ephesus,  whither  they  accompanied 
Paul,  and  where  he  left  them* — to  which 
place  they  afterwards  returned,  if  we 
may  conclude  from  the  salutation  sent  to 
them  from  Rome  by  Paul,  in  his  letter  to 
Timothy,!  when  he  was  bishop  of  the 
Ephesians.  Both  at  Corinth  and  Ephesus 
they  had  been  the  helpers  of  Paul  in 
Christ  Jesus — his  helpers,  we  presume, 
chiefly  in  things  temporal — at  least  not 
in  spiritual  things,  as  they  had  been  to 
AppoUos,  when  they  expounded  to  him 
the  way  of  *God  more  perfectly.  Our 
great  apostle  did  not  require  this  at  their 
hands — yet  may  they  have  been  of  most 
important  use  to  him  even  as  the  minis- 
ters of  holy  things,  in  refreshing  and  con- 
firming the  souls  of  his  disciples.  And 
here  it  should  be  remarked,  that  Priscilla, 
the  wife  of  Aquila,  is  joined  to  him  in 
this  work  seeing  they  are  both  represent- 
ed in  the  book  of  Acts  as  contributing  to 
the  further  instruction  of  Apollos,  even 
after  that  he  had  signalised  himself  by 
his  might  in  the  scriptures,  and  his  elo- 
quence in  speaking  the  things  of  the  Lord. 
Much  more  then  might  she  be  qualifi.ed  to 
officiate  as  a  teacher  of  her  own  sex,  and 
more  particularly  of  children.  We  can- 
not think  then  that  the  service  of  females 
in  the  Christian  church  was  restricted  to 
the  mereoftice  of  deaconesses,  who  minis- 
tered to  the  sick  and  the  destitute.  They 
also  laboured  in  a  higher  vocation ;  and 
should  be  enlisted  still  in  the  business  of 
a  parish,  as  most  invaluable  auxiliaries 
in  dispensing  both  religious  comfort  and 
religious  instruction,  within  such  spheres 
as  might  with  all  fitness  and  propriety  be 
assigned  to  them.  In  particular,  they 
will  be  found  the  most  efficient  of  all 
civilisers  among  the  families  of  a  now 
outlandish,  because  heretofore  neglected 
population — and  this  whether  as  the  visi- 
tors of  sewing  and  reading,  or  as  them- 
selves the  teachers  of  Sabbath-schools — 
Or  in  the  former  capacity  as  the  patron- 
esses of  week-day  and  common,  and  in  the 
latter  the  direct  agents  of  Christian  edu- 
cation. 

It  appears  that  Aquila  and  Priscilla 
had  exposed  their  own  lives  to  jeopardy 
for  the  safety  of  Paul's.  The  special 
occasion  on  which  this  took  place  is  not 


*  Acts,  xviii,  18,  19. 


1  2  Tim.  iv,  19. 


616 


LECTURE   C. CHAPTER   XVI. 


certainly  known.  There  is  abundant 
evidence  of  their  having  both  had  a  will 
to  have  braved  this  hazard  at  any  time 
for  the  sake  of  their  beloved  apostle. 
And  we  can  be  at  no  loss  to  imagine  a 
way  in  which  this  might  have  been  brought 
to  the  prooli  when  we  read  of  the  insur- 
rection at  Corinth  against  Paul,*  where 
Aquila  and  Priscilla  both  were ;  and 
whence  they  accompanied  him  to  Ephe- 
sus,  where  they  probably  were  also,  at 
the  time  when  such  a  fearful  outbreak 
was  made  upon  him  in  that  city  by  a 
riotous  and  enraged  multitude.  What- 
ever the  occasion  was  on  which  they  thus 
signalised  themselves,  it  must  have  been 
some  signal  deliverance  or  service  to  Paul 
of  which  they  were  the  instruments,  that 
called  forth  so  memorable  an  expression 
of  gratitude,  not  alone  from  Paul  individ- 
ually, but  probably  and  with  open  mani- 
festation from  all  the  churches. 

Ver.  5-15.  '  Likewise  greet  the  church 
that  is  in  their  house.'  It  would  appear 
from  this,  that  in  these  days.  Christian 
congregations  met  and  had  their  religious 
services  done  to  them  in  dwelling-houses. 
It  was  the  practice  for  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla to  have  a  church  in  their  house  else- 
where too — as  here  in  Rome,  and  also  in 
Asia,  whence  Paul  Avrote  his  first  epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  and  sends  the  church 
there  a  salutation  from  the  church  held 
in  the  house  of  these  devoted  followers  of 
our  Lord.f  We  have  traces  of  the  same 
practice  in  other  places  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. "  Salute  Nymphas  and  the 
church  which  is  in  his  house."!  ''Paul 
unto  Philemon,  and  to  the  church  in  thy 
house."5 

Then  follows  a  list  of  salutations,  in  the 
course  of  which  some  brief  notices  are 
given  as  if  casually  and  incidentally,  yet 
which  are  by  no  means  devoid  of  interest. 

As  when  he  salutes  Epenetus,  he  sig- 
nalises him  by  an  epithet — well-heloved — 
which  marks  him  out  as  an  object  of  the 
apostle's  special  and  superlative  affection. 
It  is  like  the  love  which  one  has  for  a  first- 
born— he  having  been  the  first  of  Paul's 
spiritual  children  in  Achaia.  It  is  true 
that  the  house  of  Stephanas  is  elsewhere 
termed  the  first-fruits  of  Achaia.||  It  is 
possible  that  Epenetus  may  have  been  of 
the  household  of  Stephanas,  or  at  all  events 
may  have  been  converted  at  the  same 
time,  or  time  of  the  first  conversion  which 
took  place  in  Achaia  under  Paul's  minis- 
try. Some  critics  find  an  explanation  in 
the  circumstance  that  there  are  Greek 
manuscripts  which  present  us  with  "Asia," 
instead  of  Achaia. 

We  also  gather  from  this  enumeration 


•  Acts,  xviii,  12—18. 
§  Philemon,  i,  2. 


1 1  Cor.  xW,  19.     t  Col.  iv,  15. 
I  I  Corinthians,  xvi,  15. 


additional  evidence  for  the  agency  of 
females  in  these  days — as  of  Mary,  who 
bestowed  much  labour — as  well  as  Try- 
phena  and  Tryphosa,  who  laboured  ;  and 
Pcrsis,  who  laboured  much  in  the  Lord. 
This  may  have  been  the  labour  of  mere 
deaconship — as  that  of  Stephanas  was  at 
the  time  when  he  was  the  bearer  of  a  sup- 
ply for  the  apostle's  wants,  and  of  whose 
family  it  is  said  that  they  addicted  them- 
selves to  tiie  ministry*  of  the  saints.  It 
may  however  have  been  more  than  this — 
a  ministration  in  spiritual  as  well  as  tem- 
poral good  things.  The  passage  before 
us  scarcely  allows  of  any  specific  deter- 
mination on  this  point.  To  labour  in  the 
Lord  gives  no  deqi|ion.  To  assist  the 
disciples  of  Christ  nrthings  necessary  for 
the  present  life  is  part  of  that  labour  in 
the  Lord  which  shall  not  be  in  vain.  "  In 
as  much  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me."  We  may  here  add,  that  in  the  6th 
verse  there  occurs  a  variation  of  reading 
— some  manuscripts  bearing  that  Mary 
bestowed  much  labour  '  among  you,'  in- 
stead of  '  on  us.'  That  is,  she  may  have 
been  helpful  to  the  members  of  the  church, 
whether  spiritually  or  temporally  ;  or  in 
the  latter  of  these  two  senses,  may  have 
been  helpful  to  P*iul  himself. 

Ver.  7.  We  have  no  taste  for  ascertain- 
ing that  which  the  Bible  has  left  uncer- 
tain, and  on  which  ecclesiastical  anti- 
quity throws  no  light  whatever.  Why  su- 
persaturate the  world  with  conjectures  on 
matters  which  have  no  ground  of  evidence 
to  stand  upon  1 — as  whether  Andronicus 
and  Junia  were  man  and  wife  ;  whether 
Junia  was  not  Julia,  or  if  she  was  a  wo- 
man at  all ;  whether  they  were  claimed 
by  Paul  as  of  kin  to  himself,  because 
Israelites,  or  because  of  still  nearer  affini- 
ty ;  whether  they  were  of  note  among  the 
apostles,  because,  being  converted  before 
Paul,  they  might  have  been  of  the  seventy 
disciples ;  and  lastly,  what  the  occasion 
of  their  imprisonment  along  with  the 
apostle.  Enough  for  us  the  generalities 
of  Scripture,  which  are  at  the  same  time 
of  themselves  sufficiently  interesting. 

Ver.  8.  'Beloved  in  the  Lord.'  This 
expression  denotes  a  purely  spiritual  re- 
latioaship,  as  distinguished  from  the  natu- 
ral relationship  adverted  to  in  the  pre- 
ceding verse.  The  two  verses  together 
suggest  the  two  distinct  grounds  on  which 
one  might  be  the  object  of  atiection.  Both 
might  be  united  in  the  same  person  ;  and 
this  reminds  us  of  what  Paul  says  respect- 
ing Onesimus,  that  he  should  be  received 
by  Philemon  as  a  brother  beloved,  "  both 
in  the  flesh  and  in  the  Lord."  It  is  plea- 
sing to  observe  the  former  of  these  two 

♦  Aiaxovia. 


LECTURE   C. — CHAPTER   XVI. 


517 


affections  thus  legitimised  by  the  apostle 
— or  the  sanction  given  by  him  to  the 
natural  as  well  as  spiritual  love — to  the 
love  of  friendship  and  relationship,  as  well 
as  that  love  of  Christians  which  is  em- 
phatically termed  the  love  of  the  brethren, 
and  is  singled  out  by  St.  John  as  an  evi- 
dence of  our  having  passed  from  death 
unto  life. 

Ver.  9.  'Our  helper  in  Christ.'  This 
expression,  even  in  our  English  Bible, 
powerfully  suggests  that  the  help  given 
by  Urbane  to  Paul  was  in  his  apostolic 
work.  But  the  original  fixes  this  more 
surely.  He  was  the  fellow- worker*  of  the 
apostle. 

Ver.  10.  '  Approved  in  Christ' — or  found. 
He  was  one  of  thos^jprhom  Paul  here  dis- 
tinguishes by  the  special  proof  which  he 
had  given  of  his  discipleship. 

Ver.  11.  '  Which  are  in  the  Lord.'  This 
adjunct  to  the  household  of  Narcissus,  and 
not  of  Avistobulus,  would  imply  that  only 
a  part  of  Narcissus'  family  had  been  con- 
verted— whereas  all  of  the  other  household 
had  been  turned  to  the  faith.  We  may 
here  observe,  that  Paul  confines  these 
salutations  only  to  brethren  in  Christ — 
though  none  more  courteous  than  he  to 
them  who  were  without.  His  were  not 
common  letters,  but  written  for  the  use 
of  the  churches. 

Ver.  13.  'Chosen  in  the  Lord.'  Elect 
— it  is  not  said  beloved,  as  with  many  of 
the  others.  The  two  expressions  har- 
monise. They  who  are  loved  now  were 
loved  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
They  who  were  loved  then,  are  loved 
even  unto  the  end. 

'  His  mother  and  mine.'  The  mother  of 
Rufus  by  birth,  of  Paul  by  aft'ection — a 
claim  of  relationship  by  which  he  deli- 
cately and  beautifully  propounds  the  love 
that  he  bore  to  her.  Rufus  is  understood 
to  have  been  the  son  of  Simon,  who  Avas 
compelled  to  bear  the  cross  of  our  Saviour.f 
We  may  close  these  remarks,  by  observ- 
ing that  these  names  are  not  without  their 
use — in  clearing  up  certain  points,  or  at 
least  furnishing  ground  for  certain  plausi- 
ble conjectures,  both  in  the  evangelic  and 
in  ecclesiastical  history.  As  an  example 
of  the  latter,  there  is  no  reason  for  doubt- 
ing the  testimony  of  the  ancients — that 
the  Hermas  to  whom  Paul  here  sends  his 
respects,  is  identical  with  the  apostolic 
father  of  that  name,  whose  works  have 
come  down  to  us.  For  specimens  of  the 
help  which  these  names  afford,  in  estab- 
lishing certain  connections  and  references 
— so  as  to  harmonise  some  of  the  distant 
places  and  passages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  tiius  elicit  a  confirmatory  evi- 

*  Ylvvcpya{. 
'  Mark,  xv,  21. 


dence  for  the  truth  of  the  evangelic  story, 
see  Dr.  Paley's  '  Horss  Paulinse.' 

Ver.  16.  '  Salute  one  another  with  an 
holy  kiss.' — The  customary  method  of 
salutation  in  these  days — exchanged,  how- 
ever, only  between  those  of  the  same  sex. 
It  is  remarkable  that,  by  the  testimony 
of  Suetonius,  an  edict  was  published  by 
one  of  the  Roman  emperors  for  the  abo- 
lition of  this  practice  among  his  subjects 
— perhaps  in  order  to  check  abuses,  for 
the  prevention  of  which  our  apostle  en- 
joins that  it  shall  be  a  holy  salutation. 
It  is  a  custom  adverted  to  in  other  places 
of  the  New  Testament.* 

'  The  churches  of  Christ  salute  you  ' — 
Those  churches  probably  to  whom  he 
had  made  known  his  purpose  of  writing 
to  the  church  at  Rome — whose  faith  was 
spoken  of  throughout  the  whole  world.f 
We  might  well  imagine  the  satisfaction 
which  would  be  spread  abroad  among  the 
disciples  everywhere,  when  they  heard 
of  the  progress  which  Christianity  was  « 
making  in  the  metropolis  of  the  empire  ; 
and  with  what  cordiality  they  would  send 
their  gratulations  to  the  believers  there. 

Ver.  17.  '  Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren, 
mark  them  which  cause  divisions  and 
offences  contrary  to  the  doctrine  which 
ye  have  learned  ;  and  avoid  them.'  Paul 
recurs  to  the  topic  of  his  unceasing  ear- 
nestness and  desire — the  peace  or  una-' 
nimity  of  the  church.  He  had  just  fin- 
ished a  long  series  of  salutations,  and 
enjoined  them  to  exchange  these  tokens 
of  mutual  affection  with  one  another — 
when,  as  if  the  more  strikingly  to  mark 
his  adverse  feeling  towards  the  authors 
and  promoters  of  dissension  in  their  soci- 
ciety,  he  points  them  out  as  men,  with 
whom,  instead  of  the  signs  or  interchan- 
ges of  regard,  they  were  to  hold  no  fel- 
lowship. He  who  before  had  told  them 
whom  they  were  to  receive,  now  tells 
them  whom  they  are  to  reject  or  «  avoid.' 
The  docti-ine  which  they  had  just  learned 
from  him  was  that  of  forbearance,  one 
for  another,  in  the  matter  of  certain  Jew- 
ish observances — the  doctrine  of  that 
charily  which  endureth  all  things,  save 
that  spirit  which  is  hostile  to  its  own,  and 
wherewith  it  must  ever  be  at  antipodes. 
For  them  who  caused  divisions,  such  as 
the  judaising  teachers  who  would  have 
forced  their  own  burdensome  ritual  on 
all  the  converts  ;  or  for  them  who  caused 
offences,  such  as  those  Gentile  believers, 
who,  in  the  wantonness  of  their  liberty, 
cared  not  to  insult  and  to  wound  the  con- 
sciences of  their  weaker  brethren — for 
neither  of  these  could  our  apostle  feel  the 
slightest  complacency  or  toleration.  They 


•  1  Cor.  xvi,  20  J  2  Cor.  xiii,  12;  1  Thessalonians,  v,  26  ; 
1  Peter,  v,  14.  1  Romans,  i,  8. 


518 


LECTURE   C. — CHAPTER   XVI. 


were  marked  men  in  his  estimation — no- 
torious in  the  sinister  sense  of  the  term  : 
And  it  strongly  evinces  the  value  that  he 
had  for  unbroken  concord  in  every  Chris- 
tian society — when,  in  point  both  of 
reckoning  and  treatment,  he  puts  these 
disturbers  of  the  peace  on  the  same  level 
with  those  prolligates  whom  he  would 
cast  out  from  the  attentions  of  all  the 
brethren.* 

Ver.  18.  '  For  they  that  are  such  serve 
not  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  their  own 
belly  ;  and  by  good  words  and  fair 
speeches  deceive  the  hearts  of  the  simple.' 
He  obviously  refers  here  to  the  judaising 
teachers — because  to  them  who  deceived 
the  hearts  of  the  simple,  that  is,  of  the 
scrupulous  or  weak,  who  refrained  from 
meats,  and  attached  a  religious  importance 
to  the  eating  of  herbs.f  There  were  false 
teachers  in  these  days,  to  whose  inroads 
the  earlier  churches  stood  peculiarly  ex- 
posed. They  practised  on  those  of  a 
tender  conscience,  making  a  trade  as  it 
were  of  their  superstitious  fears;  and 
made  unhaUowed  use  of  the  ill-gotten 
ascendency  which  they  obtained  over 
them.  Their  object,  as  the  apostle  here 
tells  us,  was  not  to  serve  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  but  to  make  out  a  lazy  and  luxu- 
rious livelihood  for  themselves — and  that 
at  the  expense  of  those,  whom  by  good 
works  and  fair  speeches  they  had  de- 
ceived. No  wonder  that  the  noble,  manly, 
disinterested  Paul,  and  withal  so  jealous 
as  he  was  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
pure  truth  of  the  gospel,  should,  on  so 
many  occasions,  have  protested  with  such 
vigour  and  vehemence  against  them.  It 
is  of  such  that  he  seems  to  speak  in  Phi- 
lippians,  iii,  18,  19,  where  he  denounces 
the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  "  whose 
God  is  their  bel!}'  ;"  and  in  Gal.  vi,  12 — 
where  he  tells  of  those  who  "desire  to 
make  a  fair  show."  They  were  the  trou- 
blers  of  whom  he  desired  that  they  should 
even  be  cut  otf  t — the  perverters  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  who  preached  another 
gospel,  and  whom  he  pronounces  to  be 
accursed. 5  These  deceivers  were  spe- 
cially of  the  circumcision,  who  subverted 
whole  houses,  and  taught  things  which 
they  ought  not,  for  filthy  lucre's  sake.|| 
We  can  quite  imagine  them  to  be  of  that 
sort  who  entered  into  houses  and  led  cap- 
tive silly  women. IT  Our  knowledge  of 
such  characters  and  such  doings  furnishes 
a  clue  to  the  explanation  of  other  passa- 
ges. They  were  of  such  imposters  that 
Peter  speaks,  and  who  seem  to  have  taken 
a  most  shameful  advantage  over  their 
dupes  or  victims — "  beguiling  unstable 
souls  " — given  to  "  covetous  practices  " — 


•  Scfl  1  Cor.  V,  11.         tRom.  xiv,2.         JGal.  v,  12. 
§  Gal  i,  7,  8.        li  Titus,  i,  10,  11.        1  2  Tim.  iii,  6. 


"  sporting  themselves  with  their  own  de- 
ceivings,  while  feasting "  with  the  de- 
ceived— and  "speaking  great  swelling 
words  of  vanity."*  And  so  also  Jude,  in 
exhorting  the  di.sciples  to  whom  he  wrote, 
that  "  they  should  earnestly  contend  for 
the  faith  which  was  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,"  describes  to  us  the  men  against 
whom  that  contest  had  to  be  maintained 
— "men  crept  in  unawares,"  and  "who 
run  greedily  after  the  error  of  Balaam 
for  reward " — who  having  insinuated 
themselves  into  the  society  of  the  faith- 
ful, feasted  among  them  without  fear — 
who  with  their  mouths  spake  great  swell- 
ing words,  and  flattered  men  for  their  own 
advantage.!  ^^ 

Ver.  19.  *For  y^pbobedience  is  come 
abroad  unto  all  men.  I  am  glad  there* 
fore  on  your  behalf:  but  yet  I  would 
have  you  wise  unto  that  which  is  good, 
and  simple  concerning  evil.'  What  he 
had  before  said  of  their  faith,  he  now 
says  of  their  obedience,  that  it  was  spo- 
ken of  every  where.  He  is  anxious  there- 
fore that  they  should  not  tarnish  their  fair 
fame — for  certain  it  is  that  from  the  ready 
and  general  intercourse  which  subsisted 
between  Rome  and  all  parts  of  the  em- 
pire, the  story  of  their  degeneracies  would 
as  speedily  go  abroad  as  did  that  of  the 
virtues  and  graces  by  which  they  adorned 
their  profession  of  the  gospel.  He  rejoices 
in  the  praise  which  they  had  earned  from 
all  the  churches  ;  but  proportional  would 
be  his  grief  should  they  ever  forfeit  the 
reputation  which  they  had  acquired.  He 
does  not  express,  however,  the  same  doubt 
or  diffidence  of  them  which  he  did  of  the 
Galatians — yet  for  their  greater  security 
he  cautions  them  to  be  '  wise  unto  that 
which  is  good,  and  simple  concerning 
evil.' 

This  last  injunction  is  analagous  to  that 
given  by  our  Saviour  to  those  disciples 
whom  he  sent  forth  as  "  lambs  in  the 
midst  of  wolves."  "  Be  wise  as  serpents 
and  harmless  as  doves."  But  though  ana- 
logous, it  does  not  seem  to  be  identical. 
The  apostles  of  our  Lord  needed  the  wis- 
dom of  the  serpent  for  their  protection 
from  the  wiles  of  their  skilful  and  prac- 
tised adversaries,  who  knew,  for  they  had 
made  a  study  of  it,  how  best  to  circum- 
vent and  distress  their  victims.  And  they 
were  harmless  as  doves,  because  they 
neither  felt  the  disposition,  nor  had  ever 
cultivated  the  art  of  malice.  It  is  thus 
that  men  might  be  wise  in  one  thing  and 
simple  in  another ;  and  the  application 
of  these  qualities  to  the  case  before  us 
seems  to  have  lain — First  in  ability  to 
discriminate  what  was  really  and  essen- 
tially good  from  that  which  but  claimea 


•  2  Peter,  ii,  13,  14,  18,  19. 


tJu<le,4,  11,12,  16 


LECTURE   C. — CHAPTER   XVI. 


519 


or  pretended  to  be  so,  in  virtue  of  which 
they  cleaved  to  the  one  and  rejected  the 
other — Secondly  in  abstaining  from  all 
fellowship,  and  so  having  no  knowledge 
of  their  ways,  with  those  deep  and  mis- 
chievous designers  who  could  so  sophis- 
ticate and  so  counterfeit  evil  as  to  make 
it  pass  for  that  which  was  good — imposing 
on  their  deluded  followers,  by  a  show  of 
will-worship  and  zeal  for  the  law,  to  the 
utter  subversion  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
By  the  first  they  were  men  in  undei-stand- 
ing — 'proving  all  things,  and  holding  fast 
Ihat  which  is  good.'  By  the  second  they 
were  children  in  malice — strangers  to  its 
will,  and  therefore  unskilled  in  its  methods 
or  its  ways.  J|k 

Ver.  20.  '  And  th^Bod  of  peace  shall 
bruise  Satan  under  ^ur  feet  shortly.'  A 
good  many  manuscripts,  and  even  a  war- 
jrantable  translation  of  the  received  read- 
ing, would  authorise  our  turning  this 
clause  from  a  prophecy  into  a  prayer — 
'May  the  God  of  peace  bruise  Satan 
vnder  your  feet  shortly.'  The  reference 
by  the  apostle  to  the  great  adversary  of 
human  souls  was  very  naturally  suggested 
by  the  view  he  was  then  taking  of  those 
false  teachers,  whom  he  elsewhere  desig- 
nates as  the  ministers  of  Satan  trans- 
formed into  angels  of  light.  And  the 
terms  in  which  the  prayer  or  prophecy  is 
couched,  is  precisely  such  as  would  be 
suggested  by  the  prediction  in  Genesis, 
ill,  15,  "  It  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou 
shall  bruise  his  heel."  He  is  the  great 
author  of  all  confusion  and  controversy 
in  our  churches  :  And  the  achievement 
proper  to  the  God  of  peace,  or  to  His  Son, 
who  came  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil,  would  be  to  trample  them  under 
foot,  and  so  evolve  harmony  and  order 
out  of  all  the  disturbances  by  which  he 
retards,  though  unable  to  prevent,  the 
final  establishment  of  the  triumph  of 
Christ  over  all  His  enemies.  The  invo- 
cation for  His  grace  to  be  with  them 
comes  in  most  appropriately — seeing  that 
this  is  indeed  the  great  instrument  of 
Satan's  overthrow — the  Spirit  who  is  at' 
the  giving  of  Christ,  being  the  alone  vic- 
tor over  the  spirit  which  worketh  in  the 
children  of  disobedience — the  spirit  of 
him  who  is  the  god  of  this  world.  "Greater 
is  he  that  is  in  you  than  he  that  is  in  the 
world." 

It  is  not  unworthy  of  notice  that  this 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  seems  to  have  had. 
three  distinct  conclusions.  The  first  is  at 
the  end  of  the  15th  chapter,  where  the 
last  verse  is  quite  in  the  form  of  a  vale- 
dictory invocation;  but,  just  as  if  before 
the  letter  had  been  sent  off,  there  had  oc- 
curred lime  enough  for  the  subjoining  of 

*  1  Thessalonians,  v,  21. 


something  more,  we  find  the  apostle 
adding  the  salutations  of  the  16th  chap- 
ter, from  the  first  to  the  sixteenth  verse. 
As  he  had  recurred  to  the  letter  for  the 
purpose  of  sending  these  salutations,  he 
is  revisited  while  in  the  act  of  penning 
or  rather  of  dictating  tliem,  with  that  de- 
sirousness  which  he  felt  so  strongly  for 
the  peace  of  the  church  at  Rome  :  And 
this  occasions  a  prolongation  of  the  letter 
from  the  16th  to  the  20th  verse,  which  he 
concludes  with  a  second  farewell  saluta- 
tion— '  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you.  Amen.'  After  this,  and  with 
the  benefit  of  a  further  allowance  of  time 
ere  the  messenger  was  despatched,  there 
seems  to  be  a  second  postscript  of  more 
salutations  which  occupy  three  verses, 
from  the  20th  to  the  24th — where  a  third 
valedictory,  the  last  of  all,  concludes  the 
epistle. 

Ver.  21-23.  Here  follow  the  salutations, 
not  from  Paul  himself  to  the  individuals 
whom  he  names — these  he  had  finished 
already ;  nor  yet  from  the  churches  at 
large,  which  also  had  been  given  ;  but 
from  certain  Christian  friends  who  were 
with  him,  and  were  desirous  of  sending 
through  him  their  respects  to  the  whole 
church  at  Rome. 

In  the  21st  verse,  there  occur  two  re- 
markable scriptural  names  —  Timothy, 
who  by  the  consent  of  all  is  he  to  whom 
he  addressed  the  two  epistles  ;  and  Lucius, 
who  though  regarded  by  some  as  Lucius 
of  Cyrene,  is,  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  critics,  and  with  more  probability, 
reckoned  to  be  Luke  the  Evangelist,  au- 
thor of  the  Gospel  and  Acts,  and  the 
fellow-traveller  of  Paul.  We  leave  the 
question  undecided,  whether  the  kinsmen 
here  mentioned  were  nearer  relatives,  or 
only  Israelites,  whom  the  apostle  else- 
where calls  his  kinsmen  according  to  the 
flesh. 

In  the  22d  verse  Paul  suspends  his  dic- 
tation, and  lets  his  own  amanuensis  inter- 
pose a  salutation  for  himself  to  the  church 
at  Rome.  In  his  first  epistle  to  the  Cor- 
inthians he  also  suspends  his  dictation ; 
and,  taking  up  the  pen  himself,  writes — 
"The  salutation  of  me  Paul  with  mine 
own  hand." 

'Gaius  mine  host,  and  of  the  whole 
church,'  mentioned  in  the  23d  verse,  is  with 
good  reason  conceived  to  be  the  Gaius  of 
Corinth  whom  Paul  had  baptized  ;*  from 
which  city  this  epistle  was  written.  Paul 
was  at  that  time  an  inmate  of  his  house  ; 
and  he  takes  occasion  to  make  honoura- 
ble  mention  of  his  hospitality  to  Chris- 
tians at  large — a  frequent  and  most  useful 
virtue,  being  much  called  for  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  times.     Erastus  the  cham_ 


*  1  Corinthians,  i,  14. 


520 


LECTURE   C. — CHAPTER   XVI. 


berlain,  or  city  treasurer  or  Corinth,  is  an 
example,  thai  though  not  many  of  wealth 
or  high  station,  yet  that  some  such  had 
become  obedient  to  the  faith.  As  we  ha\e 
just  stated  that  this  epistle  was  written 
from  Corinth,  wc  might  give  a  specimen 
of  the  way  in  which  this  is  reasoned  out 
— or  of  the  kind  of  data  on  which  such  a 
conclusion  is  supported. — Paul  commends 
Phebe,  who  seems  to  have  been  sent  with 
the  epistle,  to  the  church  at  Rome.  She 
was  a  deaconess  of  the  church  at  Cen- 
chrea,  the  port  of  Corinth,  and  a  few  miles 
distant  from  it.  Then  Gaius  is  the  host 
of  Paul  ;*  and  Gaius  was  baptized  by 
Paul  at  Corinth.f  Then  Erastus  is  cliam- 
berlain  of  the  city,  which  he  does  not 
name.  It  must  have  been  a  well-known 
city  therefore  ;  and  in  all  likelihood  this 
capital  of  Achaia.  Lastly,  Erastus,  we 
are  told  in  2  Tim.  iv.  20,  abode  at  Corinth 
— though  probably  often  absent  from  it, 
as  to  all  appearance  he  was  a  fellow- 
helper  of  Paul,  and  at  times  accompanied 
him  in  his  travels.! 

Ver.  24-27.  '  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Je- 
sus Christ  be  with  you  all.  Amen.  Now 
to  him  that  is  of  power  to  stablish  you 
according  to  my  gospel,  and  the  preach- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  rev- 
elation of  the  myster)^  which  was  kept 
secret  since  the  world  began,  but  now  is 
made  manifest,  and  by  the  scriptures  of 
the  prophets,  according  to  the  command- 
ment of  the  everlasting  God,  made  known 
to  all  nations  for  the  obedience  of  faith  : 
to  God  only  wise,  be  glory  through  Jesus 
Christ  for  ever.  Amen.'  The  final  bene- 
diction of  Paul  comes  at  last,  and  closes 
the  epistle.  It  begins  with  a  repetition  of 
the  same  which  he  had  already  given  in 
the  20th  verse — imploring  upon  them  all 
the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  What 
remains  is  in  the  general  an  ascription  of 
glory  to  the  Father  of  our  Lord — but  it  is 
of  such  a  complicated  and  parenthetic 
structure,  as  to  require  some  attention  for 
unravelling  the  several  topics  which  are 
involved  in  it. 

•To  him  that  is  of  power  to  stablish 
you.'  This  clause  is  suspended  in  Paul's 
own  frequent  and  characteristic  way,  b)^ 
the  interposal  of  other  matter  suggested 
at  the  time ;  and  which  if  removed  would 
connect  immediately  the  words  now  given 
with  those  of  the  27th  verse,     t  To  him 

that  is  of  power  to  stablish  you to 

God  only  wise,'  &c.  The  contiguity  only, 
not  the  connection,  of  these  two  clauses, 
is  broken  up,  by  what  comes  between 
them.  '  To  him  that  is  of  power ;'  or  as 
Jude  says  in  his  closing  benediction — 
"  To  him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from 
falling,  and  to  present  you  faultless."  To 


•  Rom.  XTi,  23.      1 1  Cor.  i,  14.      t  Acts,  six,  22. 


establish  a  man  in  the  faith  is  to  make 
him  stand  fast  therein — so  that  he  shall 
not  fall,  or  "  fall  away."*  It  i§  well  thus 
to  connect  our  perseverance  with  the 
power  of  God.  He  who  hath  begun  the 
good  work,  can  alone  confirm  and  perfect 
it.  It  is  by  a  perpetual  reference  there- 
fore, in  prayer  to  Him,  and  for  the 
strengtheninginfluencesof  His  Spirit,  that 
grace  is  alimented  in  the  heart.  Let  him 
who  thinketh  he  standeth,  thus  take  heed 
lest  he  full.  Let  him  work  out  his  salva- 
tion with  fear  and  trembling,  because 
sensible  of  his  own  weakness,  and  so 
having  no  confidence  in  himself  Yet  let 
him  mix  with  his  trembling  mirth — be- 
cause rejoicing  in  ^fc  Lord  Jesus,  and 
looking  upward  to^Rt  God  who  alone 
worketh  in  him  to  \ml  and  to  do  of  His 
own  good  pleasure. 

'According  to  my  gospel  and  the 
preaching  of  Jesus  Christ.'  May  He  stab- 
lish you  in  the  truths  and  principles  of 
that  system  wiiich  is  agreeable  to,  so 
agreeable  as  to  be  identical  with  my  gos- 
pel or  with  the  gospel  which  I  preach, 
and  which  Christ  also  preached — Paul 
thus  affirming  his  doctrine  and  Jesus 
Christ's  doctrine  to  be  at  one. 

'  According  to  the  revelation  of  the 
mystery  which  was  kept  secret  since  the 
world  began,'  or  kept  secret  in  ancient 
times.f  He  had  before  said — according 
to  '  my  gospel ;'  and  when  he  now  says — 
according  to  '  the  revelation  of  the  mys- 
tery,' he  but  substitutes  one  method  of 
expression  for  another — The  subject-mat- 
ter in  both  being  the  same,  only  amplified 
or  expressed  otherwise.  This  gospel  was 
'  kept  secret,'  or  held  back  in  silence  from 
the  eartht — there  having  been  little  or  no- 
thing said  of  it  to  the  earlier  generations 
of  our  species. — It  has  been  made  a  mat- 
ter of  discussion  what  the  mystery  here 
spoken  of  precisely  is.  Some  would  have 
it  specifically  to  be  the  calling  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  for  countenance  to  this  their 
explanation  of  it,  would  refer  to  Ephe- 
sians,  iii,  9,  and  Colossians,  i,  26,  We 
have  no  doubt  ourselves,  that  generally  it 
is  the  subject  matter  of  the  gospel. 

♦But  now  is  made  manifest.'  That 
which  was  profoundly  hidden  before  is 
now  made  manifest — first  in  a  dimmer  and 
lesser  degree  by  the  prophets  to  the  Jews  ; 
and  afterwards  in  the  fuller  light  of  gos- 
pel times  made  known  to  all  nations.  We 
are  not  to  wonder  that  the  revelation  made 
to  the  prophets  should  be  spoken  of  as 
only  made  now.  At  the  time  when  this 
revelation  was  first  given  its  meaning  was 
little  known  even  to  the  prophets  through 
whom  it  passed.    Though  ministered  by 

■  Hebrews,  vi,  6.  f  Xpoi/oij  atoji/ioif, 

X  Ef(T«yi7//EV0i'. 


LECTURE   C. — CHAPTER   XVI. 


521 


them  it  was  not  unto  themselves  but  unto 
us.*  It  had  been  given  in  words  to  the 
world  centuries  before  the  appearance  of 
our  Saviour — yet  was  only  made  known 
for  the  first  time  to  the  disciples  of  Em- 
maus,  when  he  opened  their  understand- 
ings to  understand  the  Scriptures — begin- 
ning with  Moses  and  the  Prophets.  What 
our  Saviour  did  in  person  to  these  disci- 
ples upon  earth,  He  afterwards  did  to  be- 
lievers in  general  by  the  Holy  Spirit  sent 
down  from  heaven,  and  whose  ottice  it  is 
to  make  the  sure  word  of  prophecy  obvi- 
ous to  their  view,  by  causing  the  day  to 


dawn  and  the  day^tar  to  arise  in  their 
hearts.  The  gospeBbdight  well  have  been 
said  by  the  apostle  To  be  manifest  by  the 
Scriptures  of  the  prophets  only  now — for 
only  now  were  these  Scriptures  made 
manifest. 

'According  to  the  commandment  of  the 
everlasting  God  made  known  unto  all  na- 
tions for  tlie  obedience  of  faith.'  To  per- 
fect the  revelation  of  the  gospel,  the  work 
of  apostles  had  to  be  superadded  to  that 
of  prophets.  The  gospel  had  been  wit- 
nessed to  by  the  Law  and  the  Prophets — 
when  it  lay  in  enigma  till  cleared  Up  by 
the  more  explicit  statements  of  those  who 
,  were  commissioned  to  go  and  preach  it 
!     unto  every  creature. 

These  three  verses  (23,  24,  and  25) 
might  be  rendered  thus. — 'Now  to  Him 
who  is  able  to  establish  you  in  the  disci- 
pleship  of  my  gospel,  which  is  nothing 
/i  else  than  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  Him- 
^  '  self— or  in  thediscipleship  of  that  revela- 
^  tion  whereby  there  has  been  divulged  the 
truth  that  was  before  hidden,  and  kept 
back  from  men  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the 
world  ;  but  is  now  made  manifest,  both 
by  the  prophetic  writings  which  we  in 
these  days  have  been  made  more  fully  to 
understand — and  also  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  same  agreeably  to  the  com- 
mandment of  the  everlasting  God,  amongst 
all  nations,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
their  submission  to  the  faith — To  Him,  the 


•  1  Peter,  i,  12: 

66 


only  wise  God,  be  glory  for  ever,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.' 

We  may  be  assured  that  there  is  no- 
thing misplaced  or  inappropriate  in  the 
epithets  employed  by  the  apostle  ;  and 
more  especially  those  which  he  applies  to 
the  Divinity.  In  particular,  when  he  ap- 
plies different  epithets  to  Him  at  different 
times,  there  must,  we  apprehend,  be  a 
discriminative  reason  for  his  so  doing.  In 
the  26th  verse  he  denominates  Him  the 
everlasting  God  ;  and  in  the  27th,  the  God' 
only  wise.  The  epithet  everlasting  seems 
to  have  been  suggested  to  the  mind  of  the 
apostle,  when  he  had  in  view  the  differ- 
ent and  distant  ages  at  which  God  had 
His  different  dealings  with  men  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world — as  keeping  them 
in  ignorance  at  its  earlier  periods,  and  at 
length  in  due  time  making  known  the 
scheme  of  His  salvation.  He,  the  King 
Eternal,  who  knows  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning, knows  what  is  best  and  fittest  to 
be  done  at  each  of  the  successive  stages 
in  the  process  of  that  great  administra- 
tion whose  goings  forth  have  been  of  old, 
and  whose  issues  are  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting.  And  He  is  denominated  the 
only  wise,  that  we,  the  short-lived  crea- 
tures of  a  day,  might  learn  to  receive 
with  unquestioning  silence  all  the  intima- 
tions which  He  has  been  pleased  to  have 
given  us.  In  particular,  it  should  recon- 
cile the  Jews  to  the  termination  of  that 
economy  under  which  they  had  hitherto 
lived,  and  under  which  they  had  vainly 
arrogated  to  themselves  an  exclusive  and 
ever-during  superiority  over  the  rest  of 
the  species — whereas  it  appeared  that  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  was  now  to  be 
broken  down  ;  and  that  their  fancied 
monopoly  of  the  divine  favour  was  but  a 
temporary  evolution  in  the  history  of  the 
divine  government.  And  so  he  concludes 
his  epistle,  by  calling  on  both  parties  in 
the  church  to  which  he  writes  it,  to  unite 
with  him  in  the  one  ascription  of  glory 
to  the  Father  through  the  Son  ;  and  that 
verily  a  glory  which  shall  never  end. 


Date  Due 


\ 


1 


BS2665  .C438  1843 

Lectures  on  the  Epistle  of  Paul,  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 

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